We’ve had contractors in to tackle that unsightly pile of earth that’s been sitting on the far side of the ancient park pale for what feels like forever. It’s gone now, and the area looks so much smarter! Once the weather takes a turn for the better, we’ll be scattering grass seed to finish the job.
The Ashdown park pale is an absolute gem. Not only is it breathtakingly impressive, but it’s also vast, and really, it deserves recognition as an ancient monument in its own right. Dating all the way back to around 1300 AD, it was originally built to keep deer safely within the bounds of the Ashdown hunting chase. Back then, Ashdown was home to a hunting lodge that belonged to Glastonbury Abbey—quite the historical hotspot!
Park pales like this were clever pieces of engineering. They were made up of a bank and ditch, topped off with a wooden palisade or fence. Ingeniously, they had gaps called “deer leaps,” which allowed the deer to jump in, but once they were inside the chase, they couldn’t escape.
