St Leonard's Forest
Encyclopedia
St. Leonard's Forest is at the western end of the Wealden Forest Ridge which runs from Horsham to Tonbridge, and is part of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
High Weald AONB
The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is situated in south-east England. Covering an area of , it extends across the counties of Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent. It is the fourth largest Area of Outstanding Beauty in England and Wales...

. It lies on the ridge to the south of the A264 between Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...

 and Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...

 with the villages of Colgate
Colgate, West Sussex
Colgate is a small village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, about four miles north east of Horsham.A small village, with it's origins at the northern edge of St. Leonards Forest, it has no shops or retail facilities. There is a pub "The Dragon", and a church and a...

 and Lower Beeding
Lower Beeding
Lower Beeding is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2110, B2115 and A281 roads 3.5 miles southeast from Horsham...

 within it. The A24
A24 road (Great Britain)
The A24 is a major road in England. It runs south from Clapham in southwest London through Morden before entering Surrey and heading through Ewell, Epsom, Ashtead, Leatherhead and Dorking...

 lies to west and A23
A23 road
The A23 road is a major road in the United Kingdom between London and Brighton, East Sussex. It became an arterial route following the construction of Westminster Bridge in 1750 and the consequent improvement of roads leading to the bridge south of the river by the Turnpike Trusts...

 to the East and A272 through Cowfold
Cowfold
Cowfold is a village and civil parish between Billingshurst and Haywards Heath in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England, located at the intersection of the A272 and A281 roads. The parish has a land area of 1926 hectares . In the 2001 census 1,864 people lived in 729 households, of...

 to the south. Much has been cleared, but a large area is still wooded. The Forestry Commission
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....

 has 289 ha. (714 acres) which is open to the public (many regard this as The St. Leonard's Forest), as are Owlbeech (mainly heathland) and Leechpool Woods (claimed by Horsham District Council to be ancient woodland) to the east of Horsham, and Buchan Country Park to the SW of Crawley. The rest is private with just a few public footpaths and bridleways. Leonardslee
Leonardslee
Leonardslee is one of the largest and most spectacular landscaped woodland gardens in England. They are particularly noted for their spring displays of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, magnolias and bluebells, with the flowering season reaching its peak in May...

 Gardens were open to the public until July 2010.

The main car parks are at Roosthole close to Mannings Heath Golf Club for the Forestry Commission, Owlbeech/Leechpool on Harwood Road (B2195), and Buchan Country Park on the A264.

The High Weald Landscape Trail
High Weald Landscape Trail
The High Weald Landscape Trail is a 140 km /90 mile route in England between Horsham, West Sussex and Rye, East Sussex, designed to pass through the main landscape types of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty . It does not follow the highest ground, and the eastern section is...

 leads from Horsham Station east across the Forest to Handcross
Handcross
Handcross is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A23 road 4.2 miles south of Crawley.Nymans Garden, of parklands run by the National Trust, is near to Handcross, as are of woodland and water gardens at High Beeches Garden.Handcross has two public houses,...

. The Sussex Ouse Valley Way
Sussex Ouse Valley Way
The Sussex Ouse Valley Way is a 42–mile long-distance footpath which closely follows the route of the Sussex Ouse. It starts at the Ouse's source in Lower Beeding, West Sussex, when it's still a little stream. It then passes through many villages and towns including Slaugham, Handcross,...

 crosses the south of the forest from Lower Beeding to Handcross.

It is one of the "Fower stately Wood Nymphs" (Michael Drayton, 1611, Poly-Olbion
Poly-Olbion
The Poly-Olbion is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622. Drayton had been working on the project since at least 1598.-Content:...

, Song 17) of the Forest Ridge (the other three being Worth, Ashdown
Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of tranquil open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated some south of London in the county of East Sussex, England...

 and Waterdown forests) which were part of the ancient Andreaswald or Andreadswald, now the Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...

.

Earlier used for hunting, by the 16th century they were the centre of the English iron industry
Wealden iron industry
The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Ironmaking in the Weald used ironstone from various clay...

. The hammer ponds remain, the dams of those in St. Leonard's forest being crossed by Hammerponds Road between Horsham and Handcross, and today are used for fishing.

