Penhurst 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 ...

, sharing a parish council with neighbouring Ashburnham, in the

Rother Rother may refer to: General *Rother (surname) (also sometimes spelled Röther) *Rother District, a local government district in East Sussex, England *Rother FM, an independent local radio station for Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England *Rother Kup ...

district of East Sussex, England. It is located on the

Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

, 4 miles (7km) west of

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 ...

. The parish touches Ashburnham,

, Brightling and

Catsfield Catsfield is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is located six miles (9.7 km) north of Bexhill, and three miles (5 km) southwest of Battle. The village was first documented in the Domesday ...

. Penhurst shares a parish council with Ashburnham. The parish has few residents, according to the 2001 census Penhurst has just 52 inhabitants.

History

The name "Penhurst" means 'Pena's wooded hill'. Penhurst was recorded 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 manus ...

as ''Penehest''. In 1086, Penhurst was in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

of Hailesaltede; the Abbey of Battle was its tenant-in-chief.Open Domesday: Penhurst.
Retrieved 11 June 2022. The two parishes, neither of which have many dwellings, were originally united in 1810.

Landmarks

There are 14

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

s in Penhurst. Penhurst Manor is now a Christian retreat centre and is used much in the support of missionaries from overseas. The 14th century parish church is dedicated to St Michael the Archangel. The actor

Harry H Corbett Harry H. Corbett OBE (28 February 1925 – 21 March 1982) was an English actor and comedian, best remembered for playing rag-and-bone man Harold Steptoe alongside Wilfrid Brambell in the long-running BBC television sitcom ''Steptoe and Son'' ( ...

(1925-1982) lies buried in the churchyard.

Governance

At a local level, Penhurst and neighbouring Ashburnham have been governed by a joint parish council, The Parish Council of Ashburnham with Penhurst, since a Grouping Order was made in 1954. The parish council is made up of seven councillors, split into two wards: five councillors from Ashburnham ward and two from Penhurst ward. At the May 2019 election the Penhurst ward was uncontested. Since then two councillors were been co-opted to the Penhurst ward's two vacancies. Rother District Council provides the next level of government. Ashburnham and Penhurst are within the Crowhurst ward, along with the parishes of

, Crowhurst, and part of

. In the May 2007 election Crowhurst ward was won by the Conservative candidate.

East Sussex County Council East Sussex County Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex. East Sussex is divided into five local government districts. Three are larger, rural, districts (from west to east: Lewes; Wealden; and Rother). ...

is the top tier of local government. Ashburnham with Penhurst falls within the Battle and Crowhurst ward. Kathryn Margaret Field, Liberal Democrat, was elected in the May 2005 election with 48.8% of the vote. The UK Parliament constituency for Ashburnham and Penhurst is Bexhill and Battle. Prior to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

in 2020, the villages were part of the

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...

constituency in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

References

* {{cite web, url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/southeastengland/admin/rother/E04003817__penhurst/, title=Penhurst, publisher=City Population, access-date=23 February 2021

External links

Parish Council and community website
Villages in East Sussex Civil parishes in East Sussex Rother District