|
The origin of the name Buxted comes from the Saxon Bochs stede (place of the beeches).
The iron-making industry became a major part of Buxted's early prosperity[4]. The first standard blast furnace was called Queenstock and was built in Buxted parish in about 1491.[5] The cannon-making industry in the Weald started at a furnace on the stream at Hoggets Farm lying to the north between Buxted and Hadlow Down. The first cast iron cannon made in England was cast in 1543 by Ralf Hogge, an employee of Parson William Levett (vicar), a Sussex rector with broad interests, paradoxically enough, in the emerging English armaments industry. Levett was removed as Buxted's vicar in 1545 by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. But thanks to friends in high places, Levett was quickly reinstated. After regaining his clerical position, Levett died a very wealthy man, thanks to his iron mining and smelting operations, originally founded by his brother John Levett, one of the founders of the Sussex iron industry and one of the wealthiest men in Sussex, who controlled 20 Sussex manors at his death in 1535.[6] (The family is of Norman descent and one of the oldest in Sussex. William and John Levett were the sons of a large landowner in the Hollington area of Hastings, Sussex.)[7] In his lengthy will parson William Levett left large charitable bequests which he directed be supervised by his friend Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu.
The manor house, known as Buxted Park was purchased by the then Prime Minister, the Earl of Liverpool, in the early part of the 19th century. He set about extending the park surrounding the house, and eventually coerced the villagers to vacate their own houses to enable him to do so. The village (although not the church) was cleared away and the village then took up its present location[8]. By 1836 the entire original village centre was no more, having been relocated to the site it occupies today. Some of the outlying houses pre-date this move, such as Britts, a 17th century farmhouse, which still stands. The original manor house was built further down the hill next to the railway where Queen Victoria once visited - the house being the Chequers of its day. The original house burnt down in the latter part of the 19th century and was rebuilt in its present location.
[edit] Geography
The parish of Buxted lies partly within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, although the village itself is outside it. Tributaries of both the Rivers Rother (flowing eastward) and Cuckmere flow through the parish, and were used by the iron industry for power. It is largely a rural parish, although the original Britts farmland is now largely covered by modern houses along Britts Farm Road, constructed in the 1980s.
Buxted Park is now a country house hotel.
The wholesale Buxted Chickens had a factory in Buxted as well as one in Five Ash Down, Buxted Chickens was the idea of Antony Fisher, who went on to found the Institute of Economic Affairs. The Buxted brand is now owned by Grampian Country Food Group. The Buxted site closed down in the 1980s.
[edit] Religion
Buxted parish church is dedicated to St Margaret the Queen [9] Buxted CE Preimary School is located on Hurstwood Road[10]
[edit] Transport
The A272 cross-country road passes through the village from west to east; it connects with the A22 and A26 roads about a mile (1.6km) to the west.
Buxted railway station lies on the Oxted Line between Uckfield and Crowborough. This line used to continue beyond Uckfield to Lewes and the South Coast but was closed in 1969. The line serves London at (London Bridge railway station) via East Croydon.
[edit] References
- , a b East Sussex in Figures. East Sussex County Council. Retrieved on 2008-04-26.
- , Parish website
- , Parish History
- , Casting Iron Guns in Buxted
- , B. Awty & Chris Whittick (with Pam Combes), 'The Lordship of Canterbury, iron-founding at Buxted, and the continental antecedents of cannon-founding in the Weald' Sussex Archaeological Collections 140 (2004 for 2002), 71-81
- , The Economic Fortunes of Some Gentry Families of Elizabethan Sussex, J.E. Mousley, The Economic History Review, JSTOR
- , B. Awty, 'Parson Levett and English cannon founding' Sussex Archaeological Collections 127 (1989), 133-45.
- , Old views and maps of Buxted
- , http://www.cofebhd.org.uk/stmargaret/index.php St Margaret's church
- , Buxted Church of England Primary School
Buxted at the Open Directory Project
[edit] External links
(Source: Wikipedia) |