Geology

The ridge is formed of alternating sandstones and clays known as the Hastings Beds dating from the Lower Cretaceous. Some beds contain iron which was used in the iron industry in the 16th century. A particularly strong sandstone bed is known as Tilgate Stone, but this term has also been used for the whole formation. It was frequently quarried for buildings. A thinly bedded layer is known as Horsham Slate, being quarried to the SE of Horsham, and was used for pavements and roofs. In some examples it has a corrugated surface of ripple marks.

The streams flowing north from the forest are known as brooks and eventually form the River Mole
River Mole, Surrey
The River Mole is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises in West Sussex near Gatwick Airport and flows north west through Surrey for to the Thames near Hampton Court Palace. The river gives its name to the Surrey district of Mole Valley...

. Those flowing south are called gills and form the River Arun
River Arun
The Arun is a river in the English county of West Sussex. Its source is a series of small streams in the St Leonard's Forest area, to the east of Horsham...

. The latter have cut down exposing bedrock in places. The Forest Ridge is therefore the watershed between the River Thames and the South Coast.

The southern edge of the forest drains into the River Adur
River Adur
The Adur is a river in Sussex, England; it gives its name to the Adur district of West Sussex. The river was formerly navigable for large vessels up as far as Steyning, where there was a large port, but over time the river valley became silted up and the port moved down to the deeper waters nearer...

, and the Ouse
River Ouse, Sussex
The River Ouse is a river in the counties of West and East Sussex in England.-Course:The river rises near Lower Beeding and runs eastwards into East Sussex, meandering narrowly and turning slowly southward...

 drains the south-eastern corner.

Early history

The forest was part of the large wooded area now known as the Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...

 which extended from Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

 east to the sea between Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...

 and Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

, and bounded by the North
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs...

 and South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...

 which are formed of chalk and hence have a very different vegetation. The Weald was mainly impenetrable, but vegetation must have been thiner on the poor sandy beds that top the forest ridge because Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....

 people created a trackway along the top and have left tumuli
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

 and worked flints
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...

 along its route.

The forest was opened up to a limited extent by the South Saxons pushing north from the South Coast, and the Middle Saxons
Middle Saxons
The Middle Saxons or Middel Seaxe were a people and their territory which later became, with somewhat contracted boundaries, the county of Middlesex, England. It included the early London settlement. The area was part of the Kingdom of Essex, but was ceded to Mercia in the 8th century....

 south from the North Downs. However, the boundary between the two was not along the watershed, but along the Clay Ridge to the north (the Surrey/Sussex border).

St. Leonard of Limousin

The forest's name is believed to have come from St Leonard
Leonard of Noblac
Leonard of Noblac or of Limoges or de Noblet , is a Frankish saint closely associated with the town and abbey of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, in Haute-Vienne, in the Limousin of France.-Traditional biography:According to the romance that...

 (AD c485-559), a Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

 nobleman who was baptised at the court of King
King
- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...

 Clovis
Clovis I
Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...

 in 498 by St Remigius, Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of Rheims, and then settled for a religious life. St. Leonard's prayers ensured the safe delivery of Clovis's child, and he was given as a reward as much land as he could ride round on a donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...

 in a day
Day
A day is a unit of time, commonly defined as an interval equal to 24 hours. It also can mean that portion of the full day during which a location is illuminated by the light of the sun...

. He established a monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 on this land at Noblac
Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat
Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in west-central France.Perched on a hill above the river Vienne, the town is named after Saint Leonard of Noblac, who, as legend suggests, was responsible for the liberation of many prisoners in 11th century...

 near Limoges
Limoges
Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....

, and became its abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

. In his old age he became a forest hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...

.

Noblac became a place of pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

 and was visited by crusaders
Crusaders
The Crusaders are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Christchurch that competes in the Super Rugby competition. They are the most successful team in Super Rugby history with seven titles...

 including Richard Coeur de Lion, and it may be that this is how the story came to the south of England where some one hundred churches are named after the saint. However, local legend says that St. Leonard's hermitage was in this forest although this seems extremely unlikely.

The tithes for the forest were granted to Sele Priory in Upper Beeding
Upper Beeding
Upper Beeding is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the northern end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs four miles north of Shoreham-by-Sea and has a land area of 1877 hectares...

 and St. Leonard was regarded by the Benedictines who built a hermitage dedicated to him in the forest although the site is unknown. This may be the same place as the Chapel of St. Leonard built by the Braoses
Reginald de Braose
Reginald de Braose was one of the sons of William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber and Matilda, also known as Maud de St. Valery and Lady de la Haie. Her other children included William and Giles....

 of Bramber Castle
Bramber Castle
Bramber Castle is a Norman motte-and-bailey castle in the village of Bramber, West Sussex overlooking the River Adur .William De Braose constructed the castle c1070, along with the Norman church, on a natural mound and most of the surviving masonry dates from this time...

