Mayfield, Sussex
| Mayfield | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ585269 |
| Location: | 51°1’12"N, -0°15’36"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 3,718 (2011, parish) |
| Post town: | Mayfield |
| Postcode: | TN20 |
| Dialling code: | 01435 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Wealden |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Bexhill and Battle |
Mayfield is a village in the High Weald of Sussex, on the A267 road between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne. It is ten miles south of Tunbridge Wells.
Mayfield village
Every September the village hosts its annual carnival. This is to commemorate the Protestants being condemned here on 23 September 1556, and being burnt at the stake in Lewes. The festival is part of the Sussex bonfire tradition of marking the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. The procession marches through the village by torchlight on the third Saturday in September, climaxing with a firework display in the recreation ground. The money raised through the street collection is spent on charities.
Name
The early village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 within the Rape of Pevensey as Mesewelle,[1] which may indicate a well on tableland or more likely "belonging to Meese", a Norman man's name, or less likely, a new well or well dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The meshing of Norman French and Old English into Middle English meant that one person was often referred to by several spellings in a lifetime. Various spellings of Meese include Meece, Mese, Mece, Mees, Mey, and May.
Another more conventional proposal, has it that the village name derives from "Maghefeld"[2] (a field where mayweed grows) and "maid's field" – the village sign depicts a maid. Mayfield used to be a part of the manor of Malling, to the north west of Lewes, which belonged to the Kings of Wessex. Between 823 and 836 AD, King Egbert of Wessex and his son Æthelwulf gave it to Canterbury Cathedral: it became an Archbishop's 'peculiar' in the Diocese of Canterbury, and one of the Archbishop's palaces was built here. It was transferred to the Diocese of Chichester in 1846.
16th and 17th centuries
Mayfield was at its height during the boom in the Wealden iron industry, and many of the fine houses date from that time.
18th and 19th centuries
During the early 18th century, Mayfield became a centre for owling - smuggling wool for brandy and silk. Gabriel Tomkins was the leader of the local gang: in 1721 he was chased from Burwash to Nutley and then was arrested. The gang had a reputation for not using violence; and also applying their profits to the benefit of the local community, unlike many other such gangs: the Hawkhurst Gang in particular.
The Swing Riots affected the area with army arriving on 15 November 1830. Some local workers were imprisoned or transported.
With the opening of the railway line in 1880 between Hailsham and Tunbridge Wells a railway station was built to serve the village. On 1 September 1897, there was a railway accident on a curved section of track between Heathfield and Mayfield near Clayton Farm. A six-carriage train pulled by the engine Bonchurch was derailed and the driver was killed.[3] the station closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching Axe. The station building in Station Road is now converted to a private house and the route of the railway is now occupied by the re-routed A267 bypass of the village.
Churches
- Church of England: St Dunstan
- Baptist: Mayfield Baptist Chapel
- Independent / evangelical: Colkins Mill Church
- Roman Catholic: St Thomas of Canterbury
Both village and church are said to have been founded by the Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan, in 960, and there are legends surrounding his connection with the village. Dunstan is supposed to have become an ironworker and run a small forge next to the church. The legend goes that he was confronted by the devil, either making offensive remarks, or disguised as a young woman. He then pinched the devil's nose with the tongs. The devil then fled to Tunbridge Wells and doused his burnt nose with the spring water.[4][5] Some sources note that the story happened in Glastonbury rather than Mayfield, and that Dunstan may have in fact clamped tongs around someone's nose, with the story of it being the devil added later.
In 1389 much of the village and most of the church were destroyed by fire; the latter was struck by lightning in the 17th century.[6] The church was subsequently rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The church is in a mostly Perpendicular style and has a "squat, shingled broach spire".[5] Inside the church there are a number of graves made of iron for the families of Mayfield's ironmasters.
References
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Mayfield, Sussex) |
- Eva Margaretta Bell-Irving (1903). Mayfield: the story of an old Wealden village. W. Clowes and Sons. https://books.google.com/books?id=KBIhAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
- ↑ "Methodology of the great survey for the Domesday Book". http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TQ5827/mayfield/.
- ↑ History of the Deanery of South Malling
- ↑ Gray, James S. (1973). Victorian and Edwardian Sussex from old photographs. ISBN 0-7134-0131-1. image 165
- ↑ Woodford, Cecile (1972). Portrait of Sussex. pp. 96–97. ISBN 0-7091-3026-0.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cleland, Jim (1985). The Visitor's Guide to Sussex. pp. 78–79. ISBN 0-86190-139-8.
- ↑ Church of St Dunstan, History of Church Building Template:Webarchive.