3.0 Wealden Landscapes

The AONB landscape includes that northern part of West Sussex which lies broadly to the west of the Arun valley. The designation therefore covers almost the entire viewshed of the extensive panorama from the western chalk escarpment.

Variations in the character of this complex landscape relate broadly to its underlying geological structure. To the north of the chalk escarpment the rocks outcrop in a series of parallel linear bands. A low bench of Upper Greensand lies at the foot of the escarpment. In places it is deeply incised by springline streams which flow northwards onto a shallow lowland of Gault Clay. Further north again, there are a sequence of Lower Greensand rocks. The Folkestone Beds form a slightly elevated, rather flat-topped plateau and are associated with tracts of heathland, while the Sandgate Beds give rise to easily erodible sandy soils. The West Sussex River Rother flows in a narrow alluvial floodplain across the highly erodible sandstones of the Sandgate Beds.

To the north-west of the river, the relief becomes more elevated and steeply undulating as it is structured by the more resistant Lower Greensand rocks of the Hythe Beds. The land rises rapidly to reach a broadly horseshoe-shaped escarpment which reaches a maximum height of 280m at Blackdown, the highest point in the AONB.

To the north-east of the Rother, and within the basin enclosed by the curving greensand escarpment, are the lowlands of the Low Weald, part of the extensive geographic region known as the Weald, which lies between the chalk ridges of the North and South Downs. This is a vale of Weald Clay which is interspersed with thin bands of more resistant limestone and sandstone to form gently undulating lowland relief.

The boundaries between the different landscape types are often complex, patchy transitions and in many areas geological structure only provides a general guide to variations in landscape character.

The Wealden landscape has been defined by the following landscape types:

• Scarp footslopes
• Sandy arable farmland
• Heathland mosaic
• North wooded ridges
• Low Weald

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