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Who lived in that house? - The Welkin

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Mention The Welkin to Lindfield residents today and it conjures up images of the houses with their neat gardens and well maintained grounds in the area behind the High Street and north of Hickmans Lane. Some may recall the large house of that name. ‘The Welkin’, basically meaning Vault of Heaven, was the name given to the Rectory House built on the site by Reverend Francis Hill Sewell.

In the early 1850s, Rev Francis Sewell, in preparation for his return to Lindfield from Lancashire, planned the building of a grand Rectory House for himself and Mrs Sewell. The land required for the Rectory House and its grounds were obtained by his purchase of Townlands Farm together with a couple of pieces of adjoining land.
The land ran from the rear of Townlands Farmhouse and the High Street westward to Finches Lane and bounded by Hickmans Lane. It amounted to some 20 acres; a bit bigger than The Welkin site today. A fine Gothic style house in stone, complete with turret and spire, was designed by J Clark, architect, of 13 Stratford Place, Oxford Street, London. The builder, Mr Constable of Penshurst, started work in early 1856, and on 13th May 1856 the foundation stone was laid amid much ceremony by the Bishop of Chichester. Sewell
in his speech explained that the Bishop of Chichester considered ‘£1500 would not be a large sum for a Rectory House. The one proposed would cost £3000, of which sum he (Sewell) would present one-half. It would be the residence of all future ministers, if worth accepting, otherwise it must return to his own family’. That is to say, if the parish did not contribute the other half of the £3000 cost, the house would remain owned by the Sewell family.
In October 1857, on returning from Lancashire to Lindfield, Francis Sewell moved into the house, which was lit by Hansor’s Gas. This gas was manufactured in a small private plant and stored on site. Set in parkland and surrounded by formal gardens, the house was approached from the east by a lengthy carriage drive running from the High Street. The entrance, directly opposite The Tiger, and a section of the drive exists today; the stone pillars are inscribed The Welkin. A second carriage drive ran from the junction of Finches Lane with Hickmans Lane, and again the pillars remain today.

The house stood approximately halfway across (east/ west) the site, a short way in from the footpath that runs behind The Welkin’s northern boundary. In 1861, Sewell applied to the Lindfield Parish Vestry, the parish council of its day, for the ‘entire stopping up’ of a footpath track from ‘Lindfield Town’ (i.e. the High Street next to Bower House) that ‘ran westwards across his grounds, then southwards to emerge in Hackmans Lane’. The Vestry refused permission and the footpath still exists.

Rev Francis Sewell died, unexpectedly following a short illness, on 9th October 1862. At that time The Welkin remained in his ownership and had not been conveyed to the parish church. His wish to provide a rectory house for future incumbents did not come to fruition and pursuant to a decree of the High Court in Chancery in the case of Harrison v Trotter, the property was put up for sale by auction in September 1863.

The house was described in the auction advertisement as ‘containing principal and secondary bed chambers and dressing rooms, water-closet, porch entrance leading to a spacious entrance hall and wide stone staircase, back staircase, suite of reception rooms 12ft 6ins high, with southern aspect, consisting of drawing room 23ft 6ins by 15ft 9ins, dining room 22ft by 16ft 6ins, morning room, study, lavatory, water closet, complete servants’ offices’. The grounds comprised ‘beautiful lawns, pleasure and productive gardens and meadow land, the whole containing 21a 1r 6p and possessing a considerable building frontage’. It was purchased by a Mr Griffiths.

A later occupant, from around the turn of the century, was the Dowager Countess of Tankerville. Born Lady Olivia Montagu, daughter of the 6th Duke of Manchester, she had been involved in charitable works throughout her long life. One charitable venture was the establishment of laundries to provide work and a home for women in difficult circumstances who were struggling to regain their character by honest labour. While living at The Welkin, in 1902 she built such a laundry on land adjoining Gravelye Lane. The Mid Sussex Steam Laundry was run on charitable lines by a local committee, until taken over by the Salvation Army in 1912. The adjacent laundry home called ‘Quinta’ provided accommodation for thirty female workers. In 1922, the laundry became a commercial business and traded until closure in 1972.

After the Dowager Countess of Tankerville sold The Welkin it changed hands several times and the last to occupy it as a family home were Mr & Mrs Jourdain during the 1930s. At the start of World War Two, the property was requisitioned and used by the Army as an area headquarters. Military equipment was stored in the grounds.

In 1947, Mr Noel Cook acquired the property transferring his small but successful boys’ preparatory school from Angmering. It opened as The Welkin School, a boarding and day preparatory school for boys up to 13 years of age, in September 1948. The school could accommodate about sixty pupils with boarding facilities for about half that number. The classrooms were on the ground floor of the three-storey house, with dormitories and other facilities on the first floor. The remainder of the building was mainly occupied by Mr & Mrs Cook and staff who ‘lived in’.
The school made good use of The Welkin’s extensive grounds, with an excellent sports field for cricket, football and athletics plus a tennis court and small outdoor swimming pool near today’s Green Meadows.

After the school closed in 1960, the house and outbuildings were demolished and the grounds sold. A 1960s style high-rise development was proposed but after much opposition, leading to the formation of the Society for the Preservation of Lindfield, the plans were withdrawn. Some 170 dwellings now occupy the site, with the parkland character of the grounds being retained, resulting in The Welkin being designated an Area of Townscape Character within the Lindfield Neighbourhood Plan.

First published in the October 2017 Lindfield Life.

Fire-eating Legge: A Lindfield Hero

D company Officers prior to leaving for France in August 1916. Reginald Legge is first left, back row. Courtesy of The Tank Museum.

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

There were very few days during the Great War that determined how future land battles across the world would be fought; a son of Lindfield played a leading role in one such day – 15th September 1916. His heroism and sacrifice went unrecognised.

During 1915 the war on the Western Front had settled into an entrenched stalemate with neither side making and sustaining any significant gain. To help break this deadlock a new weapon was required; this resulted in Britain inventing the tank. Two prototypes were available by December 1915 and, following trials, the Army ordered 100. At this time the Somme offensive was being planned as a major breakthrough, and it was hoped the tanks and their crews would be available for the first day of the offensive on 1st July 1916. However, neither the crews nor the tanks were ready in sufficient numbers.
Being a new and untried weapon, the Army had to learn not only how to drive, operate and maintain tanks, but the tactics to be deployed for their use in battle. In spring 1916, officers and men were drafted into the newly formed Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps and commenced training. Second Lieutenant Reginald Legge was one of those recruited to be a tank commander.

Reginald’s parents lived at ‘Greenwoods’, High Beeches Lane, Lindfield. After leaving Brighton Grammar School, he worked for a wholesale draper in Cannon Street, London before travelling the world as a merchant. A well travelled adventurer, he was working on the Gold Coast prior to the war. Returning to Lindfield in January 1915, Reginald joined the 2/1st Bucks Yeomanry (Royal Bucks Hussars) as a Trooper and was quickly identified as officer material.
On 4th March 1916 he attended a six week officer training course and, following being commissioned on 15th April 1916, aged 34, was posted to the Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps and became one of the first officers to undergo tank training at Canada Farm, Elvenden, near Thetford.

Reginald was posted to France in August 1916, together with fellow officers, tank crews, mechanics and 60 tanks. However, due to mechanical breakdown, only 49 tanks were available for their first deployment into action at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.
On the night of 13th September 1916, the crews fuelled the tanks, collected rations and ammunition ready for their debut. The following day, Reginald and his fellow officers received final instructions and reconnoitred the route to their front line start points. The terrain was extremely rough, heavily damaged by shell holes and cut by trenches making it difficult for the 28 ton monsters to traverse. That evening the tanks moved forward in readiness to take part in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette at zero hour on 15th September 1916. Along the battle front only 32 of the 49 tanks made it to their start points, the others had either got stuck or broken down.

Seven tanks supported the 41st Division, organised into four groups. Tank D6, commanded by Reginald, the only tank in C Group, was given the task of leading the attack on the defences around Flers, thus opening the way for the infantry assault.

From his start point Reginald’s tank supported the infantry advance and made good progress towards Flers, reaching the Division’s first objective. A British soldier described the tank as ‘lumbering past on my left, belching forth yellow flames from her machine gun and making a gap where the Flers road cut through the enemy trench!’ The tanks had a maximum speed of four mph on good ground and appreciably less over rough terrain. Interior conditions were absolutely appalling, extremely noisy with intense heat, noxious engine, violent motion and flying red hot metal splinters as bullets hit the exterior. Severe nausea could ensue after only short distances.

Regardless of the arduous conditions, Reginald continued turning D6 east and north to move down the eastern side of Flers. Once inside the village he helped the infantry clear out the Germans. As the assault continued towards the third objective northeast of the village, the role played by D6 was recognised by the Commanding Officer, 26th Royal Fusiliers, recording that ‘This tank was of the greatest material use and the party in charge of it distinguished themselves considerably’. Leading the advance, Reginald got ahead of the British infantry line and in danger from enemy artillery, he continued north towards his next objective. Aware that there was a German gun battery nearby, he went on the attack destroying one field gun but was fired upon by the remaining three guns. Receiving a direct hit, D6 burst into flames and burnt out.

One crewman died in the burning tank, two died from their wounds at the scene, three made it back to the British line and one was captured. There is some uncertainty regarding Reginald’s precise fate. A crew member saw him in a nearby shell hole, possibly suffering serious wounds. Reginald was posted missing in action by the British. He is thought to have been captured by the Germans and to have died of his wounds the next day. However, the Germans have no record of him being taken prisoner or of a grave. In 1917 Reginald’s identity disc and Will were sent from Germany by the Red Cross and were eventually received by his mother, confirming his death, over a year after going missing.

A review after the battle identified that, out of the 32 that started the attack, nine tanks broke down after a short distance, five bogged down on the battlefield and nine were ineffective as they failed to travel at sufficient speed to support the infantry attack. Only nine tanks played an active role in the advance. with tank D6, commanded by Reginald, making one, if not the greatest, contribution to the advance.

The first deployment of tanks into battle could hardly be regarded as a great success but their potential was proved and tanks were used to greater effect in future British advances during the Great War. Despite playing a major role in the advance and demonstrating the tanks’ potential, his brave actions and sacrifice received no official recognition. He is remembered on the Lindfield War Memorials.
After the war, a fellow tank commander at the battle commented ‘Dear old fire-eating Legge came very near to being great’.

First published in the September 2017 issue of Lindfield Life.

St John’s - Lindfield’s forgotten school

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Last month’s article about Rev Francis Sewell explained that in the early 1850s, he developed a master plan to facilitate his return to Lindfield, from Lancashire, and to increase his influence and standing in the parish. One element of his plan was the building of a new church school and school master’s house.
Despite having been influential in establishing the National School on the Common in 1851, Sewell found its building objectionable, inadequate and remote from the parish church and the religious guidance questionable. He decided a new church school was needed to meet the religious education of local children, with good facilities close to the church. He clearly had a desire to exert his influence on the education of children from the labouring classes and additionally extend this to the middle classes.

His plan required sufficient land to build the school building and master’s house ‘contiguous to the church’, together with land for a rectory house. This was achieved by his purchase of Townlands Farm, in the first years of the 1850s. The farmyard, fronting onto the High Street almost opposite the northern churchyard, provided adequate space for the school buildings.

He commissioned the architect, J Clark of 13 Stratford Place, Oxford Street, London, to design both the school buildings and master’s house in the Gothic style. The school was required to provide space for 100 boys, 100 girls and 70 infants in separate rooms and be appointed with modern facilities.

The school buildings today - photo: Ashley Fabian

On 13th May 1856, the Bishop of Chichester, amid much ceremony, laid the foundation stones naming the school St John’s Parish School. Sewell explained the scheme was not ‘to earn to himself any reward, but to fix the affections of the children upon their God.’ The cost of the school building and master’s house was estimated at £1630. Sewell contributed £630 and provided the additional funding which was to be reimbursed by donations. Replacement of his funding would enable him ‘to convey them to the parish.’
Constructed in fine stone, by Mr Constable of Penshurst, the school was inaugurated on the 19th October 1856. The National School on the Common closed and some hundred children transferred to the new school. Under Sewell’s patronage, he wanted his school to be self-supporting and conducted on the principles of the Church of England, without the aid of the National or any other Society. In addition to being a day school for Lindfield and surrounding district, it also served as a Sunday school.

In spring 1857 the school buildings and master’s house were the first properties in Lindfield to be illuminated by gas. Sewell had installed a small Hansor’s Gas manufacturing plant and tank on his land. A newspaper report in August 1861 commented that the school was ‘among the finest educational structures in Sussex.’ It further noted, ‘at a merely nominal charge’ the education was ‘not only to the children of the poor, but also to those of the middle class. For this purpose a certificated master, of long experience in large schools, an infant mistress, a governess and a pupil teacher have been engaged.’ In addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, the curriculum included geography, surveying, drawing and bookkeeping.

