Weald

thumb|upright=1.2|alt=View of rolling agricultural fields and hedgerows under an overcast sky|View south across the Weald of Kent as seen from the North Downs Way near [[Detling]] thumb|Map of the Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, and Kent. It has three parts, the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre, the clay "Low Weald" periphery and the Greensand Ridge, which stretches around the north and west of the Weald and includes its highest points. The Weald once was covered with forest and its name, Old English in origin, signifies "woodland". The term is still used, as scattered farms and villages sometimes refer to the Weald in their names.

== Etymology == The name "Weald" is derived from the Old English '', meaning "forest" (cognate of German Wald, but unrelated to English "wood"). This comes from a Germanic root of the same meaning, and ultimately from Indo-European. Weald is specifically a West Saxon form; with wold as the Anglian dialect form of the word. The Middle English form of the word is wēld, and the modern spelling is a reintroduction of the Old English form attributed to its use by William Lambarde in his A Perambulation of Kent of 1576.