Kirsty Warren
Lindfield history pages
Lindfield history pages

Lindfield Life

Lindfield history pages

We launched a Lindfield History book in June 2024! Life in Lindfield is written and compiled by Lindfield History Project Group and published by us (Kipper Life/Lindfield Life). You can buy copies of the book here, via our online store. Otherwise, please read on…

Articles published in:

2023

  • Lindfield History Project Group received a parcel containing hundreds of invoices dated between 1834 and 1835, for shopping and services supplied to the Tuppen household. Click here to learn about shopping in Lindfield’s history.

  • What is the connection between a car company, the theory of flight, an English university, the laws of combat, the concept of quality management and Walstead Burial Ground? The answer is Frederick William Lanchester. Click here to read more.

  • On Lindfield High Street in 1914, there were five public houses all selling beer obtained from commercial breweries, mostly in Brighton and Lewes. But one hundred years earlier, the village’s pubs were either brewing their own beer or being supplied by The Lindfield Brewery. Click here to read more.

  • The 3rd June 1953 was declared Coronation Day. To organise the celebrations in Lindfield, an Executive Committee with eight members was established. Click here to read all about the celebrations around Lindfield.

  • How much has the High Street changed in 100 years? This article compares the High Street in 1923 with today.

  • The previous article compared the west side of the High Street in 1923 with 2023; in this article we journey down the eastern side. Click here to read on.

  • Read here, all about the WWII submarine that disappeared without a trace and its connection to Lindfield.


2022

  • Click here to find out all about when, In 1899, the Lindfield Parish Council decided to form a volunteer fire brigade to provide fire cover for the parish.

  • To help the poor, between 1563 and 1601 the Government enacted legislation that provided a framework for the provision of poor relief by parishes. Click here to find out how Lindfield helped its poorer residents.

  • How has Lindfield celebrated royal events in the past? Click here to learn all about them.

  • Click here to read a continuation of the history of Lindfield’s royal celebrations.

  • In late 1921, an enterprising woman, Gladys Van Weede established - as sole proprietor - The Rainbow Pottery Company, trading from an outbuilding behind Abbotts Pharmacy on the High Street. Click here to read all about it.

  • From 1680 or earlier, three generations of the Neale family were innkeepers of the White Lion inn in Lindfield; later renamed the Bent Arms. Click here to read more.

  • Click here to find out all about Lindfield’s almost railway station.

  • If you or a family member have lived in Lindfield for many years, it would not be surprising if tucked away at the bottom of a drawer, or in an old album, there is a photograph by William Marchant. Click here to learn all about him.


2021

  • Ever wondered what Lindfield pond looked like in 1865? Click here to see and learn a little about the photo.

  • Click here to find out all about when the censuses started and what can they tell us about our village in years past.

  • Click here to find out all about the piano factory that was thriving in Victorian Lindfield.

  • This article looks at Lindfield fair through history.

  • Where have the Lindfield clergy resided in centuries past? Click here to find out.

  • Click here to find out all about Lindfield’s connection to Friar Tuck of Robin Hood fame and how John Bent gave his name to The Bent Arms.

  • This article explores another of Lindfield’s black history connections. The story begins with Francis Smith senior in Nevis, an island in the Eastern Caribbean. Click here to read more.

2020

  • The war had a dramatic effect on every aspect of life on the Home Front, to learn about Lindfield during this time, click here.

  • It is said that a village pub is the heart of the community. Click here to learn all about the pubs of Lindfield.

  • Here is part two of an in depth look at the pubs of Lindfield and their history.

  • Lindfield has often been described as possessing an ‘historic High Street’, due to the attractive and varied architectural styles of buildings lining the road, but what is the history of the road itself? Find out more here.

  • In the first days of May 1945, there was great expectation that the war would soon be over. Click here to find out more.

  • Although Lindfield School was established in 1881, its lineage can be traced back to William Allen in 1825. Click here to read all about it.

  • This article looks at Lindfield School between 1900 and 2000.

  • Residents have shared their memories with us from their time at Lindfield Primary School. Click here to read all about them.

  • The meeting place is stated as, ‘Society shall meet at the House of Thomas Finch, at the sign of the Tiger in Lindfield Town’. To learn all about the society and The Tiger click here.

2019

  • Did you know Lindfield had a castle? This was surrounded by a broad moat which joined to the river through gaps in the outer earthworks. Outside a ditch linked to a stream entirely surrounded the castle. Click here to read more.

  • In common with much of Lindfield, its origins can be traced back to Saxon times, when the lands are first mentioned in the copy charter dated 765. Learn more here.

  • All Saints Church at the top of the High Street was built in the 1300s in the Perpendicular style. Click here to learn all about it.

  • Lindfield was once little more than a high street with a few roads. Read here, the amazing transformation over the years.

  • A grand house with its origins in Elizabethan times, is perhaps an unlikely location for the founding of a revolution in education. Read Bedales history here.

  • During the first three quarters of the last century horticultural businesses thrived in and around Lindfield providing much employment. Read all about it here.

  • Until the early part of the 19th century, burial facilities were mainly provided by the Church of England in parish churchyards. Click here to find out why Walstead has its own burial ground.

  • It could be said that Lindfield is defined by the Common and Pond. To learn about their history, click here.

  • In 1938, Cuckfield Urban District Council, the local authority responsible for Lindfield, commenced planning for an evacuation. Click here to learn all about the children and the local families that took them in.

  • Does any other community have a bakery that traded continuously from the same premises for 223 years? Click here to learn all about the history of Lindfield’s oldest bakery.

  • Learn all about the history of Christmas traditions and how they’ve changed by clicking here.

2018

  • For eight hundred years much of the land in and around Lindfield formed the Manor of South Malling. Read more to find out how King Henry VIII changed all this.

  • Today nothing exists of the West Common and you would be forgiven for thinking the area completely lacks historical interest. However, there is always more to the story…

  • The land east of the High Street demonstrates the change and growth over 120 years which has helped to create today’s thriving community. Click here for more information.

  • Gravelye Lane for centuries was merely a track providing access to a couple of farmsteads and Northlands Wood. Find out what changed here.

  • At the top of the village, stands the grandiose and private Old Place that is largely obscured from view. Perhaps in a strange way, the property goes almost unnoticed when passing by. Learn here what it’s all about.

  • From the mid 1800s until about 60 years ago Lindfield was virtually encircled by big houses and their grounds. This article looks at two of these houses.

  • Mention ‘The Bent’ in Lindfield and one immediately thinks of The Bent Arms, but who was Bent and where did he live? Find out more here.

  • Lindfield’s The Old Forge is today, the home of Happy Feet Boutique children’s shoe shop, but how old is old? Click here to find out.

  • Lindfield Women’s Institute was established in June 1917. Activities included instruction in cooking, food economy, growing food crops, sewing and renovating old clothes. All that and more made these lovely ladies a beacon in struggling times. Read on to remember them.

  • News of the Armistice, bringing to an end the fighting, took time to spread and was not widely received until the following day. People needed to read it to believe it was true. Read here to see how locals celebrated.

  • Initial thoughts on a memorial for the village, as a permanent testament to the sacrifice made by local men, were first expressed in early 1919. Click here to learn more.

  • When did you last stand on Lindfield Bridge and look at the river? The dark, slow flowing water passes through private land with no public access, perhaps making it Lindfield’s hidden and forgotten river. Click here for more.

2017

  • Long before our smooth roads, horses had the hard job of pulling heavy carriages over all sorts of surfaces. Julius Guy, a Lindfield carriage builder, set about finding a way to improve the suspension and so much more. Read about this local hero today.

  • Worcester Sauce became popular in the 1840/50s and is still widely used. Today, instead of asking for Worcester sauce, you could have been asking for Lindfield Sauce had its makers had the business acumen of Mr Lea and Mr Perrin. Click here for more.

  • In the Mid Sussex Times in 1913 was: ‘As the result of a public reading at the Haywards Heath Corn Exchange, Dickens was able to hand £100 to the then Vicar of Lindfield ‘. But who wrote to the Times and why was Dickens handing over so much cash? Click here to find out.

  • Lindfield parish church had been in a poor state of repair for years. The problems stemmed from the church receiving very little money. Find out how Reverend Francis Hill Sewell saved the church.

  • A newspaper report in August 1861 commented that the school was ‘among the finest educational structures in Sussex.’ To find out more click here.

  • There were very few days during The Great War that determined how future land battles across the world would be fought; a son of Lindfield played a leading role in one such day. Please read on to find out more about our local hero.

  • Mention The Welkin to Lindfield residents today and it conjures up images of the houses with their neat gardens and well maintained grounds in the area behind the High Street and north of Hickmans Lane. Find out more here.

  • The name Finches does not derive from a Victorian country mansion. It is much older in origin dating back to a farm that existed in medieval times, with perhaps the land being farmed a thousand years ago. Click here for more.

  • This article explores the early history of the area and how Lindfield as we know it today came about. The first recorded reference to Lindfield is in a Saxon charter dated 765! Click here for more.

Fire-eating Legge: A Lindfield Hero

D company Officers prior to leaving for France in August 1916. Reginald Legge is first left, back row. Courtesy of The Tank Museum.

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

There were very few days during the Great War that determined how future land battles across the world would be fought; a son of Lindfield played a leading role in one such day – 15th September 1916. His heroism and sacrifice went unrecognised.

During 1915 the war on the Western Front had settled into an entrenched stalemate with neither side making and sustaining any significant gain. To help break this deadlock a new weapon was required; this resulted in Britain inventing the tank. Two prototypes were available by December 1915 and, following trials, the Army ordered 100. At this time the Somme offensive was being planned as a major breakthrough, and it was hoped the tanks and their crews would be available for the first day of the offensive on 1st July 1916. However, neither the crews nor the tanks were ready in sufficient numbers.
Being a new and untried weapon, the Army had to learn not only how to drive, operate and maintain tanks, but the tactics to be deployed for their use in battle. In spring 1916, officers and men were drafted into the newly formed Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps and commenced training. Second Lieutenant Reginald Legge was one of those recruited to be a tank commander.

Reginald’s parents lived at ‘Greenwoods’, High Beeches Lane, Lindfield. After leaving Brighton Grammar School, he worked for a wholesale draper in Cannon Street, London before travelling the world as a merchant. A well travelled adventurer, he was working on the Gold Coast prior to the war. Returning to Lindfield in January 1915, Reginald joined the 2/1st Bucks Yeomanry (Royal Bucks Hussars) as a Trooper and was quickly identified as officer material.
On 4th March 1916 he attended a six week officer training course and, following being commissioned on 15th April 1916, aged 34, was posted to the Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps and became one of the first officers to undergo tank training at Canada Farm, Elvenden, near Thetford.

Reginald was posted to France in August 1916, together with fellow officers, tank crews, mechanics and 60 tanks. However, due to mechanical breakdown, only 49 tanks were available for their first deployment into action at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.
On the night of 13th September 1916, the crews fuelled the tanks, collected rations and ammunition ready for their debut. The following day, Reginald and his fellow officers received final instructions and reconnoitred the route to their front line start points. The terrain was extremely rough, heavily damaged by shell holes and cut by trenches making it difficult for the 28 ton monsters to traverse. That evening the tanks moved forward in readiness to take part in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette at zero hour on 15th September 1916. Along the battle front only 32 of the 49 tanks made it to their start points, the others had either got stuck or broken down.

Seven tanks supported the 41st Division, organised into four groups. Tank D6, commanded by Reginald, the only tank in C Group, was given the task of leading the attack on the defences around Flers, thus opening the way for the infantry assault.

From his start point Reginald’s tank supported the infantry advance and made good progress towards Flers, reaching the Division’s first objective. A British soldier described the tank as ‘lumbering past on my left, belching forth yellow flames from her machine gun and making a gap where the Flers road cut through the enemy trench!’ The tanks had a maximum speed of four mph on good ground and appreciably less over rough terrain. Interior conditions were absolutely appalling, extremely noisy with intense heat, noxious engine, violent motion and flying red hot metal splinters as bullets hit the exterior. Severe nausea could ensue after only short distances.

Regardless of the arduous conditions, Reginald continued turning D6 east and north to move down the eastern side of Flers. Once inside the village he helped the infantry clear out the Germans. As the assault continued towards the third objective northeast of the village, the role played by D6 was recognised by the Commanding Officer, 26th Royal Fusiliers, recording that ‘This tank was of the greatest material use and the party in charge of it distinguished themselves considerably’. Leading the advance, Reginald got ahead of the British infantry line and in danger from enemy artillery, he continued north towards his next objective. Aware that there was a German gun battery nearby, he went on the attack destroying one field gun but was fired upon by the remaining three guns. Receiving a direct hit, D6 burst into flames and burnt out.

One crewman died in the burning tank, two died from their wounds at the scene, three made it back to the British line and one was captured. There is some uncertainty regarding Reginald’s precise fate. A crew member saw him in a nearby shell hole, possibly suffering serious wounds. Reginald was posted missing in action by the British. He is thought to have been captured by the Germans and to have died of his wounds the next day. However, the Germans have no record of him being taken prisoner or of a grave. In 1917 Reginald’s identity disc and Will were sent from Germany by the Red Cross and were eventually received by his mother, confirming his death, over a year after going missing.

A review after the battle identified that, out of the 32 that started the attack, nine tanks broke down after a short distance, five bogged down on the battlefield and nine were ineffective as they failed to travel at sufficient speed to support the infantry attack. Only nine tanks played an active role in the advance. with tank D6, commanded by Reginald, making one, if not the greatest, contribution to the advance.

The first deployment of tanks into battle could hardly be regarded as a great success but their potential was proved and tanks were used to greater effect in future British advances during the Great War. Despite playing a major role in the advance and demonstrating the tanks’ potential, his brave actions and sacrifice received no official recognition. He is remembered on the Lindfield War Memorials.
After the war, a fellow tank commander at the battle commented ‘Dear old fire-eating Legge came very near to being great’.

First published in the September 2017 issue of Lindfield Life.

Lindfield's changing High Street - Part 2

The Bent Arms & The Cot

By John Mills and Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

The previous article compared the west side of the High Street in 1923 with 2023; in this article we journey down the eastern side. Starting at the top of the High Street, from the ornate Lindfield sign down to All Saints Church is residential today, as it was in 1923. After the church, the Tiger had ceased being an Inn in 1916, becoming the parish church house and has continued to be ever since.

