Bodiam () is a small village and civil parish in the Rother 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. It lies in the valley of the River Rother, near to the villages of Sandhurst and

Ewhurst Green Ewhurst Green is a village and the main settlement of the civil parish Ewhurst, in the Rother district, in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located 10 miles (16 km) north of Hastings in the valley of the River Rother. The pari ...

. The MP of the local UK Parliament constituency is Huw Merriman.

Geography

South of the village of Bodiam and extending to the railway station is the site of a Roman settlement investigated in the 1960s. The site was located within the former Guinness hop gardens and the excavations were undertaken in between the rows of hops. A comprehensive landscape survey was carried out around 2016. The village is on the line of the Roman road from Rochester to Westfield near Hastings. This road crossed the River Rother at the same position as the present bridge having approached from close to the parish church. At the Kent Ditch to the north at the County boundary the Roman road can be seen in the bank of the present watercourse outcropping as a solid layer of waste material from iron smelting,(slag). This had been recorded in the 1960s and re-examined by later fieldwork in 2000 by Neil Aldridge of the Kent Archaeological Society as part of a project supported by the Romney Marsh Research Trust. The extent of the road surface was found to be wider than previously thought and extends under the present road bridge. Although famous for its castle, Bodiam was also in a main

hop A hop is a type of jump. Hop or hops may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hop'' (film), a 2011 film * Hop! Channel, an Israeli TV channel * ''House of Payne'', or ''HOP'', an American sitcom * Lindy Hop, a swing dance of the 1920s and ...

-growing area in the last century and was famous for growing hops for

Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...

. Reginald B. Levett of Court Lodge Farm sold part of his land to Guinness to grow hops. A railway was built to provide transport for the hoppers, the Kent and East Sussex Railway (K&ESR), which is a tourist attraction. There is a 12th-century church, which contains a brass of a knight with the arms of the de Bodeham family, one of the first lords of the manor. Originally it was a port and crossing point from Battle to North Kent. During the medieval period a great

moated castle A water castle is a castle whose site is largely defended by water. It can be entirely surrounded by water-filled moats (moated castle) or natural waterbodies such as island castles in a river or offshore. The term comes from European castle ...

Bodiam Castle Bodiam Castle () is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, with the permission of Richard II, ostensibly to defend the area agai ...

, was built which is now a visitor attraction. There is a small range of houses, a pub (The Castle), and a restaurant (The Curlew).

Education

It has two schools: Bodiam Primary School, a

state school State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary educational institution, schools that educate all students without charge. They are ...

, and

Claremont Senior School Claremont may refer to: Places Australia *Claremont, Ipswich, a heritage-listed house in Queensland * Claremont, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart * Claremont, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth ** Claremont Football Club, West Australian Footba ...

, an independent. Bodiam Manor School went bankrupt in 2006; consequently Claremont Senior School took over at the start of September 2011.

Notable people

Bodiam was the birthplace in 1881 of Miss A. E. (Ada Elizabeth) Levett, a leading medieval scholar and vice-principal of St. Hilda's College, Oxford. Levett was one of the first female professors of history in England, having been awarded a chair in history at Westfield College, University of London in 1929. St Giles Church, Bodiam - geograph

References

*Bodiam as a Landscape of Work,Topographical and Geophysical Survey,Barker,Caitlin,Johson,Sly and Strutt, 2016.

External links

*
Hop growing in Bodiam
{{authority control Villages in East Sussex Civil parishes in East Sussex Rother District