Village in East Sussex, England
Human settlement in England
Chiddingly
(
CHID
-ing-lye
) is an English village and
civil parish
in the
Wealden
District of the administrative county of East Sussex, within historic Sussex, some five miles (8 km) northwest of
Hailsham
.
The parish is rural in character: it includes the village of Chiddingly and a collection of
hamlets
: the largest of these being Muddles Green and Thunder's Hill; others being
Gun Hill
, Whitesmith, Holmes Hill, Golden Cross, Broomham and Upper Dicker.
[3]
It covers 7 square miles (18 km
2
) of countryside. Of the more than 340 dwellings in the parish, over fifty have the word "Farm" in their postal address.
Geography
[
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]
The parish is in the Low
Weald
. Like
Rome
and
Sheffield
, it is situated over seven
hills
: Thunders Hill; Gun Hill; Pick Hill; Stone Hill; Scrapers Hill; Burgh Hill, and Holmes Hill,
[4]
which is on the
A22 road
in the south of the parish. Tributaries of the
River Cuckmere
flow both north and south of the village.
The parish is situated in the Hundred of Shiplake, and within
Pevensey Rape
.
Governance
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]
Chiddingly is part of the
electoral ward
called Chiddingly and East Hoathly. The population of this ward taken at the 2011 Census was 3,220.
[5]
History
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The presence of low-grade
iron ore
in the
local sandstone
supported
Roman
mining
and
smelting
in the area.
The
Domesday Book
of 1086 refers to
Cetelingei
: the final
-ly
of the name shows it to have had
Saxon
origins. The 'Chiddingly Boar', found in 1999, was apparently a silver hat badge of a supporter of
Richard III
, probably lost or discarded in the 1480s; it is now in the
British Museum
and has been adopted as the emblem of the parish Bonfire Society.
[6]
There are a large number of
manorial
buildings in the parish, including Chiddingly Place, rebuilt c. 1574
[7]
by Sir John Jefferay,
Chief Baron of the Exchequer
in 1577; scattered remnants of its E-shaped wings remain, such as the east wing, later called "The Chapel/Chapel Barn" and now known as 'Jefferay House', and sections of the main range west of the demolished Great Hall.
[8]
Points of interest
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]
Burgh Hill Farm Meadow
is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI) within the parish.
[9]
This is a hedgerow-surrounded meadow of an uncommon grassland type.
The
Church of England
parish church
at Chiddingly is of unknown date and dedication, but references to it occur from the 13th century.
[10]
Today the parish is part of a united
benefice
with the neighbouring parish of
East Hoathly
. A
Congregational
chapel
was founded in Chiddingly in 1901.
Chiddingly has a
primary school
.
[11]
The annual Chiddingly Festival includes various entertainments around the village.
[12]
Chiddingly had four
public houses
: The Six Bells Inn in the village and The Gun Inn - both of which are still open - The Golden Cross Inn (which closed in 2015 and has now been converted to flats) and The Bat & Ball at Holmes Hill, closed for many years and now a private residence. Chiddingly has a
village hall
.
Chiddingly also has a museum and archive.
[13]
The
Farley Farm House
gallery features the lives and work of
Roland Penrose
and
Lee Miller
and is open for guided tours on pre-determined days.
Stone Hill is a well preserved medieval
hall house
dating from the 15th century, with a large park garden.
[14]
In the early 20th century, the house was owned by
J.M. Barrie
, author of
Peter Pan
, who lived here until 1934. In the 1970s/1980s the property was owned by composer and pianist
Keith Emerson
(founder of
The Nice
and
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
), who lived here with his family. At his Steinway piano in the barn he composed famous music pieces, such as Karn Evil 9 and Piano Concerto No.1.
There is a thriving
bonfire society
which represents the Parish during the
Sussex Bonfire
season, and hosts its own event in late November. Given the importance to the village of the iron industry since its first manifestation under the Romans, these celebrations also include reference to Old Clem's Night - traditional festivities intended to venerate St Clement, patron saint of blacksmiths.
In 1971 the
film director
Philip Trevelyan
made the
documentary film
The Moon and the Sledgehammer
[15]
about the Page family, who lived in a
wood
outside the village and operated two
traction engines
: an Allchin
[16]
and a
Fowler
.
A maze of willow trees
near Whitesmith was planted by a local farmer in the shape of
a quotation from the bible
.
[17]
Notable people
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References
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]
-
-
-
Dicker Mill House, Golden Cross
-
Golden Cross Inn, Golden Cross
-
External links
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]