Ditchling Common is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-west of Wivelsfield in East Sussex. It is a country park. which is owned and managed by East Sussex County Council. In many respects, it is a biologically important site of the Low Weald supporting a rich array of biodiversity not found anywhere else in the area.
Areas
There are two areas of Ditchling Common: the northern area, which is owned by East Sussex County Council and has become Ditchling Country Park, and is itself split in two by the fast traffic of the Ditchling Road (B2112); and the southern area south of Folders Lane, which is owned by Commoner's Association.
Despite the publicised Country Park walks concentrating on the area east of the Ditchling Road, the area to the west is as rich in biodiversity with rare plants such as the tiny adder's tongue fern and big swarms of petty whin.
History
The extent of the present Ditchling Common (including the Country Park) has changed little since 1300. The manor of Ditchling, held in modern times by the Marquess of Abergavenny, owned the Commons since in the medieval ages and only sold the land in 1950. During the following twenty-five years the richness of the Common's biodiversity was damaged. The northern park became overgrown with scrub following a cessation of grazing the area. On the commoners' Common, where three-quarters was ploughed up and fertilised. There was a public outcry from local people and other commoners, who pursued a campaign to stop the destruction of the area's rich biodiversity. Ultimately legal action was brought on the farmers and the archaic biodiversity was partially saved.
The northern half of the Common was bought by East Sussex County Council in 1974 and the area was designated a Country Park. Since then they have started partial grazing of the area. The southern half is now managed by the Commoners Association who in recent years have done excellent work to save the southern area's biodiversity.
At the very north of the Common one can find Jacob's Post (), which has the date 1734 on the bird at its top. It remembers the pedlar, Jacob Harris, who in that year committed murder in the Kings Head pub and as a reminder of his crime had his dead body suspended on a gibbet outside the pub for many months. The post itself took on a life of its own as people believed infertility and other ailments could be cured by touching the post. This continued into the 19th century despite the original post being replaced.
Biodiversity
The common has several different types of acidic heath grassland, together with areas of bracken, scrub, woodland, streams and a pond. The rich butterfly and moth fauna includes several uncommon species. It is in this area of the middle Sussex Low Weald that the old clay land community of herbs and sub-shrubs, grasses and sedges, on the spectrum from marsh to dry slope, is at its most complete.
The Country Park is well known for its spring time display of bluebells, but unlike most bluebell displays that are usually protected by a leafy tree canopy, here the bluebell are sheltered by bracken. There is still petty whin, meadow thistle, bitter vetch, saw wort, dyer's greenweed, heath bedstraw, tormentil, betony and devil's bit scabious. There are also many orchids including heath spotted and common spotted orchid and a kaleidoscope of hybrids. It is one of the few truly native sites for wild columbine flowers and ling heather clings on. There are still rarities too including narrow buckler and adders tongue ferns, pignut, and the little heath milkwort. In springtime there are emperor moths, in summer, there are green and purple hairstreak butterfly and in 2017 a well established colony of the rare and elusive black hairstreak butterfly was discovered that is thought to have existed undetected for some time.