The parish of Chailey is large. It is so special because it is one of the remaining areas of the Sussex Weald with heathland Commons.
Chailey Common is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest that is located within the parish. It also has many areas with ancient woodland. To the north are the parishes of
Haywards Heath and
Fletching, to its east are
Newick and
Barcombe. To its south it borders the parishes of
Hamsey,
St John Without and
East Chiltington and to its west,
Wivelsfield.
The Church of St. Peter The parish has a 13th-century church dedicated to St. Peter at Chailey Green (). The large graveyard has two fine old
Yews that are over three span girth. The little archaic grassland is unimproved and a Site of
Nature Conservation Interest (SCNI), but the parts nearest the church are mown too often and the southern extension are in poor condition. It is worth recording that at least one part of the SNCI (), a relict
wet meadow, just north west of The Hooke has been destroyed only recently (2017). There used to be a mill on the South Common in South Chailey, opposite where
Chailey School is situated, but it has worn away over time.
Second World War D Day airfield Second World War D Day airfield was on the west side of the parish by Townings farm. The RAF cleared the ground in 1942 for the Chailey Advanced Landing Ground. It was largely manned by Polish exile Spitfire squadrons, which supported the Normandy D Day landings in June 1944.
Farmland The two largest estates in Chailey are the Hooke Estate which covers around a 1000 acres and the Hurst Barns Estate, South Chailey, which covers around 500 acres. The Hooke Estate is between South Chailey and Chailey Common and they include a cluster of working farms in this landscape. There are many fine old
oak,
beech and
hornbeam veterans in the area and there are a few significant clusters of farm fields that have been preserved from the effects of traditional farming by their difficult terrain, or by sympathetic land managers, and which are very different to the 'improved' green dairy pastures we are used to seeing. At
Sedgebrook Farm, south west of Chailey Common, seven fields remain unimproved and are managed for nature. The farm's fields are the centre of a series of wet woods, damp meadows and carr that extend east to
Godleys Green (). In late spring the
cotton grass and
marsh cinquefoil covers many square metres of quaking bog amongst the carr. In Spring the perfume of
water mint is widespread and you can find
angelica,
marsh pennywort,
purple moor grass tussocks,
sharp-flowered rush,
black sedge and
bog stitchwort. In late May, a southern meadow has swarms of meadow/marsh
plume thistle with soft shaving brush carmine flowers on white-woolly stems, and there's
ladys smock,
spotted orchids,
creeping willow and
rare spring sedge. The higher and drier meadow in July, is yellow with
bird's-foot trefoil. There are
bush crickets,
cone-headed heads,
large marsh and
meadow grasshoppers and 'bloodsucker'
soldier beetles. The rushy meadows have water
horsetail,
sneezewort and clumps of
narrow buckler fern in the shadier places. You may see
white park cattle, ponies, or heath sheep out on the common for conservation, maintaining the natural equilibrium of species through grazing. The site, which is part of a nature reserve, is of biological interest due to its heath habitat, defined by its cover of ericaceous species (ling,
cross-leaved heath and
bell heather). Ericaceous vegetation occurs over about a mile, from south to north. The area has glorious displays of purple heathers in high summer, and it hosts many rarities. Fifty years ago
Garth Christian saved the
marsh gentian and they can still be seen there today with their trumpets full of tiny stars.
Meadow thistle,
sundew and
round-leaved sundew are still just present also, thanks to careful nursing. It is one of the few sites left in the Sussex Weald with
bog asphodel too.
Woodcock,
nightjar,
bloody-nosed beetles,
minotaur beetles,
purse web spiders and
black headed velvet ants frequent Chailey Common. There are a number of bat colonies on the Common including the very rare 'old forest'
Bechstein's bat colony recently discovered. Comps Wood () is primarily a bluebell wood of hazel coppice, under ash and oak. Wickham Wood () is carpeted with
wild garlic throughout. There are beautiful
lime longhorn beetle that come from the line of Limes at Hurst Barns, just across the fields.
house martin and
skylark play in the nearby fields.
Swan, Oldbarns and Draper's Wood Swan Wood () is behind the old Swan inn (now a private residence). It has many
oak trees,
hazel, bluebells and brambles. It is twinned with
Oldbarns Wood, which is an
ash wood, to its south west. Just north, alongside the playing fields of Chailey Secondary School, is '''Draper's Wood''', a classic old
hornbeam coppice wood over bluebells, ().
Hovel and Sawpit Wood To the south east of the parish are Hovel () and Sawpit Wood (). Both made up off
Hornbeam coppice, with young oaks. Sawpit Wood is on a hill to the north of Hurst Barns and has
wild daffodils, scented
sweet violets and bluebells.
Balneath and Wilding Wood The fate of the once beautiful and ancient woodlands of Balneath and Wilding has been rather sad.
Balneath Wood () was largely a hornbeam wood, fuelling the brickwork's kilns, but between 1980 and 1981, it was destroyed by the farmer-landowner. He was persuaded to leave the woodland gill and boundaries intact, for cosmetic reasons and for game. At least 16 ancient woodland species are still evident from it rich past with remaining
midland hawthorn,
wild service trees,
aspen and
crab apple and, where fragments of the wood survive, old
hornbeam stools survive.
Wilding Wood () north of Markstakes Lane, suffered a similar fate. It was also an ancient woodland, but it was coniferised wall-to-wall and only a thin strip of old woodland survives along some edges. It is dark and dead underneath, although a big herd of
fallow deer take shelter there.
