Sayers Common is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the

Mid Sussex Mid Sussex is an area in the central part of Sussex. It may refer to: * Mid Sussex District, a local government district in West Sussex * Mid Sussex (UK Parliament constituency) * Mid Sussex Football League * Mid Sussex Times, a local newspaper * A ...

District of

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, England. With

Hurstpierpoint Hurstpierpoint is a village in West Sussex, England, southwest of Burgess Hill, and west of Hassocks railway station. It sits in the civil parish of Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common which has an area of 2029.88 ha and a population of ...

it forms one of the Mid Sussex parishes. It is located two miles (3.2 km) north-west of Hurstpierpoint. Situated until the 1990s on the main

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

A23 road it has become a more popular residential village since being partially bypassed by the new A23 road. It has some very old cottages at its heart, and also contains the Priory of Our Lady, previously a residential retreat, now a specialist school for children with autism. The parish has an area of and a population of 6264 persons (2001 census). The village has become well known in recent years as the location for one of the south easts largest

car boot sale Car boot sales or boot fairs are a form of market in which private individuals come together to sell household and garden goods. They are popular in the United Kingdom, where they are often referred to simply as 'car boots'. Some scientific ...

s open most Sundays from March to October. It is in the

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 ...

Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common is a civil parish in Mid Sussex District, West Sussex, England. Settlements Major settlements *Hurstpierpoint Hurstpierpoint is a village in West Sussex, England, southwest of Burgess Hill, and wes ...

Notable areas

Sayers Common Wood and Coombe Wood, e.g. , sandwiched between the old and the new London Roads, are well-loved ancient bluebell woods, large by the standards of this countryside, but noisy.Bangs, David (2018). ''THE LAND OF THE BRIGHTON LINE: A Field Guide to the Middle Sussex and Southeast Surrey Weald''. Farlington, Portsmouth: Bishops Printers. . Sayers Common church () built in 1880, has a wild flower churchyard, with ox eye daisy, spring sedge and

adder's tongue fern ''Ophioglossum'', the adder's-tongue ferns, is a genus of about 50 species of ferns in the family Ophioglossaceae. The name ''Ophioglossum'' comes from the Greek meaning "snake-tongue".

and in the past has had green winged orchid. It can be rich in meadow fungi, including the rare straw club and many more. Just west of the church, along the north edge of Furze Field wood, are derelict brook meadows () rich in wildlife, but rapidly losing value (2012). There are

roe deer The roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapt ...

amongst the tufted hair grass and dropwort next to the brook that divides the meadow. This tangle of coarse vegetation is squeezing out the

betony Betony is a common name for a plant which may refer to: *''Stachys'', a genus of plants containing several species commonly known as betony in Europe **'' Stachys officinalis'', a historically important medicinal plant *''Pedicularis ''Pedicular ...

sneezewort ''Achillea ptarmica'' is a European species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the genus ''Achillea'' of the daisy family Asteraceae. Common names include the sneezewort, sneezeweed, bastard pellitory, European pellitory, fair-maid-of-Fr ...

pepper saxifrage ''Silaum silaus'', commonly known as pepper-saxifrage, is a perennial plant in the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) (the carrot family) found across south-eastern, central, and western Europe, including the British Isles. It grows in damp grasslan ...

devil's bit The Devil's Bit or Devil's Bit Mountain (, historically anglicized as 'Barnane Ely') is a large hill in County Tipperary, Ireland, which rises to . It lies north-west of the town of Templemore. The mountain is usually climbed through the townla ...

tormentil ''Potentilla'' is a genus containing over 300Guillén, A., et al. (2005)Reproductive biology of the Iberian species of ''Potentilla'' L. (Rosaceae).''Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid'' 1(62) 9–21. species of annual, biennial and perenni ...

and spotted orchid that still cling on around the edges. South of Furze Field () is a damp meadow wholly dominated by tufted hair grass, with some spotted orchids. The countryside around the ex-Priory, Stuccles and New House Farms () has many oaks, and in July the

purple hairstreak The purple hairstreak (''Favonius quercus'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae distributed throughout much of Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, Caucasia, and Transcaucasia. The larva feeds on ''Quercus robur'', ''Quercus petraea'', ''Querc ...

butterflies can be seen flitting and sunning in their canopies.

References

External links

Parish Council pages
Villages in West Sussex Mid Sussex District {{WestSussex-geo-stub