The Lost Gardens of

............Chelwood Vachery.  .Mr P and I were in the area checking the locations for marquees etc. for an orienteering event over Easter.   I  noticed there was a geocache near a stream, that I was pretty sure I had run past a few times during orienteering races thinking it  looked surprisingly ornamental for the Ashdown Forest,  so dragged Mr P over to take a look.

Sure enough it was the same stream.   Internet research reveals that this bit of the Ashdown Forest used to be part of the estate of an Edwardian country house.  The house and ornamental gardens are still in private ownership but the surrounding woodland was given to the Ashdown Forest Trust for public access in 1994.  This feature was made in 1925 when the gardens were landscaped.  The designer imported limestone boulders and constructed a mini gorge  from a natural spring, downhill for 250m through the woodland to a river at the bottom creating waterfalls and rock pools on the way.  The trees and thick vegetation has been cleared back since my last visit , revealing all 250m, making it look all the more attractive and definitely now a popular place to walk.