through many parishes including Ditchling, to Lewes in the East. The most famous and highest peak of this escarpment is Ditchling Beacon. This whole scarp site is of biological importance due to its rare chalk grassland habitat. Notable buildings and areas Unlike its neighbouring parishes, the natural world in this countryside is much more threatened by development. Much of its natural and historic cultural assets have been minimised in the face of this wave of regional over-development. Ditchling Common is the very best of these assets and still holds an extraordinary assemblage of wildlife which thrive on the damp Weald Clay grasslands. Ditchling has only retained its historic integrity thanks to the fierce defence by its residents, who have thwarted a bypass scheme and various built developments. Although is oppressed by through traffic, little fields come still close into the heart of the village. At Keymer, the Tileworks Clay Pit is now lost to housing development, but it was once a place where "searchers on hands and knees found the teeth of miniature crocodiles and the scales of swampland fish". Buildings There are still many fine buildings in Ditchling. To the south of the church, there is a fine Tudor timber framed Wings Place with parts that are older still. There is an old drove going north from Lodge Hill which passes the lovingly restored Oldlands Mill () (just over border in Hassocks Parish), a landmark visible from the Downs ridge top along the South Downs Way. Religious buildings Ditchling has a long history of Protestant Nonconformism. The village has four extant places of Christian worship and one former chapel. St Margaret's Church, founded in the 11th century, is the village's Anglican church. The fabric of the flint and sandstone building is mostly 13th-century, although the nave is original. Its large churchyard has big patches of tiny black earthtongues. In 1740, a chapel (now called The Old Meeting House) was built on the side of a late 17th-century house off East End Lane. It is now used by the Unitarian community and is full of polished woodwork. Emmanuel Chapel, used by an Evangelical congregation, was built in the early 20th century but may have had a predecessor elsewhere in the village. The Quaker community have a modern meeting house near the centre of the village. The Beulah Strict Baptist Chapel (now a house) on East End Lane was in religious