.

The Dragons

There is also a legend of St. Leonard the Dragon Slayer
Dragonslayers
Dragonslayers are people who slay dragons for various reasons. Dragonslayers and the creatures they hunt have been seen in many popular books and films. They also are generally portrayed as heroes. Most common among Dragonslayers would be the knights of Middle Ages fiction, who slew dragons to save...

 who lived in the forest and slew the last dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...

 in England. Æthelweard's Chronicle of 770AD mentions "Monstrous serpents were seen in the country of the Southern Angles that is called Sussex". St. Leonard was injured and Lilies of the Valley grow where his blood fell - an area of the forest is still called The Lily Beds. As a reward he requested that snakes be banished and the nightingales which interrupted his prayers should be silenced. However, dragons were still around in August 1614 as a pamphlet was published with the title "Discourse relating a strange and monstrous Serpent (or Dragon) lately discovered, and yet living, to the great Annoyance and divers Slaughters both of Men and Cattell, by his strong and violent Poyson. In Sussex, two miles from Horsam, in a Woode called St. Leonards Forrest, and thirtie miles from London, this present month of August, 1614".

Today the only dragons are: the public house at Colgate
Colgate, West Sussex
Colgate is a small village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, about four miles north east of Horsham.A small village, with it's origins at the northern edge of St. Leonards Forest, it has no shops or retail facilities. There is a pub "The Dragon", and a church and a...

 or the statue in the center of the Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...

 Maze.

The Middle Ages

In 1086 the Sauvage family held Sedgwick Park
Sedgwick, West Sussex
Sedgwick is a small hamlet, located about 3 miles south of Horsham in West Sussex, England.Nearby is Sedgwick Park, a largely nineteenth century house but with one wing possibly dating from 1608. In the extensive grounds are the fragmentary remains of the medieval Sedgwick Castle, surrounded by a...

 on the west of the forest, and it was subsequently held by the Braoses of Bramber Castle who were given a license to crenellate Sedgwick Castle in 1258. At this time the main use of the forest was pannage
Pannage
Pannage is the practice of turning out domestic pigs in a wood or forest, in order that they may feed on fallen acorns, beechmast, chestnuts or other nuts. Historically, it was a right or privilege granted to local people on common land or in royal forests...

 with the lord
Lord
Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...

s of Bramber and Bewbush holding the rights. The tithes of pannage and herbage were given to Sele Priory in 1235. The forest also had wild horses, and this may be the origins of the name Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...

 which dates back to the 10th century. A horse fair was held on St Leonard's Day in the 15th century. Deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

 and timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

 belonged to the lord. Timber from the forest was sent to Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

 in 1214 for use in the new Great Hall. Oak was given to the Bishop of Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...

 in 1234 for the Cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

. Sele Priory had the rights to the underwood in 1234 - this was used to produce charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

, hence the name Colgate
Colgate, West Sussex
Colgate is a small village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, about four miles north east of Horsham.A small village, with it's origins at the northern edge of St. Leonards Forest, it has no shops or retail facilities. There is a pub "The Dragon", and a church and a...

 (a charcoal burner was known as a collier). In 1295 the forest contained deer, hares, rabbits, pheasants and herons.

Later the forest was surrounded by a pale or fence
Fence
A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary. It is generally distinguished from a wall by the lightness of its construction: a wall is usually restricted to such barriers made from solid brick or concrete, blocking vision as well as passage .Fences...

 and was technically a chase
Chase (land)
In the United Kingdom a chase is a type of common land used for hunting to which there are no specifically designated officers and laws, but there are reserved hunting rights for one or more persons. Similarly, a Royal Chase is a type of Crown Estate by the same description, but where certain...

 rather than a forest (used for hunting but not under forest law). There were gate
Gate
A gate is a point of entry to a space enclosed by walls, or a moderately sized opening in a fence. Gates may prevent or control entry or exit, or they may be merely decorative. Other terms for gate include yett and port...

s into the forest, some of whose names still remain - Faygate
Faygate
Faygate is a hamlet in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A264 road 3.4 miles south west of Crawley. It has a railway station on the Arun Valley Line with trains connecting to London and Portsmouth. The village is in the green belt between Crawley and Horsham.The village...

 in the north, Monk's Gate
Monk's Gate
Monk's Gate is a hamlet in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A281 road 2.6 miles southeast of Horsham.-Hymn tune:...

 in the south west and Pease Pottage
Pease Pottage
Pease Pottage is a small village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the southern edge of the Crawley built up area, in the civil parish of Slaugham....

