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 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 ...

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 Huw William Merriman (born 13 July 1973) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bexhill and Battle in East Sussex since the 2015 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as Minister ...

is the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members ofte ...

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 List of A roads in zone 2 in Great Britain starting south of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest ...

from

Hawkhurst Hawkhurst is village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The village is located close to the border with East Sussex, around south-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells and within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Nat ...

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 ''aes'' ...

linking

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. Th ...

with

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the lar ...

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 The Xaverian Brothers or Congregation of St. Francis Xavier are a Roman Catholic religious institute founded by Theodore James Ryken in Bruges, Belgium, in 1839 and named after Saint Francis Xavier. The institute is dedicated to education. His ...

, when it was run as a preparatory boarding school. The school closed in 1959 when it was purchased by the Order of The Visitation.

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 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 ...

within the parish. Bingletts Wood and

Heathfield Park Heathfield Park is an English country house and walled park in the village of Old Heathfield in East Sussex. History Originally called Bayley Park, the mansion was begun by James Plummer in 1677 and continued by Raymond Blackmore in the early ...

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, Sapperton Meadows and St. Dunstan's Farm Meadows 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, 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