Despite the many visitors the SDS welcomes each day, there are still new and exciting things to discover!

The latest is this HUGE old Ash coppice stool. It sits inconspicuously about half way up the Allotments Path, overlooking the Rifle Range and it’s a real biggy - 7.98 metres in circumference to be exact, which makes it the 5th largest Ash in Sussex!

Although none of its stems are particularly ancient, the size of the coppice bowl they sit on suggests it could well date right back to the Middle Ages.

It’s a bit of living history and thankfully, still free of Ash Dieback disease.

Coppicing, used for thousands of years, manages forests for harvesting wood without replanting.

The stump after harvesting is a ‘coppice stool’ which becomes an indication of the life span of the tree to be seen half way up the Allotments Path.