Nutley, East Sussex
Encyclopedia
Nutley is a village
in the Wealden
District of East Sussex
, England
. It lies about 6 mi (9.7 km) north-east of Uckfield
, the main road being on the A22
. Nutley, Fairwarp and Maresfield
together form the Maresfield civil parish
.
The village is on the southern edge of Ashdown Forest
which was a deer
hunting
reserve from the time of King Edward II
. Iron
has also played an important role in the history of the area.
The Romans
operated nearby in Duddleswell and Maresfield, working on the iron ore to be found in the local weald
clay
in bloomeries
. Roman coins
and waste from furnaces has been found at these locations. When the Romans left Britain in the 5th century AD Saxon
settlers lived on the site of Nutley. "Hnut's leagh" means "Hnut's Clearing", and is the most likely origin of the village's modern-day name.
Following the Norman Invasion
of 1066, Nutley became part of the Rape of Pevensey
. In 1176 a chapel was built by Richard de Aquila, one of William the Conqueror
's men. It was built in an area known as Chapelwood, along the Chelwood Gate road, just outside Nutley's borders. 60 acre (24.3 ha) of land near Wych Cross on Ashdown Forest
was granted to the chapel. It was attached to the church at Maresfield. The chapel went out of use after the English Reformation
.
In 1372 Edward III
gave the Chapel of Notlye (as it was called at the time) along with almost 1400 acres (5.7 km²) of land to his son, John of Gaunt. They were both frequent visitors to Ashdown Forest (then known as Lancaster Great Park; it would keep that name for the next three centuries) because of the hunting.
Contraband goods, shipped across the English Channel
, were smuggled along the packhorse
track from Duddleswell to Nutley. In 1721 Gabriel Tomkins, the leader of the Mayfield Gang, was captured and arrested in Nutley having been chased from Burwash
. Tomkins was sentenced to seven years transportation
, but gained his freedom by giving valuable information to the authorities. He went on to have a mixed career as both smuggler and customs officer, being Custom House Officer at Dartford
in Kent in 1735 and Bailiff to the Sheriff of Sussex, but was hanged in 1750 at Bedford
for robbing the Chester
stage coach.
Nutley Windmill
, a rare example of an open trestle post mill, was moved to Nutley from Goudhurst
, Kent around 1817, her timbers being older than this. Standing on the edge of the forest she was modernised in the 1880s and operated until 1908.
It was only in the mid-19th century that the village school and the church, dedicated to Saint James the Less, were built. The land upon which the school was built was donated by the Earl and Countess De La Warr
. Both the school and church are still in use today.
Piped water was first introduced to the village in the early 20th century, but electricity and telephones did not arrive until the 1930s.
During the First World War
and Second World War
Canadian
troops were stationed at Pippingford Park near Nutley. In the Second World War a Wellington bomber
returning from a raid over Germany
crashed nearby. The crew were killed. In 1944 a stick of bombs from a German plane landed in Nutley, resulting in minor damage. Twenty locals died in combat during the First World War. To commemorate their sacrifice a Memorial Hall was built, situated opposite what is now the village post office. Eighteen others died in the Second World War, and a second memorial hall was built in the 1970s. It stands opposite the school, and there is also a social club, set of committee rooms, a tennis and squash club, and the Parish Council office. The land for this second memorial hall was donated by the Nettlefold family. Today it is managed by the Nutley War Memorial Trust.
Situated just off the Ashdown Forest, Nutley is surrounded by idyllic countryside
. Nutley lies on the A22 London
to Eastbourne
main road.
Nutley's terrain near the main road is relatively flat, however the further one drifts from the main road the more undulating the land becomes. Off the A22, there are numerous side-roads and country lanes, many of which hold tradition
in the village.
, 1,342 persons live in Nutley. Approximately 47% of the population are male and 53% are female. The population reside in 520 households, and more than a fifth of the population live alone, including pensioners. The population has increased by 5% since the 1991 census.
60% of Nutley's 16–74 age group are either employed or self-employed with full or part-time work. Few people are unemployed. 70% of this age group possess a type of qualification, while 20% have a first degree or higher qualification.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in the Wealden
Wealden
For the stone, see Wealden GroupWealden is a local government district in East Sussex, England: its name comes from the Weald, the area of high land which occupies the centre of its area.-History:...
District of East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It lies about 6 mi (9.7 km) north-east of Uckfield
Uckfield
-Development:The local Tesco has proposed the redevelopment of the central town area as has the town council. The Hub has recently been completed, having been acquired for an unknown figure, presumed to be about half a million pounds...
, the main road being on the A22
A22 road
The A22 is one of the two-digit major roads in the south east of England. It carries traffic from London to Eastbourne on the East Sussex coast...
. Nutley, Fairwarp and Maresfield
Maresfield
Maresfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village itself lies 1.5 miles north from Uckfield; the nearby villages of Nutley and Fairwarp; and the smaller settlements of Duddleswell and Horney Common; and parts of Ashdown Forest all lie within...
together form the Maresfield civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
.
The village is on the southern edge of Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of tranquil open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated some south of London in the county of East Sussex, England...
which was a deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
reserve from the time of King Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
. Iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
has also played an important role in the history of the area.
History
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
operated nearby in Duddleswell and Maresfield, working on the iron ore to be found in the local weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
in bloomeries
Bloomery
A bloomery is a type of furnace once widely used for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. A bloomery's product is a porous mass of iron and slag called a bloom. This mix of slag and iron in the bloom is termed sponge iron, which...
