Sussex landmark Chanctonbury Ring is the focus for Southwick Society's next Heritage Talk

She will talk about the long history of Chanctonbury Ring, one of the most prominent landmarks on the South Downs, at Southwick Community Centre on Monday, November 13, starting at 7.30pm.

Chanctonbury Ring has been an iconic landmark for Sussex inhabitants and visitors for more than 200 years. However, the ring of trees, most of which were destroyed in the Great Storm of 1987 and replanted in 1990, covers another earlier ring.

The late Bronze Age earthwork, or hillfort, containing the remains of a Romano-Celtic and Romano-British temple complex, has a very special atmosphere that draws people to it. Set within a much older landscape, it also attracted the 16-year-old Charles Goring of Wiston House, who planted his beeches and other trees around the perimeter in 1760 'on some auspicious day', as his poem of 1828 reveals.

This richly-illustrated talk reveals the history of the area, a murder on the hill in 1330, the tree species involved over the centuries and a spate of literary outpourings about Chanctonbury Ring by 19th and 20th century novelists poets and travel writers.

The talk is open to all, admission £3 for Southwick Society members and £5 for non-members. The Heritage Talks take a break in December and the programme restarts on January 8, when Chris Horlock will talk about The Devil's Dyke Story, another of the great South Downs landmarks.