East Grinstead

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 the Holtye end of Cansiron Lane.

1066 and All That
By 1066 our area had been settled to the extent that we had a substantial farm group on either side of today’s village; Brambletye to the south with its demesne farm, one large farmer and many smallholders; Shovelstrode to the north with a demesne farm, one large farmer and three smallholders.

Elizabethan Era
An era known as the ‘Great Rebuilding’ began during the Elizabethan period. Many of the substantial properties built here during that time still remain, albeit in much modified form. These include Grove Farm, Pock Hill, Great Surries, Great and Little Cansiron, Little Beeches (now sub-divided), Little Water, Homestall (Button Hall now added from Cheshire) and several others.

Civil War
Just before the Civil War in 1631 Brambletye House was built, a truly great house by any standard. Unfortunately it did not survive the perils of Oliver Cromwell and his men and by the end of that century was a ruin as you see it today.

18th Century
By 1725 the Three Crowns Inn or Public House appears in the records, although we do not know its precise age.

Victorian Times
It is only in the Victorian era that signs of a village as we know it appeared. Apart from more house building, the village gained a church, a school and another pub.
The church we now know as St. Dunstan’s was originally built in 1859 as a Congregational church. The Church of England used the Mission Room built in 1884 (now a private dwelling) and only acquired the present building in 1977. It was rededicated in 1979.
The school opened in 1873 with 35 pupils and was situated in Hammerwood Road. Pupil numbers grew and in 1910 they moved to the site of the present school.
Records show that the recreation ground was used as a cricket ground as early as 1896, but football is not recorded until the I92o’s.

20th Century
In the 2Oth century we gained the W.I. (1917), a war memorial (1921), the Village Centre (1930) and many more houses. In 1970 John Pears Field was dedicated as a memorial and has become a source of much enjoyment.

Source: Village Action Plan Spring 2007

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 their facial and burns injuries.

The hospital is located in East Grinstead. The Princess Royal is the current patron of the hospital.

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 a Royal Charter from 1631. The College continues to receive patronage from William Herbrand Sackville, 11th Earl De La Warr.

The building is located at the end of the High Street close to the church of St. Swithin’s. It is build of local sandstone. The main building was completed in 1619, and remains exceptionally well preserved. The original lock is still used on the chapel door and much furniture from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is preserved inside. It is a Grade I listed building. The building surrounds a courtyard which contains a well. The internal walls have large mullioned windows. The Great Hall features the original hammer-beam room. Inside, the residences for the elderly have been modernized.

The College is run by a warden, who lives in part of the building that was originally used by the Sackville family on visits to their Sussex estates. The warden’s office has not changed substantially since it was used by the Revd. Dr. John Mason Neale who was warden from 1846 until his death in 1866. The Revd. Neale was a hymn writer notable for authoring Good King Wenceslas. The warden’s office is a good example of a Victorian study.

As the College remains in use much of it is not open to the public, however the chapel, Hall and warden’s office are open Wednesday to Sunday during the summer.

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 owners include Edgar March Crookshank and Mrs. Drexrel Biddle, who commissioned the famous Monkey Mural which was painted by John Spencer-Churchill, nephew of Winston Churchill.

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, bought the mansion from the Maharajah of Jaipur in 1959 and lived there until 1966. Much of early Scientology was developed at Saint Hill, including a course known to Scientologists as the Saint Hill Special Briefing course. Hubbard also constructed Saint Hill Castle on the grounds outside the Manor.

Monkey Room, Saint Hill

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 houses, the most notable buildings are St. Stephen’s Church and Hammerwood House.

The church was completed in 1880 funded by local landowner Oswald Augustus Smith and built to a design of E.P Loftus Brock. Smith also funded the rebuilding of St Peter’s Church in Holtye within the same parish. The church can be found on the main road. Inside the church, there is a pipe organ built by T.C Lewis of Brixton in 1884. Both churches are regularly used and form the Parish of Hammerwood and Holtye, which itself forms a United Benefice with St Mary Magdalene in Cowden.

Hammerwood House was designed by the architect Benjamin Latrobe, also responsible for the Capitol in Washington. Hammerwood House is open to the public at certain times of the year.

Also at Hammerwood there is a Scout campsite which is used by the Lewisham North District Scouts. There are numerous camps and competitions for example the Stag trophy and ‘Operation Nighthawk’ are based at the camp site. Many of the clearings throughout the woodland are used for camping for various troops. Also there are several huts at the top of the campsite adjacent to the car park. Toilet blocks, and electricity are available at the main area around the huts.

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 royal hunting ground and was originally protected by Act of Parliament in 1885.

On the Forest is Ashdown Forest Llama Park.

