Bodiam () is a small 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

Rother District Rother is a local government district in East Sussex, England. Its council is based in Bexhill-on-Sea. The district is named after the River Rother which flows within its boundaries. History The District of Rother was formed on 1 April 1974, u ...

of East Sussex, 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 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 o ...

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-growing area in the last century and was famous for growing hops for Guinness. Reginald B.

Levett Levett is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from eLivet, which is held particularly by families and individuals resident in England and British Commonwealth territories. Origins This surname comes from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, no ...

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 A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

, was built which is now a

visitor attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...

. There is a small range of houses, a

pub 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 Castle), and a restaurant (The Curlew).

Education

It has two schools: Bodiam Primary School, a state school, and Claremont Senior School, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. 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 Westfield College was a small college situated in Hampstead, London, from 1882 to 1989. It was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees from its opening. The college originally admitted only women as students and ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

in 1929.

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