Buxted is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
in the
Wealden district of
East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...
in England. The parish is situated on the
Weald
The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
, north of
Uckfield
Uckfield () is a town in the Wealden District of East Sussex in South East England. The town is on the River Uck, one of the tributaries of the River Ouse, on the southern edge of the Weald.
Etymology
'Uckfield', first recorded in writing as ...
; the settlements of Five Ash Down, Heron's Ghyll and High Hurstwood are included within its boundaries. At one time its importance lay in the
Wealden iron industry
The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Iron ...
, and later it became commercially important in the poultry and egg industry.
The village has both road (the high street is also the A272) and rail links to Uckfield and to London via Oxted.
History
The origin of the name Buxted comes from the
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
''Bochs stede'' (place of the beeches).
The iron-making industry became a major part of Buxted's early prosperity. The first standard
blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...
was called Queenstock and was built in Buxted parish in about 1491. The
cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
-making industry in the
Weald
The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
started at a furnace on the stream at Hoggets Farm lying to the north between Buxted and
Hadlow Down
Hadlow Down is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District, Wealden District of East Sussex, England. It is located on the A272 road three miles (4.8 km) north-east of Heathfield, East Sussex, Heathfield. The parish is within the ...
. The first cast-iron cannon made in England was cast in 1543 by
Ralf Hogge
Ralf Hogge (his name has also been rendered "Ralph" and "Huggett") was an English iron-master and gun founder to the king. Web page titled "Historical Village Walk' at Buxted Village Web site, accessed March 2, 2007
Working with French-born canno ...
, an employee of Parson
William Levett, a Sussex rector with broad interests, paradoxically enough, in the emerging English armaments industry.
Levett
Levett is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from eLivet, which is held particularly by families and individuals resident in England and British Commonwealth territories.
Origins
This surname comes from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, no ...
was removed as Buxted's vicar in 1545 by
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry' ...
,
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
. But thanks to friends in high places, Levett was quickly reinstated. After regaining his clerical position, Levett died a very wealthy man, thanks to his iron mining and smelting operations, founded by his brother John Levett, one of the founders of the Sussex iron industry and one of the wealthiest men in Sussex, who controlled 20 Sussex manors at his death in 1535. The family is of Norman descent and one of the oldest in Sussex. William and John Levett were the sons of a large landowner in the Hollington area of Hastings, Sussex. In his lengthy will, parson William Levett left large charitable bequests which he directed be supervised by his friend
Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu
Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, KB, PC (29 November 1528 – 19 October 1592) was an English peer during the Tudor period.
Biography
Anthony Browne was the eldest of the six sons of Sir Anthony Browne by his first wife, Alice Gage (d. ...
.
Richard Woodman
Captain Richard Martin Woodman LVO (born 1944) is an English novelist and naval historian who retired in 1997 from a 37-year nautical career, mainly working for Trinity House, to write full-time.
Writing
His main work is 14 novels about the ca ...
, an
ironmaster
An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain.
The ironmaster was usually a large ...
was born here, but he was burnt as a Protestant martyr in 1557.
The novelist
George Alfred Lawrence
George Alfred Lawrence (25 March 1827 – 23 September 1876) was a British novelist and barrister.
Biography
George Alfred Lawrence was born at Buxted, Sussex, the eldest child of Rev. Alfred Charnley Lawrence, Curate of Uxfield Chapel, Buxted, ...
was born in Buxted in 1827, the eldest son of the Anglican curate at the time, Rev. Alfred Charnley Lawrence.
The manor house, known as
Buxted Park
Buxted Park is an 84.7 hectare (206.16 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, located near the village of Buxted, East Sussex, England. The main house is just over 0.5 km northeast of the town of Uckfield. The site w ...
, was purchased by the then Prime Minister,
Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. He held many important cabinet offices such as Foreign Secret ...