The Forest was at one time home to a number of Red-necked Wallabies, the result of an escape from a captive colony in what was probably a farm. By the 1940s these were believed to be fully naturalised and breeding; numbers declined, however, and the last confirmed sighting was in 1972. Its importance to wildlife is recognized by its designation as a Special Protection Area. These wallabies, added to the fact that Christopher Robin owned toy Kangaroos, may have been the reason for Kanga and Roo.

The Bluebell Railway is a heritage line running for nine miles along the border between East Sussex and West Sussex, England. Steam trains are operated between Sheffield Park and Kingscote, with an intermediate station at Horsted Keynes.

The railway is managed and run largely by volunteers, and has the largest collection of steam locomotives after the National Railway Museum (NRM) and a collection of carriages and wagons which is unrivalled in the south of England. In addition to the 30 locomotives resident on the line, one more is on loan from the NRM (another has recently returned there), and a project to recreate a long-lost type of locomotive (A London, Brighton and South Coast Railway H2 Class Atlantic) from a few surviving parts is well under way.

Dr Richard BeechingThe Bluebell was the first preserved standard gauge railway in the world – it opened in 1960, shortly after the line from East Grinstead to Lewes was closed by Dr Beeching & British Railways. It preserved steam locomotives before the cessation of steam use on British mainline railways in 1968.

During his tenure, Dr Beeching became a hugely controversial figure when he recommended a massive programme of railway closures to cut the cost of running the railway system. He was also responsible for modernising many aspects of the railway system.

The intentions of the Beeching Report were to remove the unprofitable branch lines while keeping the highly profitable main lines, using the money saved to update the system and speed the progress of the Modernisation Plan. Unfortunately, the Treasury decided that since the money was no longer needed for the support of branch lines, it could be spent by other departments, making the plans futile.

Another mistake in the plans was the assumption that if a branch line closed, passengers would drive to the nearest railhead and still use the railway for the rest of their journey. Instead, they found it more convenient to drive the entire journey, costing British Rail far more in the long term.

The Bluebell Railway Preservation Society is working to reinstate the remaining two miles of line from Kingscote to East Grinstead, having completed the initial extension from Horsted Keynes to Kingscote in 1994. The Bluebell have now bought the station site at East Grinstead however, the station may well be changed to provide a direct link with Network Rail [citation needed].

Looking North, towards Horsted Keynes, from Sheffield ParkWork has now actively started on the final push to the North towards East Grinstead where the line will once again join to the national rail network. The small matter of 300 metres of rubbish filling a 50 metre deep cutting will be removed by convoys of road freighters, although some of the clay is being taken south by rail to help fill the site of a removed embankment on the old Ardingly spur.

It is hoped that in the future this spur will also reconnect with the main London to Brighton line at Copyhold Junction, restoring a major bypass of the main London–Brighton line. During the Second World War the signal box at Horsted Keynes was manned day and night to provide a second route for troop trains.

The station at Sheffield Park has been restored to a generally Victorian ambience, as close as possible to how it would have appeared during the time of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (up to 1922). Horsted Keynes tries to emulate the style of the Southern Railway (1922–1948), and Kingscote echoes the early British Railways period (1950s).

Christmas is a peak time for bookings, as the Santa Special is very popular with families. Complimentary Clown entertainment, a children’s visit from Father Christmas, Mince Pies and refreshments are served during the journey.

The Bluebell Railway has been used as the location for several films and television programmes. In October 1999 the film The Railway Children based on the book by E Nesbit was filmed at the railway.

Looking South, towards the former line to Newick and Chailey and to Lewes, from Sheffield ParkThe Bluebell Railway is also featured in The Railway Series written by the Rev. W. Awdry. The book was called Stepney the “Bluebell” Engine, with Stepney as the main character, visiting the fictional Island of Sodor.

Standen was built in 1892-4 for a prosperous London solicitor, James Beale, and his large family. He chose Philip Webb as his architect, who was one of William Morris’ closest friends and colleagues. Standen takes its name from one of three farms which James Beale purchased in 1890 - Great Hollybush, Stone and Standen. Standen farmhouse was a small low-pitched cottage which stood to the south of the present house and was demolished in 1896. It was Great Hollybush farmhouse which Philip Webb incorporated into the new house.

Standen is a fine show-piece of the late 19th-century Arts & Crafts Movement, featuring rich William Morris textiles and wallpapers, complemented by contemporary furniture, ceramics and pictures of the time.

The recently re-furbished Conservatory has been replanted with mimosa, maidenhair and hare’s-foot ferns, bird of paradise plants and Norfolk Island pine together with other plants identified from Mrs Beale’s Diaries and photographs of the Conservatory from the early 1900s.

