Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for MAYFIELD

MAYFIELD, a village and a parish in Uckfield district, Sussex. The village stands 2¼ miles SE by S of Rotherfield station on the Tunbridge-Wells and Brighton railway, 4¾ miles SW by S of Wadhurst station on the Tunbridge-Wells and Hastings railway, and 7½ S of Tunbridge-Wells; is situated on an eminence, commanding extensive views of the circumjacent country; was anciently known as Magavelda; is a polling-place for East Sussex; was formerly a market-town; has a postoffice† under Hurst-Green, and fairs on 30 May and 13 Nov.; and forms a good centre to tourists for exploring a considerable extent of picturesque scenery. The parish contains also the hamlets of Hadlow-Down and FiveAshes; and includes part of the chapelry of HadlowDown. Acres, 13,604. Real property, £13,556. Pop. in 1851,3,055; in 1861,2,688. Houses, 529. The decrease of pop. arose from the migration of labourers and others to neighbouring towns. The property is subdivided. The manor belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury: was surrendered to the Crown, in 1545, by Archbishop Cranmer; was given by Henry VIII. to Sir Henry North; passed to Sir Thomas Gresham, the Bakers, and the Kirbys; and belongs now to Marquis Camden. A palace was erected at the village, in the 10th century, by St. Dunstan; was the death-place of Archbishops Mepham, Stratford, and Islip; was also the meeting-place of ecclesiastical councils in 1332 and 1362; gave entertainment, in the time of Sir Thomas Gresham, to Queen Elizabeth; exists now partly in a state of ruin, partly in a state of decay; includes ruins of a magnificent banqueting hall, 70 feet long and 39 feet wide, and a massive stone staircase, leading to what were the principal apartments; retains the E end, now used as a farm-house, the dining-room, now used as a hop-store, and another apartment, now used for voting at the county elections; and contains the famous relics of St. Dunstan, his sword, an anvil, and a hammer. St. Dunstan's well adjoins the kitchen apartments, and is carefully walled round. The scene of St. Dunstan's fabled contest with the devil likewise is somewhere in the near vicinity. The palace was purchased in 1858 by F. Cordrey, Esq.; and a portion of it is occupied as his residence. Skipper's Hill is the seat of S. Hughes, Esq.; Summer-Hill, of W. Taylor, Esq.; Merriams, of M. Threherne, Esq.; Sunnybank, of D. Barclay, Esq.; Lower House, of W. Sprott, Esq.; Middle House, of E. Tench, Esq.; Hadlow House, of J. Haskins, Esq.; Morel House, of W. Gilbert, Esq.; Tidebrook, of T. W. Adams, Esq.; Hoopers Land, of B. Bass, Esq.; Mount Pleasant, of John Rees, Esq.; and the Grove, of W. Williams, Esq. About 350 acres are under hops. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £834. Patron, the Rev. H. T. M. Kirby. The church is later English; has memorial windows to two successive vicars, father and son, the Revs. John Kirby; and contains numerous monuments to the Baker family, and tablets to the Aynscombe and the Sands families. There are chapels for Calvinists and Wesleyans, an endowed school with £27 a year, and charities £23. A girls' orphanage, a large block of building, in the collegiate style, after designs by Pugin, was erected in 1866, at the expense of the Duchess of Leeds, at Bletchingly, near Mayfield; and has accommodation for 120 girls, and for a community of superintending religions ladies.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Mayfield AP/CP       Uckfield RegD/PLU       Sussex AncC
Place names: MAGAVELDA     |     MAYFIELD
Place: Mayfield

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