Cross-in-Hand
| Cross-in-Hand | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 St Bartholomew's Church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ562216 |
| Location: | 50°58’25"N, 0°13’25"E |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Heathfield |
| Postcode: | TN21 |
| Dialling code: | 01435 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Wealden |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Bexhill and Battle |
Cross-in-Hand is a small village outside Heathfield in Sussex. It is occasionally referred to as 'Isenhurst'. It is to be found is at the junction the A267 running between Royal Tunbridge Wells (on the border with Kent) and Eastbourne, and the B2102 which runs from Cross-in-Hand to Uckfield.
The village has a high street with a good range of local shops and businesses.
The parish church is St Bartholomew's.
There is one pub, the Cross in Hand, form which the village takes its name. Other village facilities include a village hall, rugby football, bowls and tennis clubs.
History
The village historically provided services to the local iron trade. A windmill called the "New Mill" has stood at its current site since 1868, although it was built in Framfield in 1855, then moved to a site a quarter of a mile away from where it stands today, and moved again in 1868 at the orders of the local squire at the time, Louis Huth.[1]
The English Place-Name Society gives the earliest reference to the village as Cruce Manus, the Latin for 'Cross-in-Hand', recorded in 1547, which by 1597 was being rendered Crosse atte Hand and by 1656 was being called Crosse in the Hande.[2]
The name is believed locally to be based on a legend that Crusaders assembled here before sailing for the Holy Land from Rye to fight Saladin. An alternative explanation is that it is the place where some murderers managed to escape their pursuers by turning to face them with a cross in their hands.[3]
The first Heathfield Agricultural Show was held there in 1946.[4]
Cross-in-Hand Raceway
The village had its own stock car circuit [5] which opened for racing as a dirt track on 17 October 1965, Chichester's Trevor Carpenter winning the final. A second meeting, two weeks later, was cancelled due to bad weather and then the track remained closed until 20 July 1969 when the new concrete track was used for the first time. During the 1971 and 1972 seasons the track had its own Auto Spedeway team called the Cross in Hand Tigers.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Cross-in-Hand) |
References
- ↑ Cross-in-Hand Windmill
- ↑ Mawer, A.; Stenton, F.M.; with Gover, J. E. B.: 'Place-Names of Sussex , Part' (English Place-Names Society, 1929/30), page 43
- ↑ Simpson, Jacqueline (2010). texts Green men & white swans : the folklore of British pub names. Arrow Books. p. 63. ISBN 9780099520177. https://archive.org/details/greenmenwhiteswa0000simp/page/62/mode/2up?q=%22Cross+in+hand%22+%22Cruce+Manus%22. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
- ↑ Chapman, Brigid (1999). People and places of the High Weald. S.B. Publications. pp. 81-82. ISBN 9781857701531. https://archive.org/details/peopleplacesofhi0000chap/page/80/mode/2up?q=%22cross+in+hand%22. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
- ↑ Backtrack, The Golden Years of Oval Racing - ISBN 0-7524-4080-2
