Editing Ashdown Forest (section)

===The forest pale===
[[File:The Hatch Inn by Ashdown Forest, Sussex.jpg|thumb|The Hatch Inn, Coleman's Hatch, at an entrance to Ashdown Forest.]]

Possibly as early as the 13th century, Ashdown Forest was enclosed as a hunting park, mainly for deer, by a {{convert|24|mi|km|adj=on}} long ''pale''. This consisted of an earth bank 4–5 feet high surmounted by an oak paling fence with a deep ditch on the forest side that allowed deer to enter but not to leave. It enclosed an area of over 20½ square miles (5,300 hectares).<ref name="auto1"/> Entry was via 34 gates and hatches, ''gates'' being used for access by wheeled vehicles, commoners' animals and mounted groups, ''hatches'' by pedestrians. These names survive in local place-names such as Chuck Hatch and Chelwood Gate. Some of these entrances were, and still are, marked by pubs, for example the 18th-century Hatch Inn<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nickad/index.htm|title=The Hatch Inn|website=Users.globalnet.co.uk|access-date=16 December 2017}}</ref> at Coleman's Hatch, which occupies three former cottages believed to date to 1430 that later may have housed ironworkers from the nearby blast furnace at Newbridge.

It is not known precisely when the pale was built. Forest management accounts of 1283 refer to the cost of repairing the pale and building new lengths.<ref name="ashdownforesthistory">{{cite web|url=http://www.ashdownforest.com/history.html |title=Ashdown Forest Tourism Association - Local Information, Places to Visit and News & Events from the Heart of the High Weald |access-date=18 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528102740/http://www.ashdownforest.com/history.html |archive-date=28 May 2009 }}</ref> However, the granting of the "Free-chase of Ashdon" to John of Gaunt in 1372 and its renaming as ''Lancaster Great Park'' (see below) implies that the forest may only have been recently enclosed (''chase'' denoted an open hunting ground, ''park'' an enclosed one).

The condition of the forest pale seems to have deteriorated significantly during the Tudor period. This coincided with, and may be partly linked to, the rapid growth under the Tudors of the local iron-making industry with its huge demand for raw materials in and around Ashdown Forest, such as charcoal and ironstone. This ultimately led to an appeal to King James, soon after his accession to the throne, for Ashdown's forest fences to be repaired in order to preserve the king's game. However, the pale seems to have fallen into almost complete disrepair by the end of the 17th century.

The bank and ditch associated with the pale are still visible in places around Ashdown Forest today, for example at Legsheath and adjacent to the car-park for [[Poohsticks]] Bridge on Chuck Hatch Lane.

A survey and research of the Pale of Ashdown Forest was undertaken as part of the Historic Environment Awareness Project, run by East Sussex County Council's Archaeology team, over 2011/2012 and the final report was published online.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tracing the Pale of Ashdown Forest |url=https://www.highweald.org/about-the-high-weald-unit/news/2035-tracing-the-pale-of-the-ashdown-forest-deer-park.html |website=High Weald website}}</ref>