Every year since the opening of the original National School and then St John’s Parish School, Sewell had organised and funded an elaborate school fete. Sewell was an enthusiastic attendee and participant with the children, even when living in Lancashire he would travel by train to Lindfield to attend. The fete in August 1861 was another similarly lavish event. 140 children marched through the village to a field, adjoining The Welkin, where ‘most plenteous sources of amusement were provided; kites, swings, traps, donkey riding, etc.’ Before tea, a ‘kite, life size, representing a Life Guardsman, was flown to a height of 300 yards,’ and repeatedly pulled a light carriage with a child on board across the fields! After tea, the children watched a ‘succession of electrical and galvanic experiments’ conducted by Sewell and as darkness fell the marquee was illuminated by gas lights. The event closed with the firing of the evening gun, ascent of fire balloons and the National Anthem.

Three months later in November 1861, an advertisement appeared for St John’s Middle- Class Grammar and Mathematical School under the supervision and control of the officiating Minister of St John’s Church, Lindfield. The boarding house with home comforts was in a ‘commodious private residence’, and pupils were to be prepared for ‘the Middle-Class Oxford, Cambridge, and the Civil Service Examinations’. Annual fees for boarders were £32 and non-boarders £8 - £12. Sewell was clearly moving the school upmarket with the aims of the original National School to educate the ’labouring, manufacturing and other poor classes of the parish of Lindfield’ no longer fitting his vision. Presumably he intended to leave their education to others.

Sewell retained ownership of the school buildings and never conveyed them to the parish as his stated intentions, presumably because the desired contributions from residents to replace his initial funding were not forthcoming. After a short illness, Sewell died in October 1862 and shortly afterwards the school closed and never reopened.

On the instructions of the High Court in Chancery, the buildings were put up for sale by auction in September 1863. They were advertised as, ‘Lots 3 and 4. The newly- built premises, St John School, consisting of boys’ and girls’ lofty school rooms, infant school rooms, offices, and schoolmaster’s cottage and garden’.

What became of the school building? Mrs Julia Sewell, acquired the buildings and in 1866, they were recorded as ‘now possessed by Mrs Sewell, the widow, and used on Sundays by Dissenters’. The Sunday school run by Miss Trevatt resumed meeting there in the mornings and afternoons, and in the evening the London City Mission conducted preaching services. The building became known as St John’s Mission.

Upon Mrs Julia Sewell’s death the property passed to her close relative, Miss Dent, and she subsequently offered the building to the London City Mission, but they were not allowed to own property outside London. Miss Dent approached the Country Towns’ Mission, and on their agreeing to send a resident missioner to Lindfield, she endowed the local mission, and it became the Sewell Memorial Mission in October 1909.

By 1937, the Country Towns’ Mission had become increasingly uncomfortable with their premises being directly opposite the parish church. It was decided to sell and use the money for the erection of a more suitable mission building in Lewes Road; this is today the Lindfield Evangelical Free Church. The old mission site was purchased in July 1937 by the parish church authorities with the intention of erecting a vicarage. However, after three separate sets of plans were prepared, it was found that the premises were not suitable either for demolition or conversion. Miss Maud Savill of Finches purchased the buildings in 1938.

During World War II the premises were used by evacuees and the military. Today all the buildings are occupied as private dwellings.

First published in the August 2017 Lindfield Life.

Reverend Francis Hill Sewell and Lindfield Parish Church

Lindfield History by Richard Bryant of the Lindfield History Project Group

During the 18th century Lindfield parish church had been in decline and in a poor state of repair. This continued into the 19th century. By the 1830s not only was the building unsound but, in the absence of a resident minster, services were occasionally not held and burials delayed. Without going into detail, the problems stemmed from the church receiving very little money, due to the tithes being in lay ownership. Further decline was inevitable unless a saviour could be found.

This arrived in the form of Rev Francis Sewell, who having graduated from Cambridge was ordained in 1839. Without doubt he possessed ‘the ardent zeal of a sincere Christian and Churchman’ with a desire to do good, so typical of Victorian times. He was born in India in 1815, the second son of Major General Robert and Eliza Sewell. Over the previous 100 years the Sewell dynasty had became influential and wealthy, initially from the law and subsequently through military service, politics and landownership. This notable and high achieving family further prospered through many ‘good marriages’ and, for some, from plantations in the West Indies.
Shortly after arriving in Lindfield, his elder brother died, which gave Francis Sewell ‘possession of a moderate fortune’. In Sewell terms this meant benefiting from many tens of thousands of pounds and an estate bordering Ashdown Forest comprising several farms totalling some 600 acres and a large house at Twyford.

In 1841 Francis Sewell married Julia Dent, of an old and wealthy Westmorland family, and set up home at Pear Tree Cottage (junction of High Street and Lewes Road). Sewell immediately set about re-establishing the church and repairing the building, firstly by repairing the windows. He instigated a restoration in 1848, which sought a return to the 14th century style favoured at that time. This project saw the introduction of Sewell’s approach to funding; in essence he would make a donation to get a project started then expect residents to contribute the remainder. He donated £650 towards the estimated restoration cost of £2,000, the work was completed in 1850 but it took nearly ten years for the church to clear the debt.

Having set the restoration in hand, in August 1849 Sewell left Lindfield to accept the position of Vicar of Cockerham, Lancashire, a living in the gift of his brother- in-law worth £700 per annum. This compared with £30 the Lindfield church received, although Sewell had not drawn his stipend.

However, Sewell retained his position as the incumbent of Lindfield parish and paid for the employment of an assistant minister. Despite living away he remained closely involved with the parish and pursued his good works, returning on many occasions. His first good work for the village was to instigate the building of a National School, promoting the Anglican faith. This opened on the Common in 1851. At that time the village had a thriving non-conformist school, but Sewell wished to have a school through which to extend the influence of the Church of England on children of the labouring classes.

During the early 1850s, Sewell appears to have devised a master plan to facilitate his return to reside in Lindfield. A core element of his plan was to purchase the Tithes out of lay ownership. The aim was to use the money provided by the tithes to fund his good works for the village. In August 1854, the Brighton Gazette carried an announcement that Sewell had entered into an agreement to purchase the Tithes, worth £600 per year, using his own money. A Tithes Restoration Fund was established to receive contributions, and when the purchase price had been raised he ‘would hand over the amount of Tithes so purchased to the use for ever hereafter of the resident and officiating Rector of the Parish’. Two years later, the paper announced the redemption of the Tithes by Sewell. However, despite his belief he had acquired the Tithes, the transfer to his ownership never took place and they remain in lay ownership.

Notwithstanding the confused position with regard to the Tithes, Sewell pressed on with the other parts of his plan. These were to close the recently built National School on the Common and transfer the pupils to a new school under his control, close to the church. In addition to building the school with a master’s house, the plan also included building a fine rectory as his residence. By 1854, Sewell had purchased Townlands farmhouse, in the High Street, and its accompanying lands to provide the land for his planned buildings.

Construction work commenced in May 1856 on his new St John’s Parish School and Master’s House, being built on land previously Townland’s farmyard (to the north of the house). Sewell funded the construction and sought contributions to repay his outlay, to enable him ‘to convey them to the parish’. Work also started on his Rectory House (later named The Welkin), to which similar funding arrangements applied.

Sewell of his own volition, and seemingly without consultation, enthusiastically initiated these projects ‘for the benefit of the parish’ despite not having secured the Tithes required for the funding. Throughout this time, while exerting his influence on Lindfield, Sewell remained resident in Lancashire as Vicar of Cockerham.

The newly built St John’s Parish School and Master’s House opened in October 1856; his Rectory House was completed a short time later. They were the first buildings in the village to be equipped with gas lighting. The gas was manufactured in a private gas making plant and stored in a tank in his grounds. Subsequently Sewell arranged for Phinehas Jupp, the village blacksmith, to run a pipe under the High Street to take gas to the church, and to install the pipework for gas lighting.

In May 1857, ‘a good sprinkle of the principal inhabitants’ assembled at St John’s School to see the trial of Mr Hansor’s recently discovered olefiant gas (ethylene) installed by Sewell. The school buildings were the first in Lindfield to be lit by gas. It was reported ‘The exhibition afforded a brilliant display, reflecting the highest credit on the scientific abilities of the patentee, Mr Hansor, who was present’. Impressed by what they had seen the gathering adjourned to the Red Lion to discuss lighting the village with Hansor’s gas. It was subsequently agreed to proceed, resulting in the Lindfield Gas Company being formed in June 1857 to manufacture and distribute the gas, thus bringing gas to the village.

Francis Sewell returned to live in Lindfield in October 1857 taking up residence at his partially finished Rectory House. Sadly following a short illness Sewell died on 9th October 1862, aged 47 years. The family swiftly removed his body from Lindfield for burial, on 29th October 1862, at All Saints, Kensal Green, London. This action appears to have been met with some disquiet in the village.

At the time of his death, all the properties built by Sewell remained in his ownership, as he had not received sufficient contributions to enable their transfers to the parish. On the instructions of the High Court in Chancery, in the case of Trotter v Harrison, all the properties and his land in Lindfield, were put up for sale by auction on 21st September 1863. Trotter was an in- law relative of Francis Sewell and an executor of his Will.

Francis Sewell’s vision of lasting benevolence to the parish came to nothing, although he can take the credit for introducing gas to Lindfield.

First published in the July 2017 Lindfield Life.

Charles Dickins and the Lindfield connection

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Helena Hall in her 1959 book Lindfield, Past and Present says: ‘Dr Richard Tuppen was a great friend of Charles Dickens, a frequent visitor to “Froyles”, where he sometimes stayed as well as at The Chalet with the brothers Arthur and Albert Smith, of Egyptian Hall fame’. This implies Dickens’ visits to Tuppen and the Smiths in Lindfield were at more or less the same time; however the visits were many years apart. This and other aspects of Charles Dickens’ connections with Lindfield merit a closer look.

Helena Hall appears to have based her statements on the recollections of Mrs Elizabeth Anscombe, nee Woodgate, that were published in several newspapers, following interviews when she was in her nineties. Looking first at Dickens’ visits to Dr Richard Stapley Tuppen at Froyles in the High Street. Richard Tuppen was baptised in Lindfield in May 1780, the son of Henry and Sarah Tuppen, who had purchased Froyles in that year. His mother was a member of the well established Stapley family whose seat was Hickstead Place. In 1806, Froyles was inherited by Richard Tuppen; together with his sister he lived in the property until his death on 21st March 1840, aged 59.

Mrs Elizabeth Anscombe, born in 1826, was aged 13 years when she entered service at Froyles as a waiting maid in 1839. Praised by reporters for her ‘wonderful memory’, Elizabeth Anscombe vividly recalled meeting Charles Dickens when he frequently visited Richard Tuppen. Similarly she recalled that Tuppen and Dickens went to church on Sundays, but Dickens found it difficult to keep awake during the long sermons of those days. When he was awake Dickens made sketches of the congregation, chiefly caricatures, on the walls or on a pillar.

Dickens must have been in Lindfield during 1839 and possibly early 1840, as Richard Tuppen died in the March of that year. Among Mrs Anscombe’s most treasured possessions was a signed copy of a Dickens’ book, reported as, ‘A Christmas Carol’, given as ‘a token of regard’. However, it would appear this book was first published in December 1843, so perhaps the gift was a pre-publication edition or Dickens gave the book on a later visit to Miss Tuppen; Elizabeth Anscombe remained in her employ until June 1848.

More challenging to explain is the friendship between Charles Dickens and Richard Tuppen, they were aged about 28 and 59 respectively in 1839. How they met and became great friends is a mystery, as throughout most of the 1830s, Dickens had been pursuing a career in journalism predominantly in London. It was only after 1836, that he had become known through the publication in instalments, of Pickwick Papers.
At this time Richard Tuppen was the village doctor in Lindfield, which had been his home since birth and he had been ‘apprenticed’ to a local surgeon. Similarly the background and social standing of their respective families makes a family connection implausible. The Dickens family background is well documented and Lindfield does not feature.

In contrast, Charles Dickens’ friendship with Arthur Smith and consequently Lindfield is strongly evidenced. However, the Smiths could not be the link between Tuppen and Dickens, as Richard Tuppen had died almost a decade prior to Smith’s connection with Lindfield.

Arthur Smith, born 1825, and with his older brother Albert, were famous as the first Englishmen to climb Mont Blanc in 1851. Albert followed a career as a journalist, humorist, writer and playwright in parallel with Dickens. They had both worked for Bentley’s Miscellany and Albert Smith had adapted some of Dickens’ writings for the stage. During the 1850s, Arthur Smith managed the Egyptian Hall in London and with his brother gave performances recounting their exploits on Mont Blanc. Both the brothers knew Dickens.

