Pevensey Levels
Grazing marsh behind Pevensey Castle, flat and wet but quietly important, and one of the last homes of a very rare spider
A tidal lagoon used to separate Pevensey Castle from the mainland; centuries of drainage turned it into the grazing marsh known today as Pevensey Levels, criss-crossed with ditches instead of open water. It still floods where it always did. This reserve covers a fraction of the wider levels, but the wet grassland and dyke network here matter enough for wildlife that a much larger stretch around it carries SSSI protection too.
The ditches matter most here. They hold some of the richest aquatic plant and invertebrate life in the south-east, and the levels are one of only a handful of places in Britain where the fen raft spider survives — among the largest spiders in the country, and one that hunts by walking on the water rather than spinning webs over it. Dragonflies, water beetles and wading birds do well in the same maze of wet fields.
Most of the reserve is farmed grassland rather than open-access land, so the footpaths and lanes crossing it give the best views. Herstmonceux Castle and its gardens are a few miles north if you want to pair the two, and Normans Bay station puts you close to the eastern edge.
