[1] Speckled Wood, together with nearby fragments of woodland and tree belts, represents a sizeable proportion of green space within the urban area of Hastings and is a conspicuous landscape feature.

The small holdings were used to keep pigs and chickens mainly, and thought to provide a working living for the soldiers, many of which had returned from the war with injuries from mustard gas.

[9] A public enquiry was held during 2014/2015 and the inspector recommended that the majority of Speckled Wood should be re-designated as protected open space.

Several valleys run from The Ridge to the sea from the Marline Wood area in the west to the Country Park in the east.

The Speckled Wood valley is part of the catchment that includes St Helens Park and Old Roar Ghyll.

This was created by a group of volunteers that made a model from MDF based on height readings from the Valley floor.

The ghyll forms a link within the Hastings green corridor both spatially and as a means to prevent further fragmentation of flora and fauna.

The Ore Valley stream runs from the Bourne spring feed splitting on the North Seat in Country Park.

They are plain green in this British form and without the whitish veins of some more popular garden varieties from abroad and which are usually encountered as throw-outs.

It is one of the only deep sided wet woods to remain in East Sussex, with over 200 species of trees and flowering plants.

Sussex Biodiversitry Record Centre - SxBRCReport_SpeckledWood[13] Many rare and scarce liverworts, mosses and lichens occur within the ghyll.

[14] Hastings Borough Council Statements[15] A multitude of fungi, rare insects, birds and elusive woodland mammals including the wood mouse.

These are mostly ash, hawthorn, holly, pedunculate oak, sycamore and goat willow all identified in the Thomson Ecology Arboricultural Survey 2007.

Buses on route from Hastings Railway Station bus stop also pass near the entrance at Frederick Road.