Standen boasts a beautiful hillside garden with wild flowers, azaleas, rhododendrons, roses, ferns, an orchard and croquet lawn. There are also woodland walks on the estate.

West Hoathly Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 4NE
Telephone: 01342 323029

Source: The National Trust

St. Swithun’s is an open and friendly church in the town of East Grinstead in West Sussex, within the Diocese of Chichester. the building is 18th-century rebuilt in medieval style, with interesting round windows in the clerestory.

There has been a church on the site since the 11th century. It was struck by lightening in 1772 and after re-building it was opened in 1789.

Historical Background
This hill-top site where several tracks met would have been the obvious place to build a church when our area began to be settled in the late tenth century: and one of the most popular saints of that time, St Swithun (Bishop of Winchester, 852-862), was the unsurprising choice for its patron. We can only speculate about the original building and how it developed but pictures from the late eighteenth century show that a church of largely fourteenth and fifteenth century style stood here until 1785 when the collapse of its tower (poorly rebuilt in 1684 after being struck by lightning) made the present building necessary.

A national appeal for funds (a ‘brief’) raised £516 in 1788. Building began the next year but funds ran out when little more than the walls had been constructed. An Act of Parliament was therefore obtained authorising trustees to levy rates and raise loans. By 1793 the church was in use but in 1811 a further Act was necessary to pay off loans of £4000 and to raise as much again to build the tower, a task completed the following year. By the time the final loan repayments were made, in 1876, the church had cost some £30,000.

The local gentry and tradesmen responsible for all this were originally led by Gibbs Crawfurd, M.P., whose house Saint Hill was being built at the same time. It was probably he who secured one of the leading architects of the day, James Wyatt, to design the church, which is still structurally as he planned it, except for the tower, modified by William Inwood, a protégé of Charles Abbot, Speaker of the House of Commons, who settled at Kidbrooke, Forest Row, in 1805 and soon came to the fore in the rebuilding work.

Normally at this date such a church would be in classical style on basilican plan or an open hall without aisles or dividing columns. It would be roofed by a plaster decorated barrel vault. However, here Wyatt combined the requirements of the Church at the time with a respect for the earlier traditional mediaeval church on the site, displaying remarkable sensitivity a generation before the establishment of the Gothic Revival. Thus, for example, his pillars are very like those in the previous church and he provided a small structural chancel.

A programme of restoration in 1874 inaugurated the present appearance of the interior by removing Wyatt’s plastered paneling from the walls, taking down his flat ceiling, converting one bay of the nave into a choir and installing the present seating. In 1876 the present roof was put in. Stained glass began to be inserted in the windows at about the same time. Since then chapels have been formed either side of the choir, east windows have been inserted in them, an organ has been built in the gallery intended for singers and instrumentalists, and numerous furnishings and decorations have been installed.

Source: St. Swithun’s

The name Ashurst Wood (Aesehyrst Wilde) dates back to medieval times (1164) when it referred to an area of common or waste land at the top of Wall Hill. There was no village then.

The Manors of Shovelstrode to the north and Brambletye to the south are recorded in the Domesday Book (1086). They were linked by a trackway and Ashurst Wood lies at the junction of this trackway and an ancient ridgeway track (Hammerwood Road - Cansiron Lane and beyond) at least 5000 years old.

The oldest surviving house in the area is Homestall built c.1300 and now merged with Dutton (brought from Cheshire in the 1930’s) to form Stoke Brunswick School.

In Tudor times more land was being farmed and timber framed houses such as Great Surries, Pockhill, Grove Farm and Little Water Farm were built.

The Three Crowns is mentioned in records of 1725 and by the early 1800’s much of the Common area had been enclosed and an agricultural village began to take shape. Local trade premises appeared, a forge and a tannery being the most significant; and, with extra cottages for farm labourers and local craftsmen, the size of the village increased. In 1826 a by-pass was completed to avoid the drag up Wall Hill with horse and cart.

Throughout the remainder of the 19th Century the village continued to expand, with church, school and post office making their first appearance and the Maypole (1879) becoming the second public house. The arrival of the railway in 1884 saw even more rapid growth. Wealthy people bought and built family houses, employing servants, gardeners and grooms and providing work for tradesmen of every description.

In the 20th Century, the nature of the village changed. Local agricultural work declined and with it the associated local crafts. Farms gave up their land for the building of new houses and the inhabitants found their employment outside the village. The two Great Wars saw an acceleration of this trend and now the village is largely a dormitory for East Grinstead, Crawley and beyond.

In the new Millennium Ashurst Wood acquired its own Parish Council. Now, although village life has changed, the villagers can enjoy the inheritance of some beautiful old buildings and can walk the ancient trackways.

(Ashurst Wood Historians 2002)

The 2001 Census recorded 674 households in the Village, with a population of 1771.