FORESTRY 



Further action was taken in Queen Elizabeth's reign by 'an Act for the preservation of 

 Tymber in the Wildes of the Counties of Sussex, Surrey, and Kent.' 38 To this period we owe 

 perhaps the first map of Sussex, showing its woods, parks, and forests. Its cartographer, Thomas 

 Saxton, inserts within the county boundaries only thirty parks, and three forests as such, Arundel 

 and Ashdown appearing- as parks. Exiguity of space probably accounts for the small number of 

 Sussex parks shown, for the number actually existing was probably at least twice as great. Since it 

 is in this period that the parks and forests attained their maximum number, it is at this stage most 

 convenient to glance at their situation and comparative distribution. We find that in the main the 

 parks were inclosures in or on the verge of the seven forests, and that the greater proportion were 

 located in the western division of Sussex. Originally, in all probability, Stanstead and Arundel 

 formed one great forest, containing a group of parks, of which Up Park, Harting, Stoughton, and 

 Stanstead composed the 'forest of Stanstead' of later days, while the parks of East Dean, Guden- 

 wood (Goodwood), Halnaker, Selhurst, and Arundel formed the forest of Arundel. On its southern 

 verge were Aldingbourne, the park of the bishop of Chichester, and Slindon, belonging to the 

 archbishop, while on the northern border was Houghton, another park of the Sussex see, of such 

 size as to be often denominated a forest. Also on the northern border was the group of Bignor, 

 Downton, Woolavington, and Burton parks ; and further north were the inclosures of the wood- 

 land of the Honor of Petworth, viz. Petworth, Meadhome, River, Michel, and Shillinglee parks ; 

 the park of Farnhurst, with remains of a supposed castellated hunting-seat of Verdly lying to the 

 west, all these being west of the Arun. 



On the other side of that river there were in the south the parks of Badworth and Angmering, 

 Findon and Michelgrove, which were united in the fifteenth century under the Shelley family into 

 the great estate of Michelgrove, which ' formed a noble tract of sylvan beauty containing a vast 

 amount of stately trees/ In the centre ot the country between the Arun and the Adur were the 

 parks of Warminghurst, Wiston, Ashurst, while in the north of the rape was the extensive forest 

 of St. Leonard, with the park of Knepp on its southern verge. Constituent parts of this forest 

 were the large parks of Sedgewick, Chesworth, Beaubush, and Shelley, which contained among 

 them more than 2,260 acres. Separated from this forest of St. Leonard by the artificial boundary 

 between the rapes of Bramber and Lewes is the forest of Worth. Part of it has the alternative 

 name of Tilgate, a comparatively modern nomenclature of which apparently no instance occurs 

 before the seventeenth century. 



Further south in the rape, and lying northwards of the Downs, are the parks of Hurst, Danny, 

 Ditchling, and Keymer. Between this group of parks and the south of Worth Forest was another 

 congeries, viz., the parks of Slaugham, Bentley, and Cuckfield. 



East of the Ouse, which divides the rapes of Lewes and Pevensey, lay the parks belonging to 

 the archbishops of Canterbury, viz. Ringmer, Plashet, More, Glynde, and the so-called forest of 

 ' la Broile,' sometimes presumably from the number of its beech trees, which are said to have 

 attained a great size denominated in the parkers' rolls, &c., Broyle 'Fania,' a very rare term. Further 

 north they also had the parks of Frankham, Buxted, and Mayfield. These last-named parks are 

 on the southern fringe of Ashdown, largest and most important of Sussex forests. The parks within 

 the bounds of this forest, or upon its verge, were Bolebrook, Buckhurst, Stoneland, Newenden, and 

 Maresfield. 



To the east of Ashdown is Waterdown Forest, the parks in relation to it being Eridge and 

 Rotherfield. In the centre of this rape of Pevensey was the wooded district which may be called 

 Waldron Woodland, and was sometimes known as Waldron Forest, extending over the parish of 

 that name, and those of East Hoathly, Chiddingly, Laughton, and Hellingly, and including the 

 Dicker. Under the Downs lies Firle Park, its eastern portion being the ancient park of Collinghame, 

 mentioned in a court roll of the year I333, 39 which affords the earliest reference to the Gage family 

 in connexion with its present-day home. At this court the bailiff reported that William Gage, 

 armiger, had died tenant of the park of Collinghame. 



Passing to the rape of Hastings, we find that its chief woodland district was around Burwash, 

 Brightling, and Dallington, and this formed the forest of the rape. On the verge of this forest, if not 

 within it, were the parks of Mountfield and Whatlington, while to the south lay the three parks 

 of the abbot of Battle, and the large park of Ashburnham. Still further south was Buckholt 

 Park, to the west of which was the park of Herstmonceux. Between Buckholt and the sea 

 lay the park of Bexhill. In addition to all these parks and the six forests, the seventeenth-century 

 maps of Speed, John Norden, and Robert Morden also show various uninclosed woods, which, with 

 slight exceptions, have little or no history. They mostly appear of considerable size, or at least 

 larger than the average park, and are described as ' Thonicus ' or ' Themeus ' in the north of the 

 rape of Arundel, ' Homewood ' in the centre of the rape of Lewes, ' Vert Wood ' and ' The 



38 27 Eliz. cap. 19. : * Add. MS. 33182. 



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