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Despite some promising low spring sunshine when we set off, by the time we’d walked along Vize Lane from Broad Hinton, thick cloud had largely set in. The only thing that gives a hint of the site when viewed from a distance is the re-erected stone at the crossroad.
Only when you’re almost on top of them are you aware of the six recumbent stones in the field to your left. However, with the vegetation being still mostly leafless in this prolonged winter weather, if you look in the hedgerow to your right you’ll notice a pile of substantial sarsens that have been cleared from the surrounding fields. Now this begs the question of whether they’re (a) from the ruined circle to your south, (b) from a nearby barrow to the north-east (ploughed out, but visible on Google Maps) or (c) simply cleared natural stones from surrounding fields? As they’re easily as big as the stones within the incomplete circle, it makes you wonder why the circle wasn’t completely cleared at some point, as cultivation has been going on there for a very long time judging by the evidence of faint strip lynchets. Of course if this isn’t the ruined stone circle, as has been suggested, and that it was originally the other side of the Clyffe Pypard road, then it hardly matters at all about the provenance of the hedgerow stones!
Also worth having a good look at is the whopper of an outlier to the south-east of the circle. This stone is about the same size as the re-erected crossroads stone, but infinitely more interesting in shape. Shame they couldn’t have re-erected this one also or maybe they were worried about accidentally crushing the Alpacas that currently occupy the field.
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Much like Lord’s Piece a few miles further west this is one of those strange little heathlands that doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the Sussex landscape, more New Forest with gorse, heather and pines, than rolling open downland. There were once probably large tracts of land similar to this dotted all along the bottom of the escarpment north of the South Downs, but gradually with the expansion of villages and agricultural clearance these spaces are now surrounded by the houses of the well-to-do, oblivious of what’s really on their doorstep.
Sullington Warren is not big by any means, probably less than a ¼ of a square mile, but the minute you enter it you have the feeling that it’s an ancient landscape. There are nine, possibly ten barrows in the vicinity, but it’s really quite difficult to make any of them out as they’re all hopelessly overgrown. There is one linear group of three, which is reasonably easy to see, and the rest are scattered randomly. Also you can’t quite work out whether they’re small barrows on top of ‘small hills’ or if the ‘small hills’ are in fact huge barrows! Intriguing. The other thing of note is a small cross dyke/boundary marker which runs roughly east-west and stands out quite well, but having looked at the site on Magic this isn’t shown so could actually be relatively modern.
A word of warning! There is a car parking space in Water Lane to the east of the site, but I made the mistake of parking in Heather Lane, which apparently is private and there was a snidey little note on my windscreen when I got back saying that my number plate had been noted by the local Neighbourhood Watch. Goodness, I’m quaking! Otherwise a nice place to wander.
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