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Forest Row | |
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![]() The centre of Forest Row | |
Location within East Sussex | |
Area | 32.5 km2 (12.5 sq mi) [1] |
Population | 4,954 (2011) [1] |
• Density | 152/km2 (390/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | TQ427348 |
• London | 29 miles (47 km) NNW |
Civil parish |
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District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | FOREST ROW |
Postcode district | RH18 |
Dialling code | 01342 |
Police | Sussex |
Fire | East Sussex |
Ambulance | South East Coast |
UK Parliament | |
Website | https://forestrow.gov.uk |
Forest Row is a village and a large civil parish [3] in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is located three miles (5 km) south-east of East Grinstead. In January 2023, it ranked as Britain’s 3rd poshest village. [4]
The village draws its name from its proximity to the Ashdown Forest, a royal hunting park first enclosed in the 13th century. From its origins as a small hamlet, Forest Row has grown, first with the establishment of a turnpike road in the 18th century; and later with the opening of the railway between East Grinstead and Tunbridge Wells in 1866; the line, which included an intermediate station at Forest Row, closed in 1967 as a result of the Beeching Axe (a programme of closures put forward by East Grinstead resident and British Railways Board Chairman Richard Beeching).
A part medieval public house the Yew Tree (now known as The Swan), was a centre of smuggling in the 18th century. [5]
Brambletye House (known locally as Brambletye Castle) was built by Sir Henry Compton in 1631. This building features in the 1826 Horace Smith novel Brambletye House.
A mail coach robbery occurred at the bottom of Wall Hill on 27 June 1801. John Beatson and his adopted son William Whalley Beatson hid in a meadow at the foot of Wall Hill, by the entrance to an old Roman road. The mail coach made its way up Wall Hill, where it was stopped by them just after midnight. The Beatsons took between £4,000 and £5,000. Judge Baron Hotham sentenced the two men to death by hanging at the trial on 29 March 1802. Gallows were erected on the spot where the robbery took place, on 17 April 1802. Beatson and his adopted son were hanged in the presence of 3,000 people.[ citation needed ]
John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, came to Forest Row in June 1963 during his visit to the UK, [6] attending mass at the Our Lady of the Forest church. At the time he was engaged in a series of discussions with the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at his home in nearby Birch Grove. [6] There is a plaque commemorating the visit on Freshfield Hall.
Forest Row became a Transition village in 2007 with the official unveiling in March 2008 at the Village Hall.
An electoral ward in the same name exists. The population of this ward taken at the 2011 Census was 5,278. [7]
The civil parish of Forest Row is in the north-west corner of East Sussex, and borders West Sussex, Kent and Surrey. Ashdown Forest surrounds the village on three sides, and the upper reaches of the River Medway flow through the parish. The centre of the village lies at the intersection of the A22 road, the erstwhile turnpike, and the B2110 to Hartfield and Tunbridge Wells and there is a wide range of shops and businesses to serve the surrounding area.
Weir Wood Reservoir is a Site of Special Scientific Interest within the parish. It is also one of the largest areas of open water in the county and hosts a wide variety of resident and migrating birds. [8]
The hotels in the village are The Brambletye Hotel, The Chequers and The Swan. In the 2006 radiation scare surrounding KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko the Ashdown Park Hotel and Country Club were closed for 6 hours and the nearby Roebuck hotel was used as an evacuation point for arriving guests. [9] Italian security expert Mario Scaramella may have stayed there but tests showed no evidence of "radiation toxicity".
The village architecture is a mixture of traditional and modern. As well as many older cottages in the classic Sussex style there is a variety of more modern development, which generally blends in well. Gage Ridge and Michael Fields, with their copper-roofed houses are examples of the latter.
In addition to the businesses in the village centre, there is also an industrial estate.
The Church of England eccesiastical parish combines two churches: Holy Trinity, Forest Row, and St Dunstan's Ashurst Wood. [10] There are also other denominational churches: The Christian Community Forest Row; [11] a Baptist chapel; Providence church; and the cemetery chapel.
The Roman Catholic Our Lady of the Forest Church opened in the 1950s and closed on Christmas Day in 2009. [12]
State education is provided at Forest Row CE Primary School. [13] Greenfields School, which caters for children of all ages, is an independent school in the village which gives its students the opportunity to follow the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, amongst other things. Institutions associated with the Anthroposophical movement of Rudolf Steiner are located in or near the village, notably Michael Hall, a Steiner Waldorf School offering education to children from kindergarten up to age 18 [14] and Emerson College. [15]
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There have been several notable residents of Forest Row in the recent past and present. These include: Owen Barfield, the writer and philosopher, Ben Elton, the comedian and novelist, David Gilmour from the band Pink Floyd, Violet Needham, author Richard Jones, bass player and background singer in the Feeling, Jonael Schickler, a Swiss Philosopher and Sean Yates, professional cyclist. The singer Engelbert Humperdinck had a holiday cottage in the village during the 1980s. Actor Ed Sanders is from Forest Row. [19] American-born DJ and producer Secondcity (real name Rowan Harrington) lived in Forest Row having moved there when he was 12. Noted amateur golfer and writer Horace Hutchinson called Forest Row his home in the late 1920s and early 1930s, before his death in 1932.
Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated 30 miles (48 km) south of London in the county East Sussex, England. Rising to an elevation of 732 feet (223 m) above sea level, its heights provide expansive vistas across the heavily wooded hills of the Weald to the chalk escarpments of the North Downs and South Downs on the horizon.
East Grinstead is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, 27 miles (43 km) south of London, 21 miles (34 km) northeast of Brighton, and 38 miles (61 km) northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the northeast of the county, the civil parish has an area of 2,443.45 hectares. The population at the 2011 Census was 26,383.
Pease Pottage is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the southern edge of the Crawley built-up area, in the civil parish of Slaugham.
The A22 is one of the two-digit major roads in the south east of England. Radial, it carries traffic from London to the Eastbourne area of the East Sussex coast, in which town it ends.
Hammerwood is a hamlet in the civil parish of Forest Row in East Sussex, England. Its nearest town is East Grinstead, which lies approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west from the village. The village is situated on the High Weald, on the East Sussex-West Sussex-Kent-Surrey border.
Hartfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The parish also includes the settlements of Colemans Hatch, Hammerwood and Holtye, all lying on the northern edge of Ashdown Forest.
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.
East Grinstead railway station is one of the two southern termini of the Oxted line in the south of England and serves East Grinstead in West Sussex. It is 30 miles 4 chains from London Bridge, although trains mostly run to and from London Victoria. The station is managed by Southern.
Groombridge is a village of about 1,600 people. It straddles the border between Kent and East Sussex, in England. The nearest large town is Royal Tunbridge Wells, about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) away by road.
West Hoathly is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south west of East Grinstead. In the 2001 census 2,121 people, of whom 1,150 were economically active, lived in 813 households. At the 2011 Census the population increased to 2,181. The parish, which has a land area of 2,139 hectares, includes the hamlets of Highbrook, Selsfield Common and Sharpthorne. The mostly rural parish is centred on West Hoathly village, an ancient hilltop settlement in the High Weald between the North and South Downs.
Ashurst Wood is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is 1 mile (2 km) to the southeast of East Grinstead, just off the A22 arterial road. In 2001, the population was 1,771, increasing to 1,833 at the 2011 Census. Ashurst Wood is within the High Weald Area of Natural Beauty and has a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) inside its boundaries. The village has a history of agriculture and farming, and contains a church, village hall, primary school, two public houses, a general shop, post office and several small business premises. There is an independent school on the boundary of the village, called Brambletye School, and a former one, Stoke Brunswick School, which closed in 2009. Bus routes run through the village with destinations of East Grinstead, Crawley, Haywards Heath, Tunbridge Wells and Brighton.
Crawley Down is a village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. There is one church, one school, and a number of social groups. It lies 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Crawley and 7 miles (11 km) east of Gatwick Airport. Crawley Down lies in the northeast corner of West Sussex, just one mile from the border with Surrey.
The Three Bridges–Tunbridge Wells line is a mostly disused railway line running from Three Bridges in West Sussex to Tunbridge Wells Central in Kent via East Grinstead in West Sussex, a distance of 20 miles 74 chains (33.7 km). Opened in 1855, the main section of the line was a casualty of the Beeching Axe – the last train ran on 1 January 1967. The remaining section to Tunbridge Wells closed on 6 July 1985, although the section between Groombridge and Tunbridge Wells West was reopened in 1997 under the auspices of the Spa Valley Railway.
Henry Ray Freshfield was an English lawyer and conservationist.
The High Weald Landscape Trail (HWLT) is a 145-kilometre (90 mi) route in England between Horsham, West Sussex and Rye, East Sussex, designed to pass through the main landscape types of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). It does not follow the highest ground, and the eastern section is only a few feet above sea level. It keeps to the northern edge of the High Weald except in the west where it runs close to the southern edge for a short distance.
The Forest Way is a linear Country park providing walking, cycling, horse riding and the quiet enjoyment of the countryside. It runs for around 16 km from East Grinstead to Groombridge.
Brambletye School is a coeducational day and boarding preparatory school in East Grinstead, West Sussex. It was founded as a small boys' boarding school in Kent between the world wars. The school moved to West Sussex and has since become coeducational.
Sir Henry Compton KB was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1640.