Various studies of Dickens describe Arthur Smith as his friend and manager. He handled the booking for readings by Dickens, who is reported to have said: ‘I got hold of Arthur Smith as the best man of business I know’. Without doubt they had a friendly and trusting relationship.

How were the Smiths linked with Lindfield? Arthur Smith, when in his twenties, married Jane May Crawfurd, the daughter of William Board Edward Gibbs Crawfurd of Paxhill, Lindfield. On land adjacent to the Ardingly Road, within the Paxhill estate, Arthur with his brother built The Chalet in the first years of the 1850s. It is said, by Helena Hall in Lindfield Past and Present, that Dickens helped by ‘carrying windows and door frames’. However, the basis for this statement is unknown, but it is reasonable to assume Dickens visited Arthur Smith and his wife at The Chalet during the 1850s.

Helena Hall also makes the assertion, again drawn from the recollections of Elizabeth Anscombe, that Dickens ‘did many kindly things for Lindfield. He helped to raise funds to build the school on the Common. He took part in entertainments at the Assembly Rooms [Bent Hotel, Lindfield], and, as the result of public readings of his works at the Corn Exchange, Haywards Heath, he gave £100 to our Vicar, Mr Sewell, to help restore the Church’. However, on reading the various articles on Elizabeth Anscombe’s memories, some of Helena Hall’s assertions may be questionable. One of the more detailed articles on Elizabeth Anscombe’s memories, published in the Mid Sussex Times in 1913, said: ‘That as the result of a public reading at the Haywards Heath Corn Exchange, Dickens was able to hand £100 to the then Vicar of Lindfield – the Rev. E. Johnson’ and ‘That the money was used by him to help meet the cost of erecting the present Lindfield Reading Room, the builder of which was Mrs Anscombe’s husband’.

As explained in a recent Lindfield Life article, the Reading Room started life as the National School, built on the Common in 1851. This date aligns with Arthur Smith’s marriage, the building of The Chalet and Rev. Johnson being the vicar. Therefore the reading was most likely arranged courtesy of Mr and Mrs Smith. Dickens may have done other entertainments and readings in Lindfield or Haywards Heath but supporting evidence is lacking.

It is pleasing that Lindfield has one enduring legacy of Charles Dickens’ connection with the village.

First published in the June 2017 issue of Lindfield Life.

Julius Guy, inventor and local activist

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Today our cars with their independent suspension on all four wheels give a smooth ride, despite the occasional pothole and bumps in the roads. Likewise all roads have smooth hard surfaces. It was not always that way. Pity the traveller in the nineteenth century, when the roads at best were of variable quality and horse-drawn carriages gave their occupants a bumpy ride.

Elliptical springs that had traditionally been fitted to carriages in the 1800s did little to improve the ride for passengers. Julius Guy, a Lindfield carriage builder, set about finding a way to improve this crude form of suspension. In 1885, after trying various possible improvements, Julius Guy discovered that the attachment of India rubber cushion blocks to the springs considerably enhanced their performance. He patented his invention as the Climax Combination Spring.

This simple but effective device received great acclaim. His invention was exhibited at the Anglo- Danish Exhibition of 1888, where it was awarded a gold medal and diploma of honour. The Exhibitors Journal described Mr Guy’s invention as ‘One of the best and greatest improvements’ to carriage suspension, saying ‘the unpleasant jarring is considerably reduced’. It further explained ‘Another advantage is that the liability of breaking either springs or axles, and the wear of the carriage is very considerably reduced; the oscillation and extra strain on other parts of the carriage is also obviated’.

Julius Guy was enrolled a Member of the Institute of British Carriage Manufacturers and his patent was taken up by very many carriage builders. It was also applied to the carriages belonging to the British Royal Family and the King of Belgium. A testimonial written by Lord Suffield, relating to the rubber blocks fitted to the carriages of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales, said they were ‘found to very much enhance the comfort’. Praise indeed for a village coachbuilder.

Who was Julius Guy? He was born in 1831 at Chiddingly and after being apprenticed to his father, went to London and gained coach-building experience at some of the leading workshops before opening his own business. His wife’s health was affected by the foul London air and he decided to move to Lindfield in 1859, acquiring the business of Mr H Packham. Julius Guy’s home, workshop and yard were at the northern end of the Bent Arms, adjacent to Brushes Lane.

His business thrived, and with the introduction of the motorcar he transferred his skills from carriage building to being a motor body builder and repairer. Julius Guy was also one of the first agents for the Car and General Insurance Corporation, the insurance company that pioneered the comprehensive motor policy.
In addition to his business, Julius Guy played an active role in the life of the village, holding several roles, such as Parish Constable, Churchwarden and member of the School Board. He held a keen interest in national and local politics, and with regard to the latter was a staunch opponent of the old Lindfield Local Board (the parish council). The Board comprised eleven members and their monthly meetings were held behind closed doors, with the boast that business was completed in quarter of an hour. Every year they nominated and re-elected themselves.

Julius Guy led a group of residents in revolt against these practices and demanded open public elections. To pacify him, the Board members offered to elect him onto the Board... he declined, but which prompted him to take legal action against the Board for not conducting the elections according to the law. This resulted in the Local Lindfield Board being dissolved. As a consequence, Lindfield, for a time, lost the right of self-government and came under the jurisdiction of the Rural Authority.

Julius Guy died on 28th April 1913, aged 82.

First published in the April 2017 issue of Lindfield Life

Lindfield's old sauce to rival Lee and Perrins

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Lea & Perrin’s Worcester Sauce is perhaps one of the world’s best known sauces. First marketed in 1837, it became popular in the 1840/50s and is now widely used in cooking, as a condiment and, of course, an essential part of a Bloody Mary. Today, instead of asking for Worcester sauce you could have been asking for Lindfield Sauce had its makers had the business acumen of Mr Lea and Mr Perrin.

According to a Lindfield Sauce bottle label dated about 1880, it was:

  • Prepared by the late Charles Mills

  • Used at the Coronation Banquet of George IV held on 19th July 1821

  • Currently being made by Mrs Mills of Lindfield

  • A flavouring for chops, steak, poultry, fish cold meat, etc.

  • ‘Pronounced by Savans and Epicures to be the Best English Sauce extant’

These claims warrant further investigation. The recipe for Lindfield Sauce still exists and is held by a descendant of the Mills family. The main ingredients included are vinegar, onions, sugar, soy sauce, cayenne pepper and spices. It has to be matured in casks for at least two years before being usable, and is said to be similar in character to Worcestershire sauce.

Who were the Mills family and what was their connection with Lindfield? In the latter part of the 1700s, George Mills, a blacksmith and cooper in Lindfield, had a son named Simon. It appears Simon Mills joined the army as a young man, serving in the Peninsular War, being present at the battle of Oporto in May 1809, as a sergeant in the 24th Regiment of Foot Guards. He is next found in 1815 in Pembroke, with his wife Ann where she gave birth to a son, Charles, and later a second son, Simon.

The first identified record of Simon Mills, Senior, returning to Lindfield is an entry in the 30th April 1831 Poor Tax return. The entry identifies Simon Mills as the owner of the Red Lion, which at that time was located in the house today called ‘Porters’. However, in 1833, Simon Mills moved the Red Lion next door to the newly built and current Red Lion building. Following his death in 1839, the property passed to his widow Ann Mills and on her death to their sons, Charles and Simon, inherited the inn. During the early years of the 1850s, Charles Mills took over as the innkeeper, a role he held until selling the Red Lion in 1869. He then moved with his second wife, Mary, and their children down the High Street, to the middle cottage of what are today known as Bank Cottages (near the junction with Lewes Road).
The 1880 label refers to it being prepared by ‘the late Charles Mills’ so presumably during the 1850s and 1860s he was making Lindfield Sauce at the Red Lion and storing it in the cellar until matured. However, other than the label, no written evidence has been found specifically linking Charles Mills or the Red Lion with the manufacture of the sauce. It is reasonable to believe Charles Mills was making the sauce at the cottage prior to his death in 1873, when ownership of the ‘brand’ and preparation passed to his widow. Mrs Mary Mills is listed in the 1881 Census as a widow aged 49 years; with the occupation ‘Sauce Proprietor’. She continued living at the cottage until her death.

Looking at the claim regarding its use, as a matured sauce it would have been suitable to add to meats and fish for extra flavour. The statement being ‘Pronounced by Savans and Epicures to be the Best English Sauce extant’, sounds flowery and extravagant but it is reflective of the advertising language used in Victorian times. Adverts for a similar rich matured sauce, Thorn’s Tally Ho Sauce, likewise proclaimed ‘So long patronised by Epicures .... pronounced it exquisite’. However the Lindfield Sauce pronouncement is not without foundation, as the sauce was not merely sold in the village but supplied to fashionable addresses in London and presumably elsewhere in the country.

One eminent regular purchaser, between 1882 and 1888, was Wilkie Collins, the famous Victorian author. He was well known for his fondness of food and good living. A letter written under his own hand from Portman Square, London, in November 1882, acknowledging safe delivery of a supply, says ‘we will do all we can to recommend it’. In another letter that year, Wilkie Collins asks Mrs Mills to send a very old friend ‘at your convenience - with account, half a dozen bottles, of your sauce, which he likes very much’. In placing an order for six bottles in June 1888, Wilkie Collins refers to it as ‘her excellent sauce’.

Similarly, there are orders for 6 and 18 bottles at a time from a purchaser, with an unreadable signature, living at Cavendish Square, London. Certainly during the 1880s, Mrs Mills had a thriving mail order business for Lindfield Sauce and her claim for it being regarded by ‘Epicures’ does not seem farfetched.

The reference to Lindfield Sauce being used at the Coronation Banquet of George IV is more problematic. An enquiry to the Royal Archive elicited the response that hundreds of dishes were served at the vast banquet and it is possible Lindfield Sauce was used as an ingredient in one of the hot or cold dishes, but they do not have the recipes. They further said, ‘sauce boats were used at the banquet but unfortunately it does not say what the sauces were – perhaps one of them was Lindfield Sauce’.

So was the claim that the sauce was used at the royal banquet true or just a clever piece of Victorian marketing for a sauce invented by Charles Mills after selling the Red Lion? If it is indeed true, then Lindfield Sauce predates the similar Worcestershire sauce by many years. It also raises the questions, what are its origins, who was making it in 1821 and where? Could it have been Simon Mills, Senior, but he was not known to have been in Lindfield in the 1820s. Perhaps we will never know the truth.

What we do know is that the production of Lindfield Sauce in the village had ceased by the early 1890s and Mary Mills died in March 1895.

If readers have any information that will help solve this mystery please get in touch.

First published in May 2017 Lindfield Life.

An 81 year old mystery solved - HMS Triumph

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

You may have seen newspaper articles and television news pieces in mid-June, reporting a 25-year search has finally brought to the end an 81 year old World War II submarine mystery, without realising the story had a connection with Lindfield. In All Saints church, there is a brass plaque mounted on the southern wall that reads:
Remember in Love
JOHN SYMONS HUDDART LIEUTENANT ROYAL NAVY H.M. SUBMARINE TRIUMPH WHO WITH HIS OFFICERS AND MEN WAS KILLED IN ACTION JANUARY 1942
The Lord of Hosts is with us

HMS Triumph

Lt. John Symons Huddart, known as Tommy, was 31 years old, living with his parents George and Clare Huddart at Froyls in the High Street. He joined the Royal Navy, Submarine Service in January 1934, completing his Commanding Officers course in April 1940. The command of several submarines followed before joining HMS Triumph in November 1940; a T-class 1,300 tonne submarine, 275ft long with a company of about 60 men that had been in the Mediterranean for 12 months patrolling and undertaking special covert operations.

On 20th November 1940, the submarine departed from Alexandria, Egypt for her 20th war patrol in the Aegean, which included special operational executive missions, returning to port on 11th December 1941. The crew were greeted with the news that the Triumph was to return home for crew leave and a refit. Joy was short lived as Triumph, being the only available operational submarine, was ordered to undertake her 21st mission. She was tasked with urgently landing 5,000 kilos of supplies including radios, weapons and possibly money for the Greek Resistance. The drop was to be made at Antipros, an isolated location where the supplies could be rowed ashore in a small boat. The few remaining Commonwealth servicemen that had evaded capture and were waiting at Antipros had expected to be evacuated after the unloading.

Telegram Triumph

However, Triumph had only just started her patrol and it appears that this had not been advised to the servicemen. Lt. Huddart decided not to have a debate on the beach about air consumption and food and water supplies, all of which were limited and restricted operational capabilities. Instead he simply quoted a change of orders preventing him from taking on board passengers, but promised he would return in 10 days to pick them up on his return to Alexandria. Triumph signalled Naval Command confirming successful completion of the deliveries and this was the last communication.

