Looking towards the Pale

Imagine me sitting on this seat drinking tea and eating chocolate while waiting for Mr P to check the courses that he is planning for an orienteering event next month.  Behind me is an Ashdown Forest information board that explains that  the term ‘forest’ does not mean a landscape covered with trees, but derives from the name for a royal hunting park with special powers to protect the deer within it.  The historic area of the hunting forest was enclosed by a ‘Pale’- a ditch and a bank with the ditch to the inside, with a wooden fence built on top of the bank to prevent the deer escaping.  The medieval Pale was first referred to in records from the 13th century. All that remains now is the ditch and earth bank which is pretty obviously an old boundary and now an excellent place to place an orienteering checkpoint.