William Topley's Geology of the Weald notes the common is sited on a bed of sand and Calcareous Grit.

[1] Williamson, Hudson, Musson and Nairn, in their 2019 Sussex: West volume of Pevsner’s Buildings of England, describe the setting as "only a few yards from the Surrey border in thick Wealden country".

[3] In the Victorian period the area was largely divided into a small number of major estates, including Tismans, Hermongers and Pallinghurst, which provided most of the local employment in agricultural activities.

[4] The estates were created in the mid-19th century by the (unusually late) enclosures of the commons of Tismans and Exfoldwood.

[5] There is a small mission house, St John's,[6] built in the early 20th century as a place of worship for agricultural workers for whom the main church at Rudgwick was too distant,[7] and a pub, The Mucky Duck, originally The Cricketers.