Triumph departed and was not seen or heard from again. She failed to show up at the promised rendezvous at Antipros on 9th January. On 21st January 1942, C & C Mediterranean reported to the Admiralty ‘Regret in absence of further news HMS Triumph must now be considered lost’. The circumstances and location of the disappearance of the submarine and what happened to the crew have remained a mystery ever since, but it was assumed that all crew perished. There is no German record of a submarine having been engaged.

In June 2023, it was announced that following years of searching Triumph had now been found in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece, lying 660ft below the surface. Images from a remotely operated submersible show her hull almost intact, although some damage to the stern is visible, possibly caused by an underwater explosion. Importantly, the images reveal that all the escape hatches and gun hatches were sealed closed indicating the crew are entombed inside. In that depth of water, crew were doomed as escape would have been impossible. Triumph was probably at a deep dive depth when the disaster struck.
The exact location of the submarine has yet to be disclosed as it must be treated with the respect of a maritime war grave. Protected by the strict archaeology laws of Greece.

This discovery brings to a close the 81 year old mystery and the location of the men’s grave. You can see a video clip of the submarine lying on the seabed here.

Lindfield's changing High Street - Part 2

The Bent Arms & The Cot

By John Mills and Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

The previous article compared the west side of the High Street in 1923 with 2023; in this article we journey down the eastern side. Starting at the top of the High Street, from the ornate Lindfield sign down to All Saints Church is residential today, as it was in 1923. After the church, the Tiger had ceased being an Inn in 1916, becoming the parish church house and has continued to be ever since.

After the passageway, 1 Tiger Cottages – No 120 – was a sweet shop called The Little Shop. Evidence of this past use can be seen in the remains of a shop front. After these cottages, Tallow Cottage, built in 1975, is the newest house in the High Street. It stands on the site of a wide entrance to the backyard and slaughterhouse of Wickham’s butcher’s shop and family home, which was situated in Oakley House (No 112). From this point down to the corner of Brushes Lane today is all residential - the exception in 1923 being Spongs, on the corner, which was Alfred Carey’s house and had his ironmonger’s shop attached. The large shop window is still evident, as is the old forge to the rear.

Brushes Lane was little more than a bridleway until 1957, when it was widened to provide access to the Dukes Road development. This necessitated the demolition of a building known as The Cot (see photo above) that had been built in the 1860s adjacent to the Bent Arms. Over the years it had had many uses, from railway company offices to storage to a dwelling and even, it is said, the Musical and Literacy Institute. To the rear of the Bent Arms is 96 High Street.

Previously the coach house and stables of the inn, it is now in mixed use. Today, from this point down to Boarsland on the corner of Alma Road is all residential. This was not the case a hundred years ago. Priory Cottage, No 86 - which was originally a medieval hall house - Crosskeys, No 76, and Boarsland, No 72, all had shop extension build-outs in their front gardens out to the pavement. Priory Cottage was a stationers and newspaper shop run by Ernest Welfare. Crosskeys, 76 High Street, also dating from medieval times, was divided into two cottages with the southern part having the front extension, which was the fishmonger’s and poulterer’s shop of Jacob Driver. Boarsland was Thomas Charman’s baker’s shop with the bake house behind.

Crossing over Alma Road, South Down Cellars wine merchants was, in 1923, H P Martin’s corn and coal merchant. A short mid-Victorian terrace known as Albert Terrace follows, today containing Ounce, Jackson-Stops, Somers café and Mathilda Rose. Respectively these were Mrs Helen Hodson’s confectioners, Rice Brothers’ saddlery and harness makers, Herbert Caffyn’s tobacconist and confectioners and finally at 1 Albert Terrace, John Holman’s Cycle and Motor Cycle Depot; until December 1922 it had been a cycle and gramophone shop.

Below the Red Lion stands Porters, a residential property that was previously Dr Hay’s surgery and family home. The private housing continues down to the United Reformed Church, originally the Congregational Chapel.

The next area was devoted to the Box family businesses. They ran a nursery that stretched parallel with Lewes Road and up Luxford Road. Interestingly, one of only a few shops to have continued the same trade over the period is Paul’s greengrocer’s. This had been James Box’s greengrocer shop. Next door was their florists, today Mark Revill & Co. Again, continuing the same trade is Cottenham’s, which was the Box butcher’s shop. Behind was Box’s storage and preparation rooms, today occupied by Nova Medispa – which recently moved from beside the Co-op.

In competition with Lloyds Bank across the road, Barclays had a sub branch in the first cottage, No 38. The neighbouring cottage was the home of John Sharman, Assistant Clerk to the Parish Council. This was followed by the Post Office and its adjoining sorting room, later extended into the Post Office and now Truffles Bakery.

Crossing Lewes Road and after Pear Tree House and the King Edward Hall in 1923 (and until recent times) was the White Horse Inn, now converted into Tamasha Indian restaurant. Slake Coffee Shop is housed in the inn’s stables. The private house – No 18 – did not exist in 1923 as this was the site of Lindfield Motor Garage owned by Messrs Boggis & Franklin. At Nos 14 and 16, the front shop extension, which is today the home of the Lindfield Barbers, was, a hundred years ago, a fishmongers and fish and chip shop run by Hubert Ellis. In later years it became the Pond Shop. Beyond this point the High Street remains residential, with the last property on the east side being Pelham House.

The big question is how does the High Street today compare with 1923? The answer in a few words is very favourably, with both serving the needs, trends and their communities of the time. There were a few more shops a hundred years ago but several in the same trade and presumably in competition. Missing today are drapers and ironmongers, but this a national trend. That said, it is probably fair to say, today’s shops collectively have a far greater range of goods than their earlier counterparts. Lindfield is fortunate to have such a vibrant High Street and long may this continue.

Contact via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

The Lindfield Brewery

The Stand Up at 47 High Street

By John Mills, Lindfield History Project Group

On Lindfield High Street in 1914, there were five public houses: The Bent Arms, The Red Lion, The Stand Up Inn, The Tiger Inn and The White Horse, all selling beer obtained from commercial breweries, mostly in Brighton and Lewes. But one hundred years earlier, the village’s pubs were either brewing their own beer or being supplied by The Lindfield Brewery.

Beer was produced from barley, sugar, hops, yeast and water (known as ‘liquor’ in the industry). The barley was made into malt in a malthouse by soaking it, allowing the seeds to sprout, and then drying it in a kiln to stop the sprouting. The malt, once ground, was mixed with hot water to convert the starch to sugar, and the now-sweet liquid (the wort) was boiled with dried hops, cooled, and passed into a fermenting vessel. Yeast was added, which, feeding on the sugar as fermentation proceeded, converted the sugar to alcohol. After a few days, excess yeast was removed and the resulting beer was left to mature before being put into casks or bottles.

In the 1700s, Lindfield had a malthouse, where the United Reformed Church now stands, and at one time a hop kiln, much later replaced by the house at 78 High Street. Some houses had brewhouses (or brewing rooms), for home brewing from malt, but most brewing in Lindfield village would have been carried out in the outbuildings of its inns.

Wholesale commercial brewing arrived in Lindfield after 1784, when a Brighton brewer, Richard Lemmon Whichelo, bought Malling Priory, a private house. On part of its large garden, between The Bent Arms and the back of the house, he erected brewery buildings around three sides of a yard. The distinctive half-H-shaped configuration of the buildings appears on a map of 1792. Later, only part of Malling Priory was used by the brewery, and the remainder was let to other tenants. In the early 1800s it was known as the Brew House..

Whichelo’s main residence and brewery remained in Brighton. From 1800, he first tried to sell, then let his Lindfield brewery, with two pubs attached; he also owned The White Lion (now Bent Arms) and Ryecroft (52 High Street) – the first site of the Red Lion.

In 1801, the brewery was advertised as the only one within 12 miles of the village, “with a new-erected malthouse, convenient store-rooms, vault, stabling (and) large yard…..The business of the brewery is done with little expense; the work being done by a horse mill, where the malt is ground, the liquor is pumped up, and the worts into the copper (boiling vessel), all at one time.” In this mill, or ‘horse gin (engine)’, a horse walked in a circle, pulling a timber arm linked to gearing which operated the pumps and grindstones.

Henry Clerk, brewer, rented the brewery in 1803, in 1806 selling the remainder of his lease and the contents of the house and buildings, including ‘old beer, porter, malt, hops, vats and casks, two draught horses’.

Hughes and Co., partners in the Storrington Brewery, were the new tenants, and ran both breweries until 1815, when they went bankrupt. An Eastbourne coal merchant and brewer, Richard Buckley Stone, who lived for a time in Lindfield, became tenant from 1815, using the brewery also for his coal business. In 1819, he also went bankrupt.

Whichelo, still the owner, died in 1818, leaving The White Lion and brewery to his son Matthew, a wine merchant. He promptly, but unsuccessfully, put them on the market, then let them in 1819, advertising that ‘there are a great number of free Public Houses in the neighbourhood of Lindfield, with which considerable (brewery) business has been done’.

A new partnership, (William) Durrant and (Thomas) Wileman, then rented the brewery, both local men, ‘common- (commercial wholesale) brewers and maltsters’. Between 1824 and 1827,John Bent, a gentleman, bought several houses in Lindfield, the brewery and The White Lion, changing the pub’s name to The Bent Arms.

Wileman and another partner had left the partnership by 1825. William Durrant, who also had a High Street grocer’s and draper’s (cloth) shop, where the Co-op now stands, continued the brewery on his own. During his occupancy, part of the Brew House was let to his niece Miss Ann Baker for her boarding school for young ladies.

In 1833-34, William Durrant too went bankrupt, having to sell his properties, but kept the tenancy of his shop. Bent let the brewery to Gosling Philp and Richard Philp, common-brewers and partners, but when the first dropped out and the second was bankrupted in 1838, the brewery was again left untenanted.

From 1839, Henry Adolphus Baber briefly rented the brewery, he and all subsequent tenants until 1885 describing themselves as maltsters, rather than brewers. Apparently, brewing at the ‘Old Brewery’ had ended.

Baber was also a corn and coal merchant; the buildings and yard continued for coal merchant’s stores, and presumably the malthouse for malting. The Bent family properties were put up for sale in 1885, and the brewery demolished in 1886, to be replaced in 1890 by the present semi-detached houses, 92-94 High Street.

William Durrant may have seen a gap in the local brewing market appearing around 1839-40, buying a house and butcher’s shop (known as ‘Morlands’) at 53-55 High Street (Eye Care Practice and Mansell McTaggart). In 1840-41 he again described himself as a brewer, together with his son Edward, and by 1842 had built a small brick-built brewery behind Morlands (now converted into two cottages, Old Brewery and Old Brewery Cottage, 49-51 High Street). Morlands became William Durrant’s new grocer’s and linen draper’s shop.

William died in 1848. In 1845, Edward Durrant was running the ‘new’ Lindfield Brewery and did so until the end of his life (1902). After the redevelopment in 1854 of the corner of Denmans Lane with five terraced houses (41-47 High Street, pictured), Edward leased the northernmost house and opened it as the Brewery Tap beer shop, under William Barlow, also a boot and shoe maker. The beer shop proprietor was licensed to sell beer and cider only, for consumption on or off the premises.

The ground floor premises of the early beer shop were small (The Stand Up now occupies three of the five houses in the terrace). The story goes that Edward Durrant considered that if workmen had a glass of beer standing up, they returned to work, but if they sat down over it there was no knowing when they would return; and so the beerhouse, without chairs, became known as The Stand Up Inn.

In 1879, the brewery offered a Family Bitter Ale for one shilling (1s/ 5p) per gallon (8 pints), and in the 1880s home-brewed ale from eightpence (8d/ 3½p) to 1s 6d per gallon, a Light Dinner Ale and London porter, stout and double stout. Later, prices were 2d to 8d a quart (two pints), the cheaper beer being known familiarly as ‘apron washings’ (slang for porter).

Behind Morlands, where the Durrant family continued their grocery shop until the 1970s, there was another horse gin under an octagonal roof, which was used for the brewery’s pumping and machinery.

When Edward Durrant died, the Lindfield Brewery carried on under his widow and son, Fanny Sara and Bartley Durrant, until 1906, when it closed. Her name, and Licensed Brewer, can still be seen on a timber beam in The Stand Up. In 1909 Ballard & Co., of the Southover Brewery, Lewes, bought the brewery, but besides supplying the beerhouse with their 1910 Premier Ale and Coronation Ale, did not restart brewing there.

After being damaged in the 1987 great storm, the horse gin eventually collapsed, but thanks to the Durrant family and by dint of strong co-operative local efforts, the gin was re-erected behind The Red Lion in 1995.

Contact 01444 482136 or via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/

Frederick William Lanchester

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

What is the connection between a car company, the theory of flight, an English university, the laws of combat, the concept of quality management and Walstead Burial Ground? The answer is Frederick William Lanchester.

At Walstead Burial Ground, Frederick is commemorated on a stone tablet at the base of his parents’ - Henry Jones Lanchester and Octavia Lanchester - gravestone, along with his sister, Mary, and brother, Vaughan. The ashes of Frederick, together with those of his brother and sister, are buried in this grave.

