Plumpton, Sussex
| Plumpton | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 Church of St Michael, Plumpton | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ359132 |
| Location: | 50°55’48"N, 0°4’0"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,644 (2011) |
| Post town: | Lewes |
| Postcode: | BN7 |
| Dialling code: | 01273 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Lewes |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Lewes |
| Website: | Plumpton Council |
Plumpton a small village in Sussex, five miles north-west of Lewes. The original village, Plumpton itself is on the B2116 which runs west to east beneath the scarp slope of the South Downs. A second village, Plumpton Green two and a half miles to the north, has grown larger than its parent village, as it formed around the ro]ailway station.
The southern half of the parish lies within the South Downs National Park and at the highest point (702 feet), the South Downs Way traverses the crest of Plumpton Plain.
Most of the village's facilities are in Plumpton Green. By Plumpton itself is Plumpton Racecourse. Also in the parish is Plumpton College, which farms over 2500 acres of land and has become one of the leading centres for land-based education in the United Kingdom.
Plumpton Green is essentially a ribbon development strung along a single road running north from the north of the railway station: it has the school, the village shop, a church and two pubs.
History
Plumpton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having a church and two mills, and is shown as Pluntune, meaning 'town or settlement where plum-trees grew'.[1]
It is thought that Simon de Montfort fought and defeated King Henry III at the Battle of Lewes in 1264 on Plumpton Plain. He gained a strategic advantage by using a night march to position his numerically inferior army on Downland high above the town. To avoid detection they ascended the Downs four miles to the north-west of Lewes up Warningore Bostal, a deeply-worn track that exists to this day. Before marching on the town de Montfort is reputed to have rallied his forces, wearing large white crosses on their tunics for identification, on Plumpton Plain. Although now no longer in place, within living memory a sandstone block at the centre of the cross bore the inscription 'Battle of Lewes 1264'.
As in the mediæval Sussex Weald generally, Plumpton parish and its manorial outliers to the north (known as 'Plumpton Boscage') had huge amounts of common land. By 1596, 240 acres of Plumpton Common had been enclosed and divided, though Plumpton Green remained common land until 1842. There is little evidence now of the commons. Place names like 'Riddens' Farm and Wood and 'Inholmes' Farm indicate very ancient enclosures from the wild.
The railway station was opened 1863, two miles to the north, and the centre of the parish gradually moved towards it. By the 1870s there were three drinking establishments, the village shop and a few other small businesses to the north of the station, spaced along Station Road. There were also a number of brickmaking sites in the open fields to either side of the road. Apart from brick-making and farming there were other rural activities such as bird-scaring, hare-coursing, acorn-picking, horse-driving, steeplechasing; even collecting flowers for the May Day celebrations.
Plumpton Green is said locally to have been the inspiration for the popular 1960s British children's television series Trumpton by Gordon Murray, with nearby Chailey being 'Chigley' and Wivelsfield Green being 'Camberwick Green'.[2]
Churches
Three Church of England places of worship are found in the parish:[3]
- St Michael and All Angels in Plumpton Village, in the grounds of Plumpton College
- All Saints in Plumpton Green
- East Chiltington Church, in East Chiltington between the two.
The Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels is a Grade I listed building, standing within the grounds of Plumpton Agricultural College. The nave was built around 1100; the west tower was built around 1200 and then altered in about 1400. The chancel was rebuilt in about 1300 and the south porch built around 1600 or 1700 was restored in 1866-7. The interior includes c1200 wall paintings, a wooden bell frame of the 1300s and a crown post roof to the nave.
All Saints was built until 1893, though it traces its to around 1838, the church having developed from a Methodist group that flourished in Plumpton at mid-century.
East Chiltington church was originally a chapel of ease to Westmeston from at least 1291. The chapel is now a parish church. It is built of sandstone rubble and the roofs are tiled. The nave dates to the early 12th century. A west tower was added c. 1200. The chancel was rebuilt later. The church was restored in 1889–90.
About the village
South of the village rises the scarp slope of the South Downs. A section here of six miles, known as the 'Clayton to Offham Escarpment' is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, along the ridge and slopes of the South Downs.. The site is of biological importance due to its rare chalk grassland habitat along with its woodland and scrub.[4]
The Plough Inn was originally sited by Bower Farm but was re-located to the crossroads when an airfield, RAF Chailey, was built during the Second World War. There is a monument to the airmen by the pub.
There are a number of beautiful and ancient woodland in this area.
Plumpton College
- Main article: Plumpton College
Plumpton College is a Further and Higher education college with courses in a variety of land based including Viticulture and Oenology, Agriculture, Horticulture, Floristry, Equine Studies, Animal Care and Veterinary Nursing, Countryside Management and so on.[5]
Plumpton Place
- Main article: Plumpton Place
Plumpton Place is an Elizabethan manor, with 20th-century alterations by Sir Edwin Lutyens, surrounded by a moat and extensive gardens, and water mill (TQ361136) which is turned by Plumton Mill stream. It used to have a big, 17th century threshing barn, which is used by Plumpton College.
In the early 1970s, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page purchased Plumpton Place and outfitted it with a recording studio: the manor can be seen briefly near the beginning of the Led Zeppelin concert film, The Song Remains the Same where the camera walks up to Page, playing a hurdy-gurdy, to inform him of the North American tour dates. Page sold the property in 1985.
Big Society
- Amateur dramatics:
- Plumpton Players
- Pantomime Society; every year they put on a different show.
Sport
- Cricket
- Football
- Rugby
- Tennis
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Plumpton, Sussex) |
References
- ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. p. 369 ISBN 0198691033
- ↑ "In Search of the Real Trumptonshire". Trumptonshire Web. http://www.t-web.co.uk/trumpvil.htm.
- ↑ Plumpton Churches
- ↑ SSSI listing and designation for Clayton to Offham Escarpment
- ↑ "Plumpton College" (in en). https://www.plumpton.ac.uk/.