Wolstonbury Hill is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-west of in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

. It is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

and part of it is a

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

Description

Rising to a maximum height of , Wolstonbury projects into the

Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

from the main ridge of the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...

giving views of both the Downs and the Weald. Views across the Weald to the north are panoramic, to the east are the Clayton Windmills and Ditchling Beacon beyond.

Hollingbury Hollingbury is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. The area sits high on a hillside across the north of the city, east of Patcham which lies in a valley to the west, Coldean in a valley to the east, and the A27 bypass forming ...

is prominent to the southeast. Looking west one can see Newtimber Hill, West Hill with

Devils Dyke Devil's Dyke may refer to: * Devil's Dykes, a series of Roman fortifications between Hungary and Serbia *Devil's Dyke, Cambridgeshire, an earthen barrier in eastern Cambridgeshire *Devil's Dyke, Hertfordshire, a prehistoric defensive ditch in Hert ...

just beyond, further out

Chanctonbury Ring Chanctonbury Ring is a prehistoric hill fort atop Chanctonbury Hill on the South Downs, on the border of the civil parishes of Washington and Wiston in the English county of West Sussex. A ridgeway, now part of the South Downs Way, runs along ...

is clearly visible. Wolstonbury, owned and maintained by the

, is listed as a

Access

No roads or car parks lie close to the summit so visitors have to ascend on foot or by mountain bike.

Geology

South of Hurstpierpoint ridge, the

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

vale lies beneath the jutting profile and complex scarp and foot of Wolstonbury Hill. The approach from the north is characterised by a network of linked or closely spaced

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

s (some parts ancient) centred on the designed landscape at

Danny House Danny is a Grade I listed Elizabethan red brick mansion near Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex, England. It lies at the northern foot of Wolstonbury Hill and may be regarded as one of the finest stately houses in Sussex, with 56 bedrooms and 28 a ...

Flora and fauna

Archeology and history

The remains at the site include a early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

enclosure now referred to as Wolstonbury C. A possible inner enclosure known as Wolstonbury A appears to be older, due to it being overlain by C. Wolstonbury B is another possible enclosure sandwiched between A and C, its presence indicated by a survey conducted in 1994 by the

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) was a government advisory body responsible for documenting buildings and monuments of archaeological, architectural and historical importance in England. It was established in 19 ...

. Excavations done by

Bournemouth University Bournemouth University is a public university in Bournemouth, England, with its main campus situated in neighbouring Poole. The university was founded in 1992; however, the origins of its predecessor date back to the early 1900s. The univer ...

in 1995 suggest that Wolstonbury A and B may be field

lynchet A lynchet or linchet is an Terrace (earthworks), earth terrace found on the side of a hill. Lynchets are a feature of ancient field systems of the British Isles. They are commonly found in vertical rows and more commonly referred to as "strip lyn ...

s. Skeletons were reportedly unearthed during flint digging operations begun in 1765. This digging continued until the mid-19th century, resulting in extensive damage to the site. Unknown quantities of

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

and early

flintwork were discovered in a 1929 dig as well as "

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

" pottery, animal bones, and

hammerstone In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the wo ...

References

External links

* http://www.wolstonbury.com * https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/saddlescombe-farm-and-newtimber-hill/features/wolstonbury-hill {{SSSIs West Sussex Geology of England Hills of West Sussex Sites of Special Scientific Interest in West Sussex National Trust properties in West Sussex de:South Downs