Wych Cross

Ashdown Forest, a former royal hunting forest situated some 30 miles south-east of London, is a large area of lowland heathland whose ecological importance has been recognised by its designation as a UK Site of Special Scientific Interest and by the European Union as a Special Protection Area for birds and a Special Area of Conservation for its heathland habitats, and by its membership of Natura 2000, which brings together Europe's most important and threatened wildlife areas. Ashdown Forest lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, "...one of the best surviving, intact medieval landscapes in Northern Europe", characterised by rolling hills, steep-sided ghyll streams, sandstone outcrops, nationally high woodland cover, many interconnected ancient woods, narrow sunken lanes, scattered farmsteads and hamlets, small irregular-shaped fields, and open heaths, of which Ashdown is the greatest example. The forest's distinctive open heathland landscape with its hilltop clumps of conifer trees has been immortalised in the illustrations provided by EH Shepard for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories of A. A. Milne, who lived on the northern edge of the forest at Chuck Hatch.

Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated some 30 miles (48 km) south of London in the county of East Sussex, England. Rising to an elevation of 732 feet (223 m) above sea level, its heights provide expansive vistas across the heavily wooded hills of the Weald to the chalk escarpments of the North Downs and South Downs on the horizon. Ashdown Forest's origins lie as a medieval hunting forest created soon after the Norman conquest of England. By 1283 the forest was fenced in by a 23 miles (37 km) pale enclosing an area of some 20 square miles (52 km2; 13,000 acres; 5,200 ha). Thirty-four gates and hatches in the pale, still remembered in place names such as Chuck Hatch and Chelwood Gate, allowed local people to enter to graze their livestock, collect firewood, and cut heather and bracken for animal bedding. The forest continued to be used by the monarchy and nobility for hunting into Tudor times, including notably Henry VIII, who had a hunting lodge at Bolebroke Castle, Hartfield and who courted Anne Boleyn at nearby Hever Castle. Ashdown Forest has a rich archaeological heritage. It contains much evidence of prehistoric human activity, with the earliest evidence of human occupation dating back to 50,000 years ago. There are important Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Romano-British remains. The forest was the centre of a nationally important iron industry on two occasions, during the Roman occupation of Britain and in the Tudor period when, in 1496, England's first blast furnace was built at Newbridge, near Coleman's Hatch, marking the beginning of Britain's modern iron and steel industry. In 1693, more than half the forest was taken into private hands, with the remainder set aside as common land. The latter today covers 9.5 square miles (25 km2; 6,100 acres; 2,500 ha) and is the largest area with open public access in South East England. The ecological importance of Ashdown Forest's heathlands is reflected by its designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, as a Special Protection Area for birds, and as a Special Area of Conservation for its heathland habitats. It is part of the European Natura 2000 network as it hosts some of Europe's most threatened species and habitats.Ashdown Forest is famous for serving as inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood, the setting for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories written by A. A. Milne. Milne lived on the northern edge of the forest and took his son, Christopher Robin, walking there. The artist E. H. Shepard drew on the landscapes of Ashdown Forest as inspiration for many of the illustrations he provided for the Pooh books.

Birch Grove, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, England is a country house dating from 1926. It was the family home of the British prime minister Harold Macmillan, Earl of Stockton, who died there in 1986. During Macmillan's time, Charles De Gaulle, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nikita Khrushchev, Jawaharlal Nehru and John F. Kennedy stayed as guests at Birch Grove. The house is now owned by the Scottish entrepreneur James Hay. Birch Grove is a Grade II listed building.

Chelwood Gate is a small village within the civil parish of Danehill in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. Its nearest town is Uckfield, which lies approximately 6.6 miles (10.6 km) south-east from the village, just off the A22 road. The village is near the West Sussex border. Chelwood Gate was one of the entrances into Ashdown Forest through which John of Gaunt, the third surviving son of King Edward III, would have entered the forest from his hunting lodge. There is an Iron Age enclosure which is a Scheduled Monument due to its importance as a relatively rare example of a Wealden Iron Age settlement.The village church forms part of the Parish of All Saints Danehill with Chelwood Gate. The church was built as a 'Chapel of Ease' not long after the main parish building in Danehill was completed so that the residents local to Chelwood Gate would not have to travel the longer journey on foot to the church at Danehill.The village public house, the Red Lion, was built in the 19th century and was patronised in the past by Harold Macmillan and United States President John F Kennedy. Kennedy came to visit the then Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, in 1963 and a memorial to this event can be found on the Wych Cross road within the village. The village also has a village hall which is visited by a mobile library service, a village market and where there is also a nursery school.