Henry and Octavia Lanchester died in 1914 and 1916 respectively, having lived at ‘Southlea’, Sunte Avenue, Lindfield for a number of years. He was an architect, as was his son Henry (Vaughan) Lanchester, who was eminent in the profession.

Frederick William Lanchester was born in Lewisham on 23rd October 1868. He studied engineering and science and attended the Royal College of Science but did not graduate. However, in recognition of his contribution to aerodynamics and engineering, in 1920 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham. In the years that followed, he was accorded numerous other prestigious honours, including Fellowship of the Royal Society.

His early years were as an employed engineer at the Forward Gas Engine Company in Birmingham, developing gasoline engines. In 1893, Frederick set up his own workshop and built his first engine. The following year this was fitted to a boat, creating the first all-British powerboat. In 1895, he produced the first four-wheeled gasoline car in England. This led to the setting up of the Lanchester Engine Company and subsequently the Lanchester Car Company being established. The cars were highly regarded for the quality of their engineering. Frederick resigned from the company in 1910. Many years later, the business was acquired by Daimler.

Frederick, a visionary genius, was responsible for many significant inventions in automobile engineering, including disc type brakes, an ‘automatic’ transmission system, power steering, four-wheel drive, fuel injection, the dynamic balancing of engines and low voltage ignition. In his life, he filed 426 patents, ranging from components for reproducing music to a colour photographic process.

However, his overwhelming interest was aerodynamics and powered flights. He was the foremost proponent on the theory of flight based on the vortex theory. This remains the foundation for flight to this day, although he was initially persuaded to delay the publication of his theory, which was so advanced for its time that it might have damaged his reputation as an engineer.

Many other papers followed, culminating in his two-volume treatise in 1907 on aerodynamics, entitled ‘Aerial Flight’. This was followed by further valuable contributions to the literature on aeronautics such as ‘Flying Machine from an Engineering Standpoint’.

Upon the outbreak of the Great War, Frederick became convinced of the need for a mathematical analysis of the relative strengths of opposing battlefield forces to describe the effectiveness of aircraft. Resulting from quantitative studies of casualties in land, sea and air battles, he developed the two Lanchester Laws – the Linear Law of Combat and the N-Squared Law of Combat. These were published in 1916 as his seminal work, ‘Aircraft in Warfare – the Dawn of the Fourth Arm’.

His work in aeronautics continued into the 1920s and 1930s, with papers on the counter-rotating propellers, rocket-assisted flight and other technical topics. In 1931, Frederick received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for his ‘Contribution to the Fundamental Theory of Aerodynamics’. Five years earlier, the Royal Aeronautical Society had bestowed its gold medal upon him.

However, at this time Frederick was becoming increasingly absorbed in musical reproduction, leading to many significant developments in the design and manufacture of advanced speakers, microphones and amplifiers.

Following the start of World War Two, the US military started to study the Lanchester Laws of Combat. These were successfully applied in US military strategy in the later stages of the war, including operations in the central Pacific. To this day the Lanchester principles are taught in military colleges. Frederick’s extensive writings on military subjects, including logistics, became a founding element in the science of Operational Research.

Frederick died on 8th March 1946 with little wealth. His life of invention and visionary theories had not translated into a personal fortune. He had spent most of his adult life in the Midlands.

Dr W Edward Deming, an American helping with the reconstruction of Japan, introduced Frederick’s work on Operational Research to that country in 1952. This resulted in Lanchester being regarded as one of the four founders of the concept of Quality Management, which became the cornerstone of Japanese industrial success. To this day, Kaisen continuous improvement is practiced by organisations across the world, from Toyota to the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.

Subsequent research by the Japanese produced a reworking of the Lanchester Laws of Combat into strategies for corporate competition. In 1962, the theories were further refined by Dr Taoko as the Lanchester Strategy of Sales and Marketing. Briefly this provides rules for selecting a strategy depending upon whether a company was attacking a new market or defending an existing market position. These have since been widely applied by Japanese corporations with over two million books on the subject sold in Japan.

Many regard the application of Lanchester’s theories as being, in part, responsible for the Japanese focus on competitive advantage and market share resulting in their county’s economic success. Arguably, his name is better known and more highly regarded in Japan than in Britain, particularly since the university named in his honour has been renamed the University of Coventry.

Lindfield should be proud to have an engineer and polymath of the eminence of Frederick William Lanchester resting in Walstead Burial Ground.

The Lindfield Photographer - William Marchant

By Richard Bryant & Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group

If you or a family member have lived in Lindfield for many years, it would not be surprising if tucked away at the bottom of a drawer, or in an old album, there is a photograph by William Marchant. His photographs have provided a rich legacy of life, events and people in Lindfield during the first half of the last century. They are recognisable by his signature or embossed name.

By Richard Bryant & Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group If you or a family member have lived in Lindfield for many years, it would not be surprising if tucked away at the bottom of a drawer, or in an old album, there is a photograph by William Marchant. His photographs have provided a rich legacy of life, events and people in Lindfield during the first half of the last century. They are recognisable by his signature or embossed name.

His work included studio portraiture, composed outdoor photographs and events. Generally, only limited numbers of scenic postcards were produced.

William Marchant started his business in 1911 and among his earliest work was a series of cards capturing the village celebrating the 1911 Coronation. He advertised in the Mid Sussex Times: “Have your decorations, your house, garden etc. photographed, for post cards on Coronation Day.” Perhaps his bestknown photo is his impressive image of the Army airship ‘Gamma’, which landed on the Common while on a training exercise in April 1912. Fifteen hundred photographs were sold, with cards at one penny each and mounted photographs at one shilling. The Great War provided a rich source for him, with postcards from the Royal Army Medical Corps billeted in the village to the Welcome Home celebrations and the unveiling of the War Memorial.

As his career progressed, the quality of his work was recognised with Marchant’s appointment as the Scientific Photographer to Sir Arthur Woodward, the eminent geologist who was famously fooled by the Piltdown Man ‘missing link’ fraud. William Marchant could also claim that he took one of the first photographs to appear in the Mid Sussex Times - that of Mrs Neville Chamberlain opening a hospital ward in Cuckfield.

The opening of his studio at 6 Luxford Road (old numbering) allowed portraiture of individuals and families. This line of work took off with the Great War, when every family and sweetheart wanted a picture of their ‘man in uniform’ before he left Lindfield for an uncertain future. Family celebrations, weddings and gatherings were also much in demand throughout his career. Also popular were photographs of cast members in productions at King Edward Hall, sports teams and posed outdoor subjects.

His later works included photos for the Haywards Heath, Cuckfield and Lindfield Guide, published by the local Chamber of Commerce and the All Saints Church Guide, written by Helena Hall.

Who was William Marchant? He was born on 21st August 1886 to his parents John and Elizabeth Marchant, who lived at Somerset Cottages, adjacent to the Common. William was one of six children. After leaving school, he trained and worked as a printer at Charles Clarke Ltd. William Marchant married Myra Hookway, a Lady’s Maid for the Sturdy family at Paxhill, in August 1912 at Lindfield Parish Church and they set up home at 6 Luxford Road, where he opened his first studio. He continued living at Luxford Road until moving to Sunte Avenue (today number 77) in 1924, where he built a studio and small printing works in the rear garden.
William Marchant worked until late in his life, dying aged 79 years in 1965.

Contact 01444 482136 or via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/

Lindfield almost had a railway station

By Richard Bryant and John Mills, Lindfield History Project Group

Lindfield nearly had a railway station north of the church - at the bottom of Town Hill (north of the High Street, close to Ardingly Road). It was planned to be the first stop on the Ouse Valley line. The proposed line ran from Skew Bridge, just north of Haywards Heath, and a little way south of the impressive Ouse Valley Viaduct on the main London to Brighton line. The line was to be built in sections, with the stretch from the Brighton line to Uckfield being called Ouse Valley No. 1 and that from Uckfield to Hailsham called Ouse Valley No. 2. A third section was planned to St Leonards.

There were to be further stations at Fletching, Newick, Uckfield junction, East Hoathly, Hailsham and ultimately additional stations to St Leonards. Stops serving Scaynes Hill, Framfield and Chiddingly were proposed.

The reason for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSC) wanting to build the line was not due to heavy passenger or freight demand from Haywards Heath to Hailsham and beyond. The origins of the desire to build the line were myriad in railway politics of the 1850s and early 1860s. The relationship between LBSC and the rival South Eastern Railway could briefly be described as competitive and far from harmonious.

The LBSC wanted to extend its routes and influence eastward from the Brighton line, while the South Eastern and the London, Chatham and Dover Railways were equally keen to expand westward into LBSC territory and even to Brighton itself. The Ouse Valley line was seen as a means of countering such moves and to create a shorter route to Eastbourne and Hastings. The first and second sections – No.1 and No.2 – were sanctioned by Parliament with the passing of the London Brighton South Coast Act on 23rd June 1864. Further sections were sanctioned the following year.

Construction work was put out to tender and the contract secured by W&J Pickering, railway contractors of Blackfriars, London, under the supervision of William Pickering. Preparatory work was put in hand and the Brighton Gazette reported: “Near the Ardingly Road a novelty has sprung up in a marvellously short time in the shape of a considerable village with ‘Tommy’ shops and workshops, stabling, offices and a complete street of neat and substantial dwellings for the workmen, erected by the contractors.”

The ‘first sod’ was cut on 17th May 1866 and celebrated with a dinner in the Bent Arms. The railway company had established a local office in a building (demolished c.1958) adjacent to the inn.

At its starting point at Skew Bridge, the brick abutments carrying the London to Brighton line were widened and this brickwork can still be seen today. From here the track bed travelled east along a large embankment, through a 57 foot deep cutting and across Copyhold Lane. It then skirted the northern edge of today’s Haywards Heath Golf Club, before entering a deep cutting to pass under High Beech Lane. A shallow cutting followed as it neared Kenwards farmhouse and continued with two cottages in its path being demolished. Spoil from cuttings was run out along trolley lines and tipped to create the embankments.

After Kenwards, a short tunnel was planned but never dug, emerging into another cutting before running onto an embankment and across Spring Lane. The track continued on an embankment crossing the B2028 Lindfield to Ardingly road on a bridge. This embankment and bridge abutments remain visible at the bottom of Town Hill.

The embankment continued for a short distance on the eastern side, requiring the demolition of two old cottages that LBSC had purchased in 1866. The railway company replaced these with two small semi-detached cottages, known as Town Hill Cottages, situated immediately downhill of the eastern bridge abutment. Perhaps they were intended to house LBSC workers? The railway company owned the cottages for many years before being sold and becoming part of the Old Place Estate; they were demolished around 1936. After this short embankment, the track bed runs into a cutting at Hangmans Acre.

The contractors were making good progress despite the difficulties caused by a hard winter, several fatal accidents and being successfully sued by the Newchapel to Brighton Turnpike Trust for damage to the road by carts.

Work was starting to head eastward out of Lindfield when construction stopped abruptly in February 1867. Building of Lindfield station had yet to start. The reason for stopping at this point will be explained shortly.

There has been much speculation as to the actual proposed site of Lindfield station; was it to be constructed to the east or west of the B2028? The topography and available space to the east would have been tight for platforms, station buildings, and forecourt and road entrance. Whereas the western side offered plenty of space with Spring Lane providing road access, but would require considerable earth works. This would probably have been the most likely location, although we will never know for certain as no plans appear to exist.

On 21st February 1867, the LBSC decided to suspend construction of the line and a telegram was sent to Pickering to halt all work. Some 500 men were ‘paid off’ and the many cart horses sold at auction. The work never resumed, leaving a partially completed track bed; no rails had been laid. The Ouse Valley line was formally abandoned by an Act in 1868.

The seeds for the cessation of work had been sown within days of the commencement of construction work when in May 1866, the London bill discounting and banking house, Overend, Gurney and Company Ltd, collapsed. The LBSC was not directly affected by the bank’s collapse but the London, Chatham & Dover Railway was greatly affected. This resulted in their withdrawal from planned lines to Brighton and the South Eastern railway could not continue with these alone and also withdrew. This removed the route threat to LBSC, who were also financially strained, and negated the need for their strategic Ouse Valley line. The banking credit problems signalled the end of the railway boom of the early 1860s.

The banking collapse brought to an end the competition and antagonism between LBSC and South Eastern, when it was realised by the former that the continued pursuance of strategic routes was placing strain on their own finances. Discussions with South Eastern commenced, resulting in a new agreement regarding territory and lines in September 1867.

Lindfield never obtained a rail connection nor a railway station, but could at least boast two ‘railway cottages’!

Contact via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

Please note the abandoned track is on private land and not accessible.

