Ист-Чилтингтон: деревня в Восточном Сассексе

Village in East Sussex, England

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 (10 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 parish of East Chiltington comprises the South Downs from the top end of Ashcombe Bottom and the Blackcap nature reserve, down the Clayton to Offham Escarpment to the Sussex Weald stretching north and northeast to the Chailey parish. To its east is St John (without), to its south Falmer and to its west the Plumpton parish. The area is remarkable for its long stretches of intact flowery lane sides. There are at least five spots along Novington Lane with the rare meadow cranesbill where it flowers in July. There are also spotted orchid. oxeye daisy, bird's foot trefoil, hoary ragwort and meadowsweet. The area also has many small archaic meadows, one of which is of superb quality, and lovingly cared for, with a big display of southern marsh orchid, marsh marigold, ragged robin, heath spotted orchid, and both black and carnation sedges. At Brookhouse, East Chiltington, there used to be a 2.25 m girth pollarded native Black Poplar by the former barns, on a site that has been separated for 165 years from the banks of the Bevern Stream by the railway line. This is a tree species with only scattered wild survivors in Sussex, though many have lately been planted.

The Bevern stream runs through the middle of the parish, flowing eastwards to the River Ouse. It is fed by the clear chalky waters of Plumpton Mill Stream arising at moated Plumpton Place. It runs over gravelly beds and provides some of the best spawning ground in the area for sea trout. It also supports mayflies, caddis flies and great crested newts, and many birds drink from the waters, including summer visitors like nightingale. In recent years, however, sea trout have been seen in the Bevern stream at East Chiltington, and the stream is healthy again.

There is impressive woodland in East Chiltington. Beneath the Downs the large woods sit on Gault Clay. Further north, the land is fertile lower greensand so there is more arable land and less woodland. The remains of Home Wood has now largely been destroyed for farm land.

Before 1650, Home Wood was 300 acres and an important demesne wood of the Priory of St Pancras at Lewes. The majority of it was converted to farmland by the church and the commoners dispossessed. The footprint of the lost medieval Home Wood begins at the north end of Novington Lane. Hattons Green was once lawns at the edge of medieval Home Wood, but it is just paddocks and cottages now. The green and Homewoodgate Farm marked its western edge. There is still a small woodland called Home Wood which has old holly, coppiced beech and old wood pasture feel. Next to it was Novingdean Common, which was a common of 40 acres lost to the people after 1600. Great and Middle Home Wood are the last remaining large fragments of the wood. Great Home Wood spans the East Chiltington and the Chailey parishes. The northern end had drifts of wild daffodils.

Long Wood has oak, hazel with bluebells in spring and much birch. It has laurel thickets and 12 ancient woodland indicator species. Silver washed fritillary butterflies and harlequin longhorn beetles can be seen here. At the top of the scarp are two National Trust reserves, Blackcap and Ashcombe Bottom.

Ashcombe Bottom is a woodland valley that runs south from Blackcap. One corner is in the East Chiltington parish while the majority is in St John Without. In 1993 Ashcombe Bottom was bought by the National Trust with Blackcap, Mount Harry, Win Green and most of the scarp. It is rich in scrubland species and has oak, ash, silver birch, hazel, bryony, rosebay willowherb, spindle, honeysuckle and occasional wood sage. The ash which is being managed for ash dieback. It is a biodiverse area with many butterflies and migrant birds in spring.

Blackcap is a Downland peak which like Ashcombe Bottom has been under the National Trust’s ownership since 1993. It forms part of the National Trust Blackcap nature reserve. There is a ridgeway that connects Blackcap and Mount Harry. These two peaks are unfenced and open, as the old Downs were, and the Down pasture is recovering from past damage. Cattle and sheep wander freely. The scarp top retains some rich ancient grassland fragments, especially where the slope begins to tip northwards and you can find frog and bee orchid and there are tiny fragments of heathy grassland and even ling heather. In autumn the waxcap fungal flora can be spectacularly colourful. 21 old meadow species have been counted there. Next to the top of the Warningore Bostal, are a cluster of 12 smallish round barrows, each one with a ‘pillage dimple’ in the top, but otherwise well preserved. East Chiltington lies within the Chailey ward for the next tier of government, East Sussex County Council. The ward also includes Chailey, Ditchling, St John Without, Newick, Plumpton, Streat, Westmeston and Wivelsfield. The County Council provides services such as roads and transport, social services, libraries and trading standards. The county councilor is the Conservative Jim Sheppard. The next level of government is Lewes District Council. The District council supplies services such as refuse collection, planning consent, leisure amenities and council tax collection. East Chiltington is covered by the Plumpton, Streat, East Chiltington and St John (Without) ward which returns a single seat. In the May 2015 election, Sarah Osbourne, a councillor from the local Liberal Democrat party was elected. The UK Parliament constituency for East Chiltington is Lewes. The Conservative Maria Caulfield, a local nurse, has been serving as the constituency MP since 2015 when she defeated the incumbent Liberal Democrat Norman Baker. Prior to Brexit in 2020, the village was part of the South East England constituency in the European Parliament.