English Wine Estate & Devils Dyke Experience

This is optional where guest would like an extra stop usually a nice country lunch. Please note lunch is not part of the Tour cost https://www.royaloakpoynings.pub/

he Downs during the last Ice Age when large amounts of snow thawed and the frozen chalk prevented any further absorption; erosion was aided by the freeze-thaw cycle and the valley was deepened by the 'sludging' of the saturated chalk. The Devil's Dyke V-shaped dry valley is the result of solifluction and river erosion. More than 14,000 years ago[unreliable source?], the area experienced an intensely cold climate (but not glacial conditions). Snowfields capped the South Downs. Permafrost conditions meant that the chalk was permanently frozen. In summer, the snowfields melted and saturated the top layer of soil, because the water could not permeate the frozen chalk underneath. Waterlogged material situated above the permafrost slid down the gradient, removing material by friction, exposing deeper layers of frozen chalk. Visit Devils Dyke Pub for a refreshment.

The main building originated as two, or possibly three, cottages. Its use as a public house probably dates from the early 1800s and it is listed as ‘Shepherd & Dog’ in the 1841 census. It seems safe to assume that it derived its name from the annual sheep washing that took place in the stream immediately outside as described by Nathaniel Paine Blaker in his memoir of a childhood in Fulking in the middle of the nineteenth century. As he records, the pub played a key role in this event since it was the place the shepherds went to recover after spending hours in the bitterly cold water. Sussex was renowned for smuggling in the early nineteenth century (Blaker has a brief chapter on the topic) and the pub was used to store contraband. It seems that the goods were first taken up the outside steps and then lowered through a concealed opening into a large cavity below.