[7] Fulking's old houses (TQ 247 114) are a plum pudding of different types: one or two are made of local greensand, some are timber framed (like the Shepherd and Dog pub, under its stucco), some flint, some brick, one or two thatched, even one with a corrugated iron extension.

It was all sold between 1980 and 1984 to tenant farmers, but some have noted that in public ownership, the estate could have been at the heart of the new South Downs National Park driving forward sustainable farming and landscape restoration.

The building housing is a Grade II listed building (List Entry Number 1354830)[16] and the hydraulic ram bears the inscription,‘He sendeth springs into the valleys which run among the hills | Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness’ (Psalm 104, verse 10 and Psalm 107, verse 8).

Henry Willett, a wealthy brewer from Brighton, and John Ruskin are usually credited with devising and instigating the water supply scheme.

[18][19] Ruskin himself, in a letter to Willet dated Brantwood, 16 June 1887, said ‘I was grieved by your inscription on the fountain, for it made my name far too conspicuous, nor did I feel that the slightest honour was owing to me in the matter’.

The word 'gill' is found only in the Weald and the English northwest, and refers to the deep clefts (mini ravines) carved there by aeons of busy tumbling streams.

The public footpath crosses the gill at the Fullingmill Bridge above the rocky waterfall which crashes to a shady pool below.

There is a grand veteran oak perched on the steep bank above the east side of the pool, as well as a little willow carr wood nearby.

However, despite the productivity of the soil, the line of old farms have mainly been bought by people wishing to enjoy the traditional farmsteads and large gardens.

[25] The woodland is too wet for many fungi, but scarlet elf cup, elastic saddle and willow shield have been found here.

[8] The Perching bostal (TQ 241 111) is so deep in parts that it looks like a quarry, with bare blocks of chalk forming its walls.

In one place tufted hair-grass and hard rush can be found, as though this was a Wealden meadow, not dry chalk country.

In high summer carline thistle and cushions of thyme thrive, whilst other plants wilt, and wall brown butterfly, chalk carpet and black pyrausta moths enjoy the aridity.

This is probably a result of the medieval expansion of the Perching Manor in Fulking and probably due to the presence of an underground water course in the coombe, indicated by a well about sixty metres to the west of the monument.

One of them marks the southern end of the eastern boundary of the common and the other sits by the South Downs Way above the Fulking Hill western bostal.

On the western side of its dip slope, there was a working medieval strip cultivated open field until late 19th century.

There are bits of betony, rockrose and rampion, and in autumn there is scarlet hood, golden, and other waxcaps making splashes of colour.

The short turf where the two bostals cross near the bottom of the slope is very rich with herbs and chalk loving butterflies.

Almost as interesting, though, is the way the common's dip slope has recovered under the National Trust’s management since it was put back down to grass after half a century of tillage.

There is fool's water cress and the stream bed has hundreds of tiny caddis cases, just like the Edburton springhead.

[26] Clappers Lane to the east of the parish, running north from Fulking village, was once probably an old swine pasture drove.

[28] Just north of the bridge over the Poynings Stream and to the east of the Lane is a fine little marsh in a gully (TQ 250 128) with great tussock sedge, some carnation and black sedge, ragged robin, water figwort, which support a good number of butterfly including common blue and green-veined whites.

[35] Fulking civil parish is in the Hurstpierpoint and Bolney electoral division of the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex.

[39] In The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd "Fulking" is given the definition "pretending not to be in when the carol singers come round.