Blackcap, East Sussex

Ashcombe Bottom (TQ 373 119) is a 66 hectare (163 acre) woodland valley owned by the National Trust that runs south from Blackcap, East Sussex, England. The area is nested in the South Downs and can only be reached by walking or cycling from Lewes, Falmer, Ditchling Beacon or up the Clayton to Offham escarpment from Plumpton. It sits in the parish of St John Without and East Chiltington. The name Ashcombe refers to a Saxon named Aecci, not ash trees as might be assumed. It is part of the Clayton to Offham Escarpment Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Laines is an 18th-century country house in Plumpton, East Sussex, near Lewes in England. It was the childhood home of Queen Camilla. The centre part was built in the 18th-century, with 19th-century additions to the north and south, and was originally a rectory. It was listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England in 1979. The house sits in over five acres (2.0 ha) of grounds, with an orchard and a walled kitchen garden. There is a swimming pool, tennis court, paddock, and a separate four-bedroom cottage.The Laines was the childhood home of Camilla Shand, the future consort of Charles III. Camilla has stated that her childhood there was "perfect in every way". The house had been purchased by her parents, British Army officer and businessman Major Bruce Shand and his wife, Rosalind Shand (née Cubitt), who also had a house in South Kensington, London. The Shands moved there after the Second World War so that they could be near Sonia Cubitt, Camilla's grandmother. The Laines is believed to be where Bruce Shand asked the young Prince Charles about his intentions with regard to Camilla.The gardens were redesigned by Lanning Roper for the Shands in the late 1960s, Roper worked on the gardens and offered advice to the Shands until 1982. Roper's work at The Laines was featured in the September 1982 issue of Country Life.The Shands lived at The Laines until Rosalind died in 1994, when the estate was sold to the English actor James Wilby. In 2014, The Laines was listed for sale at £3.25 million, the second time in 63 years that it was available to purchase. It was put up for sale by James Wilby.

The Lewes Speed Trials were speed trials held on a defunct course in Lewes, Sussex, England, sometimes known as "The Motor Road."

St Ann Without is a civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It covers an area to the west of the town of Lewes, including Long Hill. Much like its brother parish, St John Without, the parish was formed in 1894 as Lewes St Ann Without from the part of the ancient parish of Lewes St Ann outside (that is, 'without', as opposed to 'within') the borough of Lewes. Ashcombe House dates to the 18th century.

Plumpton Place is a Grade II* listed Elizabethan manor house in Plumpton, East Sussex, England. The house is on the English Heritage register.

Plumpton is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is located five miles (8 km) north-west of Lewes. The parish measures 6.5 miles in length on its north–south axis and 1 mile at its widest on the B2116 Underhill Road. The southern half of the parish lies within the South Downs National Park and at the highest point, 214m (702 feet), the South Downs Way traverses the crest of Plumpton Plain. The parish includes the small village of Plumpton adjacent to the Downs and to the north the larger village of Plumpton Green where most of the community and services are based. Plumpton is known for its race course, and also Plumpton College, which farms over 2500 acres of land and has become one of the leading centres for land-based education in the UK. Plumpton is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having a church and two mills, and is shown as Pluntune, meaning 'town or settlement where plum-trees grew'.Plumpton Green is rumoured to have been the inspiration for the popular 1960s British children's television series Trumpton by Gordon Murray, with nearby Chailey being Chigley and Wivelsfield Green being Camberwick Green.

Plumpton College is a Further and Higher education college in Plumpton, East Sussex, England, with courses in a variety of land based and related subjects. The college provides a range of full-time and part-time land-based courses, FE courses to Foundation Degree and BSc courses. The college degree courses are provided in association with the Royal Agricultural University.The main site of the College is in Plumpton, with satellite centres, termed 'Outcentres', elsewhere in East Sussex at Netherfield, Flimwell and Stanmer Park, and further afield in Bwlch Mwlchan, Snowdonia. The current principal of the college is Jeremy Kerswell. The range of courses cover land-based provision including Agriculture, Horticulture, Floristry, Greenkeeping, Hard Landscaping, Equine Studies, Agricultural and Horticultural Machinery, Metalsmithing, Animal Care and Veterinary Nursing, Countryside Management, Forestry and Arboriculture, Sports (Outdoor Education), Viticulture and Oenology, and Rural Business Management. The college was visited by The Princess Royal in March 2008 to open a new Children's Rural Education Centre marking the Year of Food and Farming.

