Perching Hill
| Perching Hill | |||
| Sussex | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Perching Hill from Fulking Hill | |||
| Range: | South Downs | ||
| Summit: | 541 feet TQ244109 50°53’5"N, 0°13’56"W | ||
Perching Hill is part of the South Downs in Sussex, above the hamlet of Perching, at the top of the scarp slope. Immediately to the east is Fulking Hill and to the west Edburton Hill.
On this hill are the remains of rare mediæval Downland hamlet, whose strip-cultivated open field survived until Victorian times. This is probably a result of the mediæval expansion of the Perching Manor in Fulking and probably due to the presence of an underground water course in the coombe, indicated by a well about seventy yards west of the monument.
Perching Hill's west slope is a remote place: just sheep, pylons, a rusting barn, big modern pastures, and a slim fragment of the old Down pastures where the steepness of the slopes halted the plough. The site has many old Down pasture species, including spring sedge, orchids and devil's-bit. The area used to have heath snail, too.
