Mr. D. Shackley: ' I hope that, as a visitor to your proceedings and representing British Gypsum Ltd., I may be permitted to contribute to the discussion on Mr. Cracknell's paper. It is not generally appreciated that there is indeed a very large industrial complex located in the woods to the west of the London to Hastings road
just north of Battle. Gypsum has, in fact, been mined from the Purbeck beds in this locality for almost 100 years. The growth of this local industry has closely followed
the general growth in building materials based on gypsum plaster. It is quite significant that the site of the development about which you have just heard is designated on the Ordnance Survey Map as Lime Kiln Wood. The whole area of this wood is dotted with shallow bellpits from which limestone was extracted in past years and
no doubt there was a thriving lime-burning operation associated with them. The steady growth of gypsum plasters which are now largely replacing lime-based plasters is one of the many factors that stimulated the development that has been the subject of this paper. '