Deerleap Wood Barrow

I stopped off at Abinger Roughs for an hour or so after dropping my wife off at Gatwick, and seeing a nearby barrow on the map (here and OS) thought I’d go take a look. The site itself is located within a private woodland owned by the Wotton Estate, with a lot of fences and ‘private’/’no access’ signs knocking around. Heaven forbid I advocate trespass, so I’ll leave it to your own imaginations as to how I got in...

Anyway, the barrow itself seems in ok nick all things considered. The trees planted around 2011 when Gladman previously visited are now semi-mature with a lot of bracken growing underneath, but the profile of the bell barrow and surrounding ditch seem largely the same as in previous photos. Although damage is currently unlikely to be too great I’d fully expect this to change as the trees continue to grow over time, both from direct rooting and potential windthrow. There was also a sizeable badger sett dug into the side nearest the path where they’ve clearly been making use of what is now an ideal habitat for them.

Needless-to-say, this is a Scheduled Monument and should never have been planted over in this way. The Estate’s ‘care’ of the surrounding woodland also left much to be desired. It seems to be used now primarily as a stocked pheasant shoot and there was a large number of empty plastic feed sacks and other rubbish left lying around, not to mention the ecological impact of the birds themselves. Sadly yet another example of large private landlords willfully neglecting and/or damaging not just our shared cultural heritage but also that of the surrounding natural environment.