 Gate (the gate was dropped from the name in 1877) in the east. Other gates were between subdivisions within the forest such as Colgate. Some names refer to clearings - Doomsday Green and Mannings Heath
Mannings Heath
Mannings Heath is a village in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England, on the A281 a few miles south-east of the town of Horsham. It lies in the civil parish of Nuthurst....

 for example.

Little is known of the forest apart from legal records until the building of the hermitage or chapel, by which time it was known as Lower Beeding
Lower Beeding
Lower Beeding is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2110, B2115 and A281 roads 3.5 miles southeast from Horsham...

 - Lower meaning inferior or new. The forest was larger than the modern parish, effectively the part of the Rape of Bramber
Bramber
Bramber is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located on the northern edge of the South Downs and on the west side of the River Adur. Nearby are the communities of Steyning to the west and Upper Beeding to the east, and the other side of the river....

 in the High Weald including Rusper
Rusper
Rusper is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies north of the town of Horsham and west of Crawley. Rusper is the centre of Rusper Parish which covers most of the northern area between Horsham and Crawley. Rusper is governed by the Horsham District...

, Ifield, the eastern part of modern Horsham and Nuthurst
Nuthurst
Nuthurst is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England, 2.5 miles south Horsham.The parish has a land area of 1697 hectares . In the 2001 census 1711 people lived in 702 households, of whom 875 were economically active.Its Church of England parish church...

. The eastern boundary was the border of the Rape of Bramber, to the east of which it became Worth Forest in the Rape of Lewes although today there is not a clear boundary between the two. The Hundred of Burbeach consisted of Upper Beeding in the south and Lower Beeding and Ifield in the north and the whole of this northern part was known as St Leonards, but it extended further to the west. The first large scale map of Sussex by Saxton in 1575 shows Crawley and Slaugham churches, The Forest of Sct Leonerds extending north to nearly the Surrey border, and Word Forest, but just white space between them. Speed's map of 1610 (surveyed by John Nordon about 1595) also shows three enclosed parks - St. Leonards, Schelley and Bewbush, with the Rape border and Tylgate Forest on the east. Neither map shows any roads.

Sixteenth century

In the 16th century the forest was divided into bailiwick
Bailiwick
A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...

s - Roffey, Bewbush, Alkynburne (Hawksbourne), Horningbrook, Hyde, Shelley, Whitebarrow, Thrustlehole, Herony, Gosden and Patchgate, many of which are still recognisable today. It was around this time that the forest started to be cleared, wood being used for barrels, buildings and charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

, the latter being used for both iron production and by the townsfolk of Horsham. In 1553 it was reported that there were no deer or other game in the forest. By the end of the century there were some 40 farms in the forest. These were not very successful except in Bewbush because of the poor soil.

It is not known when ironworking started in the forest, but it was well established by the middle of the century. It is known that the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 worked iron nearby at Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...

, and there may have been workings earlier than the 16th century, but there are no remains or records, except for a thousand horseshoes produced at a forge at Roffey in 1327. The most obvious remains today are Hawkins Pond and Hammer Pond on the sources of the Arun, the dams of which are used by Hammerponds Road to cross the deep gills. There was a blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...

 at Bewbush which produced pig iron
Pig iron
Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...

, and this was converted to wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...

 by the finery forge
Finery forge
Iron tapped from the blast furnace is pig iron, and contains significant amounts of carbon and silicon. To produce malleable wrought iron, it needs to undergo a further process. In the early modern period, this was carried out in a finery forge....

s below the two ponds. The water was required to drive a waterwheel which in turn raised the trip hammer
Trip hammer
A trip hammer, also known as a helve hammer, is a massive powered hammer used in:* agriculture to facilitate the labor of pounding, decorticating and polishing of grain;...

s. Around 1584 a blast furnace was built at Hammer Pond to process ore from near Colgate, up to a 1000 loads of ore per year.