Michael Hall is an independent Steiner Waldorf school in Kidbrooke Park on the edge of Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. Founded in 1925, it is the oldest Steiner school in Britain, and has a roll of 400 students aged between three (kindergarten) and eighteen (6th Form). The school owns a large amount of land.The school offers a broad education to boys and girls from pre-school to university entrance, based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. The curriculum embodies cultural studies, sciences, general arts and humanities, crafts, music and movement and foreign languages. EFL is available in term time. The school explains its educational ethos, curriculum and approach to prospective parents at open mornings. A range of sports, games and extra-curricular activities is offered. Entrance is non-selective and there is no streaming; for sixth-form entry an interview is conducted and GCSE grade C (or preferably higher) is required in selected sixth-form subjects.

Isaac Roberts' Observatory was an observatory, installed in the private home of the British astronomer Isaac Roberts. It was in Crowborough, Sussex, and was active from 1890, when Roberts installed it, until his death in 1904. The observatory appears in the List of observatory codes of the Minor Planet Center with the code 001.

Forest Row is a village and a large civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is located three miles (5 km) south-east of East Grinstead. In January 2023, it ranked as Britain’s 3rd poshest village.

The Byline Festival is a festival whose aim is to promote independent journalism and free speech. The festival was founded by Stephen Colegrave and Peter Jukes in 2017. Its tagline is "Dance, Discuss, Laugh and Change the World".

Forest Row was a railway station on the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line which closed in 1967, a casualty of the Beeching Axe.The station opened on 1 October 1866 and the buildings were designed by Charles Henry Driver.The station was one of the busiest of the intermediate stations on the line and was enlarged in 1897 with the addition of a new platform on the Down side, connected to the main station side via a footbridge. The station also had a goods shed and two sidings. Ironically, the station's final years saw an increased number of passengers using it as residential development took place around the old Forest Row village. In recognition of the increased patronage, commuter trains from London were extended from East Grinstead to terminate here. At the time of closure, Forest Row was taking over £5,000 per annum in revenue and 200 commuters were using the station to travel to London each day.After the station closed, it was used for the filming of an episode of the children's television programme Do Not Adjust Your Set in August/September 1967 featuring a young David Jason.[1] The site was then sold to a club for over £4,000 and the station buildings were quickly swept away. Nevertheless, a short section of the station platforms can still be found, and the goods shed stands together with other light industrial units. A brick-built coal merchant's office can also be found on Station Road.

Emerson College, UK was founded in 1962 by Francis Edmunds. It is now situated on Pixton Hill, Forest Row in East Sussex, UK. It was named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and transcendentalist. For the past c.60 years there has been an international community of students, teachers, and researchers living and studying on the site inspired by the philosophy and teachings of Rudolf Steiner—which he called Anthroposophy. A book on the history of Emerson College was published in 2013.

Brambletye School is a coeducational day and boarding preparatory school in East Grinstead, West Sussex. It was founded as a small boys' boarding school in Kent between the world wars. The school moved to West Sussex and has since become coeducational.

Ashurst Wood is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England. It is 1 mile (2 km) to the southeast of East Grinstead, just off the A22 arterial road. In 2001, the population was 1,771, increasing to 1,833 at the 2011 Census. Ashurst Wood is within the High Weald Area of Natural Beauty and has an SSSI inside its boundaries. The village has a history of agriculture and farming, and contains a church, village hall, primary school, two public houses, a general shop, post office and several small business premises. There is an independent school on the boundary of the village, called Brambletye School, and a former one, Stoke Brunswick School (the former junior school of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill), which closed in 2009. Bus routes run through the village with destinations of East Grinstead, Crawley , Haywards Heath , Tunbridge Wells and Brighton.