St John Without is a small civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England, covering an area to the north-west of the town of Lewes. Much like its sister parish, St Ann Without, the parish was formed in 1894 as Lewes St John Without from the part of the ancient parish of Lewes St John outside (that is, 'without', as opposed to 'within') the borough of Lewes. From 1894 to 1974 it was in the rural district of Chailey. The shape of the parish, like many of the parishes north of the Sussex Downs in this area is long and thin (see link to the parish map in the External links section below). The parish includes the small hamlet of Chiltington and a few dispersed farms and houses along Allington Road to the foot of the South Downs.

Ashcombe House is a country house in St Ann Without, Lewes District in East Sussex, a Grade II* listed building. It is co-owned with and faced by a once appurtenant (serving) Round House or Toll House, which is at Grade II, the lowest category of national listing. The L-shaped two-storey house with "grey headers with dressings, quoins and [a] modillion cornice of red brick" dates to the 18th century, when it served as a farmhouse. It was acquired by the University of Sussex in 1963 and was as its Vice Chancellor's official residence until 1981.

Clayton to Offham Escarpment is a 422.5-hectare (1,044-acre) linear biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which runs from Clayton in West Sussex to Lewes in East Sussex. Its ownership and management is divided between over fifteen landowners and farmers. Parts of Ditchling's Downs, e.g. TQ 323 133, and the scarp between Blackcap and Mount Harry, e.g. TQ 378 124, are owned by the National Trust. What remains of Ditchling Tenantry Down common (24 hectares (59 acres)) at Ditchling Beacon is leased to the Sussex Wildlife Trust.Unlike the scarp top, the steeply sloping chalk grassland of the escarpment has been spared modern farming ploughing, fertilising and spraying of herbicides. Instead the area has been used for traditional low-level animal grazing and as a consequence the site is still pristine chalk grassland, which has created a ten kilometre stretch of wild flower meadows. Such areas have been described as Europe's tropical rainforests and the National Trust tell us, "They're home to an incredibly rich and diverse range of plant and insect life". Up to 40 species of flowering plants can be found in one square metre of chalk grassland.The particular character of this range of hills is their north facing aspect, meaning they can be shadowy and receive less sunlight. There is glaucous sedge, autumn gentian, marjoram and squinancywort. There are several species of wild, native orchid and the area is rich in mosses and liverworts. The botanical richness means it also supports biodiverse fauna. There are also areas of ancient woodland and ancient scrub and the site has a rich community of breeding birds, and a number of red listed bird species in the highest conservation concern category.

East Chiltington is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is centred four miles (5.9 km) south-east of Burgess Hill and five miles (8 km) north-west of Lewes. It is a strip parish of 3.76 square miles (9.7 km2), stretching northward (south of Plumpton) from the crest of the South Downs. The village church is 13th century in origin; the vicar also has charge of two churches in Plumpton. Near the church there is a pub called The Jolly Sportsman. The Sussex Greensand Way, a Roman road, runs from east to west through the centre of the parish. Eton College owns a 500 acre plot in the parish and in 2021 applied to build 3,000 homes in the area north of the railway line. The proposal has met with resistance from locals, citing amongst other things the risk to the biodiversity of the area.There is no public access to the majority of the banks of Bevern Stream through East Chiltington.

The Battle of Lewes was one of two main battles of the conflict known as the Second Barons' War. It took place at Lewes in Sussex, on 14 May 1264. It marked the high point of the career of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and made him the "uncrowned King of England". Henry III left the safety of Lewes Castle and St. Pancras Priory to engage the barons in battle and was initially successful, his son Prince Edward routing part of the baronial army with a cavalry charge. However, Edward pursued his quarry off the battlefield and left Henry's men exposed. Henry was forced to launch an infantry attack up Offham Hill where he was defeated by the barons' men defending the hilltop. The royalists fled back to the castle and priory and the King was forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, ceding many of his powers to Montfort.