After the passageway, 1 Tiger Cottages – No 120 – was a sweet shop called The Little Shop. Evidence of this past use can be seen in the remains of a shop front. After these cottages, Tallow Cottage, built in 1975, is the newest house in the High Street. It stands on the site of a wide entrance to the backyard and slaughterhouse of Wickham’s butcher’s shop and family home, which was situated in Oakley House (No 112). From this point down to the corner of Brushes Lane today is all residential - the exception in 1923 being Spongs, on the corner, which was Alfred Carey’s house and had his ironmonger’s shop attached. The large shop window is still evident, as is the old forge to the rear.

Brushes Lane was little more than a bridleway until 1957, when it was widened to provide access to the Dukes Road development. This necessitated the demolition of a building known as The Cot (see photo above) that had been built in the 1860s adjacent to the Bent Arms. Over the years it had had many uses, from railway company offices to storage to a dwelling and even, it is said, the Musical and Literacy Institute. To the rear of the Bent Arms is 96 High Street.

Previously the coach house and stables of the inn, it is now in mixed use. Today, from this point down to Boarsland on the corner of Alma Road is all residential. This was not the case a hundred years ago. Priory Cottage, No 86 - which was originally a medieval hall house - Crosskeys, No 76, and Boarsland, No 72, all had shop extension build-outs in their front gardens out to the pavement. Priory Cottage was a stationers and newspaper shop run by Ernest Welfare. Crosskeys, 76 High Street, also dating from medieval times, was divided into two cottages with the southern part having the front extension, which was the fishmonger’s and poulterer’s shop of Jacob Driver. Boarsland was Thomas Charman’s baker’s shop with the bake house behind.

Crossing over Alma Road, South Down Cellars wine merchants was, in 1923, H P Martin’s corn and coal merchant. A short mid-Victorian terrace known as Albert Terrace follows, today containing Ounce, Jackson-Stops, Somers café and Mathilda Rose. Respectively these were Mrs Helen Hodson’s confectioners, Rice Brothers’ saddlery and harness makers, Herbert Caffyn’s tobacconist and confectioners and finally at 1 Albert Terrace, John Holman’s Cycle and Motor Cycle Depot; until December 1922 it had been a cycle and gramophone shop.

Below the Red Lion stands Porters, a residential property that was previously Dr Hay’s surgery and family home. The private housing continues down to the United Reformed Church, originally the Congregational Chapel.

The next area was devoted to the Box family businesses. They ran a nursery that stretched parallel with Lewes Road and up Luxford Road. Interestingly, one of only a few shops to have continued the same trade over the period is Paul’s greengrocer’s. This had been James Box’s greengrocer shop. Next door was their florists, today Mark Revill & Co. Again, continuing the same trade is Cottenham’s, which was the Box butcher’s shop. Behind was Box’s storage and preparation rooms, today occupied by Nova Medispa – which recently moved from beside the Co-op.

In competition with Lloyds Bank across the road, Barclays had a sub branch in the first cottage, No 38. The neighbouring cottage was the home of John Sharman, Assistant Clerk to the Parish Council. This was followed by the Post Office and its adjoining sorting room, later extended into the Post Office and now Truffles Bakery.

Crossing Lewes Road and after Pear Tree House and the King Edward Hall in 1923 (and until recent times) was the White Horse Inn, now converted into Tamasha Indian restaurant. Slake Coffee Shop is housed in the inn’s stables. The private house – No 18 – did not exist in 1923 as this was the site of Lindfield Motor Garage owned by Messrs Boggis & Franklin. At Nos 14 and 16, the front shop extension, which is today the home of the Lindfield Barbers, was, a hundred years ago, a fishmongers and fish and chip shop run by Hubert Ellis. In later years it became the Pond Shop. Beyond this point the High Street remains residential, with the last property on the east side being Pelham House.

The big question is how does the High Street today compare with 1923? The answer in a few words is very favourably, with both serving the needs, trends and their communities of the time. There were a few more shops a hundred years ago but several in the same trade and presumably in competition. Missing today are drapers and ironmongers, but this a national trend. That said, it is probably fair to say, today’s shops collectively have a far greater range of goods than their earlier counterparts. Lindfield is fortunate to have such a vibrant High Street and long may this continue.

Contact via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

Lindfield's changing High Street - Part 1

Simmonds & Pranklins

By John Mills and Richard Bryant

How much has the High Street, which runs from the Black Hill mini roundabout northwards to the top of Town Hill, just beyond All Saints Church, changed in 100 years? This article compares the High Street in 1923 with today.

Starting on the western side of the street, the section from Black Hill roundabout along to the pond is little changed. The exception being Pondcroft, on the corner of Pondcroft Road, which had at the front an ironmonger’s and office of Anscombe and Sons. Their builder’s yard and workshop, now a private house, was a short distance up Pondcroft Road. The houses around the pond are unchanged.

The section from the northern end of the pond to Denmans Lane has seen the most dramatic change. Whilst the townscape of the High Street has remained largely visually unchanged and immediately identifiable, this area has changed beyond recognition with No 31 not being built until 1924. All the original buildings were demolished in 1964 and eventually replaced by the shops seen today, Selbys, Co-op and Nova Medispa. In 1923, this area was the site of Masters grocery and drapers shop regarded locally as Lindfield’s ‘department store’, and next door was Downs House, the Masters family home.

Masters

Across Denmans Lane, the corner premises currently, Corner Hairdressing was Wood’s Cycle Store. Next door a confectioners and tobacconist shop, was run by George Mighall; soon to be the Black Duck coffee shop. Previously the neighbouring business was Capital and Counties Bank which had opened a branch in 1910. The bank became part of Lloyds Bank in 1918 and the branch remained open until 2000. The premises were then acquired by Stand Up Inn and became part of the inn. When occupied by the bank, Mary Newton, lived and had a dressmaker’s business on the premises.

Standing back from the pavement, The Old Brewery and Brewery Cottage, Nos 49 and 51, were once part of Lindfield Brewery that stopped brewing in 1906 and was subsequently used for storage in 1923.

The fine medieval building, today Lindfield Eye Care Practice and Mansell McTaggart, was in 1923 the longstanding location of Durrant’s grocers, china and drapers emporium. Nos 55-57 High Street, Lindfield Medical Centre, was the site of the former Assembly Rooms but used in 1923 as storage by Durrant’s shop.

Adjacent to the walkway was Miss Simmons, stationer and newsagent, now Tufnells Home. Mounted at first floor level and difficult to see on the neighbouring building, is a nameplate reading Prospect House, the home of Hamilton Stone Design, kitchen designers and installer. A hundred years ago it was the popular shoe and boot shop run by Joseph Pranklin.

The adjacent private house was the home of Richard Humphrey, who with his father ran the eponymous Humphrey’s bakery. In recent years it was Lindfield’s best-known shop, having been a bakers since 1796. Sadly, it closed a couple of years ago and awaits a new purpose. Behind stood the bake house now repurposed as the soon to be new home of Doodie Stark, a ladies fashionable boutique.

In the mid 1800s, a short terrace of three storey properties was built called 1 – 4 Victoria Terrace, but now formally numbered 67-73 High Street. The first property is currently the Limes Thai Kitchen, until the late 1920s it was a private residence, before becoming the Lindfield Telephone Exchange, following the electrification of the High Street. Alongside was the home and business of T W Heasman, a house, land and insurance agent. Today, it is Caragon Boutique, a ladies’ clothes shop. Wilfred Capon’s ladies’ and gentleman’s outfitters and general drapery shop traded next door, today the home and business premises of Peter Voigt, a violin restorer. Just as it was in 1923, No 4 remains a private residence.

Known as ‘Poplars’, Nos 75 and 77 High Street are today Tufnells, and Denziloe Hair Design was Joseph Whall’s hairdresser and Poplars Laundry run by Miss May Brown. Kieron James Toys next door was an annexe to the laundry.

In 1923, Wigelsworth Tailors had a branch under the management of George Blunt in the premises now occupied by Martins Newsagents and Lindfield Post Office. Pleasingly, Abbott’s name has remained unchanged serving as a chemists for Lindfield for well over a century, although the owners have changed. The outbuilding in the backyard was Rainbow Pottery.

The fine dwellings, Manor House and Nash House, have always been residential and whilst the adjoining timber framed Well House and Barnlands give a similar impression, they had previously been a poulterers and greengrocers shop. Maud Savill of Finches with her desire to beautify the High Street, purchased the property and converted the shop and cottages into the two houses as seen today.

Looking towards Wrattans

On the northern side of Hickmans Lane, stands a retail unit that, in many years past, was a Toll Cottage for the Newchapel to Brighton Turnpike Road. In 1923, it was the business of Clifford Featherstone, a watch and clock maker. Until recently the home to Doodie Stark, and the last retail unit before the street becomes wholly residential. This was not the case a century ago.

Adjoining was Wratten’s grocers and drapers shop; evidence of this past retail use can be seen by the blank plaque on the facade below the roof line, which once carried the shop’s name. At Doone House, No 111, David Davies ran a tailoring business and his wife, Helen a costumier’s. In the yard at No 115 was the coal and wood merchants owned by James Scutt - the family lived in the house. A little further up the street lived the Misses Wells who were milliners.

Evidence of past trade use can also be seen on the southern side wall of No 129. The now painted over trade sign read, ‘George Mason Fly and Cab Proprietor. Carriages of Every Description For Hire’. While in the right section of the property, Romany Cottage, a shop window still remains in the northern front corner. This part was occupied by Joseph ‘Daddy’ Clough, a boot and shoe maker.

The Bower House, built in medieval times and widely regarded as one of the three oldest surviving houses in Lindfield, surprisingly was in 1923 divided into two cottages. The southern end was home to John Wingham, a builder, and his family. The other half was the home of Herbert Scutt and family - his occupation was motor carman; a carrier of goods by motor van.

Beyond this point has always been residential with Lindfield Place providing the full stop to the High Street. This ends the journey up the western side of the High Street. Next month’s article will return down the east side.

Contact via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

Click here for Lindfield’s changing High Street - Part 2

The 1953 Coronation in Lindfield

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Following Elizabeth’s accession to the throne on 6th February 1952, thoughts nationally turned to the Coronation and how it should be celebrated. The 3rd June 1953 was declared Coronation Day. To organise the celebrations in Lindfield, an Executive Committee with eight members was established supported by a 39 strong General Committee. A souvenir brochure was produced and sold for one shilling.

On Coronation morning, the Lindfield Coronation Committee sent the following telegram message to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, ‘With humble respect, congratulations to Your Majesty, from your loyal subjects of Lindfield, Sussex’.

The Mid Sussex Times reported ‘Lindfield had put on its gayest attire’ with the main centre of the decorative scheme being the pond, with flags, banners and shields on poles along the water’s edge. An archway spanned the road at both ends. Contractors undertook the decorations and illuminations. All the shops decorated their windows. Many houses were also dressed for the occasion and numerous Union flags hung from windows and improvised flag poles. The Lindfield Horticultural Society gave a prize to the best decorated house; the winner being 35 Luxford Road.

Coronation Day celebrations started at 9am with the pealing of the church bells by the Lindfield Church Bell Ringing Society. Unfortunately the weather did not match the joyous pealing of the bells; it remained grey with showers and chilly all day.

For those able to afford a television, the ceremony was broadcast from Westminster Abbey. Fortunate owners invited family, friends and neighbours to watch the ceremony. Many more listened on the radio. Women and men over 60 and 65 respectively were invited to the King Edward Hall to watch a specially installed television rigged to project onto a large screen. About 260 attended, many seeing television for the first time. The sound broadcast was relayed to the Common.

The Firing of the Anvils at 2pm in the High Street, near the Lewes Road junction, heralded the start of the day’s events on the Common and pond. The first event was the Fancy Dress procession organised by the Lindfield Dramatic Club, with 60 entrants parading from Pondcroft Road to Lewes Road and onto the Common for judging. This was followed by an Empire Tableau arranged by Mr Porter and Miss Anscombe of Lindfield School. The children performed an explanation of the Royal Coat of Arms painted on shields.

A short open air inter-dominational religious service followed, conducted by the three village churches. On Coronation Sunday, 31st May, the churches had held a Special Order of Service.

At 3.20pm, the presentation of ‘awards to Our Birthday Guests’ was made to the eight residents of the parish whose birthdays fell on Coronation Day. Each received an iced birthday cake.

Amid much excitement, the focus then turned to ‘Aquatic Sports’ on the pond organised by Lindfield Men’s Club. These comprised of swimming races for men and women together with novelty events such as a beer barrel race, mop fight, greasy pole and a Miller v Sweep contest. The two contestants, one armed with a bag of soot and the other with flour, sat astride a pole over the pond, with the loser being the first to be knocked into the water.

There was also a demonstration by Horace Putman of his radio controlled model liner.

The watching crowds returned to the Common for the start of the sports organised by the village sports clubs, the majority of which were for children. In addition to running events, less serious races were held including a balloon race, dog and child race, slow bicycle race, skipping and obstacle races. Adults were not ignored with a variety of competitions such as, men and ladies’ tug-of-war, ladies’ over 50 years egg and spoon race and a ladies’ and gentlemen’s cigarette race.

While the sports were proceeding, an ‘Old Folks High Tea’ was served by the Women’s Institute with catering by the Bent Arms in the Social Centre, now part of Old School Court, Lewes Road. Children of all ages lined up to receive souvenir mugs, emblems and a packed tea. In the early evening the Lindfield Conservative Association organised a Treasure Hunt on the Common.

At 9pm, the Coronation Dance commenced in King Edward Hall with music by the Harmonists Band, the dancing continuing until after midnight. As darkness fell a torchlight procession from Pondcroft Road proceeded via Denmans Lane, Compton Road and High Street onto the Common for a giant bonfire and a spectacular firework display. Illuminations were turned on and the church steeple floodlit, bringing to a close this memorable day.

Contact via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/or 01444 482136.

Frederick William Lanchester

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

What is the connection between a car company, the theory of flight, an English university, the laws of combat, the concept of quality management and Walstead Burial Ground? The answer is Frederick William Lanchester.

At Walstead Burial Ground, Frederick is commemorated on a stone tablet at the base of his parents’ - Henry Jones Lanchester and Octavia Lanchester - gravestone, along with his sister, Mary, and brother, Vaughan. The ashes of Frederick, together with those of his brother and sister, are buried in this grave.

Henry and Octavia Lanchester died in 1914 and 1916 respectively, having lived at ‘Southlea’, Sunte Avenue, Lindfield for a number of years. He was an architect, as was his son Henry (Vaughan) Lanchester, who was eminent in the profession.

