Firle

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Firle
The Street, Firle
Firle shown within East Sussex
Area[1]	5.4 sq mi (13.9 km²)
Population	327 (Parish-2007)[1]
- Density	61/sq mi (24/km²)
OS grid reference	TQ494067
- London	47 miles (76 km) NNW
District	Lewes
Shire county	East Sussex
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LEWES
Postcode district	BN8
Dialling code	01273
Police	Sussex
Fire	East Sussex
Ambulance	South East Coast
European Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Lewes
List of places: UK • England • East Sussex

Coordinates: 50°50′N 0°07′E / 50.84, 0.12

For the suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, see Firle, South Australia.

Firle is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. Firle refers to an old-English/Anglo-Saxon word fierol meaning 'overgrown with oak'^[2]. The original division of East Firle and West Firle still remain, however East Firle is now simply confined to the houses of Heighton Street which lie to the east of the Firle Park. West Firle is now generally referred to as Firle, although West Firle remains its official name. It is located south of the A27 road six miles (9 km) east of Lewes^[3].

Contents 1 History of the Village 2 The Greengage at Firle 3 Notable Residents 4 Village Features 5 Landmarks 6 References

[edit] History of the Village

During the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) Firle was part of the estate of the Abbey of Wilton. Following the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066, however, the village and the lands around it were passed on as reward for his efforts to Robert, Count of Mortain (William's half brother and younger brother Odo of Bayeux, and the largest landowner in the country after the king^[4]). It is following this transaction that the village is mentioned in the Domesday Book drawn up at the behest of William the Conqueror. The village is referred to as 'Ferla', and was part of the 1086 survey, the value of the village is listed as being £44^[5], which was among the highest values in the county - Hastings was then valued at £50. The manor house, the site on which Firle Place^[6] now stands, was occupied from the early fourteenth century by the 'de Livet' (Levett) family, an ancient Sussex gentry family of Norman descent who owned the manor.^[7] (The same family would produce founders of Sussex's iron industry, royal courtiers, knights, rectors, an Oxford University dean, a prominent early physician and medical educator, and even a lord mayor of London.[2]) An ancient bronze seal found in the 1800's near Eastbourne (now in the collection of the Lewes Castle Museum) shows the coat-of-arms of John Livet, and is believed to have belonged to the first member of the family named lord of Firle in 1316.^[8] In 1440 the lordship of the manor passed to the Bolney family, whose daughter married William Gage.^[9]

[edit] The Greengage at Firle

It the appellation of Greengage almost certainly derives from one of the Gage family, though there is some confusion over whether it was the Reverend John Gage who is credited with their import from France in the 17th Century or William Hall Gage who is credited with initiating their import into England from France.

[edit] Notable Residents

The writer Virginia Woolf visited nearby Lewes in December 1910^[10] and decided to relocate in Firle, where she rented a house and renamed it Little Talland House^[11]. Pointz Hall, a fictional manor from her novel Between the Acts, is believed to be inspired by Firle Place^[12]. Woolf's sister, painter and interior designer Vanessa Bell, moved to Firle in 1916 taking residence in Charleston Farmhouse^[13] with her live-in lover Duncan Grant, which subsequently became a regular haunt of the Bloomsbury Group. Vanessa Bell, her son Quentin Bell, and her lover Duncan Grant are all buried in St Peter's Firle Churchyard.

Writer Katherine Mansfield, who had close ties with the Bloomsbury Group, also lived in Firle for a brief time. Her landlord was economist John Maynard Keynes, who moved to Firle himself in 1925 and died there in 1946. Keynes was cremated and his ashes scattered above the downs of nearby Tilton.

[edit] Village Features

St Peters Church notably contains an alabaster effigy of Sir John Gage wearing his Order of the Garter and lying beside his wife Philippa. It also has a John Piper stained-glass window in warm colours, depicting Blake's Tree of Life. There are also memorials for those named Bolney, Moreton, Levett, Swaffield and others. The current vicar is The Reverend Peter Owen-Jones.

The Ram Inn this is the only remaining one of the village's three original public houses, that previously all acted as resting stops on the Lewes to Alfriston coach road. It used also to be the village court room where the rents for tenants farmers were collected and set.

Firle Cricket Club was founded in 1758 and is said to be one of the oldest in the country. Even earlier in 1725 Sir William Hall Gage challenged the Duke of Richmond to a game of cricket, one of the first recorded matches. The club continues to be central to village life, the club has two teams who both compete in the East Sussex Cricket League[3]. The Firle 1st XI are in ESCL Division 8 and the Firle 2nd XI are in ESCL Division 12, previously both teams played in the Cuckmere Valley League, the 2007 is their first year in the ESCL.Firle Cricket Club Official Website ^[14]

Firle Beacon To the south of the village lies the South Downs and the Firle Beacon which reaches a height of 217m. The Beacon was once a lighting beacon used as part of a warning system during the Spanish Amarda. On the site there are also around fifty bronze age burial barrows.

The Firle Bonfire Society Firle Bonfire Society Website ^[15]is first referenced in 1879 when mentioned in a diary of the then vicar of Firle, Reverend Crawley. The society forms part of a network of bonfire societies in the Lewes area which serve the purpose both of remembering the Gunpowder Plot and of recalling the fate of the Sussex Martyrs. The village holds its celebrations in October before the main event in Lewes. Traditionally the Firle Bonfire Society Pioneers wear Valencian costumes. Other costumes include Spanish Ladies and a Military Contingent. It is also customary for the bonfire night to feature the burning of some effigy other than Guy Fawkes and in 2003 they sparked controversy by burning an effigy of a gypsy caravan ^[16]

[edit] Landmarks

Firle Escarpment^[17] is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) within the parish which extends into the neighbouring parish of Glynde and Beddingham. The site is an extensive area of chalkland which hosts a wide range of flora. The rarest of these is the early spider orchid Ophrys sphegodes.

[edit] References