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The parish of Chalvington with Ripe has produced some of the most ancient archaeological relics across this part of the Low Weald. Stone tools from the Palaeolithic period have been found in two places to the south of the villages - used by hunter-gatherers across open woodland with wild horses and reindeer.
Hall Court Farm, at the heart of the Roman field system
By the time the Romans established a base for their fleet at Pevensey, they also needed to feed their navy. The patchwork of small, rectangular fields to the south of Ripe were turned to grain, in the style of fields around Rome. The crops were delivered down Langtye Lane back to the boatyards at Pevensey. There's evidence of a Roman villa to the southwest, and a number of finds which suggest farmworkers' cottages.
But archaeological discoveries from pre-Roman times have been made across the area, recorded by Robert Masefield in his book "Celts, Romans and Countrymen, from which the map (left) is taken.
The land know as the Laughton Levels was probably a tidal inlet in Norman Times, and the Domesday Book has records of salt pans as far as Ripe, where sea water was allowed to evaporated to reclaim salt.
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