Another furnace was built at Crabtree in about 1580, the ore coming from Minepits Wood, and 49 miners were employed in 1587. There were also furnaces at Slaugham
Slaugham
Slaugham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located seven miles to the south of Crawley, on the A23 road to Brighton...

 which obtained their ore from the forest - Furnace Pond is in both Slaugham and Lower Beeding.

The main iron products were cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

 and firebacks. Graveslabs are also found in some churches.

Iron production in the area finished about 1650 when the iron works were destroyed by a parliamentary force
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

.

The iron industry was not solely responsible for the loss of the woods because although a few large timbers were used for buildings and machinery, the main requirement was for charcoal which was produced initially from the undertimber and later by coppicing
Coppicing
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level...

.

Seventeenth century

The Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...

 had the rights to the timber in 1602 and during the first half of the century much of the large timber had been used for shipbuilding. Other timber was used for charcoal, and by the middle of the century large areas had been cleared, especially Bewbush and Shelley Plain. Cattle, sheep and rabbits prevented regrowth and these two areas remained arable. Elsewhere the forest degenerated into heathland, although there were intermittent attempts to farm it.

Eighteenth century

Rabbits were the main produce of the forest. The first warrens are mentioned in 1614. At the beginning of the 18th century there were five including the Great Warren to the south of Colgate, Plummers Plain and Sibballs (now known as Holmbush). By the end of the century the latter had some twelve thousand rabbits, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 being the main market. The forest was described as bleak and barren as the Cumberland and Yorkshire moorland, and William Cobbett
William Cobbett
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...

 who travelled from Pease Pottage to Horsham in 1823 described it as "six of the worst miles in England...The first two of these miserable miles go though the estate of Lord ERSKINE [Lord Chancellor]. It was a bare heath here and there, in the better parts of it, some scrubby birch. It has been, in part, planted with fir-trees, which are as ugly as the heath was; and, in short, it is a most villanous track".

However Michael Mills planted a straight avenue of trees around 1720, and although these were blown down in 1836, the line of the avenue remains as a long narrow clearing (legend says that Mick Mills raced the devil and won - he went so fast that he burnt the trees on either side and they would never regrow).

Nineteenth century

Much of the heathland was converted into pasture, but trees, mainly larch, fir, oak, sweet chesnut and spruce, were also planted, mainly in the large estates such as Holmbush, Bewbush and Buchan Hill. Exotic gardens containing magnolias, rhododendrons etc. were developed in the second half of the century, Leonardslee
Leonardslee
Leonardslee is one of the largest and most spectacular landscaped woodland gardens in England. They are particularly noted for their spring displays of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, magnolias and bluebells, with the flowering season reaching its peak in May...

 and South Lodge being two well known examples. New dams were built to create lakes for ornamentation at Leonardslee, fishing and boating at Buchan Hill. A tower 106 feet high was built at Holmbush, hence the name Tower Road which replaced Beacon Hill which gives an indication of its former use, probably in Napoleonic times.

Twentieth century

The main change in the 20th century as far as vegetation was concerned was the spread of rhododendron
Rhododendron ponticum
Rhododendron ponticum, called Common Rhododendron or Pontic Rhododendron, is a species of Rhododendron native to southern Europe and southwest Asia.-Description:...

throughout the forest except where the dense planting by the Forestry Commission prevented it growing. The proportion of heathland diminished except where it was deliberately preserved, as in Buchan Country Park. The opening of this park and also Owlbeech and Leechpool Woods near Horsham took place in the second half of the century and these together with the Forestry Commission land afford public access to parts of the forest. Building has increased throughout the forest although it is now an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Two large golf courses were constructed at Mannings Heath and Buchan Hill. Both have 36 holes, and the first at Mannings Heath dates back to 1905. Buchan Hill is post second world war.

Twenty-first century

There is a campaign to reduce the area covered by rhododendron - unfortunately the more it is cut back the more it regrows. The value of the Forestry Commission trees has dropped to the point where it is hardly economic to fell them. The proportion of native woodland will be increased over the next thirty years.

Popular culture

In The Dragon's Eye, Part 1 of The Dragonology Chronicles, St. Leonard's Forest is where many dragons live.

External links

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