The earliest evidence of Man’s occupation in the Forest is from late Paleolithic times; a stone hand-axe some 50,000 years old was found near Gills Lap. Artefacts from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods have also been found, as have some from the earliest part of the Bronze Age. There was a good deal of activity in the area during the Iron Age, with evidence of occupation on four different sites.

In Roman times it is thought that the Weald was an imperial estate devoted to iron production; the Garden Hill area, in the heart of Ashdown Forest (which the Romans called Anderida), was an administrative centre for the ironworks still under civilian control. Fuel production (wood and charcoal) for iron-working, and grain and meat to feed the workers, would have accounted for the main land use at that time.

Saxon settlements already existed by the time the Romans left in 5th century A.D. During Saxon times Ashdown Forest was part of the huge Forest Andred, where herds of deer and wild boar roamed and bears, wolves and wildcats made their homes. Only one Saxon iron-making site has been found, on Millbrook Hill. It is thought possible that stockmen from local villages used the forest to graze their stock in the summer months, and they may have owed rent, in the form of labour, to the lord, thus becoming the originators of ‘customary tenancy’.

After the Norman Conquest the Ashdown Forest area became part of the Rape of Pevensey, whose north-western boundary was roughly the same as that of the forest today. During the next 300 years ownership of the Rape passed through many, mostly royal, hands. It was at some time during this period that the Pale, the Forest boundary fence, was built, with the aim of allowing deer into the enclosure but preventing them from escaping. Much evidence of rabbit farming during this period has been found.

In 1372 the ‘Forest of Ashdon’ was granted to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and for the next three centuries it was known as Lancaster Great Park and was used as a royal hunting ground. (‘Park’ was the word generally used for an enclosed hunting area and ‘forest’ for an open one. The word ‘forest’ had nothing to do with trees!) During this time the day-to-day administration was carried out by the Master Forester and his rangers.

In 1496 French ironmasters were employed to operate the first water powered blast furnace in Britain, at Newbridge near Coleman’s Hatch and in 1505 a water powered steel forge was established at Pippingford.

The iron industry expanded rapidly and before the end of the century there were at least 77 iron furnaces at work in the Weald, many of them on the Forest. For two hundred years the Wealden iron industry had the almost total monopoly of cannon making in this country.

In 1561 Richard Sackville, father of the first Earl of Dorset, became Master Forester. (The family retained the Lordship of the Manor of Duddleswell, which included the Forest, until the extinction of the male line in 1815. The related de la Warr family then inherited the Forest and they remained the freehold owners until 1988.)

Records from 1607 onwards show that the Forest was well regulated until the Civil War, but it fell into disrepair during the Interregnum; the Pale was no longer maintained, the deer had been hunted nearly to extinction and the Forest was granted to the Parliamentary army as pay.

After the Restoration various plans were proposed for the improvement of the Forest but it was hard to satisfy the landowners on the one hand and the Commoners, whose activities they were trying to restrict, on the other. However, in 1693 the Duchy Decree awarded 6400 acres for the use of the Commoners and stipulated that the remainder of the 13,991 acres could be enclosed and improved. The Commoners forfeited all their customary rights on the enclosures. Much of the enclosed land was used for rabbit farming at this time.

The iron industry was by now on the decline, with few furnaces still working. In the eighteenth century Britain’s iron industry moved up to the Midlands where coke was a much cheaper fuel than the charcoal which had been used in the south. The last evidence of iron-working on the Forest dates from 1717.

The next hundred years or so saw repeated attempts by the Lord or Lady of the Manor to restrict the activities of the Commoners and equally determined attempts by the Commoners to assert their rights and to destroy the enclosures erected by their lordships. A protracted legal case and subsequent appeal, beginning in 1876, culminated in the first Ashdown Forest Act of 1885, which established a Board of Conservators to oversee the Forest bye-laws, protect the Commoners’ rights and preserve the Forest in its natural state. Many small, hitherto illegal, enclosures were recognized.

The three subsequent Ashdown Forest Acts of 1937, 1949 and 1974 further strengthened the powers of the Conservators to enforce new bye-laws, formalised and regulated the use of the Forest for army training and arranged for grants from local authorities in exchange for representation on the Board.

In 1988 the Forest was purchased by East Sussex County Council from the executors of the tenth Earl de la Warr. The Ashdown Forest Trust was established as the owner of the Forest.

In 1994 sixty nine acres of woodland at Chelwood Vachery were purchased.

In 1996 the Forest was designated a Special Protection area, further conserving the bird life.

From 1996-1998 fencing and the re-introduction of grazing were phased in on the South and West Chases.

In 2001 the Forest was designated a Special Area of Conservation to help conserve vulnerable habitats.

For a full and fascinating history of Ashdown Forest please visit the website of the Conservators of Ashdown Forest: www.ashdownforest.org