Frederick William Lanchester was born in Lewisham on 23rd October 1868. He studied engineering and science and attended the Royal College of Science but did not graduate. However, in recognition of his contribution to aerodynamics and engineering, in 1920 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham. In the years that followed, he was accorded numerous other prestigious honours, including Fellowship of the Royal Society.

His early years were as an employed engineer at the Forward Gas Engine Company in Birmingham, developing gasoline engines. In 1893, Frederick set up his own workshop and built his first engine. The following year this was fitted to a boat, creating the first all-British powerboat. In 1895, he produced the first four-wheeled gasoline car in England. This led to the setting up of the Lanchester Engine Company and subsequently the Lanchester Car Company being established. The cars were highly regarded for the quality of their engineering. Frederick resigned from the company in 1910. Many years later, the business was acquired by Daimler.

Frederick, a visionary genius, was responsible for many significant inventions in automobile engineering, including disc type brakes, an ‘automatic’ transmission system, power steering, four-wheel drive, fuel injection, the dynamic balancing of engines and low voltage ignition. In his life, he filed 426 patents, ranging from components for reproducing music to a colour photographic process.

However, his overwhelming interest was aerodynamics and powered flights. He was the foremost proponent on the theory of flight based on the vortex theory. This remains the foundation for flight to this day, although he was initially persuaded to delay the publication of his theory, which was so advanced for its time that it might have damaged his reputation as an engineer.

Many other papers followed, culminating in his two-volume treatise in 1907 on aerodynamics, entitled ‘Aerial Flight’. This was followed by further valuable contributions to the literature on aeronautics such as ‘Flying Machine from an Engineering Standpoint’.

Upon the outbreak of the Great War, Frederick became convinced of the need for a mathematical analysis of the relative strengths of opposing battlefield forces to describe the effectiveness of aircraft. Resulting from quantitative studies of casualties in land, sea and air battles, he developed the two Lanchester Laws – the Linear Law of Combat and the N-Squared Law of Combat. These were published in 1916 as his seminal work, ‘Aircraft in Warfare – the Dawn of the Fourth Arm’.

His work in aeronautics continued into the 1920s and 1930s, with papers on the counter-rotating propellers, rocket-assisted flight and other technical topics. In 1931, Frederick received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for his ‘Contribution to the Fundamental Theory of Aerodynamics’. Five years earlier, the Royal Aeronautical Society had bestowed its gold medal upon him.

However, at this time Frederick was becoming increasingly absorbed in musical reproduction, leading to many significant developments in the design and manufacture of advanced speakers, microphones and amplifiers.

Following the start of World War Two, the US military started to study the Lanchester Laws of Combat. These were successfully applied in US military strategy in the later stages of the war, including operations in the central Pacific. To this day the Lanchester principles are taught in military colleges. Frederick’s extensive writings on military subjects, including logistics, became a founding element in the science of Operational Research.

Frederick died on 8th March 1946 with little wealth. His life of invention and visionary theories had not translated into a personal fortune. He had spent most of his adult life in the Midlands.

Dr W Edward Deming, an American helping with the reconstruction of Japan, introduced Frederick’s work on Operational Research to that country in 1952. This resulted in Lanchester being regarded as one of the four founders of the concept of Quality Management, which became the cornerstone of Japanese industrial success. To this day, Kaisen continuous improvement is practiced by organisations across the world, from Toyota to the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.

Subsequent research by the Japanese produced a reworking of the Lanchester Laws of Combat into strategies for corporate competition. In 1962, the theories were further refined by Dr Taoko as the Lanchester Strategy of Sales and Marketing. Briefly this provides rules for selecting a strategy depending upon whether a company was attacking a new market or defending an existing market position. These have since been widely applied by Japanese corporations with over two million books on the subject sold in Japan.

Many regard the application of Lanchester’s theories as being, in part, responsible for the Japanese focus on competitive advantage and market share resulting in their county’s economic success. Arguably, his name is better known and more highly regarded in Japan than in Britain, particularly since the university named in his honour has been renamed the University of Coventry.

Lindfield should be proud to have an engineer and polymath of the eminence of Frederick William Lanchester resting in Walstead Burial Ground.

Shopping in Lindfield in 1834 and 1835

By Richard Bryant and Rosemary Davies, Lindfield History Project Group

A couple of years ago, a website message was received enquiring if the group would like some old documents relating to the village. It appeared a gentleman in Ewell, Surrey had purchased, at auction, a box of old documents relating to that area and, to his surprise, at the bottom were Lindfield papers. A parcel duly arrived containing hundreds of invoices dated between 1835 and 1845, for shopping and services supplied to the Tuppen household.

After extensive research a comprehensive analysis of purchases was completed and each trader identified. This gives an intriguing insight into shopping by a wellto-do household and the commercial life in Lindfield during the early to mid 1800s. In those days, virtually all needs were supplied by traders in Lindfield village and the wider parish. Unlike today, residents did not have the benefit of supermarkets in Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill nor online shopping. Neither was there refrigeration, frozen foods or canned goods. Also, if something was broken, repair took precedent over replacement. Life was much simpler.

Who were the Tuppens? – Dr Richard Stapley Tuppen lived with his sister, Sarah Tuppen, at Froyls in the High Street, having inherited the house from their father Dr Henry Tuppen, upon his death in 1814. Their mother Mrs Sarah Tuppen, nee Stapley, was a member of the wellconnected and wealthy Stapley family, whose seat was at Hickstead Place, Twineham. Dr Richard Tuppen died in 1840, aged 59. Froyls passed to his sister Sarah and she continued to live there as a spinster, until her death in 1857 aged 72 years.

Throughout the Tuppens’ time at Froyls, they maintained a household of three live-in servants and at least one outside staff. They were typical of the more comfortably off residents living in Lindfield at the time. Their spending power with local traders was therefore in excess of the working population and this is reflected in their purchases, which were all made ‘on account’.

The most perishable food purchased was raw meat, which was bought two or three times a week from either Comber Turner, butchers, who traded from an open fronted booth type shop where Tallow Cottage stands today or George Jenner, butchers, also in the High Street. In February 1834 the Tuppens purchased in total 28lb of beef including steak, 3lb mutton chops and a 7lb leg of mutton from the two butchers.

Pork does not appear to have been bought from the butchers but purchased direct from farmers as either a half fat pig or a whole hog. The former cost £2.15s.9d (£2.73). How such quantities of meat were kept edible is not known. It is also thought the Tuppens kept a pig or two in their back garden, as there is a reference to a repair of a ‘hog pound’ among the invoices. Similarly, chickens were kept for eggs. No invoices exist for vegetables and fruit so presumably these were also home grown by the gardener. Milk was delivered daily to the door.

Butter was bought direct from farmers in large quantities of at least 15 pounds in weight a month and on occasions 30 pounds with custom regularly given to Thomas Bannister, Beech Farm, Cuckfield. Additionally, on occasions two pound butter pats were purchased from village grocers.

A grocer favoured by the Tuppens was P. Caffyn, situated to the rear of the churchyard. Regular purchases included cheese, currants, peel, sugar and tea. Flour was purchased in bulk at one bushel every month or so, from John Coomber, farmer and miller at Cockhaise Farm and also Freshfield Mill and East Mascalls Mill. Similarly, sugar was purchased in bulk from grocers. More specialist provisions such as Souchong Chinese black tea, Green tea, Caraway seeds and surprisingly, yellow soap, were purchased from J. Collard, believed to have traded in Lewes.

Copious quantities of beer were purchased at the rate of six gallons every two or three weeks, from William and Edward Durrant, grocers, brewer and general store, at Morelands (today Lindfield Eye Centre and Mansell McTaggart). Intriguingly, gin was bought from Mr. B. Beckett, a brick maker and victualler, with two gallons being purchased in April 1834 and again in February 1835. In June 1834, Mr. Beckett supplied 200 bricks – an odd combination!

Throughout 1834 and 1835, one and a half bushels (90lbs) of malt (germinated grain) was purchased each month from Samuel Molineaux, a maltster at Boltro Farm, Haywards Heath. Hops were also bought suggesting beer was also being brewed.

Turning to household purchases and repairs local traders met most of the Tuppens needs. During 1834, Edward Batchelor, with a smithy in the High Street, provided a new rake, spade and shovel, a bell for the gate and fixed a plate to the fire range, all at a cost of 18 shillings. In the following year, a sewer grate, chimney bar and fastenings to the hog pound were made and fitted. Repairs to saddles, reins, bridle straps, dog chain and even a carpet broom, were provided by Abel Brown of Viking Cottage. Repairs to barrels with new hoops were undertaken by Edward Dann, Cooper, of Back Lane, Cuckfield.

John Harland, draper and tailor, at today’s 103-105 High Street, supplied 28 yards of sheeting and 27 yards of ‘homebid’ binding totalling £1.13s.5½d., suggesting that bed sheets were made and not purchased ready-made.

To fire the kitchen range and heat the house, hundreds of faggots (bunch of sticks tied for burning) and wood were purchased from Henry Morley at Nether Walstead. Henry Morley also provided stakes, bean sticks and pea boxes for the garden. Hedging plants were purchased from Henry Pierces, woodsman and plantsman of Bedales Hill. In later years, coal by the ton was supplied by George Saxby from his yard by the Ouse; however, coal invoices for 1834-35 appear to be missing.

Boot and shoe repairs, including servants’ shoes, were carried out by Henry Wells, a shoemaker, at Froyls Cottage, today Chantry Cottage. While Charles Bish, a fellmonger (dealer in hides) and breeches maker provided new gaiters and repairs to breeches for the Tuppens’ groom.

A significant number of invoices from local builders exist for building work, such as repairs to windows and doors in the house, stables and outbuildings plus household repairs ranging from tables and chairs, to beds and even tea caddies, presumably all carpentry tasks. Like with food, specialist items such as cut glass, fine china and Japanese lacquered waiter (small table) and tray were purchased from retailers in Lewes.

The Tuppen papers do not include any invoices for clothing but, as with other items, would mainly have been purchased from Lindfield’s tailors, dressmakers, glovers, milliners and shoemakers.

The invoices illustrate that life in the 1830s was much simpler than today. Even for the well-to-do, food shopping was largely limited to the basic ingredients from which a meal could be prepared. Lindfield village and its parish was a self-sustaining community. It had to be, and it was not until long after the coming of the railway in 1841 that Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill started to grow into towns. Although close by Cuckfield had similar facilities to Lindfield. The closest large town and easiest journey was Lewes, but this was only available to those fortunate residents with their own horses and carriage, and then for only occasional trips.

Contact https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

The Lindfield Photographer - William Marchant

By Richard Bryant & Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group

If you or a family member have lived in Lindfield for many years, it would not be surprising if tucked away at the bottom of a drawer, or in an old album, there is a photograph by William Marchant. His photographs have provided a rich legacy of life, events and people in Lindfield during the first half of the last century. They are recognisable by his signature or embossed name.

By Richard Bryant & Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group If you or a family member have lived in Lindfield for many years, it would not be surprising if tucked away at the bottom of a drawer, or in an old album, there is a photograph by William Marchant. His photographs have provided a rich legacy of life, events and people in Lindfield during the first half of the last century. They are recognisable by his signature or embossed name.

His work included studio portraiture, composed outdoor photographs and events. Generally, only limited numbers of scenic postcards were produced.

William Marchant started his business in 1911 and among his earliest work was a series of cards capturing the village celebrating the 1911 Coronation. He advertised in the Mid Sussex Times: “Have your decorations, your house, garden etc. photographed, for post cards on Coronation Day.” Perhaps his bestknown photo is his impressive image of the Army airship ‘Gamma’, which landed on the Common while on a training exercise in April 1912. Fifteen hundred photographs were sold, with cards at one penny each and mounted photographs at one shilling. The Great War provided a rich source for him, with postcards from the Royal Army Medical Corps billeted in the village to the Welcome Home celebrations and the unveiling of the War Memorial.

As his career progressed, the quality of his work was recognised with Marchant’s appointment as the Scientific Photographer to Sir Arthur Woodward, the eminent geologist who was famously fooled by the Piltdown Man ‘missing link’ fraud. William Marchant could also claim that he took one of the first photographs to appear in the Mid Sussex Times - that of Mrs Neville Chamberlain opening a hospital ward in Cuckfield.

The opening of his studio at 6 Luxford Road (old numbering) allowed portraiture of individuals and families. This line of work took off with the Great War, when every family and sweetheart wanted a picture of their ‘man in uniform’ before he left Lindfield for an uncertain future. Family celebrations, weddings and gatherings were also much in demand throughout his career. Also popular were photographs of cast members in productions at King Edward Hall, sports teams and posed outdoor subjects.

His later works included photos for the Haywards Heath, Cuckfield and Lindfield Guide, published by the local Chamber of Commerce and the All Saints Church Guide, written by Helena Hall.

Who was William Marchant? He was born on 21st August 1886 to his parents John and Elizabeth Marchant, who lived at Somerset Cottages, adjacent to the Common. William was one of six children. After leaving school, he trained and worked as a printer at Charles Clarke Ltd. William Marchant married Myra Hookway, a Lady’s Maid for the Sturdy family at Paxhill, in August 1912 at Lindfield Parish Church and they set up home at 6 Luxford Road, where he opened his first studio. He continued living at Luxford Road until moving to Sunte Avenue (today number 77) in 1924, where he built a studio and small printing works in the rear garden.
William Marchant worked until late in his life, dying aged 79 years in 1965.

Contact 01444 482136 or via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/

Did you know about Lindfield's connection to Friar Tuck and John Bent's association with The Bent Arms?

By Richard Bryant and Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group

Did you know that Friar Tuck, of Robin Hood fame, was a priest at Lindfield Parish Church in the early 1400s?

The name Friar Tuck first appears as Frere Tuk in a Royal Writ issued for his arrest on 9th February 1417: it read ‘Commission to Thomas Camoys, Thomas Ponynges and John Pelham to arrest one assuming the name of Frere Tuk and other evildoers of his retinue who have committed divers murders, robberies, depredations, felonies, insurrections, trespasses, oppressions, extortions, offences and misprisions in the counties of Surrey and Sussex, and bring them before the King and Council’. A comprehensive list of crimes, giving the impression it was a ‘catch all’ warrant.

From the words ‘assuming the name of Frere Tuk’, it is reasonable to assume that the name was a nom de guerre. No connection was made with Robin Hood, as it would appear the Friar had not been subsumed into fables in the Robin Hood tradition at that time. The Robin Hood fables are set during the lives and reigns of Richard I and John, from the mid-1100s to early 1200s.

