Sim Elliott

1859-1995 St Francis. Haywards Heath. A "mental asylum" for Sussex. Designed by Henry Kendall with a corridor plan; longest building in Sussex. Must've been hell. My great-uncle died there from suicide. I only found out he existed 10 years ago. My family didn't talk about mental health. Now housing

Lovely ancient Pedunculate Oak. Scrase Valley Local Nature Reserve, Haywards Heath. West Sussex

Relict High Weald woodland in Clair Park in the middle of Haywards Heath. Magnificent Pedunculate Oaks. Haywards Heath was in the middle of the Andredsweald in Saxon times.

First Peacock, Aglais io, of 2026. I love it in the spring when you see the first butterflies of the new season. But not a "new" butterfly but a butterfly that has just emerged from its overwintering diapause, a state of torpor. Racton. West Sussex

Two of the corbels on the Chichester Market Cross; commissioned by Edward Story, Bishop of Chichester from 1477 to 1503. Built so that the poor people should have somewhere to sell their wares.

Stupendous, ancient Sweet Chestnut, Yew & Pedunculate Oak in Racton Park Farm. West Sussex. Clue is in the name, "park", did some research: whilst now a farm it was part of Stansted Estate deer park. Still pasture woodland, now grazed by cattle, which produces giant ancient trees when well managed.

Fabulous relict hedgerow with ancient Pedunculate Oak, Beech and Sweet Chestnut. Between the Racton Monument, built by George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax; and the C17 Stansted House, Rowlands Castle, built for Lord Lumely 1st Earl of Scarborough. West Sussex

Time flies; with the lichens Circinaria contorta, Diploicia canescens and Xanthoria parietina; on a grave stone in Racton St Peter's graveyard West Sussex; the parish has only a few cottages. Aisleless church with C12 nave & C13 chancel. The west end was altered in the C14; with C15 to C17 windows.

"The Watchdog" by Joachim in Chichester. He painted a cat here before. Some people complained that it encouraged ant-socila behaviour, so the council painted over it. Then more people than the moaners said they liked it and the council commissioned Joachim to do something else: to keep people safe!

Racton Monument was built by Lord Halifax as a folly in C18. Now ruined; looks super creepy! Nr Funtington, West Sussex. Its in a strip of ancient woodland with lots of Butcher's Broom & Bluebells; and Ancient Oak and Chestnut.

Another whopper Quercus robur, Pedunculate Oak, in the churchyard of St George’s Brede yesterday. Pedunculate Oaks are one of Sussex's glories.

Black Spleenwort, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum. Such a pretty fern. On the walls of St George's Brede, East Sussex. Its not rare at all but I don't see it much. I think that's because it often gets removed from church walls; probrably its main substrate. Well done St George's for leaving it.

As well as going to Brede to see the stunning Early English St George's Church, I went to see the Grade II listed 1901 Water Works with its modillion cornice, and lunettes above. As a child, my dad, an LCC/GLC architect, took me to see many public buildings; I still like public architecture.

Very pretty Flavoparmelia sorediens on worked wood (fence rail) at Brede, East Sussex. Nearly all the F. sorediens I have seen has been on fence rails. #lichenGBI

7-spot Ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata, on the lichen Lecanora expallens, on Pedunculate Oak, Quercus robur, in graveyard in Brede, East Sussex.

The tomb of Musgrave Brisco, d. 1854, in Old St Helen's Church, Ore, Hastings, with two foliate heads. #foliatehead

Multiculturalism is our super power The UK has always been a mix of many origins and this is one of our greatest strengths

Multiculturalism is our super power

The UK has always been a mix of many origins and this is one of our greatest strengths | Tom Serpell
@leftwithnoparty.bsky.social @sussexbylines.co.uk

One of Sussex's great legends: the C16 towering, 7ft, nobleman, Sir Goddard Oxenbridge, said to have prowled the streets of Brede, near Hastings, looking for children to eat for supper. His arms in the church are held by two mythical woodwoses "wild men of the woods". St George's Church Brede.

😀🙏🦋 First Comma, Polygonia c-album, of 2026. Ore, Hastings, East Sussex.

St. Mary, North Stoke, an C11 cruciform church, almost completely unchanged since C13, in a depopulated village on the River Arun. With sculpted ram's head (economy dependent on wool trade in medieval period) and painted owl ca. C13. Perhaps the South Down's church with the most medieval feel.

Last week: C11 St Leonard's in tiny South Stoke; by the River Arun, with a C13 Tower, and C19 spire. Weird but beautiful. Lots of the lichen Ingaderia vandenboomii on North Wall

Absolute whopper ancient Pedunculate Oak next to a sunken trackway (hollow-way), near Barcombe, East Sussex.

Low Weald ghyll (North End Stream). Ghylls are features of the High Weald; but there are a few in the Low Weald. This one has ancient woodland each side; relicts of the former extensive woodland of the low weald cleared in the Saxon and Norman period

Derelict well, still with water, and the spring where there North End Stream rises, which flows om the River Ouse. On the 1910 OS map there is a farm indicated next to this well. Conyboro Park, East Sussex.

Huge ancient Pedunculate Oaks in the remnants of the Conoboro Estate, Barcombe, East Sussex. Mostly in relict ancient hedgerows. As I have said before, if you want to see ancient Quercus robur in the Low Weald, you are more likely to see them in ancient hedgerows than ancient woodland

Inoderma subabietinum. Thallus K/UV+ mauve; pycnidial pruina C-. Low down on the trunk of an ancient Quercus robur (same one as had Zwackhia prosodea). Low Weald ancient woodland shaw, nr. Balcombe, East Sussex. International responsibility lichen. @britishlichensociety.org.uk #lichenCBI

Zwackhia prosodea, on the shaded side of an ancient Quercus robur. A lichen entirely of the far south. It's mostly on Oak and Yew. I have only seen it in three other places in Sussex; all on churchyard ancient yews. In a Low Weald ancient woodland shaw @britishlichensociety.org.uk #lichenGBI NS & NT

Hope Beats Hate: Green Party Defeats Reform and Labour in Huge Gorton and Denton By-Election Victory A concerted political and media campaign to scare voters about a “Green Menace” winning this by-election failed, reports Adam Bienkov

🔴Hope Beats Hate: Green Party Defeats Reform and Labour in Huge Gorton and Denton By-Election Victory

A concerted political and media campaign to scare voters about a “Green Menace” winning this by-election failed, reports @adambienkov.bsky.social

bylinetimes.com/2026/02/27/h...

Looking at this again I am wondering whether this Pertusaria hymenea's apothecia have been infected with the lichenicolous fungusc Lichenodiplis pertusariicola? Any thoughts any one? #lichenGBI

Clapham, South Downs, West Sussex. An ancient wood with abundant polypody, butchers broom, lichens & dogs abducted by UFOs (allegedly) and a Norman church with archangels by Morris & Tudor tombs. 23.0... Clapham is not so easy to get to by public transport. It is possible to get the train to Goring-by-Sea and walk from there, but that entails walking along roads with no pavements. So I took the tra…

A post on the fabulous Clapham Wood, a dip-slope chalk ancient woodland on the South Downs; a rare wood type; with interesting polypody fern, butcher's broom, lichens and dogs allegedly abducted by UFOs (post includes the hilarious faux po-faced 1975 BBC Nationwide documentary about dog abduction)