old sand and gravel pits. From north, large woods are: Homewood, shared with Surrey, Jays Wood (woven up with a farmstead of similar size), Abester's Copse lining the eastern slope; Quellwood Common, Quell Copse and Windfell Wood/Ewhurst Copse (together a tapering triangle on the south side), Leazers Wood, Bridge Reeds, Sheetland, Lye Wood (a break in a linear farm), and the belts of woodland of Alder and Chase Woods, south of the town. A geological relief model of Blackdown, and much information on its natural history, can be found in the Haslemere Educational Museum. History Flint artefacts show there has been settlement on Blackdown since at least the mesolithic period, around 6000 BC. The name of an ancient track, pen-y-bos comes from the Brythonic language of the ancient Britons that lived in the area – rather like the well-known pen-y-ghent in Yorkshire. The ownership Blackdown Estate can be traced back to the fourteenth century to William Yaldwyn of Blackdown (1298-1375) who received the Patent of Esquire in 1330. The Yaldwyn family tree shows Blackdown Estate as having been inherited by eight successive generations. William de Blackdown and Sutton (1342–1418) is said to have fought at the Battle of Agincourt. Although the Yaldwyn's had owned extensive farmlands in Sussex since at least the year 1300, it was William Yaldwyn the elder who succeeded to the property in 1600 and had the extraordinary drive to make full commercial use of the estate and surrounding lands. In 1627 he secured the sole right to purchase iron ore mined on the extensive Petworth Estate. This made him an extremely wealthy man and by 1640 he completed the build of the central portion of the present Blackdown House. During the English Civil War (1642–1651) there was an enormous increase in the demand for iron for the production of ordnance and materiel. Oliver Cromwell was said to have stayed at Blackdown House. Although the exact date of his visit is unknown it was probably during 1644–45 when Cromwell went to assist the Earl of Essex and Sir William Waller during the English Civil War campaigns in the west of England. The room where the Cromwell slept at Blackdown is still known as the Oliver Cromwell bedroom. The four poster bed remained in the house until Blackdown was sold by William Henry Yaldwyn (1801–1866) in 1844. When Richard Yaldwyn died in 1807 the Blackdown Estate consisted of