On 22nd May 1417, a further writ was issued commissioning ‘William Lasyngby and Robert Hull to enquire into the report that a certain person assuming the unusual name of Frere Tuk and other evildoers have entered parks, warrens and chases of divers lieges of the King in the counties of Surrey and Sussex at divers times, hunted therein and carried off deer, hares, rabbits, pheasants and partridges, burned the houses and lodges for the keeping of the parks, warrens and chases and threatened the keepers’. Regardless of other crimes, poaching on Royal land and that of his supporters was a serious offence in the 1400s. It is not clear whether this writ was clarification of the February 1417 writ or an additional indictment, probably the former.

The identity of Frere Tuk remained unknown and thus he escaped arrest. He next appeared in a writ of 12th November 1429, which stated ‘Robert Stafford, late of Lyndefeld in the County of Sussex, Chaplain, or Robert Stafford of Lyndefeld, Chaplain, alias ‘Frere Tuk’, for not appearing before the King to answer Richard Wakehurst touching pleas of trespass; or before Henry V to answer that King touching divers trespasses whereof he the said Robert Stafford was indicted’. It is to be assumed that a ‘hue and cry’ was raised and Robert Stafford went on the run as an outlaw.

There is no known record of Robert Stafford being arrested nor standing trial or of his death. Similarly, where he lived in Lindfield before going on the run is not known. In any event, the property most likely disappeared centuries ago. Looking at surviving houses from the 1400s, a possible contender could be Church Cottage.

His crimes and escape from arrest became a legend and passed into folklore, as poaching from the rich would have been admired by the poor, who had suffered grievously for committing such crimes.

Frere Tuk’s name next appears around 1475 in the first surviving Robin Hood play, Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham, with the words: ‘Be holde wele Frere Tuke Howe he dothe his bowe pluke’

It was at this time that Maid Marian also entered the Robin Hood fable. Nevertheless, it is possible that they were characters in earlier oral tales that were not recorded in writing. From this point to today Friar Tuck regularly appears in Robin Hood stories and songs. Academic studies consider Friar Tuck to be one of a few members, if not the only one, of Robin Hood’s band of outlaws that can be traced to a real person. Interestingly, in c.1590 a reference to Friar Tuck is also made in Shakespeare’s ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’, when the third outlaw exclaims: ‘By the Bare Scalp of Robin Hood’s fat friar’.
This fellow were a King for our wild faction. Hence Robert Stafford, a Lindfield Priest, most likely a Chantry Priest, obtained immortality as Friar Tuck.

Did you know John Bent gave his name to the Bent Arms?

The Inn dating from the 17th century was originally called The White Lion, until being bought in about 1827 by John Bent. He changed the name of the Inn to reflect his ownership. At the time of the purchase, he was a local property and landowner who lived at Oat Hall, a large house that he had built between Lindfield and Haywards Heath.

Born on 27th March 1776, John Bent grew up in Devon. His mother’s family were tradesmen at Ashburton. In 1818, he became the Member of Parliament for Sligo, Ireland, until 1820, when for the next six years he represented the Totnes, Devon, constituency. According to History of Parliament, ‘He certainly had money, was known in the City and invested substantially in landed property in the Lindfield and Cuckfield area of Sussex, but no evidence has been found to corroborate an assertion of 1823 that he was “a West India Planter”’.

Whilst he may not have been a planter, the 1817 Slaves Register of the Slave Compensation Commission, a government body set up to pay compensation to slave owners, consequent upon the abolition of slavery, lists John Bent as the Proprietor of Plantation Vrouw Anna in British Guiana. He had sold this plantation and mortgaged it back to the new owner, putting in a claim for £14,000 compensation for slaves on the plantation. He did not receive the payment as they were part of the new owner’s property and mortgage security. Clearly John Bent was involved in the West Indies as he was described as being ‘a Commissioner in Demerara’ when being put forward for the Sligo seat in Parliament.

John Bent was also involved in an Irish Mining Company scandal in 1825 and 1826. The Arigna Iron and Coal Mining Company was established in 1825 as a joint stock company, to exploit iron, coal and other minerals in and around Arigna in the counties of Roscommon and Leitrim, Ireland. At the time it was considered beneficial to introduce English capital into Ireland.

The scandal concerned the alleged fraudulent appropriation of shareholders’ money by Bent and other directors of the company. A Parliamentary Select Committee investigated the scandal and cleared him of fraudulent activity but he was censored for imprudence. The other directors were found to have acted fraudulently. Following on from what might be described as a ‘colourful’ business life, on settling in Lindfield and investing in property in the area John Bent lived an uneventful life until his death in October 1848, aged 73.

Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/

Lindfield's only Victorian factory

By John Mills and Richard Bryant

Lindfield, being a rural parish, escaped the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, although one factory was built early in the Victorian era. It stood where Lindfield Medical Centre stands today.

In 1840, Thomas Durrant, a wood turner from a prominent Lindfield non-conformist family, set up a piano business. He soon established the Sussex Pianoforte Manufactory in a workshop next to his home, Broomfields (54 High Street). His first employee, Alfred Steibler, a piano maker, came from London to make pianos.

The Victorian values of hearth and home, with a family’s entertainment centred on music making, created considerable demand for pianos. His business quickly expanded and by 1851 he was turning out ‘cottage pianofortes’ and other types at a rate of 100 per year. Some were transported to London and Brighton for auction with the ‘commendation of several first-rate professional men and dealers in England and Scotland’. To expand the thriving business and accommodate a growing workforce, Thomas Durrant needed much larger premises.

Around 1852, he bought Milwards - an old freehold property that was opposite the original workshop - on the western side of the High Street. Shortly afterwards in 1854, Durrant demolished the old property and, in its large back garden, built a new factory with a wide gated entrance and an extensive forecourt. Unusually for Lindfield, it was a three-storey building with a high roof and large windows, necessary for good lighting. Within ten years, he contracted P Jupp to install gas lighting: the gas being supplied by the Lindfield Gas Works, situated at today’s Chaloner Close. The factory was described as a ‘modern, well-lighted and heated, clean, spacious building, specially built for the purpose for which it was used’. Pianos were made on a production line, with each man performing a specific task. Alfred Steibler was said to be the only Durrant employee who could make and construct an entire piano.

Anecdotally, it has been said villagers nicknamed this fine establishment ‘The Piggery’ because the workers were dubbed ‘the pigs’ on account of drinking so much beer at the end of the week in the Stand Up Inn.

In addition to making and carrying a stock of new pianos for sale at the factory, the business also proudly advertised its Repairing and Regulating Department, ‘where every care is bestowed’, and a tuning service.

In 1860, the factory employed over 30 men and during the next two decades established sales branches in London and Birmingham. By the 1880s, British piano making was in decline due to imported pianos made in Germany having taken a large share of the market. The decision was taken in 1881 to close the manufacturing department. Thomas Durrant retired in early 1882, after selling surplus stock and other items, handing the business to his son, Richard Durrant. Consequently, the name was changed from Sussex Pianoforte Manufactory to R Durrant Piano Warehouse, advertising piano, harmonium and American organs tuned and repaired, in addition to sales and hire.

As the nature of the business had changed there was no need for such a wide-gated entrance to the forecourt. This was narrowed, to the current width of the walkway to the Medical Centre and car park, by building two houses with shops, today Tufnells Home and Kitchens by Hamilton Stone Design.

The Piano Warehouse under Richard Durrant’s management continued to be advertised in local directories until 1887, when he relocated his pianoforte business to Rugby. He remained in business until his retirement in 1924.

Piano production having ceased, less space in the building was required; the Pianoforte Warehouse occupied only part of the ground floor thus freeing up the remainder of the premises. The Durrants rented the spare space to George Eastwood, who engaged a Lindfield builder, Charles Andrews, to convert the space into the New Assembly Rooms. The Assembly Room was on the first floor with a Mission Room below. Lindfield was in need of a larger entertainment and meeting venue as the only function rooms at that time were at the Bent Hotel and the Reading Room in Lewes Road.

The Mid Sussex Times reported at considerable length the opening of the New Assembly Rooms on 15th May 1883. The rooms were complimented for being light, airy, very neat and tastefully presented. There were ‘16 windows, letting light on the subjects, whilst from the ceiling there are two handsome gas pendants. There is a balcony at the entrance end and a stage at the other, and seating arrangements for about 220’. A grand curving staircase led from the ground floor entrance. The Rooms were regarded as providing a ‘valuable acquisition to the town’.

The New Assembly Rooms were managed by a ‘committee of gentlemen’ with George Eastwood as the Secretary and Josiah Durrant as Acting Agent and Booking Manager.

Until the opening of the King Edward Hall in 1911, the New Assembly Rooms were the centre of social life in Lindfield, with regular events ranging from Music Society concerts to harp recitals, from Captain Acklom’s Elocutionary Entertainment to chrysanthemum exhibitions, and Christmas entertainment for children to Lindfield Board School’s Prize Distribution and Scholars Entertainment. Perhaps its most noted event was in 1884 when Oscar Wilde delivered a lecture on ‘The Value of Art in Modern Life’.

In contrast to the entertainments upstairs, the Mission Room was the centre for the local temperance movement by the Church of England and Gospel Temperance Union, promoting alcohol abstinence. Meetings and lectures were held weekly and a lending library was provided, also occasional appropriate entertainments including ‘Mr & Mrs Brown and Miss Skelton the Singing Negro Evangelists’ and an ‘appearance by Wah-Bun-Ah-Kee (Red Indian)’; he was quite famous.

Following the relocation of the Pianoforte Warehouse, the New Assembly Rooms were enlarged. Some of the ground floor space was taken by Edward Durrant as a showroom and store for his High Street shop; and was described in December 1888 as providing ‘baskets, aprons, wraps, cushions, pottery and lace goods’.

The opening of King Edward Hall and the Great War signalled the final decline of the New Assembly Rooms building. Reputedly it was used as a rabbit farm to assist with food shortages during the war. During the 1920s and 1930s it was used for furniture storage and became derelict, but was requisitioned by the military in World War II for an unknown use.

In the early 1950s, the building was brought back to life, returning to its manufacturing roots when Herbert and Paul Christian, trading as O H Christian Ltd, used the premises for their clothing manufacturing business. They specialised in making good-quality skirts for leading brands, hence locally being known as the Skirt Factory. On the first floor was the fabric store, where Paul Christian made the patterns and did all the cutting. Downstairs was the machinist’s area, with many Singer sewing machines and the finishing and pressing department. The factory employed around 20 local women, who enjoyed the perk of ‘overs’ being sold cheaply.

At the beginning of the 1970s, O H Christian Ltd went into receivership and the property became empty again. Shortly after, the building was demolished, making way in 1974 for Lindfield Medical Centre and Toll Gate car park.

Contact Lindfield History Project Group on 01444 482136 or via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/

Looking at Lindfield Census

By Richard Bryant

The 2021 Census has just been taken, but when did the censuses start and what can they tell us about our village in years past?

The Government ordered the first Census in 1801 and thereafter every ten years. The first thee Censuses were concerned with numbers; individuals’ basic details were not recorded until 1841. From 1851 onwards, the Census Returns gradually became more comprehensive, initially asking name, address, age, marital status, relationship to head of household, occupation and birth place. It also asked if the person was blind, deaf, dumb or a lunatic, and, in 1911, the number of main rooms in the dwelling. The information was collected by the Enumerator. Personal information contained in a Census is closed to the public for 100 years, meaning the last currently accessible returns are those completed in 1911. Looking at the Census returns for Lindfield from 1851 to 1911 gives a clear illustration of changes in society, occupation and the village when compared with Lindfield as we know it today.

Perhaps, the most striking changes relate to families and particularly the size of the household. There were few single person households and these were usually widows and widowers. Men and women co-habiting all declared themselves married and carried the same surname. The average number of children in a family was greater than today: four or five children was the norm and six or more was not uncommon. In the larger families, this resulted in the elder children having left school and started working before the last baby was born.

Looking at a random selection of entries across the period, in 1851 Thomas Botting, a 42-year-old pauper and his wife, had ten children ranging in ages from 20 years to one year, and the eldest sons were working as agricultural labourers. The family lived in a cottage in Kent Street, today the High Street end of Lewes Road. Close neighbours Martin and Faith Ellis, living in a similar cottage, had seven children, together with a lodger. He worked in a long-forgotten occupation as a higgler; a dealer trading in one-day-old chicks. In 1911, at the premises now occupied by Cottenhams, lived James Box, a master butcher, his wife Jane, and their ten children, together with two employees: the slaughter man and butcher’s assistant. Also noticeable is the number of dwellings shared by extended families; parents and their children, a spouse’s brother or sister and grandparents and, where space permitted, a lodger might be squeezed in.

Until Haywards Heath started to thrive as a town in the latter part of the 19th century, the Censuses show Lindfield was virtually a self-sufficient community with people living close to where they worked and most household and business needs were met within the village. There were numerous artisans, tradesmen and shopkeepers living and working in and around the High Street and Kent Street. These roads were the main part of the village prior to 1900.

The following is an illustrative selection of trades and occupations between 1851 and 1911. In 1851, Allen Davey lived and worked in Kent Street as a cordwainer employing his two sons as shoemakers and daughter, Lydia, as a shoe binder. An employer of many men in Lindfield between the 1850s and 1880s was Thomas Durrant’s Pianoforte manufactory, located at the site of today’s Medical Centre. Skilled jobs included piano makers, cabinet makers and French polishers. Thomas Durrant, the owner, lived in the High Street at Milwards.

Lydia, as a shoe binder. An employer of many men in Lindfield between the 1850s and 1880s was Thomas Durrant’s Pianoforte manufactory, located at the site of today’s Medical Centre. Skilled jobs included piano makers, cabinet makers and French polishers. Thomas Durrant, the owner, lived in the High Street at Milwards.

On the other side of the High Street in the house adjoining the bakery, latterly known as Humphreys, was Charles Mead, a tailor and his family of several tailors. At 4 Victoria Terrace in 1881, Louisa Allin and her two sisters ran a ‘Young Ladies School’, where, in addition to day girls, there were six borders aged between five and eight years. John Parker lived at The Poplars, Victoria Terrace, where he ran his watch making business employing two boys. The Holman family lived and ran a greengrocers and poulterer’s shop at Barnlands for many years.

Beyond the junction with Hickmans Lane was a grocers and drapers shop, run by George Bartholomew. This was one of several grocers and drapers, including Masters, on the Co-op site, and Durrants (Lindfield Eye Care). Everyndens was the home for many years of Dr Richard Fitzmaurice and family; he was the medical officer for Cuckfield Union and District Innoculator. Other doctors were Elliot Daunt in1891 at Pierpoint House and Dr Porter at the aptly-named Porters, and later Dr Alban.

