Plaistow and Ifold is a civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the Chichester

Chichester (district)

Chichester is a largely rural local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in the city of Chichester.-History:The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the municipal borough of Chichester and the Rural Districts of...

 district of West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It lies on the northern boundary of West Sussex, and contains the villages of Plaistow, West Sussex

Plaistow, West Sussex

Plaistow is a village in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It lies within the civil parish of Plaistow and Ifold. There is a village green with a pond, a shop overlooking it, a pub, The Sun Inn and an Anglican Church, all in the centre of the village. There are over thirty graded ...

 and Ifold

Ifold

Ifold is a village in West Sussex. It is the largest of the four parish settlements. Ifold as it is today, began in the same way as Durfold Wood where plots of land were sold originally to people who used them as holiday or weekend homes....

. It has a land area of 2102 hectares (5192 acres). In the 2001 census 1856 people lived in 701 households, of whom 910 were economically active.

Landmarks

Chiddingfold Forest is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 partly within the parish. The rare Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

The Pearl-bordered Fritillary is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family.It is orange with black spots on the upperside of its wing and has a wingspan of 38–46 mm. On the underside of the wings there is a row of silver pearly markings along the edge, which give the species its name...

 lives in the forest. This is an important butterfly egg-laying area. There are also rare moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

s in this locality including: the Argent and Sable

Argent and Sable moth

Argent and sable moths or Rheumaptera hastata are day flying moths of the Geometridae family, with distinctive black and white colourings. They tend to live on wetlands and hillsides. The larvae spin together the leaves of their food plants to form their cocoons...

, Common Fan-foot, White-line snout, Waved carpet and Drab looper moth.

Chiddingfold Forest is home to the Bechstein's Bat

Bechstein's Bat

Bechstein's Bat is a species of vesper bat in the Vespertilionidae family.It can be found in the following countries: Austria, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Liechtenstein, Republic of Macedonia,...

. Three maternity colonies have been identified which have at least eighty breeding females.