, in the early part of the 19th century. He set about extending the park surrounding the house, and eventually coerced the villagers to vacate their own houses to enable him to do so. The village (although not the church) was cleared away and the village then took up its present location. By 1836, the entire original village centre was no more, having been relocated to the site it occupies today. Some of the outlying houses pre-date this move, such as Britts, a 17th-century farmhouse, which still stands. The original manor house was built further down the hill next to the railway where
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
once visited – the house being the
Chequers
Chequers ( ), or Chequers Court, is the country house of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A 16th-century manor house in origin, it is located near the village of Ellesborough, halfway between Princes Risborough and Wendover in Bucking ...
of its day. The original house burnt down in the latter part of the 19th century and was rebuilt in its present location.
Legends
![Nan Tucks Lane - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Nan_Tucks_Lane_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1381964.jpg)
According to local
legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...
, the
ghost
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
of Nan Tuck, a woman from
Rotherfield
Rotherfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. It is one of the largest parishes in East Sussex. There are three villages in the parish: Rotherfield, Mark Cross and Eridge. The River Rother, which ...
who allegedly poisoned a man in the 17th century, is said to haunt Nan Tuck's Lane in Buxted. Supposedly, the murder was quickly discovered and Tuck evaded her pursuers over the next few days by climbing hedges and hiding in hay ricks. It is said her intention was to take sanctuary in Buxted Parish Church – according to the
right of asylum
The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...
, if one could reach a church and touch the altar, a fugitive might escape punishment – but with local officials pursuing her, she was forced to run into the woods. According to the tale, she disappeared there and was never seen again. Legend holds that a circular patch of land in the woods near Nan Tuck's Lane stays unfertile and no vegetation will grow there.
Census
Buxted is part of
electoral ward
A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...
called Buxted and Maresfield. The population of this ward as taken in the census 2011 was 5,534.
Geography
The parish of Buxted lies partly within the
High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is in south-east England. Covering an area of , it takes up parts of Kent,
Surrey, East Sussex, and West Sussex. It is the fourth largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in England ...
, although the village itself is outside it. Tributaries of both the
Rivers Rother (flowing eastward) and
Cuckmere
The River Cuckmere rises near Heathfield in East Sussex, England on the southern slopes of the Weald. The name of the river probably comes from an Old English word meaning "fast-flowing", since it descends over 100 m (328 ft) in its ...
flow through the parish, and were used by the iron industry for power. It is largely a rural parish, although the original Britts farmland is now largely covered by modern houses along Britts Farm Road, constructed in the 1980s.
The parish contains an area of
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
—
Buxted Park
Buxted Park is an 84.7 hectare (206.16 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, located near the village of Buxted, East Sussex, England. The main house is just over 0.5 km northeast of the town of Uckfield. The site w ...
, an old deer park which is very important for the conservation of invertebrates. Buxted Park is now a country house hotel, owned by
Hand Picked Hotels
Guy Hands (born 27 August 1959) is an English financier and investor. He is most notable as the founder and chairman of Terra Firma Capital Partners, one of the largest private equity firms in Europe. Hands also served as chairman of the UK musi ...
around which there are some lovely walks.
The wholesale Buxted Chickens had a factory in Buxted as well as one in Five Ash Down. Buxted Chickens was founded by
Antony Fisher
Sir Antony George Anson Fisher (28 June 1915 – 8 July 1988), nicknamed AGAF, was a British businessman and think tank founder. He participated in the formation of various libertarian organisations during the second half of the twentieth cen ...
, who also founded the
Institute of Economic Affairs
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a right-wing pressure group and think tank registered as a UK charity Associated with the New Right, the IEA describes itself as an "educational research institute", and says that it seeks to "further t ...
. The Buxted brand, formerly owned by the
Grampian Country Foods, is now owned by
2 Sisters Food Group. The Buxted site closed down in the 1980s, and is now owned by the
Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland Natural heritage, heritage. It has planted over 50 million trees since 1972 ...
.