In the yard behind the Bent Arms, Henry Packham lived with his family and employed two men in his wheelwright business. Also at the Bent Arms was Julius Guy, the coach maker. Across Brushes Lane, at Spongs, lived William Denman, a blacksmith; his forge can still be seen today.

At the cottage adjacent to Seckhams, in 1881 lived John Botting, a thatcher, and his wife, Eliza, a glove and leggings maker. Living at Froyles Cottage (today The Chantry) with her two daughters was Naomi Wells, who ran a dressmaking and milliner’s business.

In all the censuses, a major source of work was household work, which ranged from women working at home as laundresses to char women and day and live-in domestic staff, and, for men, work such as gardeners, grooms and coachmen. As the period progressed there was a gradual increase in prosperity, largely due to the opening of the London to Brighton railway line in 1841, leading to the building of villas on Black Hill and large houses around the outskirts. This resulted in a marked increase in the numbers working as live-in servants and outdoors employees, particularly gardeners. Every selfrespecting middle class family had at least one or two domestic servants. In 1891, Montague Turner, a solicitor residing at Milton House on Black Hill with his wife Augusta and their six young children, employed a child nurse, nurse maid, two house maids, an under house maid, footman and cook. This is modest when compared with Charles E Kempe, a 63-year-old single man living on his own at Old Place, who in 1901 employed 13 ‘live in’ domestic servants and outdoor staff. The roll call of jobs would not be out of place at ‘Downton Abbey’, there being housekeeper, cook, head housemaid, second and third housemaids, head kitchen maid, scullery maid, butler valet, first footman, second footman, hall man, coach man, head groom and finally second groom.

With the coming of the new century, new roads started to appear in the village. The Edwardian period also introduced motor cars and the new job of chauffeur. In 1911, Frederick Fulham, who lived at 2 Luxford Road, Albert Rix, at Hope Lea, Eastern Road, and Frank Walder, at Fairlight, were all employed as chauffeurs, the latter being Dr Alban’s driver who reputedly had the first car in Lindfield, previously he drove the doctor’s pony and trap. What will people notice about our village when the 2021 census is viewed in the future?

Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or on 01444 482136.

The Society and The Tiger, Lindfield

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

In the early decades of the 1700s, the need for financial protection of property and life started to be recognised. Local Friendly Societies began to emerge across the country to provide mutual help in the event of death or sickness. In 1757, local tradesmen formed a society in Lindfield. It is admittedly a dry subject, but the prospectus for the Society makes interesting and, by current standards, amusing reading. The prospectus’ introduction was heavily referenced towards the evils of sin and the need for moral conduct and even invoked God. This is recognising the influence of the Church and religion at this time. It explains ‘When the Creation is viewed over behold Man to be the noblest of all Creatures, and he, being the Favourite of Heaven was placed in Paradise, the delightful Place of all the whole earth; and had but one Order to obey’. It continues in the vein that sin brought death and sickness, but God loves all who obey ‘his Precepts’.

The purpose of the Society is introduced as ‘since the Frailty of Man in this Life, by sickness, or a lingering Death, may have been in want …. Tis hereby intended by us, whose Names are hereunder subscribed, being of divers Trades, Arts, Mysteries or Occupation.’ It explains that as they are all subject to the same infirmities there is a need ‘for the mutual Help and Assistance of each other’ to prevent, ‘the Wants that generally attend Sickness and other casualties; and to the intent that we may relieve each other in such times of Extremity, by an honest and Just Way.’ The section concludes that a fund will be established for this purpose.

The remainder of the document comprises many rules that set out how the Society is to be conducted, member’s subscriptions, obligations and conduct, and most importantly the benefits payable. Every transgression resulted in members being fined.

The meeting place and times are stated as the ‘Society shall meet at the House of Thomas Finch, at the sign of the Tiger in Lindfield Town’ on the first Monday in every month ‘from seven to nine in the Evening from Lady-Day to Michaelmas, and from Six to Eight from Michaelmas to Lady-Day’; recognising the dark winter nights and bad weather.

Membership was limited to 71, a strange number but no doubt chosen for a reason. There were 28 founding members. New members had to be under 40 years, not ‘sickly or weak’ and approved by a majority of members. The entry subscription was one shilling for every £10 in the fund, plus the obligation at his first meeting to spend six pence at the Tiger on drinks. The regular subscription was one shilling payable at every monthly meeting.

To claim the sickness benefit, the member had to prove that he was ‘really sick, lame or infirm and incapable of earning a livelihood’. The benefit was seven shillings a week during the period of incapacity. Surprisingly a time limit was not specified, perhaps because death was not a long time coming if suffering with a major illness. The benefit was about the same as an unskilled labourer’s wage.

In the event of death his next of kin received £5 to pay for the burial. To prevent the fund becoming depleted, a charge of one shilling was payable by each surviving member towards each £5 death benefit paid. Every member was expected to attend the funeral, their meeting venue being the public house nearest to the deceased’s house. Each member was expected to spend three pence on drinks and then ‘to accompany the Corpse’ to the burial ground. A ‘decent hatband and gloves’ were to be worn, and again on the Sunday following. Failure to do so resulted in a six pence fine. Ominously, ‘if any Member shall appear disguised in liquor at a funeral he shall forfeit two shillings and six pence’. Failure to attend the funeral resulted in a one shilling penalty.

If claims resulted in the Society’s fund becoming depleted, members were charged an additional six pence a month, or an amount as agreed, until the fund had a stronger balance.

Anyone with ‘the foul Disease’ or known for ‘Cursing, Swearing, Profaning the Lord’s Day, Fighting, Quarrelling, Drunkenness’ and ‘Whoredom’ were excluded from membership. Whoredom in Lindfield - surely not! Exclusion was also the penalty for making fraudulent claims, with a five shilling reward for identifying a proven fraud. Failure to live a respectable life or neglecting family responsibilities resulted in a severe rebuke from the stewards.

The Society was managed by four Stewards. Every six months, two new stewards were elected and two retired. On election, each new steward had to spend sixpence at the meeting, presumably on drinks! Refusal to serve on being elected incurred a ten shilling and six pence fine.

The duties of the stewards and how meetings should be conducted were described in detail. At the monthly meeting a senior steward had to meet arriving members and collect their subscription. The rules tasked another steward to collect three pence as the member’s ‘share of the reckoning’, the purpose of this sum is unclear. Failure to undertake this task resulted in a ten shilling fine. The steward acting as meeting chairman was required to carry a white wand in one hand and a mallet to keep order in the other.

Any member continuing to talk after the table had been hit three times with the mallet had to pay a two pence fine. There was a six pence fine if a member became ‘disguised in Liquor’ during the meeting. The two longer-serving stewards held the keys to the Society’s chest, in which were kept the accounts and ‘stock’. Failure by a steward to have his key available at the meeting on a timely basis was another opportunity to inflict a one shilling penalty.

In addition to the monthly gatherings, a dinner was to be held in January and July each year, for which there was a six pence charge for drinks and the same amount for the meal. It was a requirement that the vicar had to be invited to the feasts and to be paid ten shillings and six pence to deliver a sermon.

There are further instructions and opportunities to impose fines detailed, with all the money, presumably, being used to improve the Society’s funds. From the prospectus the Society appears to have been a combination of a mutual self help group, brotherhood with rituals and drinking club. No doubt it served a need in its time.

Acknowledgement: An 18th Century Friendly Society
Contact Lindfield History Project Group on 01444 482136 or via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/

Lindfield history - 500 years

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group 

Lindfield West Common

In last month’s article we looked at how Lindfield developed from its earliest days through to the time of the Reformation in the 1500s. For eight hundred years much of the land in and around Lindfield formed the Manor of South Malling Lindfield held by the College of Canon, South Malling on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry VIII in seeking a divorce and the establishment of the Church of England led to the dissolution of religious houses. 

In March 1545 an order for the dissolution of the College of Canons was issued and subsequently all possessions and lands were granted by the Crown to Sir Thomas Palmer of Angmering, a gentleman of the Privy Council. After a couple of years the manorial estate was surrendered to the Crown. Between 1574 and 1618 ownership changed six times, before being acquired by William Newton of East Mascalls in 1618. Fifteen years later Thomas Chaloner of Kenwards bought the manor, becoming Lord of the Manor, until it was acquired in 1689 by the Pelhams, subsequently ennobled as the Earls of Chichester. These names can be recognised today around the village. The transfer of the manor to secular owners and the frequent changes in ownership lost the stability and stewardship long enjoyed under the Canon’s control. 

Another major impact was the church tithes, paid to the Rector as his ‘living’ and for church upkeep, also passed into lay ownership. After being acquired by William Newton the tithes descended through his family to John Nainsby. Only £30 from the annual £600 tithes were given to the church. This led to difficulties in retaining a vicar and the church falling into disrepair. 

Many of the houses lining the High Street, built in medieval times, needed replacement or at least renovation and modernisation, such as installing chimneys. A good number were re-fronted and it is
for this reason that very few of Lindfield’s 41 timber framed houses have exposed timbers when viewed from the street. From the late 1500s onwards for the next two centuries Lindfield saw a period of renewal and construction along the High Street, although apart from some encroachment on to the Town Common, the village remained a one street community. The 1600s and 1700s provided much of the architectural heritage prized today, for example Pierpoint House, Malling Priory, Nash House, Manor House, Everyndens, Froyles, Lindfield House and Rosemary Cottage to name but a few. A feature no longer existing, which stood for some three hundred years until the early 1800s in the middle of the High Street, opposite Doodie Stark, was a blacksmith forge and adjoining shop, both with a room above. Horse-drawn traffic had to pass on either side of this ‘middle row’; it was probably longer in earlier times. 

Just as ancient communication links had formed a key element in Lindfield’s earliest developments, so they would be an important factor in its later periods of growth. Roads across Wealden Sussex were notoriously poor and the north-south route through Lindfield was no exception until becoming a turnpike road in the 1770s operated by the Newchapel and Brightelston Turnpike Trust. As the name indicates it went from north of East Grinstead down to Brighton and became a minor coaching route from London to Brighton, with the Bent Arms and Red Lion inns used as horse change stops. 

The turnpike had two toll gates in the village, one across the High Street by the Toll House, and the other in the entrance to Hickmans Lane. Tolls were collected until 31st October 1884 when the gates were removed and burnt in the street on Bonfire Night with much celebrating! 

Across the country in the 18th century canal building was at its height and following an Act of Parliament in 1790 the Ouse Navigation was established. Modifications to the river allowed barges, 45 feet long, 14 feet wide, carrying up to 30 tons of mainly agricultural cargo and coal, to sail between Lewes, Lindfield and Balcombe. The canal did not have a significant impact on Lindfield and its opening coincided with a period of economic depression. 

The agricultural economy that had provided wealth and stability to Sussex steadily weakened during the late 1700s creating much poverty. Following the Napoleonic Wars and a succession of poor harvests, the social conditions deteriorated rapidly during the early decades of the 1800s. By 1820 Lindfield was an extremely depressed parish, leading to it being chosen by William Allen, the Quaker philanthropist, as a suitable location for his experimental colony, off Gravelye Lane, to aid impoverished agricultural labourers. He also established an industrial school for boys and girls, on Black Hill, to educate children from poor families. Universal free education was not available until the ‘Board’ school in Lewes Road opened in 1881. 

Compton Road in about 1908. One of the first new roads in Lindfield built in circa 1902.

As the 1800s progressed the economy steadily improved and Britain was gripped by railway mania. Neither Lindfield nor Cuckfield wanted the London to Brighton railway to pass close to their communities, so the line was routed along the parish’s western edge. The line opened in 1841 with the station one mile from the village and initially called for the ‘Towns of Cuckfield and Lindfield’. At that time Haywards Heath comprised little more than a couple of farmsteads and a few cottages, whereas Lindfield had a population of over 1750 residents. The coming of the railway created Haywards Heath. Some twenty years later, Lindfield was to have a station on the northern edge of the village on the planned Haywards Heath to Hailsham route. The line was not completed but the remains of an embankment are still visible at the entrance to Lindfield, looking south by the 30mph limit sign. 

Nevertheless the opening of the London to Brighton line led to a period of growth, and as Haywards Heath developed so did Lindfield. A particular feature during the Victorian era was the building of fine villas on Black Hill and mansions around the outer edges, Summerhill, Finches, The Welkin, Old Place, Walstead Place, Beckworth, Oathall and a little later Barrington House. Together with the existing large houses such as Paxhill, Bedales and Sunte they became major employers. In the central section of the High Street old buildings were demolished and replaced by new shops in Victoria Terrace and Albert Terrace. 

Reliance on agriculture for employment reduced as village businesses flourished, such as Lindfield Brewery, Durrant’s piano factory which employed ’25 hands’, Julius Guy’s coachwork, plus many jobs in the building trade and on the railways. Lindfield started to prosper again but despite this growth Lindfield’s commercial importance waned. 

However, throughout the 1800s, Lindfield remained basically a ‘one street’ community. It was not until the new century that new roads started to appear, such as Compton Road, Luxford Road and Eastern Road. Following the tragic years of the Great War, the interwar years saw some growth, but it was not until after World War II that the expansion of Lindfield really took off and continues to this day. 

Discovering Lindfield’s West Common

Map of West Common area in 1829 with current roads overlaid in white

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Today nothing exists of the West Common and you would be forgiven for thinking the area completely lacks historical interest. Less than two hundred years ago the unfenced common extended from Sunte Avenue down to the stream that runs close to Blackthorns and from Hickmans Lane south to Summerhill Lane and then east along Scrase Stream. The southern part belonged to the Manor of Ditching with the remainder by South Malling Lindfield and Framfield Manors. The land is mainly flat and in parts sloping with good well drained soil. In early medieval times, could this land have been the ‘west field’ of the Lindfield cultivated in strips by villagers in the open field system? Perhaps we will never know. 

What we do know is that in the 1820s the land was largely unenclosed and contained only a few dwellings. In the north western corner, at the junction called Pickesgreen Cross, was a small old farmstead dating from at least 1600, part of Framfield Manor, called Wigsel’s Watering, that extended into the area now Oakfield Close. This was replaced by the Bricklayers Arms, now the Witch Inn. In the 1870s the Bricklayers became a popular venue for ‘bean feasts’; annual works outings travelling by train from as far afield as London and Brighton. Following the arrival of the railway, the road running along the western edge was made up and named Station Road (Sunte Avenue) as it was the most direct route from Lindfield to the station. The first housing built was Albert Cottages, typical small Victorian houses with shared wells and privies at the bottom of the garden. 

