Forest law prescribed severe penalties, particularly in the 11th and 12th centuries, for those who transgressed, and for a time it governed large parts of the English countryside, including entire counties such as Surrey and Essex.

The conservators have acquired other tracts in recent years as suitable opportunities have arisen, for example at Chelwood Vachery, as part of a policy to extend the amount of land that they regulate and protect within the pale.

The anticline, which stretches from South East England into northern France, and is breached by the English Channel, was created soon after the end of the Cretaceous period as a result of the Alpine orogeny.

[13] Like the rest of the Weald, Ashdown lay beyond the southern limits of Quaternary ice sheets, but the whole area was subject at times to a severe periglacial environment that has contributed to its geology and shaped its landforms.

The heath and bracken communities form a mosaic with acid grassland dominated by purple moor-grass (Molinia caerulea) mingled with many specialised heathland plants such as petty whin (Genista anglica), creeping willow (Salicaceae sp.)

Gorse (Ulex europaeus), silver birch (Betula pendula), pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) are scattered across the heath, in places forming extensive areas of secondary woodland and scrub.

These contain bluebell (Hyacinthinoides non-scripta), bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), hard fern (Blechnum spicant) and honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) with birds-nest orchid (Neottia nidus-avis) and violet helleborine (Epipactis purpurata) found particularly under beech.

Forest streams, often lined by alder trees such as Alnus glutinosa, and grey sallow Salix cinerea, birch and oak, cut through the soft sandstone forming steep-sided valleys (ghylls) that are sheltered from winter frosts and remain humid in summer, creating conditions more familiar in the Atlantic-facing western coastal regions of Britain.

[20] Exmoor ponies graze on the Ashdown Forest to help tackle a variety of fast-growing botanical species,[21] and thus keep the heathland[22] habitat balanced by preventing scrub encroachment.

This lasts you for five miles (8.0 km), getting, if possible, uglier and uglier all the way, till, at last, as if barren soil, nasty spewy gravel, heath and even that stunted, were not enough, you see some rising spots, which instead of trees, present you with black, ragged, hideous rocks.The predominantly open, heathland landscape of Ashdown Forest described so vividly by Cobbett in 1822 and later immortalised by E.H. Shepard in his illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories is essentially man-made: in the absence of human intervention, heathlands such as Ashdown's are quickly taken over by scrub and trees.

The commoners played an important role in maintaining the forest as a predominantly heathland area by exercising their rights of common to exploit its resources in a variety of ways: by grazing livestock such as pigs and cattle, which suppressed the growth of trees and scrub; by cutting trees for firewood and for other uses; by cutting dead bracken, fern and heather for use as bedding for their livestock in winter; by periodically burning areas of heathland to maintain pasture; and so on.

[26] A second important factor was the heavy depletion of the forest's woodlands by the local iron industry, which grew very rapidly in the late 15th and 16th centuries, following the introduction of the blast furnace in the 1490s, which led to a huge demand for charcoal.

In 1996 the Secretary of State for the Environment gave permission for a 550 hectares (1,400 acres) fenced enclosure, representing about one-third of the forest's 1,500 ha of heathland, to be created in the south and west chases to allow commoners to graze their livestock in safety.

The commons are freely open to the public, who are attracted by the large, elevated expanse of unspoiled heaths and woodlands where they may walk, picnic or simply sit while taking in the glorious views.

Various bye-laws passed by the conservators help protect the forest environment for the public good, prohibiting such activities as, for example, mountain biking, off-road driving of motor vehicles, camping and the lighting of fires.

[38] In January 2022 the Conservators announced the findings of a public consultation and then voted to introduce car parking charges to the forest for the first time [39] The nearest railway station is at East Grinstead, which receives frequent train services from London.

As elsewhere in Ashdown Forest, trees and bracken scrub have invaded following the cessation of grazing and decreased wood cutting by the commoners, and the club is working with the conservators to restore the golf courses to their original heathland character.

The garden, which is open to the public, is part of Chelwood Vachery, a medieval estate dating back to at least 1229, and whose name may come from the French vache, referring to the grazing of cattle here by Michelham Priory.

At the foot of Kidd's Hill, in woods lying west of the road from Coleman's Hatch to Gills Lap, are the largely grassed-over remains of a 15th-century ironworks that mark the beginnings of Britain's modern iron and steel industry.

This consisted of an earth bank 4–5 feet high surmounted by an oak paling fence with a deep ditch on the forest side that allowed deer to enter but not to leave.

This coincided with, and may be partly linked to, the rapid growth under the Tudors of the local iron-making industry with its huge demand for raw materials in and around Ashdown Forest, such as charcoal and ironstone.

A survey and research of the Pale of Ashdown Forest was undertaken as part of the Historic Environment Awareness Project, run by East Sussex County Council's Archaeology team, over 2011/2012 and the final report was published online.

Ashdown is then held by the lords of Pevensey Castle – a succession of high status members of the Norman and Plantagenet aristocracy, including several queens of England – for most of the next 200 years.

1282 – first documentary references to the forest pales appear in accounts prepared by a ranger recording the costs of timber that have been cut;[64] 1372 – Edward III grants the "Free-chase of Ashdon" to his third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

These unresolved tensions came to a head when, in 1689, a major landowner and 'Master of the Forest', Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, brought a legal suit against 133 commoners in the court of the Duchy of Lancaster.

On 13 October 1877 John Miles was seen on the forest cutting litter (heather and bracken for livestock bedding and other uses) on behalf of Bernard Hale, his employer and the owner of a local estate, by a keeper, George Edwards.

Edwards was a well-known and unpopular local man who was acting as the representative of the Lord of the Manor of Duddleswell, Reginald Sackville, 7th Earl De La Warr, who owned the land on which the forest stood.

Ashdown was favoured by the widespread presence of iron-ore, extensive woodlands for the production of charcoal, and deep, steep-sided valleys (locally known as ghylls) that could be dammed to provide water power for furnaces and forges.

The celebrated ironmaster and gunfounder Ralph Hogge, who in 1543 made the first one-piece, cast-iron cannon in England at nearby Buxted, drew his raw materials from the southern part of the forest.

The Board of Conservators has responded by moving beyond its original administrative and regulatory functions to play a more active, interventionist role in combating the invasion of scrub and trees with the aim of restoring the heathland to a favourable condition.