Rainbow Pottery

By Richard Bryant & Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group

In late 1921, an enterprising woman, Gladys Van Weede established - as sole proprietor - The Rainbow Pottery Company, trading from an outbuilding behind Abbotts Pharmacy on the High Street. Born in Worthing in 1888, she married Rollo Van Weede in 1915. They lived at Pascotts Farm, Sluts Lane, where he ran a dairy farm. According to the 1921 census, prior to founding Rainbow Pottery, Gladys Van Weede worked as an artist for Margaret and Christine Warneford, both artists, at 13 Mill Green Road, Haywards Heath.

Within months, the business was flourishing and commercial travellers secured sales across the country. In April 1923, the Lindfield Women’s Institute held an exhibition of Rainbow Pottery products at the King Edward Hall. Intriguingly, the Mid Sussex Times reported ‘that members of the Institute are responsible for the work. What the ladies really do is to hand colour, by a secret process, Staffordshire Pottery, and the artistic blending of colours on powder bowls, vases and other articles on exhibition was delightful’. It further commented, ‘The fact that any colours can be blended onto any articles of pottery and glass suggests infinite possibilities’.

On 28th November 1923, the company held another exhibition at the King Edward Hall of their ‘Novel HandColoured Pottery, Glass-Ware, Trays, and Tables etc.’ Mrs. Van Weede was assisted at the exhibition by a number of ladies from the upper echelon of Lindfield’s social scene. The hall was decorated with plants and cut flowers and to make the exhibition a social and charitable event, afternoon tea was served and a musical programme performed by local musicians. Fifteen per cent of Rainbow Pottery sales and a share of other proceeds were divided between the Haywards Heath Hospital and the Lindfield Nursing Association.

In 1924, Rainbow Pottery took a major step forward, securing a stand in the palace of Industry Pottery and Glass Section, at the prestigious British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. It was quite remarkable that a small, three-yearold company trading from an outbuilding behind the High Street exhibited at such an event

As well as their hand-decorated products, the company also sold, both retail and wholesale, the Danesby Ware Electric Blue pottery range, manufactured by the well-known Denby Pottery Company.

The Rainbow Pottery Company was acquired by Mr. J.N. Carter, who is understood to have also run the Lindfield Steam Laundry. The date the business changed hands is not known. The company continued selling various pottery items, miniature china animals and also glass and chrome items, such as honey glass table condiment sets, serviette rings and cake stands. They were advertised as being of ‘Special Attraction for Bazaars, Fetes, sales of works, etc.’ A far cry from the British Empire Exhibition.

It is believed Rainbow Pottery ceased trading at the end of the 1930s.

Contact via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

Royal celebrations in Lindfield - Part 2

By Richard Bryant and Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group

On Coronation morning the Lindfield Coronation Committee sent the following telegram message to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, ‘With humble respect, congratulations to Your Majesty, from your loyal subjects of Lindfield, Sussex’.

Following Elizabeth’s accession to the throne on 6th February 1952, thoughts nationally turned to the Coronation and how it should be celebrated. The 3rd June 1953 was declared Coronation Day. To organise the celebrations in Lindfield an Executive Committee with eight members was established supported by a 39 strong General Committee. A souvenir brochure was produced and sold for one shilling.

The Mid Sussex Times reported ‘Lindfield had put on its gayest attire’ with the main centre of the decorative scheme being the pond, with flags, banners and shields on poles along the water’s edge. An archway spanned the road at both ends. Contractors undertook the decorations and illuminations. All the shops decorated their windows. Many houses were also dressed for the occasion and numerous Union flags hung from windows and improvised flag poles. The Lindfield Horticultural Society gave a prize to the best decorated house; the winner being 35 Luxford Road.

Coronation Day celebrations started at 9am with the pealing of the church bells by the Lindfield Church Bell Ringing Society. Unfortunately the weather did not match the joyous pealing of the bells; it remained grey with showers and chilly all day.

For those able to afford a television the ceremony was broadcast from Westminster Abbey. Fortunate owners invited family, friends and neighbours to watch the ceremony. Many more listened on the radio. Women and men over 60 and 65 respectively were invited to the King Edward Hall to watch a specially installed television rigged to project onto a large screen. About 260 attended, many seeing television for the first time. The sound broadcast was relayed to the Common.

The Firing of the Anvils at 2pm in the High Street, near the Lewes Road junction, heralded the start of the day’s events on the Common and pond. The first event was the Fancy Dress procession organised by the Lindfield Dramatic Club, with 60 entrants parading from Pondcroft Road to Lewes Road and onto the Common for judging. Betty Billins fondly remembers dressing up as a princess. This was followed by an Empire Tableau arranged by Mr Porter and Miss Anscombe of Lindfield School. The children performed an explanation of the Royal Coat of Arms painted on shields.

A short open air interdominational religious service followed, conducted by the three village churches. On Coronation Sunday, 31st May, the churches had held a Special Order of Service.

At 3.20pm, the presentation of ‘awards to Our Birthday Guests’ was made to the eight residents of the parish whose birthdays fell on Coronation Day. Each received an iced birthday cake.

Amid much excitement, the focus then turned to‘Aquatic Sports’ on the pond organised by Lindfield Men’s Club. These comprised swimming races for men and women together with novelty events such as a beer barrel race, mop fight, greasy pole and a Miller v Sweep contest. There was also a demonstration by Horace Putman of his radio controlled model liner.

The watching crowds returned to the Common for the start of the sports organised by the village sports clubs, the majority of which were for children. In addition to running events, less serious races were held including a balloon race, dog and child race, slow bicycle race, skipping and obstacle races. Adults were not ignored with a variety of competitions such as men and ladies tug-of-war, ladies over 50 years egg and spoon race and a ladies and gentlemen’s cigarette race.

While the sports were proceeding, an ‘Old Folks High Tea’ was served by the Women’s Institute with catering by the Bent Arms in the Social Centre, now part of Old School Court. Children of all ages lined up to receive souvenir mugs, emblems and a packed tea. In the early evening the Lindfield Conservative Association organised a Treasure Hunt on the common.

At 9pm, the Coronation Dance commenced in King Edward Hall with music by the Harmonists Band, the dancing continuing until after midnight. As darkness fell a torchlight procession from Pondcroft Road proceeded via Denmans Lane, Compton Road and High Street onto the Common for a giant bonfire and a spectacular firework display. Illuminations were turned on and the church steeple floodlit, bringing to a close this memorable day.

The next major royal celebration was the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. There was considerable enthusiasm in the village that it should be marked by a major event on Jubilee Day 7th June 1977. A programme was devised incorporating all the features from previous royal occasions including water sports. To make the pond safe, the village turned out to remove tons of weeds and debris. They were thanked by receiving nasty bites and rashes! As with previous events there were extensive decoration.

‘Reveille’ started the day with the village crier, Brian Newcombe, escorted by a piper touring the village to proclaim Jubilee Day. A major innovation was a grand carnival procession from Hickmans Lane playing fields, down the High Street to the Common. Entertainments on the common included a physical exercise display and folk dancing by children from Lindfield and Blackthorns schools, figure marching by the Girls Brigade, It’s a Knock Out competition, junior 6-a-side football tournament, a comedy stoolball match and a barbeque. The stoolball match was between the respective clubs and the players were ‘helped’ by a pantomime horse! The Bowls club staged an ‘international’ match between England and Wales; more precisely Lindfield v Llanelli.

During the evening the Dramatic Club staged two performances of an Old Time Music Hall in King Edward Hall, with the audience invited to dress in Victorian or Edwardian costume. No celebrations in Lindfield would be complete without a torchlight procession, huge bonfire and an impressive firework display organised by the Bonfire Society. To close the day the parish church was floodlit and finally the Burgess Hill Scout Band performed the Ceremony of Sunset on the Common.

To provide a permanent commemoration of the Silver Jubilee the Preservation Society planted a lime tree and presented a village sign for the northern entrance to the High Street, similar in design to the 1935 jubilee sign.

The day was adjudged a great success in bringing the village together. It was felt the enthusiasm and community spirit engendered should be harnessed for an event in future years and hence Lindfield Village Day was born. It has been held ever since.

The traditions of celebrating royal events, over the past 125 years, were again in evidence at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations on Monday 3rd June 2002. A committee with wide village representation was established, under the chairmanship of Brian Newcombe and Roy Billins, to develop the programme. To help fund the day, leather Lindfield bookmarks were produced and sold. Bell ringing, the village crier and firing the anvil all featured. In the morning, shops held a ‘Cuckoo – in – the Competition’, the aim being to spot unusual items in shop windows.

The cornerstone of the afternoon was again the Grand Carnival procession from Hickmans Lane playing fields to the Common, where judging and prize giving took place. Also on the Common during the afternoon was, a children’s pet show, boys’ and girls’ races, band displays, entertainments and stalls run by local businesses, clubs and charities. The evening brought more entertainment with a Knobbly Knee Competition, Line Dancing, Barn Dancing and Modern Dancing and closed with the usual firework display. A major omission from the programme was water sports on the pond, no doubt reflecting changing attitudes to health and safety.

The previous day, Jubilee Sunday, the three village churches had held ‘Songs of Praise’ and a family picnic. To permanently mark the Golden Jubilee, the Committee decided a mosaic was a fitting tribute. Ben Craven, a young Brighton mosaic artist, was commissioned to create the mosaic which was installed at the northern end of the pond, close to the Best Kept Village sign. It cost about £2,300 and was unveiled at 12noon on 2nd June 2003.

Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee was celebrated over the weekend of 2nd & 3rd June 2012 and broadly followed previous Jubilees and the format of Village Day. On the Saturday there was a carnival procession followed on the Common by a Children’s Pet Show and in the evening a Jubilee Barn Dance and Firework Display. The next day a ‘Lindfield Celebration Service’ was held on the Common and afterwards ‘The Big Picnic’, a part of the National Big Lunch initiative. In the afternoon there was entertainments ranging from magic shows to Rok Skool and sports competitions.

Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

Workhouses and helping the poor in Lindfield

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Country life in past centuries is often depicted as the idyll of ‘merry old England’. The reality was dramatically different, with rural parishes like Lindfield rife with poverty, hardship and pauperism.

To help the poor, between 1563 and 1601 the Government enacted legislation that provided a framework for the provision of poor relief by parishes. To pay for this relief, the parishes levied a poor rate according to needs. The Poor Law Act 1601 became the basis for administering relief for the next two centuries. Overseers of the Poor were elected by the Parish Vestry, an early forerunner of Parish Councils. The poor receiving relief were divided into three categories: the able-bodied (who were to be found work), those who were physically unable to work, and those unwilling to work. To keep the poor rate down to a minimum, the Overseers often made payments ‘in-kind’. Provision of a poor house for the destitute was permitted, although it is not thought Lindfield took such action at that time.

In 1723, parishes were empowered to establish workhouses in addition to the provision of poor relief. The first mention of a workhouse in Lindfield is around 1730 and the property was rented by the Parish Overseers, but so far the location has yet to be identified. The workhouse moved in 1740 to another rented property, today known as Firs Cottage, on the High Street near All Saints Church. The inmate numbers steadily increased from about ten in the beginning to approaching 30 by the late 1700s. To accommodate the increasing numbers, an ‘annexe’ was established in a neighbouring small cottage to the north, now long since demolished. Little is known about conditions in the workhouse, but it can be assumed they were not comfortable. The menu for inmates in autumn 1783 was:
Breakfast - Six days a week, pottage (a kind of thin stew) and on the seventh day (presumably Sunday) gruel (a thin porridge).
Lunch – beef or pork pudding and lard buttered pudding.
Supper – bread and cheese.
On Christmas Day 1782, it is recorded the inmates had plum pudding and perhaps this was a treat every Christmas.

In April 1788, trustees acting for Mrs Priscilla Merry purchased Firs Cottage from its then-owner Joseph Beard and the adjacent annexe. The new owner continued renting the property to the Parish Overseers. Around this time, Mr and Mrs Merry also purchased Old Place, today West Wing in Francis Road. Shortly after her husband’s death in 1793, Mrs Merry offered to sell Old Place and its acre of land to the parish, to replace the over-crowded Firs Cottage. This fine Elizabethan house, built by the Chaloner family in 1584 when they were Lords of the Manor of South Malling Lindfield, had subsequently passed through various owners.

The Overseers, on behalf of the parish, secured a large loan to purchase Old Place and the workhouse moved to its new location in 1794. The workhouse accommodated the elderly, disabled, able-bodied paupers and orphans. Expectant mothers were taken care of and their illegitimate children delivered at the workhouse. In exchange for their keep and accommodation, the able-bodied were expected to work and were usually hired out to farms and local businesses. Where possible, pauper children aged over seven were apprenticed in an effort to provide them with a skill and thus break the cycle of poverty.

