The early Britons first smelted iron in the prehistoric area, and what looks like a tiny orange candle can be seen through the mire. It makes my companion happy.
That is good! That is new!
The candle is from a light-colored, swampy, beacon-shaped mushroom called the Mitrula paludosa, otherwise known as the swampy beacon. The exclamation, accompanied by an expletive, belongs to Dave Bangs, who is 70 years old.
The find is one of many that have been documented. He has scoured the countryside for over six decades, uncovering neglected and threatened flora behind its fence. His field surveys culminated in three books, a video and the basis of one of the largest mass trespasses in the UK in recent years.
I meet a man named Bangs on the train at Balcombe and he promises to show me a real cook's tour of the countryside. The tall, sprightly, strong features of Bangs make him seem like an iguanodon. His shredded Barbour jacket is used to being in dispute with barbed wire. He says they will have to move fast. The sites are off-piste so we might be challenged.
If no one loves it, no one will fight for it.
Dave is a man.
The maps were dug out from an old bag. Land ownership in England is notoriously inscrutable, but even a cursory look makes it clear: on almost every side we are surrounded by wooded estates that we are forbidden to enter. The Worth Forest should have the same relationship to Crawley as the Epping Forest does to London: an open expanse of forest, available to all.
The latter was saved from enclosure by mass protests in the 19th century, but Worth is divided into large estates. They are completely moronic about nature conservativism. I am sure they would deny that. They are.
Some people believe that the best way to protect nature is to keep people out of it, but this is not the case according to the man. He says that no one will fight for it if no one loves it.
He believes that most environmental damage occurs in the country where the public is not allowed to enter, which makes it harder to save what remains or even understand what is being lost.
The best way to protect nature is to keep people out, but that is not the case according to Bangs. Jon and Jonathan are pictured.
We set off up a lane towards the estates looking for a place to hop over the fence. The man dropped his voice to a whisper. I will take my hat off, I wear it a lot. He has been looking at the area for more than 30 years after learning of two ancient woodlands that were clear-felled. The situation will only get worse. He says that it already has on some estates.
The new Center Parcs development will cover hundreds of acres of the woodland. The project would cause irreversible loss of habitat for wildlife and several charities warned this week.
We mount the fence after finding a covered area behind a bush. It is well prepared. He folds a piece of tarpaulin from his bag over the barbed wire to overcome the barrier.
The wood we enter is a tangle of overgrown rhododendrons that are smothering the plants that are growing beneath the tree canopy. We discover the beacon by the gill. One of the giant ancient trees was pointed out on the map.
As though speaking of an old friend, Bangs said, "Good, she's all right." The trunk is a fusion of several trees planted in a cluster and spans the width of a small car. It is surrounded by trash.
The bangs have seen worse. He discovered that several miles of heathy rides had been covered over with chalk-and-rubble tracks, stuffed with bits of smashed sink and toilet ceramic. The acidic soil is covered by the alkaline chalk, which eliminates wildflowers such as marsh violet.
It was the discovery of these and other threats to his native downland that motivated him to co-found Landscapes of Freedom. They organised a gathering of more than 300 people to Pangdean Bottom, a beautiful coomb, a few miles from the edge of BRIGHTON. The ancient down pasture is owned by the city council and used by a tenant farmer who shoots pheasants.
A way to transform our understanding of the landscape is what Botany for Bangs is all about. A stitchwort in a field of bland pasture is a sign of the survival of a richer, wilder landscape underneath. The moss Shining hookeria reveals the ghost of an ancient gill. He believes that this knowledge gives the people who are in the land a moral authority that is counterbalanced by the tendency to treat them as invaders of the land.
The forest floor on one of the estates is littered with Rubbish. Jon and Jonathan are pictured.
I can talk with authority about the countryside because I know it. He says that if a landowner challenges him, he knows a lot more about their site than they do. They can deny you authority, but you can be as mad as you want.
We end the day on the estates. The old Balcombe Down was once a playground for local people, but now it is a wedding venue and a sprawl of steel fences. There is a wood. It is now like a zoo.
There is a railway bridge dotted with sweet briar and a new estate of mysterious woodland across it. The forest floor has high wood ant nest. The discovery of the lilies of the valley elicited more expletive-laden yelps. He says it is very rare in the area. We stop in the light to see the landscape of the Wealden.
The ancient peoples would have looked at that. No one knows about it. No one comes here. No one. You are only about five miles from bloody Crawley.
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