Towards the southern end, near Oakbank, stood two cottages known as Golden Nob. The 1851 Census listed four families, the Beard, Bish, Gorrange and Miles families, totalling 19 men, women and children living in the cottages. All the adult men were agricultural labourers. The Golden Nob cottages were demolished around 1860, when Summer Hill was built by Charles Catt, a brewer and son of William Catt of the Bishopstone Tide Mills. The Catt family lived in the house for many years and farmed nearby land. From the late 1940s it became a school. 

In 1835 three acres of unenclosed land held by the Manor of South Malling Lindfield was sold for £56 5s 0d to John Elliott, a Lindfield blacksmith. John Elliott operated the forge in the middle of the High Street (mentioned in last month’s article) and built the forge at Spongs in Brushes Lane. Perhaps with an eye for a quick profit, John Elliott sold the land to Edward Humphreys in October 1838 for £153. In today’s terms this is the land of Chestnut Close across to the west side of Summerhill Drive and north to Hickmans Lane. 

For a couple of years Humphreys rented the newly enclosed land to James Harding of Burnt House Farm, before taking back the land on which he built a house in 1844. The Poor Rate Valuations in the late 1840s record this house as Westfield Lodge, owned and occupied by Edward Humphreys; no connection with the baker of that name. It was approached by a long diagonal drive, and when Summer Hill was constructed the drive was extended to this house and entrance lodges built. 

By the mid 1850s Humphreys was living at Pear Tree House (junction of High Street and Lewes Road), another fine house he built along with St Annes. Westfield Lodge was rented to tenants before being acquired by William Copeland in c1870 when the property was renamed The Chestnuts. 

The Mid Sussex Times in May 1877 carried an advertisement for the letting ‘unfurnished, a well-built detached villa residence, most pleasantly situated, approached by a carriage drive from the high road, and within 15 minutes walk of Haywards Heath Station, and known as The Chestnuts. There is a large drawing room and dining room, two other sitting rooms, six bedrooms, and a dressing room, kitchen, scullery, cellars etc, also a capital garden with greenhouse and vinery’. Even in those days easy access to the station was a desirable feature and evidence of Lindfield becoming attractive to commuters. 

During the 1880s, The Chestnuts was taken by a Mr Hartland and then by Mrs Gertrude Lysons, the widow of Rev Canon Samuel Lysons, rural dean of Gloucester, a noted antiquarian and an early proponent of British Israelism. This was the belief that British people are ‘genetically, racially and linguistically the direct descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel’. 

The Chestnuts was sold in 1895 for £2,000 and subsequently described as being ‘brick built and cement faced’, with grounds containing a good lean-to vinery, stables, detached coach house with loft and a small cowshed. A substantial property but unfortunately we have no photographs of the house and grounds. (If any readers have a photograph, please do make contact). The new owner was Charles Catt of adjacent Summer Hill. 

Following a succession of tenants, in 1909 William Lancelot Knowles J.P., a member of the Stock Exchange, and his wife took up residence, having previously lived at Pear Tree House. A county cricketer, he had played for Kent, Sussex and Gentlemen of England and in 37 first class appearances as a right-handed batsman scored 1439 runs with a highest innings of 127. He was unstinting in his community service being involved with many clubs and organisations in Lindfield, Cuckfield and Haywards Heath. 

In 1933, The Chestnuts became the new home for the Parents’ National Educational Union School (PNEU) started 12 months earlier at Plumpton by Mrs Seymour and Mrs Morgan. Called the Summerhill PNEU School it was the twentieth such school in Sussex and one of a family of about 800 scattered around the world. All the schools worked to a common ethos and curriculum. A notable local example, with its roots in the PNEU system, is Burgess Hill Girls School which continues to thrive today. 

After two years it ceased being a PNEU school and changed its name to Lindfield Preparatory School under the headship of Miss Arnold. Education was provided on the ‘Froebel and other modern methods’ for children aged 6 to 12 years, with a kindergarten for younger children. It advertised ‘Bright, colourful classrooms, Small Classes, Individual attention’ and ‘All general subjects taught’ with a large garden for games, tennis and cricket. A limited number of places were available for boarders. The school was short lived and closed in about 1937, the building reverting to a private residence. There was no connection between this school and the school later established at Summer Hill. The house continued to be occupied as a private residence until being demolished in about 1960 and shortly after replaced by Nos. 1 – 8 The Chestnuts. 

Lindfield Prep School Kindergarten Room. Photo: J Potter

Returning to the 19th century, the Common was divided by a section of the New Chapel to Brighton turnpike road, now West Common. By the 1840s, the Common on both sides of this road had been enclosed with fields, except for an area around Appledore Gardens but this soon became enclosed. In 1852, at the Red Lion, four acres were auctioned as four building plots fetching £138, £145, £82 and £82. The first two lots restricted the building of any dwelling of less value than £200. None of the plots were built upon at that time. 

It was not until the interwar years that the area started to be developed with the building of Haywards Heath Senior School and housing at Oakbank and along West Common and Sunte Avenue plus the creation of a market garden, French Gardens. Houses started to appear along Summerhill Drive, and although Chestnut Close was constructed by 1937 houses were not built until a few years later. The remainder of the houses on West Common land are predominantly post war. 

Looking East of Lindfield High Street

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group 

In 1583, if you walked from the Highway down the ancient drove road leading to the lands of Walter West, where would you be standing? In today’s terms you would have walked from the High Street, down Brushes Lane, going straight down the earthen path by The Wilderness junction until arriving at the northern corner of The Limes. Spread out before you would have been the lands of Walter West, then known as the East Field and East Wish, which extended east towards Scrase stream and across to the line of Newton Road. 

Brushes is an ancient name, it appeared in the 1603 record of church seats, ‘In the 8th seat the heir of Walter West for Bruches a room’. 

In the East Field, during an archaeological survey prior to The Limes being built, pieces of Bronze Age pottery were unearthed, indicating people were in this area some 3000 years ago, perhaps living in a seasonal camp. Also discovered were very old field ditches, with one containing early Saxon pottery (circa 650). This is the earliest evidence of a farm in Lindfield. 

Listed as one of Lindfield’s ‘chiefiest men’, Walter West was a mercer (shopkeeper selling cloth, haberdashery and dry goods) living at Froyles, as did his direct descendants, who continued to own the East Field and East Wish until 1683. In that year the land passed to Henry Douglas, also a Lindfield mercer. He had married Ann West; sadly she died shortly after giving birth to their son. It is thought the land was given to provide security for the infant. Henry Douglas died in 1703 and the land was acquired by George Luxford, a lawyer who occupied Old Place (today’s West Wing). His family roots were at Windmill Hill, East Sussex. 

Although his ownership only lasted a couple of decades, the land became known as Luxfords and subsequently Luxford Farm. Tenants changed regularly and ownership is somewhat cloudy, although there does appear to have been a Luxford family connection. In 1811 ownership was in the hands of Reverend George Haygarth, who was probably also a distant relative. The Haygarths lived at Seckhams in the High Street and the land remained within the family until around 1885 when it was sold. 

1947 aerial view of Lindfield Photo: University of Sussex, Global Studies Resource Centre

Charles Kempe, in the process of building Old Place into his grand country house, acquired the larger western part of Luxford Farm. The farmland to the east was purchased by the Guardians of the Poor of the Cuckfield Union (later Cuckfield Rural District Council). This signalled change was on its way for the agrarian landscape which had existed for centuries. Over time East Field and East Wish had been divided into smaller fields with names such as Barn Field and Old Orchard, as reflected in Barncroft Drive and Old Orchard Close. 

Perhaps the coming change had been signalled some years earlier, when in 1857 the Lindfield Gas Company built a plant to manufacture gas together with a gasometer on a parcel of land, now Chaloner Close. It was accessed via a track from Lewes Road. This facility became redundant in the late 1890s when the Company was acquired by Haywards Heath Gas Company. The site was subsequently used by Scutts, a village coal merchant, as its coal storage yard. 

Returning to Charles Kempe, he removed hedges, planted trees to create wide woodland borders along his boundary and demolished the farm yard buildings. There had never been a Luxford farmhouse. He incorporated the Luxford land into his Old Place lands. Additionally, on fields behind the High Street to the north of Brushes Lane, Kempe created his three acre wilderness garden as a place of solitude and entertainment amongst ornamental trees and shrubs. It provided a contrast to Old Place’s formal gardens and was accessed by an enclosed footbridge over the public footpath that runs east of Francis Road. Long after Kempe’s death and several changes of ownership, the land was purchased in 1957 by Kenneth Holman and the six houses forming The Wilderness were built. 

Planning for the eastward expansion of the village, the Cuckfield Rural District Council purchased much of the remaining land lying north of Lewes Road. Its first new road for housing in the 1890s was Eastern Road, with houses built in phases over several decades. At about the same time, on part of the Luxford farmland previously purchased, to the north of Eastern Road, the Council constructed a ‘Sewage Farm’. Following closure of this treatment works, the nine acre site was used as a refuse dump and when full in 1975 was left to grow wild until being reclaimed as the Eastern Road Nature Reserve. 

The land east of Eastern Road remained fields until 1938 when it was developed as a ‘Mushroom Factory’ growing mushrooms on an industrial scale. The site later became the Noahs Ark Lane housing development, named after a cottage of that name, and also the old field name East Wish is carried forward as East Wick. 

After Eastern Road, the Council created Western Road in 1901 and sold individual plots to developers, with the cottages on the eastern side being the first to be built. The road name was quickly changed to Luxford Road. Charles Kempe, several local tradesmen and later local historian Helena Hall were among those who commissioned houses in the new roads. The semi- detached houses on the village side were constructed around 1926 as part of a Council housing scheme. Harvest Close stands on the site of Smith’s Nursery, established in 1935 by Frederick Smith on land belonging to Vores Oak. 

James Box occupied the remaining land between Luxford Road, the High Street and northwards to Brushes Lane, establishing his thriving nursery business growing trees, shrubs and plants. In its heyday the nursery employed as many as 50 men and won numerous awards at Royal Horticultural Society shows. Previously, the old fields adjoining Brushes Lane carried the names Tainter Field and Tainter Mead. It has been said that the names derive from the word tenterhooks, indicating an association with the wool or cloth trade, and that the later pasture in times past was the site of village gatherings for fun and sports. 

In the decades following the Second World War, the Council developed this area for housing. The track leading to the old gas works site became Chaloner Road. Newton Road, taking its name from William Newton who purchased the Manor of South Malling Lindfield in 1617, was constructed. It followed the line of the old field boundaries of Luxford Farm to the top of Luxford Road and extended in the 1960s to join up with Eastern Road. Newton Close stands on a field, which in the 1820s was aptly called Two Acre Field. Duke Barn Mews is unsurprising close to the site of Mr Duke’s barn and his name is also reflected in Dukes Road constructed in 1957. 

The land east of the High Street demonstrates the change and growth over 120 years which has helped to create today’s thriving community. It is also pleasing to see names from past centuries carried forward into today’s Lindfield. 

1947 aerial view of Lindfield Photo: University of Sussex, Global Studies Resource Centre

Along Gravelye Lane, Lindfield to America

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group 

Cottages at The Colony

Gravelye Lane for centuries was merely a track providing access to a couple of farmsteads and Northlands Wood; then in the nineteenth century it became the route from Lindfield to America! There are more points of historic interest along the lane than you might think. 

Almost immediately after turning from Lewes Road into Gravelye Lane, on land now Grey Alders and Kidbrook, the Dowager Countess of Tankerville, while living at The Welkin, opened a laundry in 1902. It was run on charitable lines to provide work and a home for women in difficult circumstances struggling to regain their character through honest labour. The laundry home called ‘Quinta’ provided accommodation for thirty female workers. The laundry was taken over by the Salvation Army in 1912 until 1922 when it became a business trading as the Mid Sussex Steam Laundry. A particular feature of the laundry was its 74ft high chimney. Not only was this a local landmark it also housed the ‘start and stop work’ hooter. Many villagers used to set their watches by the hooter such was the accuracy of the time signal. On closing in 1972 the buildings were demolished and the houses built. 

Mid Sussex Laundry

Further up Gravelye Lane on the left-hand side is a small property sign bearing the name Criplands. The first identified mention of the name is in the Will of William Neale, dated 1625, in which he leaves lands and a house called Cripses, later known as Cripland, to his brother, John Neale. On his death the land is inherited by his second son Nycholas Neale. The Neale family had a lengthy connection with Lindfield as butchers and farmers. Cripland farm passed through several generations before eventually leaving the family. 

In 1742 it was purchased by Nicholas Tanner, a mariner from Brighton, and his wife. At this time the farm comprised a house, two barns, two gardens, an orchard and 30 acres of land and was rented by a Ralph Comber. A series of complex transactions followed until October 1744, when Cripland was purchased by John Dutton and his wife. At this point the Cripland story takes a twist. 

In the eighteenth century there was no effective treatment for smallpox which often resulted in death. At best an outbreak could be contained through isolating sufferers in a pest house. In 1716 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, recently recovered from smallpox, accompanied her husband to Constantinople where she discovered that in Turkey healthy people were deliberately being infected with smallpox. They were inoculated with a small amount of pus and then kept in isolation to avoid the risk of spreading the disease. She introduced the concept of inoculation as protection against smallpox to Britain. Gradually the procedure was adopted by a number of pioneering doctors.
One such doctor was John Dutton who practiced in Lindfield in the late 1730s and is thought to have lived at Bower House. He may have been using part of the premises as a Pest House. In Easter1741‘John Dutton, Churgeon’ (surgeon) had agreed with the Parish Overseers to ‘supply the Poor (of Lindfield) with physic and Chyrurgery’ for a year and in May 1742 entered into a longer-term agreement to do the same for £4 4s per year, and £1 1s extra ‘in case small pox should happen to break out’. 

In March 1744, John Dutton and his wife Elizabeth purchased Cripland and established it as a Pest House. Around this time he started to inoculate people in the village with smallpox pus. This caused great consternation to the inhabitants of Lindfield. As a consequence, Dr Dutton was required to stop this practice and enter into a £600 bond with a term of 60 years payable should he recommence inoculations. 

It is understood that Dr Dutton complied with the undertaking and subsequently sold the Pest House and accompanying land to John Verrall in February 1767. However, the property continued to be known as Pest House Farm until the late 1880s when it reverted to Cripland Farm when sold by John Verrall. 

In 1898, Henry and Ellen Howorth purchased part of the farm’s land on which they built Cripland Court in 1905, a spacious 12 bedroomed country house with colonial style balconies to the rear together with staff accommodation, a range of stables and outbuildings. 

