Contact: This Project is now complete.
High Weald Partners: Natural England, Forestry Commission, Wealden District Council, Mid Sussex District Council, Ashford Borough Council, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council, Rother District Council, Sevenoaks District Council, The Woodland Trust, East Sussex County Council, West Sussex County Council, High Weald AONB Unit, Sussex Wildlife Trust and Sussex Biological Records Centre, INTERREG IIIb under the Lifescape Your Landscape Programme.
Timescale: Wealden District: started February 2004, completed March 2006. Mid Sussex District: start October 2005, completed October 2006. Tunbridge Wells Borough: start 2006, completed October 2007. Ashford Borough: start 2007, completed December 2008. Rother District: start November 2007, completed December 2009. Hastings Borough: start November 2007, completed December 2009. Tonbridge & Malling Borough: completed November 2009; Sevenoaks start 2011, completed September 2012.
The revision involves updating and enhancing the inventory to match recent developments in computer mapping techniques and the availability of digital evidence sources. The advantages of this are an increased level of detail and accuracy in the dataset and, importantly, the addition of the many small woods - a key component of the ancient woodland (AW) resource - which were generally not included in the original inventories. GIS based work underpins a programme of archival research and field survey to provide a robust evidence base upon which to assign ancient woodland status (both for newly added sites and those already designated as AW). The Weald Ancient Woodland survey was initially set up by Wealden District Council and the High Weald AONB Unit and has evolved to cover the whole of the High Weald AONB, all districts in East Sussex and most districts in West Sussex, Kent and Surrey.
Weald & Downs Ancient Woodland Inventories