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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 1d

I love seeing Ramaria stricta, Strict-branch Coral Fungus, at The Mens in October. It's the only place and time I see it in Sussex. Such a beautiful fungi.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 1d

While walking back to Fittleworth from the Mens (lapsed pasture woodland for pannage), I was thinking about pigs being driven up the track I was walking. I heard a little snort; looked over the hedge and saw a pot-bellied pig eating acorns under an Oak. C21 not much different than C11 for this pig.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 1d

The Mens (OE gemænnes, commons) is my favourite woodland in Sussex. It was medieval wood pasture, but when grazing ceased, it turned into tall forest of Pedunculate & Sessile Oak, with huge Beches with an understory of Midland Thorn & Wild Service. It is quintessential low weald ancient woodland.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 1d

One of Sussex's secrets. The ruined Victorian church (and school in the week) at Bedham hamlet; in the woods, on the West Sussex's weald Greensand Ridge. Built in 1880, closed in 1958 due to lack of chilten - depopulation. Off the footpath from Bedham Manor Farm to Hammonds Wood.

Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 1d

This hollow-way drovers way is part of the C road that goes from Brinkwells- Bedham through Hythe Formation sands. How do I know this was the outcrop? I used the excellent BGS Geology Viewer on my smartphone. Wish that had existed in 1978 when I did A level geology! www.bgs.ac.uk/map-viewers/...

Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 1d

Just north of Brinkwells, north of Filltlworth, on the way to Bedham, there is a series of Weald springs (in the Hythe Fotmation Sandstone) where the ancient nature of the medieval Weald forests pokes through the planted Sweet Chestnut, with many veteran Beeches and Oaks.

Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 1d

Brinkwells, in the wood north of Fittleworth, where Elgar wrote his sublime cello concerto. youtu.be/OPhkZW_jwc0?...

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

My heart sinks when I walk through the acres of planted coppiced Sweet Chestnut replacing the ancient woodland of Flexham Park and the Stopham Estate's Fittleworth Wood. You can see evidence of its past: ancient Beech & Oak along medeival trackways, but most of it is a monocultural biological desert

Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

Triumph of hope over experience. Juvenile Herring Gull in Worthing tried every Sycamore leaf on the other side from the bus stop where I was waiting. He discovered that none of them were edible. Seaside bus stops are opportunities for field ethology; Herring Gulls in their natural habitat! #birds

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

When you walk up from the church there there are lots of junipers. If you walk from the top of Sullington Hill along South Downs way, west of Kirhurst Hill there is lscarp-slope ancient woodland. At the bottom there are copiced ancient Large Leave Lime according to Francis Rose. I haven't found yet

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

Ingaderia vandenboomii seen yesterday on the north wall of St Mary's Church, Sullington. Thin uneven creamy white-pink thallus and black prothallus. I've seen it on the north walls of St. Thomas, Pagham; St. Nicholas, Bramber and St. Mary's, Stopham. These are all late Saxon/early Norman churches.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

For goodness sake, get up, it's gone 6.00 my breakfast time.

Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

Small Saxon churches, like Sullington, are quite common in dowland hollows. "No single explanation for their ... survival can be offered... but they tend to prevail where village communities didn't expand after Doomsday ..." due to later agrarian poverty. Peter Brandin. The Landscape of Sussex

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

Saprobic (wood decaying) Poplar Fieldcap in a hole in what I thought was dead Ash; but could have been White Poplar, as these non natives are quite common on the South Downs. Chantry Hill, West Sussex.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

Some of the birds I saw today at Sullington and Chantry Hills. South Downs. West Sussex. Red Kite, Yellow Hammer, Kestrel and Chiffchaff. I heard Buzzards and Ravens.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

Sullington Hill. South Downs.
3 of the 4 native English evergreen trees. Holly growing through Juniper (low-spreading) and in the background a Yew. A Dog Rose is growing through the Juniper too. Yews are a common component of scarp-slope ancient woodland on the Downs.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

It's always good to come across Juniper spontaneously. On Sullington Hill nr Storington. West Sussex. If I had looked at the Sussex Rare Plant Register, befote my walk, I would have known it was here! About 15 trees. Juniper is very rare now on the South Downs. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 2d

Sullington Manor & Church, Sussex. In the tiny Saxon-Norman church lies a crusader Knight, a de Covert, who were Lords of the Manor, who fought in the Siege of Acre (1291). So, not content with replacing the Saxon thegn, the de Coverts engaged in Islamophobic imperialism. Merry Medieval England!

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 4d

Balcombe, West Sussex, High Weald. Quercus robur, Pedunculate Oak, the "Sussex Weed". The ferruginous Weald and Wadhurst Clay "is to Oak as mustard is to beef". John Hardcastle. Regeneration of Oak with a historical incentive. Quarterly Journal of Forestry 93:2, 1999. @thekentacorn.bsky.social

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 4d

"The grandest scenery is not that in which man is altogether absent, nor that which he has tamed and broken, but that in which his victories have been won by submission" Leslie Stephen, on Landscape 1974 quoted by Peter Brandon, in The Kent & Sussex Weald, 2003, as the distinctive quality the Weald.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 4d

Fabulous pollarded boundary Beach, Fagus Sylvatica, which, along with others, marks the boundary between an area ancient woodland and heathland in Ashdown Forest.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 4d

A Drovers' Road between Furnance Wood and Fairwarp, edged with coppiced Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) on banks. A relatively common phenomenon in the Low and High wealds of Sussex.

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 4d

Dark Honey Fungus, Armillaria ostoyae, growing on fallen Goat Willow, Salix caprea, in a depression in Furnace Wood, related to the iron industry; near Fairwarp (Fayre Wharp). In the Early Modern period the main occupation of locals was charcoal burning, for the iron produced at nearby Oldlands Farm

Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 4d

The High Weald outcrops of sandrock often have little "caves". In front of this one on a ridge (Furnace Wood) are some modern "magical" relicts; including bones, a tiny reptile jaw (?) in a glass pot, sea shells, a painted Ostrich egg (?), and words on love and friendship. The Weald is often weird!

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