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Morning all! It's my last full day hosting, so I'll be taking you on a virtual tour of the area I live in. It's going to have to be old photos & links, because of not going anywhere for a year, so it's going to take me a while to find them. So there will be loooooong gaps between
Tweets! I've mentioned that I live in the Weald already, but what and where is it? The area referred to has changed over the millennia, but when the Romans arrived in Britain, they called it Anderida, which referred to the entire area bounded by the North and South Downs.
Before that it had been called Andredsweald, which apparently meant 'forest without habitations', although that wasn't particularly accurate, as pre-Roman activity has been found there. There's no doubt the pre-Roman map looks a tad empty though
But then the Romans came (what have they ever done for us, eh?) and realised there was iron in them there hills. So they cut roads in and dug it up.
Anyway. There's the High Weald (a central ish high point that has been pushed up by geological activity) and the Low Weald, which is the surrounding, um, low land. And then the outer edges are the Downs, more or less. There was a dispute over that some centuries ago
Apparently, life in the Weald back then was seen as so precarious that the inhabitants were exempt from tithe. There was a court case to determine the border and everything. More on this in 'The Jutish Forest' KP Witney, 1976, if you're interested.
Anyway. Back to the Weald now. The High Weald AONB is a protected area covering parts of Kent, the Sussexes and Surrey. As the name suggests, it covers the high bit in the middle. http://www.highweald.org/
Bodiam Castle is one of my favourite places to visit in the Weald, it's just over the county border from me. It's well worth a visit, once we can all go out and about again
It's a wonderful place, definitely well worth visiting.
There are lots of gardens open to the public (in normal times) including Great Dixter, which is stunning https://www.greatdixter.co.uk/
There are lots of gardens near here you can visit through the National Garden Scheme, although Covid is obviously restricting that a bit https://ngs.org.uk/
It doesn't appear to be listed at the moment, but Great Maytham Hall has opened under the scheme in the past. I hope it opens again as I want to revisit. It was teh inspiration for the book, The Secret Garden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Maytham_Hall
If you prefer a walk through a national tree collection, there's always Bedgepury Pinetum https://www.forestryengland.uk/bedgebury
Bewl Water is partially open, if you want something a bit more adventurous https://www.bewlwater.co.uk/
I'm going to cheat a little and include Sissinghurst Castle and gardens. Technically it is *just* outside the AONB, but it's lovely and please visit
There's loads more to do around here, but it's probably best I stop playing hooky, Saturdays are Everyone Pitches In To Clean The House Day.
