Weald

The English word weald [ wi ː ld ] meant in general a dense forest, in particular it is the name of a vast forest area, which extends from prehistoric times in the counties of Sussex and Kent, England, between the North Downs and the South Downs. But in other parts of the country smaller forests are so named.

Nowadays, most of these forests of England are like so many free cultural landscapes now carry this designation.

Word origin

The word Weald derives from the Old English weald, which means forest, and in turn is derived from the Indo-European word for forest. The word Weald is therefore closely related to the German forest, Dutch woud, and the Old Norse völlr.

Geography

The Weald called geographical technical term the area in the south of England, extending from the limestone rock of the ridge of the North Downs to the South Downs and its foothills extends into the areas of Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey.

The so-called High Weald, which forms from higher hills, ridges and valleys in the center of the Weald, is an anticline, that is a geological saddle, which is created by folding and by his bulge open rock layers.

This area covers approximately 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) and is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty ( AONB ) ( nature reserve). This means that this landscape is under special protection and special planning regulations and landscape maintenance should be observed.

The then outgoing Weald -Artois anticline is a ridge of chalk rock, which runs from Kent to Artois in eastern France and may touch the areas of Dover and Calais. 225,000 years ago, this area was not yet separated by the English Channel.

The Weald area today

The proportion of forest in the Weald area is currently 23%; the landscape is therefore one of the largest forest areas of England. Despite the strong population growth in the south of England, the landscape was the original character. Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Crawley, Sevenoaks and other cities are still medium-sized centers, who have not lost as places of residence for London commuters its traditional character.

51- 0.4Koordinaten: 51 ° 0 '0 "N, 0 ° 24 ' 0 " W

• Geography (East Sussex )
• Geography (West Sussex )
• Geography (Kent)
• Geography ( Surrey )