page_title: Blackdown, West Sussex
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Blackdown, West Sussex / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Upper Roundhurst Farm, West Sussex
context_page_description: Blackdown, or Black Down, is the highest hill in the historic county of Sussex, at 280 metres. In southeastern England it is exceeded only by Walbury Hill and Leith Hill.
  It is also the highest point in the South Downs National Park. The pine- and heather-covered slopes are owned by the National Trust and are a favourite walking spot. Blackdown has strong literary associations with the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
context_section_description: Although common land, Blackdown was the property of various landowners until W. E. Hunter donated it to the National Trust in 1944, as a memorial to his wife. The Hunters are remembered by an inscribed stone seat at the Temple of the Winds. Flint artefacts show there has been settlement on Blackdown since the mesolithic period, around 6000 BC. The name of an ancient track, pen-y-bos, indicates links with the Celtic world long since lost in more accessible parts of south-east England. (The name "pen-y-bos" comes from the Brythonic language of the ancient Britons that lived in the area – rather like the well-known pen-y-ghent in Yorkshire.) Blackdown is managed by the National Trust, with guidance and financial assistance from the Blackdown Committee of the National Trust.
  The ownership Blackdown Estate can be traced back to the fourteenth century when the first recorded William Yaldwyn of Blackdown was born in 1298 and received the Patent of Esquire in 1330 (died 1375) William de Blackdown and Sutton 1342–1418 is said to have fought at the Battle of Agincourt. From the first William Yaldwyn, the family tree shows Blackdown Estate as having been inherited,in succession, by eight generations of William Yaldwyn. Although the Yaldwyn`s had owned extensive farmlands in Sussex for at least three hundred years before, it was William Yaldwyn the elder who succeeded to the property in 1600 and had the extraordinary drive to make full commercial use of the estate and surrounding lands. In 1627 William Yaldwyn the elder secured the sole right to purchase iron ore mined on the extensive Petworth Estate.This made him an extremely wealthy man and by 1640 he completed the build of the central portion of the present Blackdown House. During the Civil War of 1642 there was an enormous increase in the demand for iron, cannons and other weapons. It is noted that Oliver Cromwell stayed at Blackdown House, although the actual date of his visit is unknown it was probably during 1644–45 when Oliver Cromwell went to assist the Earl of Essex and Sir William Waller during the campaign in the west of England. The room where the General slept at Blackdown is still known as the Oliver Cromwell bedroom. The four poster bed remained in the house until Blackdown was sold by William Henry Yaldwyn (1801–1866) in 1844. When Richard Yaldwyn died in 1807 the Blackdown Estate consisted of 1300 acres and included Blackdown, Brockhurst, Vale Wool, High Diddlesford, Cotchett, Reeth, Sheetland, Cooks Bridge Farms and Blackdown Cottage Barfold-under-Beacon. Many members of the Yaldwyn family are buried at St. Laurence`s at Lurgashall. (References Yaldwyn of the Golden Spurs by J.O.Randell published by the Melbourne Mast Gully Press 1980. Church records at Lurgashall of the Yaldwyn Family)
  As well as Aldworth House (just visible from the footpath leading down to Roundhurst) and Foxholes (which together formed the estate of Alfred Lord Tennyson), a number of other interesting private houses will be passed by walkers. These include Blackdown House, to the west, surrounded by daffodils in the spring, and Old Manor Farm (previously Upper Roundhurst Farm) on Tennyson's Lane.
  Because of its elevation, from 1796 to 1816 Blackdown hosted a station in the shutter telegraph chain which connected the Admiralty in London to its naval ships in Portsmouth.
caption: Old Manor Farm, Tennyson's Lane
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