Researching my English Heritage.

[Hunter Gatherer]

I am, and have always been interested in my English heritage. My grandparents were from Brighton, and I have been recently researching on the web what I can about the Sussex area they came from.
Two questions though. First, what exactly are the South Downs? Are they public land or privately owned and under the plow?
Second, The Weald is rather large forest zone in Sussex? Again privately owned or public land? If anyone could stear me to a good source on the Web for info on the lay of the land in the U.K. and special geographic features that would be great. I have been using Google Earth, and it is pretty good, but lacks descriptions...
Any help is appreciated.
Cheers
Alex

 

[Rob]

Hi Hunter Gatherer

I will start you off, but i am sure that you will get a more detailed answer form some of the others.

The South Downs is a line of chalky hills that run along the south coast as far as about Winchester - sometimes right on the coast and sometimes further inland.

There are a lot of areas with public access and a lot of rights of way, including the South Downs Way - which runs the full 80(ish) miles of The Downs. There are areas that are privately owned and used for farming.

About 30 miles north of Brighton (Just follow the M23 motorway) you will come across the North Downs. If you have a look at a geological map you will see that they form a kind if "V" shape with the South Downs - pointing to the west.

The more clay Weald area is the area inbetween. Although it used to be mostly forest, most of it has gone. Saying that, the South East still the mosted wooded area of the UK. There are still many areas with public access, the Ashdown Forest for example and large public parks. There are miles of rights of way throughout the area as well.

Hope that helps, I am happy to out some links for anything more specific.

 

[British Red]

Alex,

Wait a few minutes and I'll bung you a load of South Downs pictures on - I live on the downs!

Red

 

[British Red]

First few are views from "Old Winchester Hill" - the highest point and an old hill fort and long barrow site - its very beautiful and gives a good view

This one is the last fox hunt over the Downs last year

This one is just how it "feels"

This one is a rather lovely farm on the downs....if you can see the roof in the trees - I'm sat under it right now typing this

Hope that gives you a feel for the area - let me know what else you would like to know

All the best - Red

 

[Hunter Gatherer]

Rob, thanks. That helps alot. When you say 'rights of way', are you talking about hiking trails?
British Red, nic pics, and lucky you to live in such a beautiful countryside. I can see by your pics that its mostly farmland, and I can see the weather is quite nice too!
Thank you both for your help, only makes me wish I could chuck all my responsibilities and head over there...
Another question comes to mind. Are the beaches in Sussex all developed like Brighton? I'm assuming there's a national seashore trust that prohibits camping/bushcraft?

 

[JonnyP]

Rob, thanks. That helps alot. When you say 'rights of way', are you talking about hiking trails?
British Red, nic pics, and lucky you to live in such a beautiful countryside. I can see by your pics that its mostly farmland, and I can see the weather is quite nice too!
Thank you both for your help, only makes me wish I could chuck all my responsibilities and head over there...
Another question comes to mind. Are the beaches in Sussex all developed like Brighton? I'm assuming there's a national seashore trust that prohibits camping/bushcraft?

Rights of way are footpaths and there are many over the downs including the south downs way which is about 100miles long, and the downs link path which links the north and south downs mostly via an old railway line.
Most of the beaches (in the area) are like brighton with pebbles, but some have some nice sand.
I do have to correct British Red and say that butser hill is the highest point of the south downs at 270 meters high, though his photo's say it all, a beautiful place...........Jon

 

[Spacemonkey]

If you want interesting coastline then head to Dorset on your virtual trip. It's about 2-3 hours by car from Brighton, so not too far, but a totally different world... See here:
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/index.htm

Particularily check out Kimmeridge for some amazing fossils and geology.

I have seen people camping on the beaches, but the tide can come quite high and some are private land and others are army firing ranges. Last thing you want is 'incoming' during your lunch.... Fires seem ok as long as you don't set light to the oil shale in the cliff!!

 

[British Red]

Rights of way are footpaths and there are many over the downs including the south downs way which is about 100miles long, and the downs link path which links the north and south downs mostly via an old railway line.
Most of the beaches (in the area) are like brighton with pebbles, but some have some nice sand.
I do have to correct British Red and say that butser hill is the highest point of the south downs at 270 meters high, though his photo's say it all, a beautiful place...........Jon

Jon,

I stand corrected I kind of meant "the highest point round here that I can walk to and back without having to go on roads" As you say though - lovely place and I count myself luck to live here!

Red

 

[Rob]

Out of interest, try www.multimap.co.uk to have a look at the area.

You can view aerial pics with a mouse controlled overlay of an OS map - that should show you everything from footpaths, byways open to all traffic, topography, pubs, places of public access and all sorts of places of interest.

Heres to many happy hours of looking at stuff

 

[redflex]

If you doing research on history trying looking at http://www.old-maps.co.uk/
you can view maps from 1880's it also allows you to view as a modern arieal photo or OS map.

If you look up http://www.magic.gov.uk/ you can get 2005/6 edition maps and it is an interactive system so you can choose elements to be highlighted i.e land use, SSSI's, ancient woodlands, boundaries national parks footpaths, even soil and landscape designations and lots more including all the national land classifications . It has lots of info and the website has tutorial to help you use the system.

 

[Hunter Gatherer]

Rob and Redflex those maps are brilliant! I'm already planning my walks through the South Downs with my daughter! But I'll tell you I looked on the map at the London area, that city is massive, I had no idea it was so large...
Thanks again.
Cheers
Alex

 

[Spacemonkey]

If you're lucky and know the right routes you can drive across it in 2 hours....