Blackdown

Flint artefacts show there has been settlement on Blackdown since at least the Mesolithic period, around 6000 BC. The ownership of the Blackdown Estate can be traced back to the 14th century, to William Yaldwyn of Blackdown (1298–1375), who received the Patent of Esquire in 1330. The Yaldwyn family tree shows the estate as having been inherited by eight successive generations. William de Blackdown and Sutton (1342–1418) is said to have fought at the Battle of Agincourt. Although the Yaldwyns had owned extensive farmlands in Sussex since at least the year 1300, it was William Yaldwyn the elder who succeeded to the property in 1600 and made full commercial use of the estate and surrounding…

As well as Aldworth House on the steep eastern flank and Foxholes (which together formed the estate of Alfred, Lord Tennyson), there is a range of architecture, especially in Victorian and turn-of-the-20th-century, rustic styles (such as Arts and Crafts). These include, to the west, Blackdown House, which is surrounded by daffodils in the spring; and to the east Old Manor Farm. Because of its elevation, from 1796 to 1816 Blackdown hosted a shutter telegraph chain station, which linked the Admiralty in London to the Royal Navy in Portsmouth.