A sense of place

What sets the C7 apart from other roads in the area? Firstly if you are a visitor to the National Park arriving by ferry then Newhaven is the only port that brings you directly to it. Secondly is the fact that it links Newhaven to Lewes, taking the visitor directly into the National Park and opening up views along the Ouse north to Lewes and east to Mount Caburn and Glynde. The route follows this ancient drove road as it edges field boundaries and trackways, lifting and falling tracing the slope of the chalk hills.

Along its five-mile route are three working farms, one vineyard, two pubs, three Norman churches and one Saxon age church. There are also two sites of special scientific interest. In Rodmell is the former home of Virginia Woolf, author, and now a National Trust Property being a site of pilgrimage for people who wish to pay homage to her and her work.

It is crossed by the Greenwich Meridian, separating east from west.

The road is bounded to the west by the South Downs (on top of which runs the national trail of the South Downs Way). To the east, runs the River Ouse, tidal as far as Lewes, and until 50 years ago used for the transportation of goods including iron ore from the Weald of Kent, wool and timber and bricks made and fired in Piddinghoe.

 People have lived and worked along the Ouse Valley for 30,000 years. Three of the villages along its route are mentioned in the Domesday book, each with their own church already built and being used for worship at the time of recording. Stone age, bronze age, iron age and roman artefacts have been found in the fields that lay beside the road and Lewes, with its destroyed Priory and Saxon age twittens is constantly churning up Medieval age artefacts. Looking at the flood plain and the Brooks, the landscape shows the diggings of medieval age through to modern day drainage work and along the road itself, following closely the contours are second world war pill boxes, some almost hidden in the hedges.

A sense of being

Two sites of special scientific interest lie on the route of the C7; one rich in downland flora and fauna, the other a wetland environment, rich in birdlife and invertebrates.  The latter located on the flood plain of the River Ouse, between Lewes and Southease is called the Brooks.  The Brooks support a wide diversity of invertebrates, with water beetles being particularly well represented. There are also several rare snails, flies and moths. The ditches which cut through the river alluvium on the floodplain vary in salinity from fresh spring fed ditches in the west, to brackish water adjacent to the tidal River Ouse. This variation together with the cyclical clearing of ditches produces a mosaic of habitats, which support a wide diversity of invertebrates

Kingston Escarpment comprises two separate areas of chalk downland on the steep scarp slopes south of Kingston. This site is important for its chalk grassland, a habitat type which is rapidly becoming rarer owing to widespread agricultural improvement, and for the rich invertebrate fauna the grassland supports including a rare grasshopper and an uncommon chalk downland butterfly.  In addition orchids are prevalent as are the flowers reminiscent of the past - Speedwell, Healall, Campion and herbs including Oregano, sage and Burnette.

A sense of living

An essential component of developing the story of a place is unlocking the embedded thoughts and memories of the people who work and live there.  Landscapes are living places and the roads that move through them are as much a part of that landscape as the buildings that inhabit them or the trees that grow on them.  People’s words have the effect of grounding us, making us stop and slow down and take notice.  They capture the essence that is evaded in words or signs or monuments and they make the place feel real.  Looking at commentary from the sustainable tourism strategy it is quite clear that these comments are aligning themselves with the ‘story of Englishness’ through to ‘Connecting Experiences’.

‘I remember cattle being driven along this road twice a day for milking’

‘American GI’s used to speed along this road in the war – it was great to see them.  If you look closely you can still see pill boxes in the hedges – they were scared that the invasion was going to come from Newhaven’

‘Before D day there were tanks lined up turret to turret along this road, all the way back to Lewes.  Newhaven was the embarkation point.’

 ‘You would be surprised at the number of cyclists who use it’

‘it’s a shame that its become so busy, we seem to have lost something – it would be lovely to get it back’