. Roman coins
Roman currency
The Roman currency during most of the Roman Republic and the western half of the Roman Empire consisted of coins including the aureus , the denarius , the sestertius , the dupondius , and the as...
and waste from furnaces has been found at these locations. When the Romans left Britain in the 5th century AD Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
settlers lived on the site of Nutley. "Hnut's leagh" means "Hnut's Clearing", and is the most likely origin of the village's modern-day name.
Following the Norman Invasion
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
of 1066, Nutley became part of the Rape of Pevensey
Pevensey
Pevensey is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The main village is located 5 miles north-east of Eastbourne, one mile inland from Pevensey Bay. The settlement of Pevensey Bay forms part of the parish.-Geography:The village of Pevensey is located on...
. In 1176 a chapel was built by Richard de Aquila, one of William the Conqueror
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
's men. It was built in an area known as Chapelwood, along the Chelwood Gate road, just outside Nutley's borders. 60 acre (24.3 ha) of land near Wych Cross on Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of tranquil open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated some south of London in the county of East Sussex, England...
was granted to the chapel. It was attached to the church at Maresfield. The chapel went out of use after the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
.
In 1372 Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
gave the Chapel of Notlye (as it was called at the time) along with almost 1400 acres (5.7 km²) of land to his son, John of Gaunt. They were both frequent visitors to Ashdown Forest (then known as Lancaster Great Park; it would keep that name for the next three centuries) because of the hunting.
Contraband goods, shipped across the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
, were smuggled along the packhorse
Packhorse
.A packhorse or pack horse refers generally to an equid such as a horse, mule, donkey or pony used for carrying goods on their backs, usually carried in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of wheeled vehicles. ...
track from Duddleswell to Nutley. In 1721 Gabriel Tomkins, the leader of the Mayfield Gang, was captured and arrested in Nutley having been chased from Burwash
Burwash, East Sussex
Burwash is a rural village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. Situated fifteen miles inland from the South Coast port of Hastings, it is located five miles south-west of Hurst Green, on the A265 road, and on the River Dudwell, a tributary of the River Rother...
. Tomkins was sentenced to seven years transportation
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
, but gained his freedom by giving valuable information to the authorities. He went on to have a mixed career as both smuggler and customs officer, being Custom House Officer at Dartford
Dartford
Dartford is the principal town in the borough of Dartford. It is situated in the northwest corner of Kent, England, east south-east of central London....
in Kent in 1735 and Bailiff to the Sheriff of Sussex, but was hanged in 1750 at Bedford
Bedford
Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...
for robbing the Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
stage coach.
Nutley Windmill
Nutley Windmill
Nutley Windmill is a grade II* listed open trestle post mill at Nutley, East Sussex, England which has been restored to working order.-History:...
, a rare example of an open trestle post mill, was moved to Nutley from Goudhurst
Goudhurst
Goudhurst is a village in Kent on the Weald, about south of Maidstone.It stands on a crossroads , where there is a large village pond. It is also in the Cranbrook School catchment area....
, Kent around 1817, her timbers being older than this. Standing on the edge of the forest she was modernised in the 1880s and operated until 1908.
It was only in the mid-19th century that the village school and the church, dedicated to Saint James the Less, were built. The land upon which the school was built was donated by the Earl and Countess De La Warr
Earl De La Warr
Earl De La Warr is a title created in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1761.In the United States, Thomas West, 3rd baron is often named in history books simply as Lord Delaware. He served as governor of the Jamestown Colony, and the Delaware Bay was named after him...
. Both the school and church are still in use today.
Piped water was first introduced to the village in the early 20th century, but electricity and telephones did not arrive until the 1930s.
During the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
troops were stationed at Pippingford Park near Nutley. In the Second World War a Wellington bomber
Vickers Wellington
The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...
returning from a raid over Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
crashed nearby. The crew were killed. In 1944 a stick of bombs from a German plane landed in Nutley, resulting in minor damage. Twenty locals died in combat during the First World War. To commemorate their sacrifice a Memorial Hall was built, situated opposite what is now the village post office. Eighteen others died in the Second World War, and a second memorial hall was built in the 1970s. It stands opposite the school, and there is also a social club, set of committee rooms, a tennis and squash club, and the Parish Council office. The land for this second memorial hall was donated by the Nettlefold family. Today it is managed by the Nutley War Memorial Trust.
Geography
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
. Nutley lies on the A22 London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
main road.
Nutley's terrain near the main road is relatively flat, however the further one drifts from the main road the more undulating the land becomes. Off the A22, there are numerous side-roads and country lanes, many of which hold tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
in the village.
Population
According to the 2001 CensusUnited Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
, 1,342 persons live in Nutley. Approximately 47% of the population are male and 53% are female. The population reside in 520 households, and more than a fifth of the population live alone, including pensioners. The population has increased by 5% since the 1991 census.
Economy
Local businesses and amenities such as the Nutley Social Club, school, antique shop, village pub, Italian and Indian/Thai restaurants, petrol station and shop, school, village shop, two care homes, three motor repair workshops, car showroom and other small enterprises and businesses employ approximately 150 people. There are more than 90 home-based businesses, employing a further 150 people or thereabouts. An estimated 50% of the working population of Nutley commute to the surrounding areas.60% of Nutley's 16–74 age group are either employed or self-employed with full or part-time work. Few people are unemployed. 70% of this age group possess a type of qualification, while 20% have a first degree or higher qualification.
Notable residents
- Author Neil GaimanNeil GaimanNeil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
lived in Nutley between 1987 and 1992, and his house there became the setting for his book CoralineCoralineCoraline is a horror/fantasy novella by British author Neil Gaiman, published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and Harper Collins. It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novella, the 2003 Nebula Award for Best Novella, and the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers...
.
External links
- Nutley Conservation Group, March 2006 draft of Village Design Statement
- Nutley Conservation Group