High Rocks is a geological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

west of

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It is a

Geological Conservation Review The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee and is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological ...

site.

Prehistory

The location was formed when a melting ice sheet at the end of the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

uncovered hardened silt deposited when the area was part of the

Wealden Lake Wealden Lake was a shallow freshwater to brackish lake which existed over the lands of what is now northern France and southern England during the Berriasian to Barremian ages of the Early Cretaceous epoch (approximately 145 to 125 mya). The sedi ...

. There are traces of

Middle Stone Age The Middle Stone Age (or MSA) was a period of African prehistory between the Early Stone Age and the Late Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50–25,000 years ago. The beginnings of ...

and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

residents, including a 1st-century A.D. fort guarding against the

Roman invasion The Roman conquest of Britain refers to the conquest of the island of Britain by occupying Roman forces. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain by 87 when the Staneg ...

Recent history

After King James II visited Tunbridge Wells and made the woodland a resort in the 17th century, High Rocks became a tourist attraction which also offered a maze, a bowling green, gambling rooms and cold baths. The ''Aerial Walk'', a series of bridges linking the tops of the crags, was built in the 19th century. A halt served by the local railway was established in 1907, and was used until 1952. The

Spa Valley Railway The Spa Valley Railway (SVR) is a standard gauge heritage railway that runs from Tunbridge Wells West railway station in Tunbridge Wells to High Rocks, Groombridge, and Eridge, where it links with the Oxted Line. It crosses Kent and Ea ...

, a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

, now connects the High Rocks pub beyond the High Rocks turnstiles to

Groombridge Groombridge is a village of about 1,600 people. It straddles the border between Kent and East Sussex, in England. The nearest large town is Royal Tunbridge Wells, about away by road. The main part of the village ("New Groombridge") lies in t ...

and Eridge (on the London-Uckfield line of Southern Railway).

Geology and geomorphology

High Rocks is a key

geomorphological Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or ...

site for

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

weathering Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with water, atmospheric gases, and biological organisms. Weathering occurs '' in situ'' (on site, with little or no movement ...

features developed on the highest cliffs in 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 ...

. The Ardingly Sandstone has suffered gentle deformation, and joints have opened out to form spectacular gulls (tension cracks) which are wide enough in places for a person to enter. Open gulls are comparatively rare in Britain, except in the central Weald, and they are nowhere better revealed than in the numerous open passages at High Rocks. The Ardingly Sandstone is friable and poorly cemented, but the surface develops a protective crust and displays a variety of micro-weathering features, notably honeycombing and polygonal cracking. The origin of this cracking is problematic but may relate to freezing and thawing under periglacial conditions during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

. This type of cracking is found in Britain only on the sandstone outcrops in the central Weald, and is most strikingly displayed at High Rocks. Image:Tunbridge_Wells_High_Rocks_steps.jpg, Steps leading up to the Aerial Walk. Image:Tunbridge_Wells_High_Rocks_big_chasm.jpg, The large chasm and one of the bridges. Image:Tunbridge_Wells_High_Rocks_climber.jpg, A rock climber scaling a sandstone crag. Image:Tunbridge_Wells_High_Rocks_Crooked_Bridge.jpg, The Crooked Bridge of the Aerial Walk.

Current use

The crags are visited by

rock climbers Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically an ...

and other members of the public. It is also frequently used for wedding receptions. Footpaths lead around the rocks, and it is possible to walk across the top of crags on footbridges. The main area is fenced in and there is an entrance fee to enter the site. An unfenced and free access section of the ridge of rock outcrops can be reached by following the footpath west of the pub, next to the railway line.

References

{{SSSIs Kent Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Kent Geological Conservation Review sites Sites of Special Scientific Interest in East Sussex Climbing areas of England Sport in East Sussex