Tidebrook is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

within the parish of

Wadhurst Wadhurst is a market town in East Sussex, England. It is the centre of the civil parish of Wadhurst, which also includes the hamlets of Cousley Wood and Tidebrook. Wadhurst is twinned with Aubers in France. Situation Wadhurst is situated on ...

in East Sussex, England. It is located between the villages of Mayfield and Wadhurst. The brook for which the hamlet is named rises in the valley and forms one of the sources of the River Rother which meets the sea at Rye.

Area and buildings

The main part of Tidebrook consists of 40 or so houses lying within the valley close to the main road from the Best Beech Inn to Rushers Cross. Although many other houses along Lake Street and Wadhurst Road also have a Tidebrook address. The centre point of the hamlet is the St. John the Baptist Church in the bottom of the valley. Most of the houses within Tidebrook are either old farmhouses or cottages built for farm

labourer A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries e ...

s with the exception of Tidebank Cottage, formerly the Fountain Pub and an old School house, formally Tidebrook School for girls which suffered a

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

in the 1960s.

Residents

The majority of current Tidebrook residents either work in the nearby villages or

commute Commute, commutation or commutative may refer to: * Commuting, the process of travelling between a place of residence and a place of work Mathematics * Commutative property, a property of a mathematical operation whose result is insensitive to th ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

although there are still working farms in Tidebrook. The community is still very much intact with events such as

horse trailer A horse trailer or horse van (also called a horse float in Australia and New Zealand or horsebox in the British Isles) is used to transport horses. There are many different designs, ranging in size from small units capable of holding two or thr ...

carol singing at Christmas and Tidebrook Fete being highlights in the year.

Industry

From the 16th to the 18th century Tidebrook formed part of the strong local

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 ...

, signs of which can still be seen in the area.

Wildlife

The area remains unspoiled by the nearby expanding towns and villages and there is much wildlife to be seen. In recent years the number of badgers in the area has multiplied. {{authority control Villages in East Sussex Wadhurst