Ninfield 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 authorit ...
in the
Wealden District of
East Sussex, England. The village is quite
linear
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...
and centred 4 miles (6.4 km) north of
Bexhill-on-Sea where two roads cross: the
A269 from Bexhill to
Battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
and the
A271 to
Hailsham
Hailsham is a town, a civil parish and the administrative centre of the Wealden district of East Sussex, England.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Da ...
. The parish covers 2,500 acres (1,010 ha); approximately the northern half of which is in the
High Weald AONB.
To the west of the village is Standard Hill, said to be the place that
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
placed his flag after the
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conque ...
. As with many other Wealden villages, it was involved in the
iron industry
Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...
: that fact is commemorated by the presence in the village of a set of iron
stocks.
Smuggling was also rife in the eighteenth century.
The village name is said to come from the fact that it was originally composed of nine and three quarter fields.
A legal record, of 1452, mentioning a Sussex village as "Nempnefeld", may refer to Ninfield.
Civil parish and civic events
The parish council consists of nine councillors. They put on several events, including a gala with professional cabaret, each year to raise money for nominated charities such as Alzheimers and Sussex Ambulance.
Amenities
Ninfield has a primary school, a shop and two
pubs
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
- ''The Kings Arms'' and the ''Blacksmiths Inn''. It has two churches, its medieval parish church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin; and the
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 ...
church.
Cultural references and former residents
Ninfield was once featured in an episode of the classic comedy
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 19 ...
entitled ''The Nadger Plague'' and first broadcast by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in October 1956. In the episode, set in the 16th century, the residents of Ninfield were left terrified when two carriers of the titular plague, which caused the seats of peoples' trousers to "burn out", arrived in the village. The episode was written by
(d. 1979), painter, artistic print maker, etcher and engraver long settled in Ninfield.
Ninfield is currently drawn, for the purposes of the fair apportionment of District Councillors as part of
: ''Ninfield and Hooe with Wartling''. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 2,543.
The central, contiguous area of 558 homes on 65 hectares has been identified as a small Built-up Area, in the statistical government bodies definition (ONS and GSS) and had in 2011 a total of 1,307 residents.