By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group
Paxhill around early 1900s
This month’s article focuses on the large house, Paxhill, which stands on the hill to the north east of Lindfield Bridge, and its lands.
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. The relevant section has been translated as, ‘the sloping enclosure, Walstead, Lindfield, Paxhill and Buxshalls’ which are described as ‘pastus porcorum’; swine pastures. Paxhill appears in the charter as ‘Bacanscylfes’ and this name carries through for many hundred years. In medieval times a nunnery stood close to the river. The wealthy local Borde family, variously spelt e.g. Board, are known to have owned the estate from at least the mid-1500s and the name Paxhill start to appear in records from the early seventeenth century.
The house we see today was built by Ninian Borde between 1595 and 1606 in the Elizabethan style to replace an earlier house. The latter date and his initials are inscribed above the main entrance. It is said some of the stones for the building came from the ruined nearby nunnery. On Ninian Borde’s death in 1606, the estate passed down through the family, with the last male heir William Board dying in 1790, leaving a widow, Harriot, (nee Crawfurd) and three daughters, Louisa, Harriot and Fanny Board. Paxhill passed into the Crawfurd family through the marriage of Fanny Board to her cousin Thomas Gibbs Crawford of Saint Hill, East Grinstead. Their son married Clara Homfray, of Honingham Hall, Norfolk in 1825 at Lindfield church, and their two daughters, Jane and Laura Crawfurd, inherited Paxhill estate in 1840. From 1828, the estate was leased until family members returned during the late 1840s.
In 1849, Jane Crawfurd married Arthur Smith, who (with his brother Albert) became well known as the first Englishmen to climb Mont Blanc on 12th August 1851. During the 1850s, Arthur Smith managed the Egyptian Hall in London and with his brother gave performances recounting their exploits on Mont Blanc. Being acquainted with Charles Dickens, during the late 1850s he handled the bookings for his readings and accompanied him on tour, in effect acting as Charles Dickens’ tour manager.
Drawing by SH Grimm dated c1787
On land adjacent to the Ardingly road within the Paxhill estate, Arthur Smith built The Chalet in the early 1850s. Arthur Smith died in 1861 and two years later Jane Smith married Emile Bouchard, an officer in the French Hussars, and the property became part of the marriage settlement. The Chalet subsequently passed through many owners before becoming a religious house, St Margaret’s, and latterly in 1967 the Convent of the Holy Rood for the Sisters of the Cross. Today known as Hollyrood, it is a Disabilities Trust adult residential home.
By 1855, Arthur and Jane Smith together with her sister, Laura Crawfurd, had left Lindfield to live in their London house in Grosvenor Place. Paxhill was leased before being sold in 1856, thus ending some 300 years of ownership by the Borde/Board and Crawfurd families. The purchaser, Rev Borsley, quickly sold it to Thomas Herbert Noyes of East Mascalls, Lindfield, who lived in the house for a short time. Subsequently it was bought in 1865 by Peter Northall Laurie, the Governor of the Union Bank of London since 1861; his uncle had founded the bank. The bank following several acquisitions amalgamated with the National Provincial which subsequently became a constituent of NatWest, now part of Royal Bank of Scotland.
By this time the house was showing its age and needed modernising, which the wealthy Mr Northall Laurie immediately put in hand, including installing a bathroom; reputed to be the first in Lindfield. He also significantly extended the house. Following his death in 1877, the estate was again put up for sale, and was bought at auction for £39,000 by William Sturdy. It was to be the country home for himself, his wife Frances and their large young family. They employed around 20 live- in indoor and outdoor staff. The estate when purchased by William Sturdy comprised 353 acres of land and the large well- appointed mansion with an extensive range of rooms and servants quarters. Outside were lawns, pleasure grounds, shrubberies, an Italian garden, kitchen and fruit gardens, a heated vinery, and a peach and nectarine house. Beyond was parkland stretching down to the River Ouse, with a lake, boathouse and fish ponds. The coach house in the Elizabethan style had space for eight carriages. Properties within the estate included Bridge House and Grange Farm with its farmhouse and brick cottages Like the previous owner, William Sturdy extended the house and embarked on a major programme of improvements to the house and grounds. On his death in 1906 at the family’s London house, William Sturdy left an estate of over £1million and during his time at Paxhill had acquired a portfolio of Lindfield property. In his memory a stained glass window, depicting Justice and Prudence was installed in the South Chapel at All Saints Church. Previously, William Sturdy had given the church a new tenor bell and ringers’ gallery in 1887 and the Sturdy family also funded the building of the Choir Vestry in 1911.
His son, William Arthur Sturdy, took over Paxhill, and was active in village life through to his death in 1918, aged 48. He was a considerable benefactor to Lindfield. King Edward Hall would not have been built opposite the Pond had he not provided the land. Likewise, the miniature rifle range in Alma Road during the Great War. This was just one of his many good and generous deeds at that time, these ranged from providing workrooms for the Lindfield Voluntary Work Organisation making clothes and dressings for the wounded, to funding the purchase of a potato sprayer and chemicals for residents to borrow.
Following William Arthur Sturdy’s death, Paxhill remained owned and lived in by family members. Early in the Second World War, the estate was requisition by the military becoming a camp for the Canadian Army and the Black Watch. It is said about 70 huts were built to accommodate 1,500 troops on the land alongside Park Lane. Military equipment, including large quantities of ammunition and shells, were stored throughout the park. The officers’ mess was located in the house, a part of which remained occupied by the Study family and staff. The camp had all the necessary facilities from water tank to sewerage works and even a cinema, to which the more adventurous village boys would seek to gain access. The military presence reduced after D-Day and at the war’s end the camp was used to demobilise returning British prisoners of war.
Paxhill continued to be occupied by members of the Sturdy family until about 1960 when it was leased first to Preston College, Brighton, and then to Captain Goodwin for use as a retirement home. The property was sold in 1970 bringing to an end almost one hundred years
of ownership by the Sturdy family. Further changes of ownership followed with the house continuing to be used as a home for the elderly until 1999, when it was sold and converted back to a private residence.