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East Chiltington
East Chiltington is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is centred four miles (5.9 km) south-east of Burgess Hill and five miles (8 km) north-west of Lewes. It is a strip parish of 3.76 square miles (9.7 km2), stretching northward (south of Plumpton) from the crest of the South Downs. The village church is 13th century in origin; the vicar also has charge of two churches in Plumpton. Near the church there is a pub called The Jolly Sportsman. The Sussex Greensand Way, a Roman road, runs from east to west through the centre of the parish.
Eton College owns a 500 acre plot in the parish and in 2021 applied to build 3,000 homes in the area north of the railway line. The proposal has met with resistance from locals, citing amongst other things the risk to the biodiversity of the area.
There is no public access to the majority of the banks of Bevern Stream through East Chiltington.
The parish of East Chiltington comprises the South Downs from the top end of Ashcombe Bottom and the Blackcap nature reserve, down the Clayton to Offham Escarpment to the Sussex Weald stretching north and northeast to the Chailey parish. To its east is St John (without), to its south Falmer and to its west the Plumpton parish.
The area is remarkable for its long stretches of intact flowery lane sides. There are at least five spots along Novington Lane with the rare meadow cranesbill where it flowers in July. There are also spotted orchid. oxeye daisy, bird's foot trefoil, hoary ragwort and meadowsweet. The area also has many small archaic meadows, one of which is of superb quality, and lovingly cared for, with a big display of southern marsh orchid, marsh marigold, ragged robin, heath spotted orchid, and both black and carnation sedges.
At Brookhouse, East Chiltington, (TQ375 155) there used to be a 2.25 m girth pollarded native Black Poplar by the former barns, on a site that has been separated for 165 years from the banks of the Bevern Stream by the railway line. This is a tree species with only scattered wild survivors in Sussex, though many have lately been planted. The tree occurs on the Woodland Trust's Ancient Tree Inventory.
The Bevern stream runs through the middle of the parish, flowing eastwards to the River Ouse. It is fed by the clear chalky waters of Plumpton Mill Stream arising at moated Plumpton Place. It runs over gravelly beds and provides some of the best spawning ground in the area for sea trout. It also supports mayflies, caddis flies and great crested newts, and many birds drink from the waters, including summer visitors like nightingale.
However, like many of the Sussex streams and rivers, the Bevern stream has not been left unpolluted. In late 2016 the whole of the Bevern Stream was polluted by a huge volume of slurry from Plumpton College Dairy Unit. All the fish in it were killed. In recent years, however, sea trout have been seen in the Bevern stream at East Chiltington, and the stream is healthy again.
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East Chiltington
East Chiltington is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is centred four miles (5.9 km) south-east of Burgess Hill and five miles (8 km) north-west of Lewes. It is a strip parish of 3.76 square miles (9.7 km2), stretching northward (south of Plumpton) from the crest of the South Downs. The village church is 13th century in origin; the vicar also has charge of two churches in Plumpton. Near the church there is a pub called The Jolly Sportsman. The Sussex Greensand Way, a Roman road, runs from east to west through the centre of the parish.
Eton College owns a 500 acre plot in the parish and in 2021 applied to build 3,000 homes in the area north of the railway line. The proposal has met with resistance from locals, citing amongst other things the risk to the biodiversity of the area.
There is no public access to the majority of the banks of Bevern Stream through East Chiltington.
The parish of East Chiltington comprises the South Downs from the top end of Ashcombe Bottom and the Blackcap nature reserve, down the Clayton to Offham Escarpment to the Sussex Weald stretching north and northeast to the Chailey parish. To its east is St John (without), to its south Falmer and to its west the Plumpton parish.
The area is remarkable for its long stretches of intact flowery lane sides. There are at least five spots along Novington Lane with the rare meadow cranesbill where it flowers in July. There are also spotted orchid. oxeye daisy, bird's foot trefoil, hoary ragwort and meadowsweet. The area also has many small archaic meadows, one of which is of superb quality, and lovingly cared for, with a big display of southern marsh orchid, marsh marigold, ragged robin, heath spotted orchid, and both black and carnation sedges.
At Brookhouse, East Chiltington, (TQ375 155) there used to be a 2.25 m girth pollarded native Black Poplar by the former barns, on a site that has been separated for 165 years from the banks of the Bevern Stream by the railway line. This is a tree species with only scattered wild survivors in Sussex, though many have lately been planted. The tree occurs on the Woodland Trust's Ancient Tree Inventory.
The Bevern stream runs through the middle of the parish, flowing eastwards to the River Ouse. It is fed by the clear chalky waters of Plumpton Mill Stream arising at moated Plumpton Place. It runs over gravelly beds and provides some of the best spawning ground in the area for sea trout. It also supports mayflies, caddis flies and great crested newts, and many birds drink from the waters, including summer visitors like nightingale.
However, like many of the Sussex streams and rivers, the Bevern stream has not been left unpolluted. In late 2016 the whole of the Bevern Stream was polluted by a huge volume of slurry from Plumpton College Dairy Unit. All the fish in it were killed. In recent years, however, sea trout have been seen in the Bevern stream at East Chiltington, and the stream is healthy again.