Ticehurst

Ticehurst
Bell Hotel
Ticehurst  Ticehurst shown within East Sussex
Area	32.5 km2 (12.5 sq mi) [1]
Population	3,421 (Parish-2007)[1] 3,393 (2001 census) 3,118 (1991 census) 2,894 (1981 census)
– density	273/sq mi (105/km2)
OS grid reference	TQ689302
– London	39 miles (63 km) NW
Civil parish	Ticehurst
District	Rother
Shire county	East Sussex
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WADHURST
Postcode district	TN5
Dialling code	01580
Police	Sussex
Fire	East Sussex
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Bexhill and Battle
Website	Ticehurst Parish Council
List of places UK England East Sussex

Coordinates: 51°03′N 0°25′E / 51.05°N 0.41°E / 51.05; 0.41

Ticehurst is both a village and a large civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The parish lies in the upper reaches of both the Bewl stream before it enters Bewl Water and in the upper reaches of the River Rother flowing to the south-east. The parish includes the parish wards of Ticehurst, Flimwell and Stonegate.^[2] The linear settlements of Berner's Hill and Union Street lie between Ticehurst and Flimwell. It lies to the south-east of Tunbridge Wells, and is about ten miles (16 km) distant.

History

Ticehurst is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, although the manor came into being in the 14th century; Pashley Manor^[3] is also mentioned at the same time, and is within the parish.^[4]

The village's name derives from Old English; there are two possible derivations. The most plausible one is that it means wood on the Teise from the river; the second roughly translates as 'The wooded hill where young goats graze', ticce(n) + hyrst.^[5] (1248, Tycheherst) ^[6]

The villages

Ticehurst

There is an active village club,which runs regular social events, and a monthly newsletter "News & Views" is produced by a team of volunteers. The village school serves both Ticehurst and Flimwell.^[7] There is also a comprehensive website covering most of the activities in the community.

Ticehurst House Hospital (now part of the Priory Group) specialises in the treatment of psychiatric disorders and is located in the village. Samuel Newington opened the original Ticehurst House in 1792 as a place dedicated to the care and treatment of psychiatric illness.^[8]

Bookshop

In the centre of Ticehurst there is a dry cleaner, a hairdresser, a greengrocer, a chemist, an Indian takeaway, a car salesroom, a car repairer and MOT centre, a general village shop incorporating a post office, a model shop, an estate agency, a bank (National Westminster), two antique furniture dealers and two pubs, the Chequers Inn & the Bell (which reopened in November 2011 after a long period during which it was empty), an antiquarian bookseller (closed due to retirement and now reopened as the Greedy Goat Cafe), a butcher (currently closed), and a cafe within Newington Court. Further out, there is a smokery and two more pubs (the Bull at Three Leg Cross, and the Cherry Tree in Dale Hill) and a hotel/golf course at Dale Hill. A secondhand children's clothing shop called Merry Go Round opened in 2015.

The village is the headquarters of the Antiquarian Horological Society.

The village is also home to the first pick-your-own fruit farm to open in Britain, Maynard's Fruit Farm, made The Times "Top 50 places to eat outside in Britain" list.^[9]

One claim to fame is that the Scottish singer/guitarist Bert Jansch lived in Ticehurst in the late 1960s and recorded tracks for his 1971 Rosemary Lane album at his house in the village.^[10] Ticehurst was also the final residence of Evelyn Waugh's first wife, Evelyn Nightingale.^[11] The village church, St Mary's, was the venue for the wedding of her son, the journalist and theatre critic Benedict Nightingale, to the author Anne Redmon.^[12]

Flimwell

Stonegate

South-east from Ticehurst and due north-east from Burwash, is a small settlement, Stonegate.^[13]

It came into being with the railway station from Tunbridge Wells. The station at Stonegate has hourly train services to London (Charing Cross and Cannon Street) and to Hastings. The next stop from Stonegate to London is Wadhurst and towards Hastings is Etchingham.

In Stonegate, there is a Church of England primary school and the Anglican church of St Peter.^[14]

Religious sites

The three village churches are:

• St Mary's Church, Ticehurst. A 14th-century parish church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin;^[15][16]
• St Peter's Church, Stonegate;
• St Augustine's Church, Flimwell.^[17]

Transport

There is a railway station nearby, at Stonegate (until 1947 it was called Ticehurst Road; and before that Witherenden); and there is a bus link to Wadhurst railway station.

Surname

The name Ticehurst is also used as a surname. It is not known whether this surname refers to the village Ticehurst or to a similarly named sub-manor of nearby Burwash which has since fallen into disuse. The surname was used as long ago as 1264 ^[18] and was used continuously for hundreds of years by a family living in Ashburnham from at least 1432.^[19]

In 1881 the surname was found almost entirely on the south coast of England, with the highest concentration of Ticehursts being located in Sussex Ticehurst Surname at Forebears but the name has since spread further afield in the UK and also abroad. There is a Ticehurst Surname DNA Project.

References

External links

Media related to Ticehurst at Wikimedia Commons