Buxted is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex in England. The parish is situated on the Weald, north of Uckfield; the settlements of Five Ash Down, Heron's Ghyll and High Hurstwood are included within its boundaries. At one time its importance lay in the Wealden iron industry, and later it became commercially important in the poultry and egg industry.[3]
The village has both road (the high street is also the A272) and rail links to Uckfield and to London via Oxted.
History
The origin of the name Buxted comes from the SaxonBochs stede (place of the beeches).
The iron-making industry became a major part of Buxted's early prosperity.[4] The first standard blast furnace was called Queenstock and was built in Buxted parish in about 1491.[5] The cannon-making industry in the Weald started at a furnace on the stream at Hoggets Farm lying to the north between Buxted and Hadlow Down. The first cast-iron cannon made in England was cast in 1543 by Ralf Hogge, an employee of Parson William Levett, a Sussex rector with broad interests, paradoxically enough, in the emerging English armaments industry.
Levett was removed as Buxted's vicar in 1545 by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. But thanks to friends in high places, Levett was quickly reinstated. After regaining his clerical position, Levett died a very wealthy man, thanks to his iron mining and smelting operations, founded by his brother John Levett, one of the founders of the Sussex iron industry and one of the wealthiest men in Sussex, who controlled 20 Sussex manors at his death in 1535.[6] The family is of Norman descent and one of the oldest in Sussex. William and John Levett were the sons of a large landowner in the Hollington area of Hastings, Sussex.[7] In his lengthy will, parson William Levett left large charitable bequests which he directed be supervised by his friend Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. Richard Woodman, an ironmaster was born here, but he was burnt as a Protestant martyr in 1557.
The novelist George Alfred Lawrence was born in Buxted in 1827, the eldest son of the Anglican curate at the time, Rev. Alfred Charnley Lawrence.
The manor house, known as Buxted Park, was purchased by the then Prime Minister, Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, in the early part of the 19th century. He set about extending the park surrounding the house, and eventually coerced the villagers to vacate their own houses to enable him to do so. The village (although not the church) was cleared away and the village then took up its present location.[8] By 1836, the entire original village centre was no more, having been relocated to the site it occupies today. Some of the outlying houses pre-date this move, such as Britts, a 17th-century farmhouse, which still stands. The original manor house was built further down the hill next to the railway where Queen Victoria once visited – the house being the Chequers of its day. The original house burnt down in the latter part of the 19th century and was rebuilt in its present location.
Legends
Nan Tuck's Lane
According to local legend, the ghost of Nan Tuck, a woman from Rotherfield who allegedly poisoned a man in the 17th century, is said to haunt Nan Tuck's Lane in Buxted. Supposedly, the murder was quickly discovered and Tuck evaded her pursuers over the next few days by climbing hedges and hiding in hay ricks. It is said her intention was to take sanctuary in Buxted Parish Church – according to the right of asylum, if one could reach a church and touch the altar, a fugitive might escape punishment – but with local officials pursuing her, she was forced to run into the woods. According to the tale, she disappeared there and was never seen again. Legend holds that a circular patch of land in the woods near Nan Tuck's Lane stays unfertile and no vegetation will grow there.[9][10][11]
Census
Buxted is part of electoral ward called Buxted and Maresfield. The population of this ward as taken in the census 2011 was 5,534.[12]
Geography
The parish of Buxted lies partly within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, although the village itself is outside it. Tributaries of both the Rivers Rother (flowing eastward) and Cuckmere flow through the parish, and were used by the iron industry for power. It is largely a rural parish, although the original Britts farmland is now largely covered by modern houses along Britts Farm Road, constructed in the 1980s.
The parish contains an area of Site of Special Scientific Interest—Buxted Park, an old deer park which is very important for the conservation of invertebrates.[13] Buxted Park is now a country house hotel, owned by Hand Picked Hotels around which there are some lovely walks.
The original parish church, St Margaret the Queen, is located in Buxted Park and was built in 1250.[15] Its dedication is to Saint Margaret of Scotland. Other churches in the parish include St Mary the Virgin, consecrated 1887, Buxted Methodist Church, built 1907 and Holy Trinity Church in High Hurstwood.[16] In Heron's Ghyll is the Roman Catholic Grade II listed, St John the Evangelist Church.[17]
Governance
Buxted Parish Hall
The first, community level of government is Buxted Parish Council which meets once a month, except in August. The Parish Council is responsible for local amenities such as the provision of litter bins, bus shelters and allotments. It is also a statutory consultee on local planning applications and liaises closely with Wealden District Council on local development issues. The Parish Council works closely with WDC on safety, planning, transport and other issues and is a channel of communication between district and parish tiers of government.
