Wych Cross
| Wych Cross | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 Wych Cross | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ419319 |
| Location: | 51°4’10"N, -0°1’30"E |
| Data | |
| Postcode: | RH18 |
| Local Government | |
Wych Cross is a hamlet, if even that, in Ashdown Forest, in Sussex. It is at the point where the five roads through the forest meet: the A22 heading south-east eventually to Eastbourne, the A275 branching off south to Lewes and the local road from east to west. The location is on the sandstone forest ridge of the High Weald; an elevated pair of adjascent crossroads.
The origin of the name (also spelt 'Wytch Cross' and 'Witch Cross' in documents of the early 19th century and earlier) is uncertain. "Wych" could be a variant of the common Old English placename "wic", denoting a homestead or settlement,[1] it could possibly refer to a tree, the wych-elm. In another suggestion it could refer to St Richard de Wych, Bishop of Chichester.[2]
In the late 19th century a church dedicated to St. Richard de Wych was built east of Wych Cross by the then owner of the Ashdown Park estate, Thomas Charles Thompson, but it was never consecrated, and it was demolished in the 1970s.
The Ashdown Forest Centre, the head office of the Conservators of Ashdown Forest, is situated at Wych Cross just half a mile east of the crossroads. It is housed in three historic Wealden barns—an Administration Barn, Information Barn (visitor centre) and Education Barn—that were conveyed to the site and rebuilt there in the early 1980s.
Notable buildings at Wych Cross include the present hotel building (including a deconsecrated chapel containing eight Harry Clarke stained glass windows [3]) at Ashdown Park, and Wych Cross Place, built around 1900.
A hymn tune named "Wych Cross" was composed by Erik Routley, who was born in Brighton, about twenty miles south of Wych Cross.
References
- ↑ Stenton, Frank (1899). History of Strood. Parrett and Neves.
- ↑ Mawer, A.; Stenton, F.M.; with Gover, J. E. B.: 'Place-Names of Sussex , Part 2' (English Place-Names Society, 1930)
- ↑ "Ashdown Park Hotel, Sussex, England – Harry Clarke Stained Glass Windows". https://www.harryclarke.net/ashdown_park_hotel_home.