Nationally, the early decades of the 1800s were the time when poor relief was at its height and the poor rate was creating an unacceptable burden on those required to pay. Poor harvests, the Napoleonic War and its aftermath, and an increasing population resulted in a dramatic rise in corn prices and, in turn, flour and bread, a staple of the diet. Farmers depressed labourers’ wages in the knowledge that the parish would address the resultant poverty from the poor relief, also most agricultural labourers were employed by the day so if no work meant no pay. This was a particular problem during winter. Being a rural parish, Lindfield was badly affected in this way.

The demand in Lindfield for relief in 1831, resulted in a poor rate of 2s 6d in the pound for the summer quarters and 5s in the pound (25%) for the winter quarters, charged on the value of property. In the year ending 25th March 1831, Lindfield parish provided assistance to 196 individuals, of which some 37 resided in the workhouse. Most of those receiving assistance and living outside the workhouse were able-bodied men, reflecting the reality of being an agricultural labourer.

The outside relief was the biggest burden. In addition to weekly fixed allowances paid to the aged, widows and orphans, relief was also given ‘in kind’, such as flour, clothes and shoes, wood for fuel, cottage repairs, coffins, medical treatments and bedding. Doctor Richard Tuppen, who lived at Froyls, was the medical officer for the workhouse and parish poor, for which he was paid £25 per year. The total cost of relief and the workhouse amounted to around £1,500 per year, with the cost during the winter being almost double that of the summer quarters.

The Government had to respond to this situation and the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 was passed. It minimised the amount of outdoor relief and made confinement in the workhouse the central element of poor relief for both the able-bodied and the helpless poor as their last resort. To minimise the number of people seeking accommodation, workhouses were encouraged to be as unpleasant as possible. Married couples were separated and children taken from their parents. Outworking was generally not permitted and workhouses required the able-bodied to undertake basic labour on the premises.

The 1834 Act required parishes to combine together to form a Union to build workhouses and administer the poor relief. This resulted in the Cuckfield Union being established on 26th March 1835 and taking responsibility for the destitute of Lindfield parish and 14 other parishes in the area, from Ardingly to Albourne and Cowfold to Horsted Keynes. For the first ten years, existing parish workhouses were utilised. In 1845, a new workhouse, designed to accommodate 450 inmates, was built in Ardingly Lane, Cuckfield – it later became Cuckfield Hospital and is now apartments. The Lindfield inmates were duly transferred to Cuckfield, with the Cuckfield Union not only taking the inmates from Lindfield’s workhouse, but taking ownership of the Old Place property, in effect stealing it from the parish without giving any compensation and leaving Lindfield to repay the outstanding purchase loan debt. The Cuckfield Union subsequently sold Old Place to Mr Noyes of East Mascalls. In 1875, he sold it to Charles Eamer Kempe, the renowned Victorian stained glass artist. Thus the property that had been the workhouse became the start point for Kempe’s grand country house, Old Place as we see today.

Lindfield's volunteer fire brigade

1910

By Richard Bryant and Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group

Today, with the aid of telecommunications, prompt response to an emergency such as a fire is taken for granted. Things were a little different up to the end of the 19th century, as individuals had to deal with fires themselves and hopefully with the help of neighbours. In 1899, the Lindfield Parish Council decided to form a volunteer fire brigade to provide fire cover for the parish.

For the next ten years, the brigade had only basic equipment transported on a cart. This was stored in a lean-to against the wall of the old National School Room, now part of Old School Court, off Lewes Road. The Parish Council agreed to a significant upgrade in October 1909 and a Merryweather Greenwich Gem horse-drawn steam fire pump was purchased at a total cost of £276-15s-0d, with two thirds coming from public subscription. While delivery was awaited, the council searched for a suitable building to house the new equipment.

Fortuitously, at the same time a search was being undertaken to find a village centre site for the proposed village hall. Walter Sturdy of Paxhill owned Pear Tree House, on the corner of Lewes Road, and donated part of its garden for the hall. This included the redundant former stables at the rear of the King Edward Hall site: this was offered by the Hall committee to the council for use as a fire station. Following an inspection in July 1910, the Council agreed to lease the building at an annual rent of £5-0s-0d.

The interior of the building was fitted out with match boarding to a height of seven feet with a shelf above; it is believed this remains in place. The doors were duly painted bright red, and Lindfield became the proud owner of a new fire station.

The eagerly awaited fire engine arrived in March 1910 and on 19th March the Merryweather trainer arrived to instruct the firemen, and the first public display of the fire engine and its capabilities was given to a large crowd on the Common the following day. They were amazed a jet of water could be thrown to a height of 140 feet.

In 1910, having a modern fire engine did not mean a speedy turnout. On receipt of a message, call-out boys had to find and alert the firemen. On their arrival at the fire station, the fire engine had to be manhandled outside and the coal fire boiler lit to produce steam to work the water pump. It could be drawn at a gallop by a pair of horses and if necessary, the fire lit and stoked on the move. The horses had to be fetched from the livery stable. At that time, G T Ward of the Bent Arms was the council’s horsing contractor.

The services of the fire brigade were not free, and the parish council kept them under regular review. In 1914, the call-out charge for the fire engine and hose cart outside the parish boundary was £3-3s-0d and £1-1s-0d respectively for the first three hours. A reduced hourly rate applied after that period. There was no charge if the fire was within the parish boundary. Regardless of the fire’s location, a charge applied for each fireman attending, this ranged from 5s-0d an hour for the officers to 3s0d for the men; additional time was at a lower rate. A £1-10s-0d engine cleaning charge was payable, with horse hire and coal also to be paid. From this it would appear that horses were hired for each call-out and not owned by the Council.

In April 1912, the brigade was called to a house fire at Chailey Heritage School, and the charge was £16-8s-6d, of which £9-12s-6d was paid to the firemen. The fire caused damage estimated between £500 and £1,000. A major house fire was an unusual occurrence, although chimney fires happened from time to time; if not extinguished, they could result in a serious fire.

Following the outbreak of the Great War, conscription was introduced in 1916, and three Lindfield firemen received their call-up papers. John Sharman, Captain of the Lindfield Fire Brigade, applied to the local tribunal for their exemption. Their jobs did not warrant exemption, but John Sharman suggested their voluntary fire service was of national interest. Asked how many and types of fires attended, the answer was about two hay rick fires a year. Unsurprisingly, exemption was refused, with one tribunal member commenting ‘that the most useless thing in a country district was a Fire Brigade’. Nevertheless, hayrick fires could be difficult to extinguish; a 40-ton stack at Oathall Farm took over 30 hours to extinguish.

Undoubtedly the brigade’s finest hour came in late October 1920 with a major fire at the Bent Hotel. The Mid Sussex Times reported: ‘so alarming did the situation become that the fire brigades at Lindfield, Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath were summoned, and but for their persevering efforts the Hotel would undoubtedly have been burnt to the ground’. The roof and top floor bedrooms were extensively damaged. A report and photograph even made the national Sunday Pictorial newspaper.

By the 1930s, the horse-drawn steam pump was completely outdated and residents were putting pressure on the council to acquire a modern fire appliance. However, in 1934 the Lindfield Parish Council was stood down and replaced by Cuckfield Urban District Council. Fire cover for the parish was then provided by the Cuckfield Urban District Council from fire stations in South Road and New England Road, Haywards Heath. The Lindfield Fire Brigade was duly disbanded. In May 1934, the council sold the fire engine to the Wakehurst Estate for £32 10s 0d.

With the advent of World War II, additional wartime fire cover was required and the old fire station was pressed into service again as an auxiliary fire station. Electric lights and a heater were installed, and the building fitted out with sleeping quarters, so that the volunteer firemen could stay at the station overnight, the time when bombing was most likely to occur. A nameplate above the door humorously read ‘Ye Olde Lyndfielde Firemen’s Dugout’. The air raid warning siren for the village was mounted above the building. Lindfield AFS was equipped with a 1932 Chevrolet 30 cwt truck and two new trailer pumps. The fire station closed at the end of the war and is now the store for Lindfield Dramatic Club.

As an end note, until recent years a wall-mounted cabinet at Old Place contained fire hoses, standpipes and axes clearly stamped ‘Merryweather’. Could these have come from the old Lindfield Fire Brigade?

Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/

Did you know about Lindfield's connection to Friar Tuck and John Bent's association with The Bent Arms?

By Richard Bryant and Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group

Did you know that Friar Tuck, of Robin Hood fame, was a priest at Lindfield Parish Church in the early 1400s?

The name Friar Tuck first appears as Frere Tuk in a Royal Writ issued for his arrest on 9th February 1417: it read ‘Commission to Thomas Camoys, Thomas Ponynges and John Pelham to arrest one assuming the name of Frere Tuk and other evildoers of his retinue who have committed divers murders, robberies, depredations, felonies, insurrections, trespasses, oppressions, extortions, offences and misprisions in the counties of Surrey and Sussex, and bring them before the King and Council’. A comprehensive list of crimes, giving the impression it was a ‘catch all’ warrant.

From the words ‘assuming the name of Frere Tuk’, it is reasonable to assume that the name was a nom de guerre. No connection was made with Robin Hood, as it would appear the Friar had not been subsumed into fables in the Robin Hood tradition at that time. The Robin Hood fables are set during the lives and reigns of Richard I and John, from the mid-1100s to early 1200s.

On 22nd May 1417, a further writ was issued commissioning ‘William Lasyngby and Robert Hull to enquire into the report that a certain person assuming the unusual name of Frere Tuk and other evildoers have entered parks, warrens and chases of divers lieges of the King in the counties of Surrey and Sussex at divers times, hunted therein and carried off deer, hares, rabbits, pheasants and partridges, burned the houses and lodges for the keeping of the parks, warrens and chases and threatened the keepers’. Regardless of other crimes, poaching on Royal land and that of his supporters was a serious offence in the 1400s. It is not clear whether this writ was clarification of the February 1417 writ or an additional indictment, probably the former.

The identity of Frere Tuk remained unknown and thus he escaped arrest. He next appeared in a writ of 12th November 1429, which stated ‘Robert Stafford, late of Lyndefeld in the County of Sussex, Chaplain, or Robert Stafford of Lyndefeld, Chaplain, alias ‘Frere Tuk’, for not appearing before the King to answer Richard Wakehurst touching pleas of trespass; or before Henry V to answer that King touching divers trespasses whereof he the said Robert Stafford was indicted’. It is to be assumed that a ‘hue and cry’ was raised and Robert Stafford went on the run as an outlaw.

There is no known record of Robert Stafford being arrested nor standing trial or of his death. Similarly, where he lived in Lindfield before going on the run is not known. In any event, the property most likely disappeared centuries ago. Looking at surviving houses from the 1400s, a possible contender could be Church Cottage.

His crimes and escape from arrest became a legend and passed into folklore, as poaching from the rich would have been admired by the poor, who had suffered grievously for committing such crimes.

Frere Tuk’s name next appears around 1475 in the first surviving Robin Hood play, Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham, with the words: ‘Be holde wele Frere Tuke Howe he dothe his bowe pluke’

It was at this time that Maid Marian also entered the Robin Hood fable. Nevertheless, it is possible that they were characters in earlier oral tales that were not recorded in writing. From this point to today Friar Tuck regularly appears in Robin Hood stories and songs. Academic studies consider Friar Tuck to be one of a few members, if not the only one, of Robin Hood’s band of outlaws that can be traced to a real person. Interestingly, in c.1590 a reference to Friar Tuck is also made in Shakespeare’s ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’, when the third outlaw exclaims: ‘By the Bare Scalp of Robin Hood’s fat friar’.
This fellow were a King for our wild faction. Hence Robert Stafford, a Lindfield Priest, most likely a Chantry Priest, obtained immortality as Friar Tuck.

Did you know John Bent gave his name to the Bent Arms?

The Inn dating from the 17th century was originally called The White Lion, until being bought in about 1827 by John Bent. He changed the name of the Inn to reflect his ownership. At the time of the purchase, he was a local property and landowner who lived at Oat Hall, a large house that he had built between Lindfield and Haywards Heath.

Born on 27th March 1776, John Bent grew up in Devon. His mother’s family were tradesmen at Ashburton. In 1818, he became the Member of Parliament for Sligo, Ireland, until 1820, when for the next six years he represented the Totnes, Devon, constituency. According to History of Parliament, ‘He certainly had money, was known in the City and invested substantially in landed property in the Lindfield and Cuckfield area of Sussex, but no evidence has been found to corroborate an assertion of 1823 that he was “a West India Planter”’.

Whilst he may not have been a planter, the 1817 Slaves Register of the Slave Compensation Commission, a government body set up to pay compensation to slave owners, consequent upon the abolition of slavery, lists John Bent as the Proprietor of Plantation Vrouw Anna in British Guiana. He had sold this plantation and mortgaged it back to the new owner, putting in a claim for £14,000 compensation for slaves on the plantation. He did not receive the payment as they were part of the new owner’s property and mortgage security. Clearly John Bent was involved in the West Indies as he was described as being ‘a Commissioner in Demerara’ when being put forward for the Sligo seat in Parliament.