Kiln and Starvecrow Wood To the east of South Chailey, the woods bear the imprint of centuries of quarrying and brick and pottery production.
Kiln Wood () is on the southern edge a deep pit dug for the Chailey Brickworks, now the Ibstock brickworks. The wood has shares its name as the wood by Hamsey brickworks. It has
sessile oak poles, old
hornbeam coppice, and wild cherry (
gean). It has a small council estate within its embrace, and an old work yard with a rusty collection of vehicles.
Starvecrow Wood (), on the pit's eastern side and south of
Markstakes Common, is an open woodland with humps and hollows everywhere, with some old knotty
hornbeam.
Rabbit, Long, Eels Ash and Cottage Wood Rabbit Wood (), is a classic Chailey woodland with tall straight
oak,
birch,
hornbeam and Bluebell floor, with lovely glades.
Long Wood () to the northwest is an
oak and
hazel wood with a bluebell floor and some
birch trees. The Lambourn Gill (Longford Stream) divides it from
Eels Ash Wood () which suffered badly from the 1998 storm and has since needed a lot of coppicing and clearance work. Just to the east of Eels Ash, down stream, and west of Chailey Green and church, is
Chailey Moat (), once the Rectory, part Tudor, part Georgian, probably medieval in origin, with a new lake dwarfing the moat. Just upstream, to the west, is
Cottage Wood (). It very damp and marshy on the southern streamside with
alder,
marigolds and plenty of wild garlic (
ramsons) in plenty. In spring the harmless
owl midges swarm.
Silver-washed fritillary butterflies and
longhorn beetles enjoy the sunny side of the woods.
Towning's, Bineham, Toll, Popjoy and Mott Wood '''Towning's Wood
() is just north of Cottage Wood
, but the Wealden Clay gives way to Tunbridge Wells Sand giving it a different character. There is ling heather, gorse and heath bedstraw in the open areas with downy and silver birch. Bineham Wood''' () is a large and varied wood. The southern half is coppice, carpeted with bluebells. An ancient, now gnarled and twisted, laid
hornbeam hedge boundary bank goes all around the wood. The
blackthorn hedges can provide such a large harvest of
sloes in Autumn they emit a purple haze and the branches bend low under the weight of the berries.
Popjoy Wood () is a Bluebell wood that wet in winter, with fine oaks,
primroses, and lots of
wild garlic at the south eastern end. To its west is
Bower Farm and wet moor land. The hedgerows have long been removed as the land was used by the RAF in the second world war. The
Chailey Advanced Landing Ground was used heavily by Polish exile Spitfire squadrons in the Normandy
D Day landings. Sadly, most of little
Toll Wood (}) has been destroyed, but on the west side of
Mott Wood, part of the old Wotton Manor drove runs northwards and has a line of old oaks growing on its banks, three of which are over three spans girth and some more approaching it.
Great Home Wood On the south west parish border is
Great Home Wood (), a big abundant
hornbeam coppice. It was part of an important desmesne 300-acre wood of the Priory of St Pancras at
Lewes, but it was lost to the church, its commoners dispossessed and its woodland part-cleared and converted to farmland before 1650. A cluster of names attest to the medieval Homewood Woodland including:
Middle,
Wet (bulldozed several decades ago) and
Great Homewood Farm. There is still evidence of the archaic vegetation of those lost wild lands, but not so much to make it hospitable to
nightingales or
warblers. There were drifts of
wild daffodils at its northern end, but they seem very scarce now. The large amount of coppiced oak present is unusual, and there are ash, birch and old hornbeam coppice and a coup of pine at the south end. The ground cover is part anemone and bluebell and part bare. Deer have been grazing old coppice stools into dead mossy stumps, so that the wood is becoming open.
Wapsbourne Wood Wapsbourne Wood () has hornbeam and sweet chestnut coppice with little Bracken glades, banks and dells, and flushes of Bluebells.
The River Ouse runs down its north side.
Ramsons and
scarlet elf cup can be found along the banks. Unfortunately there are no
freshwater mussels and few emergent plants, which is likely to be the influence of the sewage works upstream.
Streams There are three streams in the Chailey parish, all of which flow into the Ouse. The Bevern stream runs along the parishes southern border. Through the centre of the parish runs the Lambourn Gill, which turns into the Longford Stream when runs through the Barcombe parish. On the north of the parish is the Pellbrook Cut.
Bevern Stream The Bevern Stream passes south of the parish and to the north side of Comp and Wickham woods.
Mayflies,
giant lacewing,
beautiful demoiselles, and
large red damselflies play in every sunny spot along the stream. There are
Welshman's button caddis flies, and lots of scarce
copse/orchard snails. In late 2016 the Plumpton Mill Stream and the whole of the Bevern Stream below it were polluted by a huge volume of slurry from Plumpton College Dairy Unit. All the fish in the affected streams were killed. The streams will take many years to recover.
Lambourn Gill (Longford stream) The Longford stream turns into the Lambourn Gill in the Chailey parish. There are some nice corners of rough tall herbage survive along the banks of the stream which passes many of the woods in the centre of the parish. The drained ponds between Long Wood and Cottage Wood, have become a wonderful marshy area, (), with scarce wetland plants such as
cyperus sedge,
wood club rush and lesser marshwort.
Pellingford Brook The Pellingford Brook runs in the River Ouse at the Sheffield Park Bridge by the Bluebell railway station. It runs on the most northern part of the Chailey parish, but south of Waspbourne Wood. There are no public paths along the banks of the stream. ==Governance==