I didn't know what a gill was until my brother told me about the Old Roar Gill in Hastings. I now know that a gill is a steep sided ravine incised into the landscape by a stream. They harbour communites of plants and wildlife particular to that deep, damp and shady microclimate.
 After doing some research I learn that gills (originally a Norse word) seem to be more commonly associated with the North of England but are also to be found in the southern landscapes of the High Weald. Old Roar Gill is a curiosity because it is found within the town of Hastings where the Weald meets the coast...

 My brother came upon this unexpected survival of ancient landscape while walking through one of the town's larger parks. Laid out by the Victorians it has many of the usual features of such places: some woods, ponds, a bandstand, rose gardens and so forth. What is unusual is that at one end lies the gill; in fact the park must have been fashioned from the wider valley which the gill ran into.
 The Victorians liked a bit of gothic and were mad about ferns so no doubt decided to retain the gill as a feature and it's too steep and deep to do much else with. From an aerial view it simply appears as a sliver of green running through one of the more suburban districts of Hastings.
 It has a distinctly primeval feel with its dank canopy of trees and sides dense with ferns, mosses, lichens and fungi. The stream was just a trickle when I went there on Sunday but I imagine there is indeed a roar during a wet winter.

 

 The stratas of stone are clearly visible where water has carved channels that run down into the gill at intervals (such as the one above). At the far end is the Old Roar itself, which is the biggest of these.
 I hope to return in the near future to hear it roar. I gather there are carpets of Wood Anemones and Blubells in the spring and in general the gill hosts many common and uncommon species of flora and fauna. Gills maintain characteristics of near natural habitat which may no longer be the case in the surrounding area. Especially when one runs through the middle of a town like Old Roar Gill...