John Bent was also involved in an Irish Mining Company scandal in 1825 and 1826. The Arigna Iron and Coal Mining Company was established in 1825 as a joint stock company, to exploit iron, coal and other minerals in and around Arigna in the counties of Roscommon and Leitrim, Ireland. At the time it was considered beneficial to introduce English capital into Ireland.

The scandal concerned the alleged fraudulent appropriation of shareholders’ money by Bent and other directors of the company. A Parliamentary Select Committee investigated the scandal and cleared him of fraudulent activity but he was censored for imprudence. The other directors were found to have acted fraudulently. Following on from what might be described as a ‘colourful’ business life, on settling in Lindfield and investing in property in the area John Bent lived an uneventful life until his death in October 1848, aged 73.

Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/

Lindfield vicarages

By Richard Bryant, John Mills and Janet Bishop

At the beginning of September, the Rev Dr Stephen Nichols takes up his duties as the vicar of All Saints church. He and his family will make their home at The Vicarage, situated behind Bower House, beside the lane and footpath leading from the High Street to Hickmans Lane. The house’s history will be explored later in the article, but first, where have the clergy resided in centuries past?

In medieval time, the Dean and Canons of the College of Canons, St. Michaels, South Malling held the parish and manors in Lindfield on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Dean was required to reside in Lindfield for 90 days a year and the Canons for 40 days. It has been suggested that four of the oldest surviving houses in the village were built by the Canons in the 14th and early 15th century. It is reputed that Bower House, built circa 1330, was the Dean’s residence, but evidence to support this assertion is lacking. Similarly, evidence that the Canons resided at Thatched Cottage and Clock House is difficult to find, consequently it is not possible to positively identify their residences. There is little doubt, however, that Church Cottage was the clergy’s dwelling in medieval times and is referred to in old records over the years as the Parsonage.

In the 1530s and 1540s, Henry VIII was on the throne and seeking a divorce, which led to the English Reformation, establishment of the Church of England and the dissolution of religious houses. In March 1545, an order for the dissolution of the College of Canons was issued and all their possessions, land and tithes were taken by the Crown before passing into lay ownership. Only a fraction of the tithes were given to the church. Tithe income was intended to fund the church. Lindfield parish became poor, unable to provide dwellings for incumbents, and the clergy had to fund housing from their own resources.

Rev Francis Killingbeck is recorded in 1580 as living at ‘Tyes’, where Martins and Abbots now stand. He appears to have preferred to buy his own house rather than pay rent to Church Cottage’s new owners. This marked the end of the use of Church Cottage.

During the next couple of centuries, the clergy lived at various properties in the village. Notable among these was Rev Humphrey Everynden, who, in the 1620s, built his ‘parsonage’, on the upper High Street, that carries his name today. Rev Henry Barwick also lived at Everyndens in the 1790s, before having to downsize to either 111 or 113 High Street.

Following his arrival, Rev Francis Sewell in 1841 leased Pear Tree House, junction of Lewes Road and High Street, until 1849 when he accepted a living in Lancashire, moving away from Lindfield for seven years. For Sewell’s return to Lindfield, he planned a grand mansion as his vicarage to be financed by a complex funding arrangement to which he would contribute £1,500 towards the £3,000 cost, the intention being that on receipt of the balance from parishioners and other subscribers, the property would be transferred into the ownership of the church for the benefit of future vicars. He returned in 1856 on completion of his mansion which he named The Welkin, meaning Vault of Heaven. On his death in 1862 insufficient money had been subscribed, no doubt due to being very grand in substantial grounds with two long drives. Ownership of The Welkin remained in Sewell’s estate before being sold. The church continued to remain without its own vicarage for future incumbents.

In contrast, Sewell’s replacement, Rev Frederick Mills, had to rent Townlands until circumstances required him to vacate the house. Unable to fund alternative accommodation, he and his family became homeless and had to ‘squat’ in the abandoned National School room on the Common until evicted. A parishioner took pity on him and provided a home.

Moving on from this low point, Miss A H Davis of Walstead Place bequeathed a £3,000 trust fund to the church for the sole purpose of providing a vicarage. This came to fruition in July 1902 with the completion of a vicarage house: Glebe House on Denmans Lane (shown on the previous page). It was built by Messrs Anscombe and Hedgecock to a design by Walter Millard of Grays Inn, London, on a two-acre site given by William Sturdy of Paxhill. The impressive house comprised an inner hall, three sitting rooms, a drawing room, six bedrooms and a dressing room, plus servants’ accommodation. Stone from the Paxhill quarry was used in the construction.

The first minister to reside at the new vicarage was Rev Edward d’Auvergne. On his retirement, Rev Arthur Mead took up residence for a short while. The high cost of living in and maintaining this large house was quickly realised, a parishioner commented: “It would take a rich man to continue living in the house”. The Parochial Church Council (PCC) decided it was no longer suitable accommodation for the clergy and in 1917 leased it to tenants to supplement the parish stipend; it was later sold. Rev Mead moved to Church Cottage, initially leased before being purchased in 1926 by the Church Council, from Walter Tower of Old Place. Thus reuniting Church Cottage with the church for the first time since medieval times. The cottage ceased being the vicarage in 1933 when the newly arrived Rev Sidney Swann and his wife Lady Theodosia Bagot wanted a house of their own and bought Bower House. At that time, it was two cottages which he reconverted to one house and extensively renovated.

Upon Rev Swann’s retirement, the PCC again faced having to acquire a suitable house for the new incumbent Rev Richard Daunton-Fear. In 1937, the Church Council bought the Mission Hall from the County Towns Mission following their move to Chaloner Road. The plan was to demolish the hall and build a new vicarage on the site. Due to problems in agreeing a suitable design and lack of money, the scheme was abandoned in August 1938 and the property sold to Miss Maud Savill.

Shortly afterwards, Little Townlands was acquired as the new vicarage and remains so to this day. The land on which the vicarage stands was just a field, belonging to Townlands, until the 1880s. Plans were drawn up for a cottage, stable and coach house to be constructed at the bottom, southern end, of the paddock. When built in 1888, the buildings had been realigned and moved towards the northern end. They are described in the 1910 property survey, commissioned by David Lloyd George for proposed tax purposes, as ‘brick and tile, 3 stall stable with loft, 4 horse coach house and a 4 roomed adjoining cottage’. The coachman initially occupied the cottage and later the head gardener at Townlands.

The property was purchased by Mr and Mrs Arthur Hooper (previously of Nash House, High Street) during the late 1920s, to create a ‘holiday home’. In February 1930, Cuckfield Rural District Council gave permission to alter and make additions to Little Townlands. These involved considerably altering the two-storey square cottage, at the back of today’s vicarage, altering the one-storey stable, adding a one-storey glazed passage along the north side of the stables and adding a new front section to create the property as seen today.

Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

History of Lindfield fair

By Richard Bryant and John Mills

Each summer a fair arrives on Lindfield Common, reflecting a tradition that has featured in village life for centuries. In medieval times, Lindfield was a thriving small town. In 1343, to maintain its importance and prosperity, the Canons of South Malling, the Lords of the Manor, applied to Edward III for permission to hold fairs and a market. The King granted a Royal Charter allowing a market to be held every Thursday and two annual eight-day fairs to be held on 1st May, the Feast Day of Saint Philip and St James, and 25th July, the Feast Day of St James the Great. A charter for an eight-day fair was a significant privilege, as they were usually for three or five days.

The first Lindfield Fairs were held in 1344, the Spring Fair probably for sheep and cattle, with lambs featuring at the Summer Fair. The charter required them to be held ‘at the town’. Little is known of the fairs in medieval time but fairs across the country were similar events with records showing the trading of animals, the opportunity to buy a wide range of goods not available in the market or local shops. Itinerant traders travelled from fair to fair; less welcome were the rogue traders, pick-pockets and other ne’er-do-wells that such events attracted. Fairs also gave locals the chance to make merry with entertainment provided by travelling minstrels.

The Lindfield Fairs continued through the centuries but little information is known until the arrival of local newspapers in the early 1800s; by this time their duration was shorter and the July fair had moved to 5th August. Also, another fair was held in early April for the sale of tegs - two-year-old sheep - its origins are not known. The traditional ‘charter’ May Fair for sheep and cattle continued until the early 1850s, when it merged with the Summer Fair on the Common. The April Sheep Fair continued on the High Street; the wider roadway section below the Red Lion Inn being the traditional location of fairs since medieval times.

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The Sussex Advertiser in April 1828 reported, ‘The Lindfield Teg Fair was most amply supplied with stock and buyers. This Fair has of late years attained a degree of celebrity superior to any in the County; and this assertion will be borne out by the fact that more sheep have been penned and have fetched greater prices than any Fair in the County.’ Similarly, in 1882 the Mid Sussex Times commented that the April Sheep Fair ‘was somewhat numerously attended by cattle dealers and agriculturalists. The High Street presented quite an old-time picturesque appearance, so far as the cattle etc. were concerned’ but the confectionery stalls were limited ‘and confined to the north end of the town.’ Nevertheless, the fair was in decline, partly due to the opening of cattle markets.

The 1895 Clarke’s Directory noted ‘Two Fairs are held at Lindfield; one on 1st April for sheep and another on 8th August for lambs and cattle. That of 1st April seems doomed to die a natural death ere many more years pass, but the August Fair maintains its reputation as the largest in Sussex, whose flock masters and agriculturalists attend in great numbers’.

The April Fair limped on with increasing objections to its High Street location until 1901, when Cuckfield Rural District Council ordered the fair to be held on the Common. Subsequently the Sussex Express reported that this move ‘sounded the Fairs’ death knell’ and the last April Fair was held in 1903.

Turning to the Summer Fair in 1856, there were 28,000 lambs and sheep, together with nearly 800 cattle penned plus horses. The pens were located on uneven ground at the top of the Common furthest from the village, with the pleasure ground in the middle of the Common and the lower section reserved for the horse dealers. George Durrant, the Fair Manager, provided the wattles for the pens, which were stored in the wattle house opposite the Pond and in Denmans Lane. The animals were driven to Lindfield on foot, with journeys taking many days.

The pleasure fair featured penny rides on hand-driven roundabouts, swings, shows, a circus, various games and ‘Cheap Jack’ stalls such as Doctor Butler’s Pills to cure all ailments. It was reported: ‘The ground exhibited the usual quantity of victualling and liquor booths’ and the large size of the Tiger Inn’s tent was particularly noted. Drinking was a popular feature of the fairs, no doubt from their inception.

The layout of the fair changed in 1867 with the lambs, sheep and cattle moved to leveller ground lower down the Common, allowing more space for the pens and better grazing. The introduction of the August Bank Holiday made the 5th August date inconvenient and permission was sought to change to 8th August. This was granted ‘By Order of the Home Secretary,’ for 1889 and future fairs. Formal authority was necessary as it was deemed a charter fair.

During the next couple of decades the number of animals penned for sale gradually reduced but the pleasure fair grew larger. It is described in 1896 as having roundabouts, swings, coconuts shies, shooting galleries, wild beast shows, dog and monkey circus, a boxing women’s show, a men-only show that just conformed to the law, photographic studio offering ‘3 for a shilling’, try your weight machines, various games, many stalls and several steam organs.

The opening of the new cricket ground on the Common in 1907 resulted in the fair’s layout changing again. By this time, the sheep numbers grew smaller but it still ‘brings together one of the largest gatherings of landlords, farmers and dealers that takes place in the county and the amount of business transacted is considerable’.

The 1914 fair continued as usual despite the Great War commencing a few days earlier. It was visited by representatives of the Army Remount Department, looking to buy horses for the war. As soon as their presence was known to the gypsies, ‘they whipped up their horses, some of which were quietly grazing around the caravans and started them running in all directions. For the remainder of the day these horses were not to be seen’. The Army, however, succeeded in buying a few horses ‘which made their owners quite rich’. Gypsies with their caravans were a traditional sight at all the fairs. The pleasure part of the fair was suspended in 1915 for the duration of the war, but the sheep sales continued until 1916 and then ended permanently. The coming of peace saw the re-introduction of a small one-day pleasure fair and in the following years it grew in size and popularity.

The 1933 event, held over five days and run by Thomas Smith of Shoreham, featured dodgem cars, a miniature circus complete with clowns and performing ponies, tents displaying curious reptiles, Yorkshire’s fattiest lady weighing 40 stone, and the smallest lady in the world at 22½ inches. In the Adults Only tent, men viewed ‘Madam Lola and Hells Angels (dazzling Parisian beauties) in various poses’. There were the ever-popular rides, together with fortune tellers, shooting galleries, hoopla and similar games. No doubt to the annoyance of nearby residents, organ music played continuously.

Following suspension during WWII, the large pleasure fair continued for many years before a gradual decline to the much smaller visiting fair seen today.

Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

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