Following the death of her husband in 1907 the property was put up for sale. A tenancy agreement with option to purchase dated 15th November 1911 was entered into with Alexander Howden, a Ship Broker in the City of London. The purchase was completed in 1913. Following Alexander Howden’s death in 1914 and his widow eight years later, the property was sold in 1922 to Granville Bevan. It remained in the ownership of Mr & Mrs Bevan for some thirty years. 

Granville Bevan died in November 1950 and Cripland Court was placed on the market in 1952, being sold to Bishop & Sons Depositories Ltd in December 1953 who used it as a furniture store until the main house was demolished in the 1960s. 

Cripland Court

Almost opposite Cripland Court stood Gravelye Farm, continuing up the lane and shortly before the junction with Lyoth Lane stands Gravelye House.
In the early decades of the 1800s across the country there was much poverty amongst agricultural labourers, many were in fact paupers, placing great demand on a parish’s poor relief. William Allen, an eminent chemist, Quaker philanthropist and social reformer, thought
it would be possible to reduce poverty by providing them with an independent means of support, thus reducing their reliance on the parish. His solution was to establish colonies of cottages with allotments. In the late 1820s, Lindfield was chosen as a parish worthy for this experiment, as poverty was rife. William Allen was helped by his friend John Smith MP of Madehurst who purchased 100 acres in the Gravelye area and placed some of this land at Allen’s disposal for creation of a trial colony. Smith also built Gravelye House for William Allen’s use when visiting Lindfield. At around the same time Allen established the School of Industry on Blackhill to educate boys and girls from poor families. 

The land selected by William Allen was down a track beside Gravelye House, close to today’s Hanbury Stadium, where he built 12 dwellings, six modest single storey thatched cottages each with an acre and a quarter of land, rented at 2s weekly, and adjacent were six larger cottages with the same amount of land at 2s 6d weekly. Additionally in Gravelye Lane he built three pairs of semi-detached two storey houses with supporting land at 3s a week. 

The cottages immediately became known by some as The Colony and by others as America, thought to have derived from the idea of a land of promise for settlers, and later as Gravelye Cottages. The America name endured for the area and appears on old Ordnance Survey maps and the track beside Gravelye House to the cottages took the name America Lane. America is reflected in other road names today. Hanbury Stadium is named after William Allen’s business partner, the business growing into the pharmaceutical manufacturer Allen & Hanbury Ltd now absorbed with GlaxoSmithKline. 

William Allen required tenants to be industrious men with large families. Additional land could be rented if needed, and guidance and small loans were provided for the purchase of seeds, fertiliser and a pig or cow. The expectation was that the labourer would cultivate his allotment in addition to working for a local farmer. Locally in the short term it was a success, as no family went on parish relief after moving to The Colony. However, the colony concept did not provide a feasible national solution. After William Allen’s death in 1843 the Gravelye estate was sold and the colony concept ceased. All the dwellings were condemned and demolished in the 1940s and 1950s. 

Kempe and his palace of art in Lindfield

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

At the top of the village, stands the grandiose and private Old Place that is largely obscured from view. Perhaps in a strange way, the property goes almost unnoticed when passing by. The impressive size is difficult to comprehend from the roadways, likewise its relationship with the original Elizabethan house onto which it has been ‘grafted’. The buildings as we see them today were the vision of Charles Eamer Kempe, the renowned Victorian stained glass artist and church decorator. The ‘e’ was added to create a grander surname by Kempe on reaching adulthood.

He was born at The Hall, Ovingdean, near Brighton on 29 June 1837, the fifth son and youngest child of Nathaniel Kemp, a wealthy and important member of Brighton society, and his second wife Augusta Caroline. Her father was Sir John Eamer a former Lord Mayor of London and prominent City wholesale grocer and sugar importer. It is thought Kempe was christened Charles Eamer in memory of his mother’s younger brother who died aged 18 in India.

The Kemps were a long established Sussex family, originally from good yeoman stock with their wealth having been derived from corn and wool. This is reflected in the three golden wheat sheaves featured in the coat of arms granted in the 1600s. Interestingly, it was Charles Eamer Kempe’s uncle Thomas Kemp’s house on the Steine in Brighton that was acquired by the Prince of Wales in 1787, eventually becoming the Royal Pavilion. Thomas Kemp is noteworthy for having conceived the idea of a fashionable residential estate in east Brighton, Kemp Town, but unfortunately the scheme caused him great financial difficulties.

Returning to Charles Eamer Kempe, as a boy he was a pupil of the Vicar of Henfield before attending Rugby School and entering Pembroke College, Oxford where he obtained a Masters Degree. Being deeply religious it had been his wish to enter the church as a clergyman but decided a severe speech impediment would restrict his ability to preach and successfully pursue that vocation. He was a supporter of the Oxford Movement of high church Anglicans promoting the restoration of ritual in worship and aesthetic aspects borrowed heavily from traditions before the English Reformation.

Being interested in art and good at drawing, Kempe chose to use his talents, religious beliefs and aesthetic vision to adorn churches. After Oxford he studied church architecture and design under the tutelage of George Bodley, who was closely associated with Gothic Revival and High Anglican aesthetics. This influence together with Kempe’s own beliefs was to be reflected throughout Kempe’s work as an ecclesiastical decorator and stained glass artist. He increasingly saw the use of glass as the medium for expressing the Christian message and pursued this by joining the glass studio of Clayton & Bell.

About 1866, Kempe set up his own studio with two assistants at his home in London, contracting out the stained glass making. Dissatisfied with the quality being produced, he set up his own manufacturery at Millbrook Place, London in 1869. Kempe windows incorporate a small shield containing a wheat sheaf as his mark. The studio also created designs for church furniture, altars, and altar screens, and Kempe additionally continued to design vestments and altar hangings. His designs were most sought after and the business thrived, employing 50 men by the end of the century.

Sadly, at the time the studio was continuing to enjoy great success, Kempe died suddenly on 29 April 1907. The business continued after his death as C E Kempe and Co Ltd under the control of Kempe’s cousin, Walter Tower. To mark this change, windows made after his death have a small black tower above the wheat sheaf
in the trademark shield. Gradually the desire for Gothic revival designs declined and the business hit hard times closing in 1934. By this time the Kempe studio had produced over 4000 windows, and examples graced churches across the country and many cathedrals including York, Winchester and Gloucester. Many Sussex churches contain Kempe windows and decorations. Unfortunately there are no Charles Eamer Kempe designed windows in All Saints’ Church, Lindfield, although there are two by C E Kempe and Co Ltd, these are in the north transept and south chapel.

Kempe never married and, although said to be a shy man, he enjoyed the company of friends. Living in central London, in 1874 he decided to establish a country residence, primarily for entertaining, and chose Lindfield for this project. He purchased the land of Townlands Farm and Old Place (today known as West Wing); the house built by the Chaloners in 1584, which was in disrepair having latterly been the village poor house. His first task was to renovate the property and have the road that passed directly in front of the house moved, to provide privacy and a garden. The revised road line is as seen today. Kempe then set about a 30 year project to create ‘Old Place’, as his dream home, with its grandiose extensions to the original house, secondary buildings, and extensive grounds, at a cost of over £40,000. Prominent amongst the secondary buildings, in the southern corner of the gardens, is the substantial Pavilion with its tower, built as his studio for when he wished to ‘work from home’.

The main house, built in phases, was resplendently appointed with elaborate plasterwork, much panelling, arts and crafts style door and window fittings and, of course, featured large amounts of exquisite stained glass. It was richly furnished with much artwork including tapestries displayed. The entirety was a testament to Kempe’s aesthetic vision. Country Life magazine featured Old Place several times in the first years of the 20th century, and the 1901 article described it as, ‘the highest development of contemporary taste and skill in artistic design’ and judged it to be ‘a Palace of Art’. To look after Kempe and his large house required some twelve ‘in door’ servants plus a small army of gardeners.

Country Life lavished similar praise on the gardens. The grounds totalled more than 150 acres and included formal gardens, a kitchen garden with glasshouses, and a wilderness garden. The latter, now the site of The Wilderness, was laid out with wide grass walks and shrubs, and reached from the formal gardens by a footbridge over the public footpath leading from the corner of Francis Road. The formal gardens around the house featured lawns, herbaceous borders, a fine pleached lime avenue, ornate gates, great yew hedges, Greek urns and sculptures. A particular attraction was a large sundial, a copy of the dial standing at Pembroke College, Oxford, topped by a carved pelican feeding her young. Very occasionally Kempe would open the grounds for a grand fête and villagers would pay the few pence admission charge and flock to see what was normally out of their view.

Kempe does not appear to have been active in village life, although he did serve as a church warden for a time. To mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, he proposed this should be commemorated by adding three new bells to the peal of five bells. He paid for the bells, and the required strengthened bell frame was funded by public subscription, however the project was surrounded with much acrimony. It also appears Kempe offered a Chancel Screen to the church but this was rejected and not accepted until several years after his death.

Perhaps not as well respected as he deserves, Charles Eamer Kempe was one of the great Anglican church artists of his time and Lindfield’s most nationally notable resident.

Lindfield houses - Barrington and Buxshalls

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

From the mid 1800s until about 60 years ago Lindfield was virtually encircled by big houses and their grounds. This article looks at two of these houses: Barrington House, the last large villa built in the parish, and Buxshalls.

A large Edwardian villa, Barrington House was built between c1904 and 1906 to the north of By Sunte. Its extensive grounds had for centuries been used for farming and woodland. The first occupant, Mrs Ann Phyllis Powys, was probably responsible for building the house as Barrington was a name within the family. Born Ann Greenwood at Wallingford in 1825, she had been married to Philip Lybbe Powys, an Eton and Balliol College educated barrister and MP for Newport Isle of Wight. They separated in 1863 and it is not known why she moved to Lindfield 40 years later. Mrs Powys lived in some comfort, as the 1911 census describes her as ‘living on private means’ with a cook, parlourmaid, housemaid and resident nurse to look after her. Ann Powys died at Barrington House on 21st February 1912.

Buxshalls near Lindfield

In 1913 Barrington House was occupied by Mr and Mrs Charles Weatherby and their son Thomas. Charles Weatherby, born May 1860, was a partner in Weatherbys. He died in Lindfield on 24th June 1913. Interestingly, seven generations of the Weatherby family have been involved in British horse racing since the formation of the Jockey Club, when in 1770 James Weatherby, a Newcastle solicitor, was appointed Secretary to the Jockey Club, Keeper of the Match Book and Stakeholder. This led to him publishing the Racing Calendar and later the first authentic Stud Book. Since that time, Weatherbys has provided the central administration for horseracing and maintained the register of all thoroughbred horses in Britain and Ireland. Also acting as horseracing’s bankers resulted in the creation of Weatherbys Bank. Weatherbys had been a family partnership until 1994 when it became a private limited company owned by the family. The death of Thomas Weatherby in 1915, denied the family business of a potential key member.

Thomas Weatherby attended Winchester College between 1907 and 1913 and played cricket for their first team. Being a keen cricketer he was a prominent playing member of Lindfield Cricket Club. At the outbreak of the Great War, he volunteered to serve King and Country and was commissioned, joining the 9th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, and promoted to Captain in February 1915. From November 1914 his Battalion was training in Dorset, and, while stationed at Wimborne, Thomas contracted spotted fever (meningococcal meningitis) and died at the Alexandra Military Hospital, Cosham, on 8th May 1915, aged 20. His body was brought home and buried at Walstead Cemetery with full military honours; 150 soldiers from the 2nd London Rifles lined the approach to the cemetery and fired three volleys over the grave.

From 1929 to the mid 1930s it was the family home of Sir William Pell Barton and his wife, following his return from India. Sir William Pell Barton was born in 1871. After university he went to India in 1893 and rose through the ranks of the political system holding many senior posts, such as British Commissioner. In recognition of his service, in 1927 he was Knighted Commander in the Order of the Indian Empire. An authority on the North West Frontier and the Princely States of India, he wrote a number of books, including The Princes of India (1934), India’s North West Frontier (1939), and India’s Fateful Hour (1942).

Sir William and Lady Barton’s younger daughter, Elizabeth Vidal Barton, married Sir Richard Hamilton 9th Baronet of Silvertonhill, a schoolmaster at Ardingly College, in April 1952 at Ardingly. Elizabeth, a prolific historical biographer, wrote the definitive account of the salacious Mordaunt affair that resulted in the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, and friends being cited in divorce proceedings.

The Bartons were followed in the mid 1930s by Marquess Hastings William Sackville Russell, later 12th Duke of Bedford. He would appear to have owned Barrington House, as in 1948 records show he sold Barrington Lodge that stood in the grounds. A keen ornithologist, the Marquess bred many species of parrots and parrot-like birds in aviaries constructed in the grounds, approximately where Barrington Road is today. He occupied Barrington House until it was requisitioned by the military during the Second World War.

After the War the property was converted into flats and further modified in about 1970 into three separate dwellings. Turning to Buxshalls, this name is Saxon in origin and over the centuries its land has seen many owners. The current house, called Buxshalls, was built in 1825 in the Italianate style by William Jolland as his family home. The estate comprised the house, grounds, entrance lodge (built 1876), two large fish ponds and four farms totalled some 500 acres. It passed down the Jolland family line and when Jolland’s only daughter, Katherine Mary Jolland, married Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Sampson in 1878 they received Buxshalls as their home.

The Sampsons added the west wing to the house, which provided a large drawing room with bedroom above and also installed a new grand front staircase. In total there were four reception rooms, a billiard room, fifteen bedrooms and dressing rooms but apparently only one family bathroom. Looking after them in the 1900s was a butler, cook, four servants and a chauffeur.

The house, surrounded by impressive gardens that contained a balustraded terrace, lawns, herbaceous borders and Venetian temple, was set in picturesque parkland with ponds. The grounds, tended by several gardeners, ran down to the River Ouse with two thatched boathouses linked by a covered bridge. In a wooded grove north of the house, the Sampsons built a mortuary chapel as the final resting place for their son who died in 1899 of diphtheria.

Dudley Sampson, born in 1841, joined the Army aged 16 and was posted to India. His regiment saw much action in quelling the India Mutiny. An illustrious military career followed during which he played prominent roles in many campaigns across India.
When not soldiering he was a fine sportsman and gentleman rider, with 42 wins in 52 races. Travelling was also another great passion. He was a keen writer and the author of several songs, including For Union and for Queen, a song for loyal Ireland sung at the Ulster demonstration at the Royal Albert Hall in 1893. The music for this song together with his The Veterans Song was composed by Lady Arthur Hill (famous for In the Gloaming). His book of Songs of Love and Life was published in 1918 after his death and republished in 2016.

