Human settlement in England
Willingdon and Jevington
is a
civil parish
in the
Wealden
District of
East Sussex
, England.
[3]
The two villages lie one mile (1.6 km) south of
Polegate
. Willingdon is part of the built-up area which is
Eastbourne
, and lies on the main
A22 road
, whilst
Jevington
is on a minor road leading to
Friston
. The civil parish was formed on 1 April 1999 from "Jevington" and "Willingdon" parishes.
[4]
Under the name of Willingdon it is also an
electoral ward
.
The villages
[
edit
]
Willingdon
[
edit
]
Willingdon ancient
ecclesiastical parish
stretched across the entire north of the town of Eastbourne, reaching the
English Channel
at Langney Point. It included
Hampden Park
, now also part of the Eastbourne area. See map here:
[5]
Willingdon was the base for the local village of the same name in
George Orwell
's
Animal Farm
.
[
citation needed
]
The Red Lion Inn is also a real place in the village.
Willingdon is two villages, Upper and Lower Willingdon.
Jevington
[
edit
]
Jevington lies on a minor road between
Polegate
and
Friston
. The Jevington
Church of England parish church
is dedicated to
St Andrew
and is a Grade I listed building.
[6]
It contains
Saxon
elements (including a tower) as well as many other
medieval architectural
features, including a 14th-century font. A rare elm cultivar
'Serpentina'
grows in the grounds.
[7]
The parish takes in the
hamlet
of Filching and also
Wannock
.
Jevington is a former estate village owned in the nineteenth century by the
Duke of Devonshire
who used part of it as a training centre for his race-horses.
[8]
In 1896 he sold the estate village and 1,000 acre farm to
Charlie Wood
, one of the premier jockeys of the late -Victorian period who continued to train horses on the Sussex Downs until 1919.
[9]
Race horse training continues at Jevington in the early twenty first century containing the yard of trainer Anna Newton-Smith.
[10]
The village currently contains a four hundred year old
pub
called
The Eight Bells
. In the 1970s a local restaurant claimed to be the originator of
banoffee pie
. Credit for the pie's invention was claimed by Nigel Mackenzie and Ian Dowding, owner and head chef, respectively of the former Hungry Monk Restaurant
[11]
[12]
They claimed to have created the dessert in 1972, basing it on a
San Francisco
recipe for "Blum's Coffee Toffee Pie"
[13]
The restaurant closed in 2012 with the building now forming the Hungry Monk cottages.
[14]
Wannock
[
edit
]
Wannock below the
South Downs
between the villages of
Polegate
and Jevington. It has a village hall, but no church, pub or shops. It has 300 suburban homes, mainly bungalows housing elderly residents. There were once two tea gardens in Wannock which were popular with coach parties visiting from nearby
Eastbourne
. A dance hall stood on stilts over the local beauty spot of Wannock Glen. Wannock may be a
Saxon
place name; according to one source, Wannock supposedly contains the element "Wan" from "Woden"
[15]
[16]
Wannock is mentioned in the
Domesday Book
(1086) and in an Napoleonic assessment/inventory of the British south coast defences. There is a manor Wannock Place, two medieval cottages and a cottage which was a watermill. One medieval cottage is called "Stream Cottage", the other medieval cottage is owned by
Nigel Waterson
, former local MP. The area was once known for its walnut groves and some house gardens still contain walnut trees.
Filching
[
edit
]
"Filching" redirects here. For the crime, see
Theft
.
Filching lies at the other end of the Wannock Glen from Wannock along the Polegate to Friston road. It consists of a few houses, Gibby's Tea Gardens, a chalk quarry and a medieval manor house. Filching Manor was built around 1450.
Filching Manor Motor Museum is the home of
Blue Bird K3
, the last remaining intact
Bluebird
boat ? a Rolls-Royce engined speedboat driven by
Sir Malcolm Campbell
to take the World
Water Speed Record
in 1937. This is the only world record boat surviving intact. A long term restoration project is ongoing. The museum also has Bluebird Electric 2 vehicle on display.
Filching Manor is also the site of the annual Jevington Fete, and it houses a public karting track (the Campbell Circuit) in the grounds for arrive-and-drive sessions, and other race events.
Landmarks
[
edit
]
The parish contains
Folkington Reservoir
, a
Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI), although the village of Folkington lies in the neighbouring
Long Man
parish. Folkington Reservoir is a covered reservoir built within the chalk of the South Downs. Its surrounding area contains a diverse chalk flora including the protected hairy mallow
Althaea hirsuta
.
[17]
Other notes
[
edit
]
The Polegate
Airship
Station was in the parish between July 1915 and April 1919.
[18]
The Labour cabinet minister
George Brown
lived in the area and when elevated to the peerage became Lord George-Brown of Jevington.
Willingdon and Jevington is said to be the real-life setting of
George Orwell
's novel
Animal Farm
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"East Sussex in Figures"
. East Sussex County Council
. Retrieved
24 April
2008
.
- ^
"Ward/Civil Parish population 2011"
. Retrieved
11 October
2015
.
- ^
OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey ? Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009.
ISBN
978 0319240823
- ^
"The Wealden (Parishes) Order 1990"
(PDF)
.
Local Government Boundary Commission for England
. Retrieved
3 February
2023
.
- ^
Parish boundaries
- ^
Historic England
.
"Parish Church of St Andrew, Willingdon and Jevington (Grade I) (1043127)"
.
National Heritage List for England
.
- ^
Johnson, O. (1998).
The Sussex Tree Book
. Pomegranate Press,
ISBN
0-9533493-0-6
- ^
Whiddington, R. (1939).
"Victor Christian William Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire. 1868-1938"
.
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society
.
2
(7): 557?559.
doi
:
10.1098/rsbm.1939.0016
.
- ^
Carr, Josephine Carr (2019).
Our Honest Charlie Wood
. Jevington: Mabel Press. p. 236.
ISBN
9781916130104
.
- ^
Newton Smith, Anna.
"Season Record"
.
Racing Post
. Retrieved
12 December
2023
.
- ^
Dowding, Ian.
"The Completely True and Utter Story of Banoffi Pie"
.
Ian Dowding
. Retrieved
7 December
2022
.
- ^
"The joys of jam roly-poly, a very British pudding"
. The Guardian. Retrieved 21 February 2018
- ^
Dowding, Ian.
"Consultant chef, writer and the inventor of Banoffi Pie"
.
Ian Dowding
. Archived from
the original
on 25 September 2022
. Retrieved
7 December
2022
.
- ^
"The Hungry Monk: The Sussex restaurant where banoffee pie was invented that is no more"
.
Sussex Live
. Retrieved
12 December
2023
.
- ^
Castleden, Rodney. 'The Wilmington Giant: The Quest For a Lost Myth. Turnstone Press, 1983, The University of Michigan.
ISBN
0-85500-184-4
,
ISBN
978-0-85500-184-1
. Length: 208 pages. page 62
- ^
Sawyer, Frederick Ernest (1883).
"S. Wilfrith's Life in Sussex and the Introduction of Christianity"
(PDF)
.
Sussex Archaeological Collections
.
33
: 103.
doi
:
10.5284/1086070
.
- ^
"Natural England ? SSSI"
. English Nature
. Retrieved
24 May
2008
.
- ^
"Polegate Airship Station"
.