For elections, the parish is divided into two wards, Buxted (ten seats) and High Hurstwood Ward (five seats) and includes Five Ash Down. The May 2015 election was uncontested with 13 seats being filled.[18]
Wealden District council provides the next level of government with services such as refuse collection, planning consent, leisure amenities and council tax collection. Buxted lies within the Buxted and Maresfield Ward, which provides two councillors. The May 2015 election returned two Conservative councillors.
East Sussex county council is the third tier of government, providing education, libraries and highway maintenance. Buxted falls within the Buxted Maresfield district. Roy Galley, Conservative, was elected in the May 2013 election with 51.4% of the vote.
The UK Parliament constituency for Buxted is Wealden. The conservative Nus Ghani was elected in the May 2015 election.
Uckfield is a town in the Wealden District of East Sussex in South East England. The town is on the River Uck, one of the tributaries of the River Ouse, on the southern edge of the Weald.
Isfield is a small village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex in England, located north-east of Lewes.
The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Ironmaking in the Weald used ironstone from various clay beds, and was fuelled by charcoal made from trees in the heavily wooded landscape. The industry in the Weald declined when ironmaking began to be fuelled by coke made from coal, which does not occur accessibly in the area.
Withyham is a village and large civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The village is situated 7 miles south west of Royal Tunbridge Wells and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Crowborough; the parish covers approximately 7,500 acres (30 km2).
Maresfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village itself lies 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north from Uckfield; the nearby villages of Nutley and Fairwarp; and the smaller settlements of Duddleswell and Horney Common; and parts of Ashdown Forest all lie within Maresfield parish.
Wealden is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Nus Ghani, a Conservative. Ghani is the first Muslim woman to be elected as a Conservative member of Parliament.
Danehill is a village in East Sussex, England.
Framfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is located two miles (3 km) east of Uckfield; the settlements of Blackboys and Palehouse form part of the parish area of 6,700 acres (2,706 ha).
Hellingly is a village, and can also refer to a civil parish, and to a district ward, in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England.
Little Horsted is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. It is located two miles (3.2 km) south of Uckfield, on the A26 road.
Frant is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England, on the Kentish border about three miles (5 km) south of Royal Tunbridge Wells.
Hadlow Down is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. It is located on the A272 road three miles (4.8 km) north-west of Heathfield. The parish is within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It came to prominence with the Wealden iron industry in the 17th and 18th centuries. The majority of the population now works outside the parish, but it still has a strong community atmosphere centred on the New Inn pub, St. Mark's school and St. Mark's church.
Warbleton is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. Within its bounds are three other settlements. It is located south-east of Heathfield on the slopes of the Weald.
William Levett was an English clergyman. An Oxford-educated country rector, he was a pivotal figure in the use of the blast furnace to manufacture iron. With the patronage of the English Crown, furnaces in Sussex under Levett's ownership cast the first iron muzzle-loader cannons in England in 1543, a development which enabled England to ultimately reconfigure the global balance-of-power by becoming an ascendant naval force. William Levett continued to perform his ministerial duties while building an early munitions empire, and left the riches he accumulated to a wide variety of charities at his death.
St Mark's Church is an Anglican church in the village of Hadlow Down in the district of Wealden, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. Founded in 1834 by a committed local resident who petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury for permission to establish a chapel in the poor agricultural village, the church proved popular—despite the competing presence of two Nonconformist chapels nearby—and was extended in 1913. The stone-built church, with its tall spire and well-regarded "living churchyard" nature reserve, is now Hadlow Down's only remaining place of worship. English Heritage has listed it at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Five Ash Down is a small village within the civil parish of Buxted, in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. Its nearest town is Uckfield, which lies approximately 1.8 miles (2.9 km) south from the village. The village lies on the A26 road between Uckfield and Crowborough. Five Ash Down is home to the Pig and Butcher public house, a village hall which has a weekly timetable of events and the village shop and Post Office. Five Ash Down Independent Chapel, an Evangelical church, was founded in 1773 and moved to its present site in 1784, although in its present form the chapel is mostly Victorian.
The Church of St Margaret the Queen is a grade I listed building in Buxted Park, East Sussex, England. It is dedicated to Saint Margaret of Scotland, an 11th-century Scottish queen. The church dates from the 13th century, with additions in the 15th and 16th centuries and restored in 1858. In the present day, it is a middle-of-the-road Church of England church and part of the Parish of Buxted and Hadlow Down in the diocese of Chichester.
East Grinstead and Uckfield is a proposed constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it will first be contested at the next general election.
↑ Mousley, J. E. (1959). "The Fortunes of Some Gentry Families of Elizabethan Sussex". The Economic History Review. Economic History Society. (New Series) 11 (3): 467–483. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1959.tb01653.x. JSTOR2591467.
↑ Awtry, Brian (1989). "Parson Levett and English cannon founding". Sussex Archaeological Collections. Sussex Archaeological Society. 127: 133–145.
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