The site known as the Airman’s Grave is not actually a grave but a memorial to all six of the crew who died when their Wellington bomber crashed here on its return from a raid on Cologne in 1941. The site is to be found on a heathland ride west of Duddleswell. The inscription reads ‘To the glorious memory of Sgt/P. V.R.Sutton, aged 24 years, 142 Bom. Sqdn. RAF also his five comrades who lost their lives through enemy action 31-7-41. Mother’

The Greenwich Meridian starts its course through the Ashdown Forest area in the east side of East Grinstead and continues through the Weir Wood reservoir. From there it goes through the western side of the Forest and passes almost down the centre of the village of Danehill.

The Hanging Tree is at the foot of Wall Hill in Forest Row. At this spot in the early hours of a summer morning in 1801 a mail coach was held up by highwaymen and a huge sum of money, believed to have been £12,000, was stolen at pistol point. Two suspects were later caught in Liverpool and taken first to Bow Street in London and from there to the County Gaol in Horsham. At their trial in the spring of 1802 the two, brothers John and William Beatson, were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged at the spot where their crime was committed. They travelled in a cart from Horsham, seated on their own coffins. Their hangings were the last hangings of highwayman, and amongst the last public hangings, in England; on April 7th 1802, some 3,000 people turned up to watch their gruesome end.

Nutley Windmill, a post-mill and one of the best preserved of the surviving windmills in Sussex, stands just north of the Nutley to Duddleswell road at an elevation of 155 metres. The first record of the mill in this location is from 1836 but parts of it may be 300 years old. (Local tradition tells that it started its life in the village of Goudhurst in Kent, from where it disappeared in the mid 1700s and subsequently spent some time standing in Crowborough.) The Nutley mill ceased its commercial life in 1908 but it has been restored to full working order and is managed by the Uckfield and District Preservation Society. It is open to the public on the last Sunday of each month from April to October and also Bank Holiday Sundays and Mondays.

The Old Radio Station near Duddleswell crossroads started life as a communications facility built by the Canadians during World War II. (A concrete pillar with an inset maple leaf can be seen from the Poundgate Road, just inside the fence.) It was used by the Foreign Office for broadcasting propaganda and information to Resistance workers during the war and afterwards served as a BBC World Service transmitter. (The signals were so strong and clear that many nearby residents reported that World Service programmes could be heard issuing clearly from various items of their bathroom equipment.) It then underwent a major refit to become a nuclear fallout shelter and is currently used as a training area for Sussex Police. As late as the mid 80s there were many masts and aerials on the site, including three which were over 400ft tall, making it a local landmark; today there is a single squat tower.

Two main stretches of Roman Road can clearly be identified crossing Ashdown Forest: a major route between London and the south coast runs roughly parallel with the B2026, an exposed stretch of which can be viewed at Roman Road car park; the second road travels between Coleman’s Hatch and Wych Cross.

The Sheffield Shield, a cricketing trophy competed for by the Australian states, had its origins in the Ashdown Forest area. The third Earl of Sheffield was a great cricket fanatic and it was he who organised the first tours of Australian cricket teams in England. The first match of each tour was traditionally played at Sheffield Park against Lord Sheffield’s XI. Although the last of such matches was played in 1896 the Australian states still compete for the trophy presented by the Earl of Sheffield.