Ashdown Forest

This is our nearest bit of wilderness and it has a very confusing name. It's a forest in an old sense that it was a hunting ground. Here's a quote from the Ashdown Forest website:
"The word ?forest? does not actually imply covered with trees but derives from the name for a royal hunting area with special laws to protect deer. Ashdown Forest became part of the Duchy of Lancaster when Edward III granted the hunting park to his son, John of Gaunt in 1372. Like all medieval parks, it was enclosed by a ditch and bank with a deerproof fence. This ?pale? was about 23 miles long with 34 gates, some of which which still exist today in the numerous ?gate? and ?hatch? names scattered around the Forest."

It's an area of high heathland with all sorts of plants and trees particular to it and masses of deer. And it is also where Winnie the Pooh was conceived and where the stories were set.