East Grinstead

It is famous as the setting for the Winnie the Pooh stories written by A. A. Milne for his son Christopher Robin. Poohsticks Bridge, Galleon’s Lap, Roo’s Sandpit, the North Pole, the Hundred Acre Wood, Heffelump Trap and The Dark and Mysterious Forest can all be found on Ashdown Forest. Ashdown Forest was once a [...]

Hammerwood is a small hamlet, four miles to the east of East Grinstead in Sussex, UK.
The name Hammerwood comes from the old Sussex iron industry and relates to the numerous hammer-ponds found in the area. Streams in the locality can still run red with the colour of iron in the water.
Aside from a number of [...]

Saint Hill is a mansion near East Grinstead, Sussex, England and was for many years the head office of the Church of Scientology. It remains the head office for the church in the United Kingdom.
It is situated on 59 acres (239,000 m²) of landscaped gardens.
Saint Hill Manor was built by Gibbs Crawford in 1792. Other [...]

Sackville College is a Jacobean almshouse in town of East Grinstead, England. It was founded in 1609 with money left by Robert Sackville, the Earl of Dorset. Throughout its history has provided sheltered accommodation for the elderly. The College is a run as a charity and operates under an Act of Parliament from 1624 and [...]

The Queen Victoria Hospital has become world famous for its pioneering burns and plastic surgery. Most famously, it was where the Guinea Pig Club was formed in 1941 after Sir Archibald McIndoe joined the hospital in 1939 to set up a special unit for the treatment of soldiers from the second world war to treat [...]

Pre-History
The earliest fact known about Ashurst Wood is that Lewes Road – Hammerwood Road -Cansiron Lane has been a ridgeway track for animals and man for at least 5000 years.
Romans
The Romans left no visible remains in Ashurst Wood village, but there are many signs of the iron factory and tile works at [...]

On 9th July 1943, ten German aircraft crossed the Sussex coast at Hastings and headed for London. At 5.05 pm the air raid sirens sounded in East Grinstead. At the time 184 people were watching a film featuring Hopalong Cassidy in the Whitehall Cinema. A warning appeared on the screen that a German air raid [...]

Lord Kitchener was appointed Secretary for War in August 1914. His main task was to persuade men to join the British Army. At a meeting on the 19th August it was suggested by Sir Henry Rawlinson that men would be more willing to enlist if they knew they would serve with people they knew. Lord [...]

In February 1919 a German machine-gun was sent to East Grinstead in recognition of the town’s success in raising War Loans on behalf of the British government. At a meeting of the East Grinstead Urban Council, Joseph Rice and Alfred Burt complained that the town deserved something that could be placed on public exhibition in [...]

After men joined the army they were sent to local army camps to be turned into soldiers. As experienced officers were needed in France to organise the war against the Germans, elderly people were bought out of retirement to train the men. These men were often over the age of sixty. One sixty five year [...]