Religion
The original parish church,
St Margaret the Queen, is located in Buxted Park and was built in 1250. Its dedication is to
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Margaret of Scotland ( gd, Naomh Maighréad; sco, Saunt Marget, ), also known as Margaret of Wessex, was an English princess and a Scottish queen. Margaret was sometimes called "The Pearl of Scotland". Born in the Kingdom of Hungary to th ...
. Other churches in the parish include St Mary the Virgin, consecrated 1887, Buxted
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
Church, built 1907 and Holy Trinity Church in High Hurstwood. In Heron's Ghyll is the Roman Catholic Grade II listed,
St John the Evangelist Church St. John the Evangelist Church refers to churches honoring John the Apostle, also known as John the Divine or John of Patmos, as their patron saint but distinguished from John the Baptist. Thus, the designation may refer to:
Australia
* St John ...
.
[ Church of St John (Roman Catholic), Buxted]
from British Listed Buildings, retrieved 21 March 2016
Governance
![BuxtedParishHall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/BuxtedParishHall.jpg)
The first, community level of government is
Buxted Parish Council which meets once a month, except in August. The Parish Council is responsible for local amenities such as the provision of litter bins, bus shelters and allotments. It is also a statutory consultee on local planning applications and liaises closely with Wealden District Council on local development issues. The Parish Council works closely with WDC on safety, planning, transport and other issues and is a channel of communication between district and parish tiers of government.
For elections, the parish is divided into two wards, Buxted (ten seats) and High Hurstwood Ward (five seats) and includes Five Ash Down. The May 2015 election was uncontested with 13 seats being filled.
Wealden District council provides the next level of government with services such as refuse collection, planning consent, leisure amenities and council tax collection. Buxted lies within the Buxted and Maresfield Ward, which provides two councillors. The May 2015 election returned two Conservative councillors.
East Sussex county council is the third tier of government, providing education, libraries and highway maintenance. Buxted falls within the Buxted Maresfield district. Roy Galley, Conservative, was elected in the May 2013 election with 51.4% of the vote.
The UK Parliament constituency for Buxted is
Wealden. The conservative
Nus Ghani
Nusrat Munir Ul-Ghani (born 1 September 1972) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Wealden in East Sussex since 2015. She is serving as Minister of State in the Department for Business, Energy ...
was elected in the May 2015 election.
Prior to
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
in 2020, the village was part of the
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of england, ...
constituency in the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
.
Transport
The
A272 cross-country road passes through the village from west to east; it connects with the
A22 and
A26 road
The A26 road is a primary route in the southeast of England, going from Maidstone to Newhaven through the counties of Kent and East Sussex. The road is almost entirely single carriageway with one lane on each side, although some of the road is ...
s about a mile (1.6 km) to the west.
Buxted station lies on the
Oxted Line
The Oxted line is a railway in southern England and part of the Southern franchise. The railway splits into two branches towards the south and has direct trains throughout to London termini.
It was opened jointly by the London, Brighton and ...
between
Uckfield
Uckfield () is a town in the Wealden District of East Sussex in South East England. The town is on the River Uck, one of the tributaries of the River Ouse, on the southern edge of the Weald.
Etymology
'Uckfield', first recorded in writing as ...
and
Crowborough
Crowborough is a town and civil parish in East Sussex, England, in the Weald at the edge of Ashdown Forest in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 7 miles (11 km) south-west of Royal Tunbridge Wells and 33 miles (53 ...
. The line serves London at
London Bridge railway station
London Bridge is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Southwark, south-east London. It occupies a large area on three levels immediately south-east of London Bridge, from which it takes its name. The m ...
via
East Croydon
East Croydon is a railway station and tram stop in Croydon, Greater London, England, and is located in Travelcard Zone 5. At from , it is one of the busiest non-terminal stations in London, and in the United Kingdom as a whole. It is one of t ...
. Or you can change at East Croydon for Victoria.
References
External links
Website for Buxted ParishWebsite for Buxted Bonfire SocietyBuxted Parish Plan*
website for the churches of St Margaret the Queen and St Mary
{{authority control
Villages in East Sussex
Civil parishes in East Sussex
Wealden District