A feature of Clymping parish in the mid 19th century was its ponds: between four and six at each of the centres of settlement, besides others in the fields. Stakers Pond, mentioned in 1606, was one of the ponds at Atherington hamlet, the land beside which was registered as common land in 1979. The flat, open landscape was felt in the 1930s to retain ‘a stillness that reminds one of the Emilian plains near Ravenna’. Clymping’s coastline then remained largely undeveloped and was subject to National Trust covenants; the beach was a popular destination for summer day visitors from London and elsewhere.
The parish seems generally to have had little woodland, and the woods on the two estates called Clymping which supported 40 swine in 1086 may have been in the Weald. The wood at Atherington on the boundary with Middleton mentioned c. 1310 was probably the same as Southwood depicted in 1606, but in 1378 there was only enough wood on Atherington manor for fencing.
Southwood and two other areas beside Bailiffscourt park were described in 1606 as thorny pasture. There were 16 acres of woods in Clymping and the detached portion of Littlehampton at Bailiffscourt in the 1840s. The amount was greatly increased in the 1920s and 30s by Lord Moyne, of Bailiffscourt, who planted belts of fully grown trees all over the southern half of the parish, including a wide one along the Middleton boundary. Many of the trees were destroyed in the great storm of 1987.
Part of our Vision for Clymping Mill is to incorporate a large main pond, with smaller ponds arranged around the estate. This will not only be an aesthetically pleasing feature, but will also encourage wildlife to inhabit the water and margins.
Clymping Mill 