Fletching 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 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 ...

, England. It is located three miles (4.8 km) to the north-west of Uckfield, near one of the entrances to Sheffield Park. The A272 road crosses the parish. The settlement of

Piltdown Piltdown is a series of hamlets in East Sussex, England. It is located south of Ashdown Forest. It is best known for the Piltdown Man hoax where amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson claimed to have discovered evidence of the " missing link" in ...

is part of the parish. The

Piltdown Man The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological fraud in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. Although there were doubts about its authenticity virtually from the beginning, the remains ...

discovery in 1912 was thought to be the 'missing-link' between humans and apes. The significance of the specimen remained controversial until, amidst great publicity, and much embarrassment in scientific circles, it was exposed in 1953 as a forgery thought to have been committed by

Charles Dawson Charles Dawson (11 July 1864 – 10 August 1916) was a British amateur archaeologist who claimed to have made a number of archaeological and palaeontological discoveries that were later exposed as frauds. These forgeries included the Piltdown ...

. The village is listed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 as ''Flescinge'', an Old English name meaning "(settlement of) the family or followers of a man called Flecci." Despite this, the name has given rise to a belief that the village was a medieval centre for arrow production. The hamlet of Sharpsbridge lies in the south of the parish. St Andrew and St Mary the Virgin, Fletching

St Andrew and St Mary the Virgin, Fletching

It has an historic church of St. Andrew and St. Mary the Virgin dating from the twelfth century. Simon de Montfort prayed there before the Battle of Lewes. Historian

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, '' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, i ...

(1737–1794) is interred in the Sheffield Mausoleum attached to the north transept of the church, having died in Fletching while staying with his great friend, John Baker-Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield. The school is Fletching CE Primary school.Fletching CE Primary School
/ref> There are two public houses in Fletching: ''The Griffin Inn'' (which calls itself a ''

gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves gourmet comfort food. The term was coined in the 1990s, though similar brewpubs existed during the 1980s. Etymology The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coined in 1991, when David E ...

'') and ''The Rose and Crown''. Nearby is
The Piltdown Man
' at Piltdown. The village was once the home of the comedian

Jimmy Edwards James Keith O'Neill Edwards, DFC (23 March 19207 July 1988) was an English comedy writer and actor on radio and television, best known as Pa Glum in ''Take It from Here'' and as headmaster "Professor" James Edwards in ''Whack-O!''. Early lif ...

(1920–1988). Fletching is home to Fletching Football Club also known as The Archers. Fletching 1st team play in the Mid-Sussex Football League division 2 - South with the 2nd team playing in Division 5 - South.

References

Villages in East Sussex Civil parishes in East Sussex Wealden District {{EastSussex-geo-stub