83 photos from a 5.5 mile walk from Ifield West around the land north of Kilnwood Lane on the hunt for heritage assets. This land forms part of the wider Homes England plan to wrap 10,000 houses around the west of Crawley so I feel it's a worthwhile exercise to document the heritage, as well as the wider beauty of this countryside, while it is still possible to do so. Hopefully I've managed to do so reasonably well.

As well as finding most of the features that I was searching for, we also discovered a small spring babbling away in Burnt Stubbs and the remains of a previously undocumented, now dry, pond in the form of a small pond bay (dam) and pond bed astride a small stream hidden in a copse. Possibly significantly, I also found a piece of iron slag downstream from the bay which could indicate an iron working site. The slag appears older, and heavier, than blast furnace slag of the type found around Ifield and Bewbush and I’m in discussions with the Wealden Iron Research Group as to the possibility of this being a medieval water powered forge. A rare example of one was found in 1985 close to the Roffey Road level crossing some two miles to the south east. Could this be another?

It is important for everyone to note that a lot of this walk was taken on private land with the permission of the estate manager. For your own safety if nothing else, please always stick to public rights of way unless you have permission to go off piste.