Heathfield and Waldron is a civil parish within 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 ...

, England. Heathfield is surrounded by the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Governance

The civil parish council has twenty one elected members representing four wards: Cross-in-Hand ward (three members); Heathfield East ward (two); Heathfield ward (fourteen); Waldron (two). The current (2016) chairman is Mr Andy Woolley. Huw Merriman is the Member of Parliament for the Battle and Bexhill Constituency, which includes Heathfield. The Heathfield Partnership, a voluntary group was set up in 1995 "to identify options for developing the town and the local villages".

Settlements in the parish

Heathfield

Heathfield town, the principal settlement in the parish, stands at the junction of two roads: the A265 road from Hawkhurst and the

A267 road A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''ae ...

linking Royal Tunbridge Wells with Eastbourne.

Waldron

Waldron is a village located to the west of Heathfield. The 12th-century parish church is dedicated to All Saints. Foxhunt Manor at Waldron dates from 1898. It was built by Joseph Lucas Junior, and later sold to the Oakshott family. In 1935 the estate was purchased by the Xaverian Brothers, when it was run as a preparatory boarding school. The school closed in 1959 when it was purchased by the

Order of The Visitation Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

Cross-in-Hand

Cross-in-Hand is a small village west of Heathfield.

Others

Broad Oak
Punnetts Town
Little London and Cade Street are other villages within the parish.

Natural environment

There are six Sites of Special Scientific Interest within the parish.

Bingletts Wood Bingletts Wood is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Heathfield in East Sussex. Part of this ancient wood is a steep sided valley which has a warm and moist microclimate and it is rich in mosses and liverworts. A woodland ...

and Heathfield Park are areas of woodland with a flowing ravine (ghyll woodland). The two sites are of biological interest, hosting a wide variety of fauna, much of which is uncommon in the south-east of England.

Paines Cross Meadow Paines Cross Meadow is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Heathfield in East Sussex. This site is damp meadow on heavy clay with some areas of peat around springs. There are diverse invertebrates, including great gr ...

Sapperton Meadows Sapperton Meadows is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Heathfield in East Sussex. These poorly drained hay meadows and rich pastures are managed by traditional techniques. The flora is diverse, with species such as dyer ...

and

St. Dunstan's Farm Meadows St Dunstan's Farm Meadows is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-east of Heathfield in East Sussex. It is in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This site has three unimproved meadows which are traditionally ...

also have SSSI status. These sites consist mainly of wet meadowland and are of biological interest, hosting a wide variety of fauna. The final SSSI is

Waldron Cutting Waldron Cutting is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in East Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. This site exposes siltstones and fine sandstone of the Ashdown Formation, dating to the Early Cretaceous The Earl ...

, a small cutting along the lane between Waldron and Horam, which is of geological interest. Its sandstone bedrock containing samples of fossilised Lycopodites.

References

{{Wealden Civil parishes in East Sussex Wealden District