St Leonards, Sussex

Historical Description

Leonards Forest, St, an ancient forest in Sussex, between Horsham and the London and Brighton railway. It was part of the Saxon Andredswald; it comprises about 11, 000 acres, and belongs chiefly to the parochial chapelry of Lower Beeding. It was anciently held by the Braose family, but is now divided among several owners. It took its name from an ancient chapel in the NE dedicated to St Leonard, but now extinct. Its timber is mostly oak and beech, but includes some ancient pines and extensive larch plantations. Its principal avenue is 1½ mile long, and includes about 15, 000 trees, all of modern growth, in room of ancient ones which were destroyed by a tempest. Its area gives origin to the main sources of the Arnn, the Adur, and the Ouse rivers, and its ground-surface includes deep watercourses and picturesque diversities, but no lofty eminences.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for St Leonards from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Leonard's, St., on Sea)

Maps

Online maps of St Leonards are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Sussex newspapers online:

• Mid Sussex Times
• Chichester Express and West Sussex Journal
• Sussex Agricultural Express
• Hastings and St Leonards Observer
• Sussex Advertiser
• Brighton Gazette
• Bexhill-on-Sea Observer