Colonel and Mrs Sampson were social leaders in Lindfield, being active in all aspects of public life and supporters of local good causes. He played a major role in driving forward the building of King Edward Hall. Additionally, he was a Justice of the Peace, a County Councillor for the area and a Deputy Lieutenant of East Sussex.
He died at Buxshalls in 1917 and his widow two years later; they were interred alongside their son in the mortuary chapel.

From 1927 Buxshalls was the home of Sir Henry Cautley, a barrister, judge and the Member of Parliament for East Grinstead from 1910 until 1936, and his wife. On retirement he was raised to the peerage as the 1st Baron Cautley of Lindfield. Baroness Cautley died in 1943 and on his death in 1946, aged 82, the barony became extinct. Buxshalls was owned from 1947 by Sidney Askew and his wife Dorothy, nee Rank (as in Rank Hovis McDougall). After they left Buxshalls, it became a residential home for the elderly and now stands empty, with an uncertain future.

From horseshoes to shoes - The Old Forge

By Paul Schofield, Lindfield History Project Group

John Sharman outside the forge

The building at 2 Denmans Lane, known to many as the Old Forge, is today the home of Happy Feet Boutique children’s shoe shop. It was built in 1854 and is listed by Historic England as a Grade 2 building because of its architectural interest. The building is a classic example of a mid-Victorian village forge, hence its listing. It also reflects changes in the commercial life of Lindfield as it has been used by at least 11 trades in its 164 year old history. For most of that time it was used as a blacksmith forge.

The Batchelor family were the first to operate a blacksmith’s business from the building. Edward Batchelor, Senior, was originally from Bolney, where he was baptised in 1783. He was the head of the family and had previously lived and worked in the 1830s at the site of the present day Red Lion. He later moved and lived at a small smithy at the corner of the High Street and Denmans Lane, prior to the building where Bliss is today, before the business was relocated in 1854 to the newly built forge at 2 Denmans Lane. Sadly Edward Batchelor Snr died that year and probably did not live to see his new forge in operation. His second wife, Lucy Batchelor, with whom he had five sons, continued the business with support from Edward’s son from his first marriage, also called Edward. Edward Batchelor Snr with his first wife, Ann Stephens, had six children, three boys and three girls. She died in 1822, possibly in childbirth, aged 35 and is buried in Lindfield churchyard.

John Sharman outside the forge Maintaining the family tradition, all five sons from his second marriage also became blacksmiths working in Lindfield, Cuckfield and Chailey, with William the eldest son joining the family business. So for 27 years the forge was very much the home of the Batchelor family business. During this period Denmans Lane was known as Batchelors Lane, this name remained in use for many decades.

After Edward Batchelor’s death in 1881, the last Batchelor to work the forge, it was acquired by John Trevatt. Upon his death in 1890, the business was taken on by his wife Mary Trevatt, who is described in business directories of the time as a ‘supervisor of a blacksmith business’. This must have been quite unusual at that time. She was helped by Daniel Dovey, employed six years earlier by her husband, who continued working at the forge until 1924 and was a well known character in the village.

In 1892, Charles W. Wood took over the forge and whilst continuing as a blacksmith wheelwright and farrier, he expanded the business and occupied the shop (in the terrace that contains the Stand Up Inn) at the corner of Denmans Lane as his cycle dealership. He also sold and repaired mowing machinery, garden tools and stoves; and later advertised himself as a motor agent. Charles Wood served as a Cuckfield Rural District councillor and became quite an entrepreneur. He also had a shop on the Broadway in Haywards Heath selling motor cycles and cars. In 1905 he was running a Motor Omnibus service around Haywards Heath, Lindfield and Cuckfield as well as a service to connect the railway station to Sussex Road. His business empire further expanded in 1908 with the acquisition of another cycle business in Hurstpierpoint. Charles Wood also entered the world of property development around 1905 and with a partner built West View, although only 17 of the planned 30 houses were built.

It would seem that by 1911, Charles Wood had overstretched himself financially and following a meeting with creditors his assets were assigned or sold. The Lindfield business was sold in 1912 to his half- brother, Thomas Wood, who had previously been the manager of the Lindfield site, and continued to operate from the premises as a shoeing, general smith and cycle dealer until at least 1918. Charles Wood’s Haywards Heath and Hurstpierpoint businesses were sold to J T Hampton who had been an employee for 14 years.

By 1922 the forge was in the hands of John Sharman, who started there as an apprentice in around 1892 and remained for 60 years. For part of that time his business partner was George Fox. In 1922 they placed an advert in the Mid Sussex Times listing a range of services, giving the address as Batchelor’s Lane. As the number of horses requiring shoeing declined there was still much need for a blacksmith. John Sharman was responsible for numerous examples of wrought iron work which still exist today in Lindfield, such as the gates at a number

of properties including Old Place and at Porters on the High Street. He also fashioned the Lindfield village sign that stands on the corner of the Common, by the High Street, Backwoods Lane and Blackhill junction. This commemorates King George V’s and Queen Mary’s Silver Jubilee. It bears a shield of six Martlets for Sussex and a lime tree for Lindfield. It was unveiled with much ceremony by Blanche Cumberlege of Walstead Place on 6th May 1935; a day of great celebration in the village. Other examples of iron work probably fashioned by John Sharman include the sign stands for the Tiger, Bent Arms, Red Lion and a smaller one for Humphrey’s Bakery. Also John Sharman for many years served as Captain of the Lindfield Fire Brigade operated by the Parish Council from the fire station in Lewes Road.

In 1900, the blacksmiths from the forge revived the old custom of firing the anvil in celebration following the relief of Ladysmith and Mafeking in the Second Boer War. It has since been fired as part of all Royal Coronation and Bill Bartley shoeing a horse at the forge Jubilee celebrations in the village. Previously, the anvil had been fired on St Clements Day to frighten off evil spirits. Today the anvil is fired on Village Day. It involves the anvil being put upside down on the ground and the hole at the bottom being filled with gun powder. A plug is added and when the powder is lit there is a large bang!

John Sharman died in 1954 and on his retirement a couple of years earlier, the forge was taken over by George Brown, his one-time apprentice, and afterwards to Bill Bartley. George Brown continued the tradition of firing the anvil. After almost 120 years the smithy at the forge ceased trading in about 1970.

The premises’ connection with metal working continued in 1978 when it was used by Lindfield Engineering Ltd, who advertised themselves as precision engineers. It is believed they traded from the old forge until 1984, by this time the forge was very dilapidated. The adjacent wheelwright’s shop was demolished but thankfully the old forge was saved and renovated, following a campaign by the Lindfield Preservation Society.

It was next used as a TV repair workshop by Bob Lambert, as an extension of his shop on the High Street. Between 1987 and 1991, it was a children’s clothes shop called Scallywags run by Vivienne Clark. Over the next 12 years there were five different traders operated from the Old Forge at 2 Denmans Lane. Firstly a dress, hat and bridal hire shop called Beauty Salon, run by Valerie Holt. Then Green, Elliot and Crowe, opened their opticians practice before moving onto the High Street, now Lindfield Eyecare. A picture framing business followed, called Leave it to Jeeves run by Terry Jeeve, and next a florist, the Conservatory, again prior to their move to the High Street. The last trader to operate from this location prior to the current shoe shop was Lindfield Gifts and Interiors, a gift shop, which opened in 2003.

Happy Feet opened at the Old Forge in 2007 and is busy providing shoes for the children of Lindfield and beyond.

The original blacksmiths who worked at the forge could not have imagined that the building would still be standing 164 years later and that it has seen such a varied usage during that period. From shoeing horses to shoes for children!

Lindfield Women and the Great War

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

During the nation’s four year centennial of remembrance of the Great War, much attention has rightly focused on the men who served and especially those who died for their country. As this period of reflection draws to a close it would be timely to look at the contribution
of women to the victory. The role played by Lindfield women was typical of those in rural communities across the country.

In addition to raising their children alone, the country’s future lifeblood, many women undertook vital voluntary duties, charitable works, fundraising and employment replacing men. Most importantly women played an invisible role in providing social cohesion and the moral backbone resulting in the avoidance of civil unrest despite the difficult circumstances that prevailed.

The most visible contribution by Lindfield women to the war effort was their role at the Lindfield Auxiliary Hospital located in the King Edward Hall; one of some 3,000 administered by the Red Cross. The hospital opened its doors on 3rd November 1914 and received an initial intake of 20 Belgian wounded soldiers. Under the leadership of Mrs Florence Hooper, of Firs Cottage, local women volunteers undertook much of the nursing. For example, Faith Humphrey clocked up 3,592 hours between 3rd November 1914 and 16th December 1918, giving up all her recreation and spare time to nurse in the evenings after working all day in her parent’s bakery shop. They also filled the support roles necessary to ensure the efficient running of a hospital from Statistics Clerk to cook, a role fulfilled two or three times a week by Mrs Frances Lee of Beckworth Cottages in addition to her work as a dairy woman.
As the war progressed the nationality of wounded soldiers changed from Belgian to British, and with the coming of peace the hospital closed after having treated 877 patients. With so many hospitals being established at the outbreak of war there was a shortage of pillows, and a countrywide appeal to poultry keepers for feathers was made. Mrs Prideaux of Spring Cottage volunteered as the local collector and received over three hundredweight (about 150 kilos) by the end of September 1914.

Also hospitals across the country and overseas were in desperate need of surgical supplies such as bandages and slings plus clothing for the wounded. In August 1914, the Red Cross appealed for women to help meet this need. Mrs Dudley Sampson of Buxshalls rallied the women of Lindfield and arranged for work to be given out twice a week and established a productive working centre. In October 1915 this became the Lindfield War Hospital Sub-Supply Depot.
The Depot, under the chairmanship of Mrs Blanche Cumberlege of Walstead Place, had a work room at Old Place. During the first six months over 400 items were produced, ranging from vests, pyjamas and limb pillows to casualty bags. The materials for these items were purchased with money given by the women themselves and residents or from fundraising events.

As voluntary work became increasingly important, in late 1915 a national network of organisations approved by the War Office was set up to coordinate the making of supplies, enabling women to make a structured contribution to the war effort. The Mid Sussex Volunteer Work Association was formed, with 12 depots in local towns and villages, resulting in the Lindfield Voluntary Work Organisation (LVWO) being formed as a registered charity. Its depot was opened at the Bent Arms on 12th January 1916, with Mrs Cumberlege in charge and Miss Masters as secretary. Shortly after, the Hospital Supply Depot amalgamated with the new organisation and Mrs Sturdy provided this enlarged operation with a base and workrooms at Fardels in the High Street. Local women undertook work there three days a week; it was also the hub for homeworkers.

Items were made to order using specifications and patterns provided by the national organisation. Later in the war, LVWO specialised in surgical dressings. Some included sphagnum moss collected from local woods. The moss was mildly antiseptic and could help dry a wound. Over 2,000 dressings and many garments were made each month until February 1919. Many Lindfield women undertook this vital work and received the Government’s Voluntary Works Badge. Despite the importance of such work, funds for the purchase of materials had to be raised by the women either through requesting donations or organising fundraising events. They became one of the largest fundraisers in the village. Events organised ranged from musical and dramatic entertainments and grand fetes held at the major houses to whist drives in the Reading Room and jumble sales at the Bent Arms.

Britain’s unpreparedness to support a lengthy major war can also be seen in the constant need for charitable assistance to provide money and goods for the war effort. Socially active ladies rallied to the calls and ‘did their bit’. Hardly a week passed without an appeal, ranging from flag days to cricket bats for soldiers on the Western Front or funds for Christmas puddings and presents. A few specific examples are:

In September 1914, Mrs Lambert and Mrs Knowles responded to a call from the Royal Sussex Regiment at Shoreham and collected 150 blankets from Lindfield residents in a matter of days.

Mrs Eycott-Martin, the Misses Catt and Mrs Twiss sought subscriptions and help in making sand bags for the front in June 1915. After seven weeks £14 19s 6d and 500 sand bags were dispatched.

Mrs Prideaux organised a collection of cut throat razors for soldiers, with 427 being collected in six months during 1915.

A whist drive in August 1916 organised by Mrs Howden at Criplands Court on behalf of the British Prisoners of War Fund raised £111.

Throughout the war, Mrs Strachan Davidson was involved in collecting money for the RSPCA to assist the Army Veterinary Corps provide care for wounded and sick horses and mules in France. Perhaps the highlight of the ladies’ fundraising was their involvement in the annual Red Cross ‘Our Day’ which comprised a week long programme of social and community events raising considerable sums of money.

Lindfield Women’s Institute was established in June 1917 and quickly gained a large membership. Activities included instruction in cooking, food economy, growing food crops, sewing and renovating old clothes, cobbling, health issues and making soft toys to replace previously imported toys.

The Mid Sussex Times in fulfilling its patriotic duty, and mindful of censorship, regularly reported the good news of women’s contribution. For example in November 1917 it reported ‘no matter to which social class they belong they (Lindfield women) readily give according to their means whenever an appeal goes forth for a worthy cause’. Rarely was any comment made regarding the most important contribution by all women across the country, especially the poor. Their stoic acceptance of hardship with fortitude and resourcefulness helped maintain the social cohesion so essential to the nation’s ability to continue the fight. Widespread civil unrest could have resulted in our surrender.

Lindfield women, with their menfolk away fighting, had to endure the constant fear of receiving bad news. Holding the family together and caring for their children added to this anxiety, especially for those women in the lower classes living in poor housing and being solely reliant on the Government’s Separation Allowance. This Allowance often did not cover family needs. Rising prices and shortages of food and coal made life difficult. During a Parish Council debate on food shortages and the need for restraint by villagers, a Councillor commented that ‘many of them existed on bread and a scrape of margarine and a dab of jam’.

Their continuing patriotic support received little recognition. However, at the Lindfield Welcome Home dinner Major Willett in his speech paying tribute to their ‘womenfolk at home’ said: ‘There was a saying: Keep the home fires burning. The women had done that and more than that. It had been simply splendid the way women had carried on throughout the war’.

Tributes should also be paid to the few Lindfield women who signed up with the military or undertook duties abroad. Particularly worthy of mention are Minnie Anscombe who served with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service in Mesopotamia and India. Likewise, Ruby Wearn undertook arduous and courageous nursing duties abroad with the French Flag Nursing Corps and the Scottish Women’s Hospital. Perhaps a separate article is required!

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