Вивелсфилд: История и география английской деревни

Village in East Sussex, England

Wivelsfield ('/w//ɪ//v//əl//z/,/f//iː//əl//d/) village and the larger adjacent village of Wivelsfield Green are the core of the civil parish of Wivelsfield in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The villages are 9.3 mile (15 km) north of the city of Brighton and Hove. Wivelsfield parish is located on a ridge that acts as a watershed between the rivers Adur and Ouse. It lies south of Haywards Heath, and east of Burgess Hill, which are both comparative newcomer settlements, owing their existence to the coming of the railway in the 1840s. Wivelsfield is much older, and was first mentioned in an 8th century charter, whilst Bronze Age and Roman finds indicate even earlier origins of settlement in the area. The settlements tended to be small farms often grouped together rather than a central village, and that is still marked by the two distinct areas called Wivelsfield and Wivelsfield Green, as well as smaller hamlets lying on the border of the old Haywards Heath to the north, Valebridge Common to the west and Ditchling Common to the south. There is an 8th century (c. 765) reference to the village as Wifelesfeld. In the Domesday Book of 1086, 1 1/2 hides at Berth here were held by William de Warenne, perhaps part of the manor of Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex. The Stanmer parish owned the eastern portion of the parish until the 14th century. Ote Hall Congregational Chapel was erected in 1780 by the Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, who lived at Great Ote Hall and had converted a room in the house into a chapel two years earlier. Great Ote Hall was the only manor in the area, with much southern land being in the manors of Plumpton and Ditchling. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Wivelsfield was the focus of a small group of local dissenters (Particular Baptists). In 1763, they broke from the larger General Baptist community at nearby Ditchling and formed a new meeting under Henry Booker, using a chapel built in 1780 (Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel) which remains in use. The surviving records and memorandum books, as well as Henry Booker's memoirs, provide insights into a small rural religious community of the period. The growth of Haywards Heath during the late 19th century meant some urbanisation to the north on the old Wivelsfield portion of Haywards Heath common. This part along with the former St Francis Hospital built as a lunatic asylum in 1859 were transferred out of the parish in 1934.

The village lies in the Low Weald and immediately north of the South Downs National Park, which extends to include Ditchling. The soil is clay and mixed sand on top of underlying clay and sandstone.

Old Wivelsfield parish church sits high on the Long Ridge's ancient east west trackway that runs eastwards from Bedelands, past Theobalds, Antye, Lunces, and on beyond More Farm. It was built on the site of a wooden church and sits next to a thousand year old yew, which suggests earlier use as a pagan worship place. It was replaced by a stone building around 1050, although the area was then merely an outlier of Ditchling and did not become a parish in its own right until around the 12th century. As the area prospered during the Middle Ages the church was extended.

In the southwest of the parish is Great Ote Hall It is a grand, timber framed Tudor mansion and a grade I listed building, behind a screen of woodland. The east wing of the building was built around 1550. The west part of the building dates from 1600, though its history can be traced back to the 13th century. Between 1437 and 1537 the Hall was owned the Attree family. The current owners, the Irvines, of the 350 acre Great Ote Hall Estate also own the 180 acre Randolph Farm, at Hurstpierpoint.

In the far west, in the part that merges with the north of Burgess Hill by Wivelsfield Station, is Theobalds , a Grade II* listed building. It is of the 16th and 18th centuries, with a Horsham slab roof perhaps quarried on the farm, although there is thought to have been a settlement here since the Saxon period. Its rear wing is 17th century or older, and the main door is studded with the date 1627. The Attree family occupied the house from 1600 to 1823 after leaving Ote Hall. Also in the far west is Antye The Antye farm house has at its core a timber framed hall house of circa 1400. Both Theobalds and Antye farms have field patterns that reflect their origin as an early cooperative farming community. Their countryside still retains a patchwork of tiny ancient woods and fields. They were sold off field by field as plots of land by the Ote Hall Estate in 1920, and the Valebridge Road and Janes Lane are ribbon developments.

The current village school was opened in September 2007. The logo, which stands at the front of the school, was designed by the school's pupils. The old school is now used for residential purposes; a nursery rents the Old Church Hall. The village pub, which for years had been called the Cock Inn, was for a time renamed The Pear Tree. In December 2008, it was announced that the pub would be taken over by the owners of The Fountain in nearby Plumpton Green, who would attempt to revive the pub (once again named The Cock Inn) and the once lively centre of the village. The village has its own theatre group, the Wivelsfield Little Theatre, which holds productions in the village hall and the church.

Wivelsfield is governed at the local level by Wivelsfield Parish Council, which consists of nine councillors who meet monthly. The parish council is responsible for local amenities such as the provision of litter bins, bus shelters and allotments. They also provide a voice into district council meetings. The next level of government is Lewes District Council. District councils supply services such as refuse collection, planning, leisure amenities and council tax collection. Wivelsfield also elects a councillor every four years to East Sussex County Council, for the Chailey ward. The ward includes the parishes of Chailey, Ditchling, East Chiltington, Newick, Plumpton, St John Without, Streat and Westmeston. The County Council provides services such as roads and transport, social services, libraries and trading standards.

Bus services are provided by a number of operators including Metrobus, Compass Travel and Seaford & District. Wivelsfield railway station within Burgess Hill lies 1.38 mile (2 km) from the village by straight line distance, or approximately 2.3 mile (4 km) on foot on some roads with no suitable pavements.

The English folk singer Martin Carthy produced an LP record entitled 'Sweet Wivelsfield' released in 1974. The 1994 Tour de France's fourth stage, from Dover, went via London to Wivelsfield, ending in Brighton. Wivelsfield Green is reputed to be the inspiration for the 1960s children's television series Camberwick Green by Gordon Murray, (along with nearby Plumpton as Trumpton and Chailey as Chigley).