Village Profile

As the old Buxted village officially no longer exists I suggest you head towards the Buxted Park Hotel and park just before it outside the church of St. Margaret the Queen.

The Medley family wine merchants in Portugal introduced Port to this country and in 1750 bought the Buxted estate. Buxted Park estate covers about 300 acres in which the village of Buxted has been situated for over 900 years.

Cecil Jenkinson – Earl of Liverpool had married a Medley lady who pre-deceased the Earl leaving him ownership of the estate. When the Earl’s brother, Lord Liverpool – The Prime Minister died in1828 the title Lord Liverpool passed to the Earl.

He wanted more seclusion from the village that was part of the estate; it was proposed that in return for the residents moving out, new houses would be built wherever they wished. When they rejected the offer he was furious and responded by refusing to undertake any maintenance and wait until the properties became uninhabitable. In due course the residents left leaving only one building, the old village Church. Since then the new Buxted has developed in the area of the station.

However, following Lord Liverpool’s death in 1851, the manor and estate has had a polymorphic existence passing through shades of great opulence when owned by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi who installed the Park lakes; followed by Basil Ionides architect and friend of Queen Victoria and Queen Mary, both of whom are known to have visited the Park. It was the Shipman family who owned Twickenham Film Studios who ushered in a new era by creating a Health Hydro; it was only natural therefore that many stars associated with the studios came to visit, including illustrious actors such as Gregory Peck, Marlon Brando, Dudley Moore, and incongruously, the Danish Royal Family. The health Hydro underwent considerable refurbishment and was eventually bought by the Electrical, Electronics, Telecoms and Plumbing Union (EETPU) in 1987 and the House was converted to an hotel. Since that time various hotel groups have taken ownership including the present owners - The Hand Picked Hotel Group.

The village had been host to a number of industries. In the 13th century, Flemish weavers settled and specialised in weaving silk, an activity that continued in one area until approximately 1940. Another, substantially 19th and 20th century occupation was “ Higgling”; this was the term applied to those who collected, batched and fattened chickens for delivery to London. A million or more chickens were delivered to London each year in the 19th century; this fragmented and largely ad hoc process was to become the forerunner to the huge chicken battery houses that were to dominate Buxted during the twentieth century.

However the most renowned village association was with the iron industry in the 16th century. Buxted claims to have had the first blast furnace, and was first to produce a front loaded English iron canon.

Built in 1250 and dedicated to St. Margaret the Queen, the church is a little gem, or more accurately a rather large one. Margaret was Queen of Scotland having married Malcolm King of Scotland (1045 –1093), and three of her sons were to carry the title of King and her daughter married King Henry 1 of England

The building is amazingly large, well proportioned and spacious. I went round and began to discover many little details that make these repositories of local history so interesting. Just behind the north aisle is a vestment chest dating back to 1260 (just ten years after the church was built), and a 13th century font that was used in 1929 by Rector Herbert Hill to baptise his niece Olave Baden-Powell. A little further round was a Roll of Honour with the name Fergus Bowes-Lyon, brother of Elizabeth the Queen Mother who acted as a bridesmaid at his wedding in the church in 1914; tragically he was killed shortly after. The list of Rectors is formidable and includes people such as Christopher Wordsworth brother of the poet and others who went on to become Bishops. The time spent in what I thought would be a somewhat disassociated church, after the village had been moved, was well rewarded. Reading the church guide, provided a fascinating record of the history and people associated. My last surprise was an unusual, possibly unique Millennium tapestry kneeler made by the Women’s Institute. Approximately three metres long it records a clever pictorial history of the village from the year 1000AD to 2000AD.

The village itself also had some interesting people living there, not least of all an unusual village idiot. Uneducated, unable to read and write and who had the unfortunate countenance of a total drop out from society, George Watson amazed people with incredible feats of memory. He was born in the late 17th century and was soon found to have extraordinary gifts of memory and an ability to solve highly complex mathematical calculations. He could recall exactly where he was, what he was doing, what the weather was and all kinds of other detail about any day of the week throughout his entire life. He became quite a celebrity and was taken on tour to display his innate abilities

However, probably the most fascinating and renowned three names associated with the village were, Parson William Levett, Peter Baude (a Frenchman) and Ralf Hogge. All worked together and were to invent the item that Buxted claims was first produced in the village - the muzzle–loaded canon.

Parson Levett was very much involved with the iron industry when he approached Ralf Hogge to run the foundries. Peter Baude a French canon maker using bronze was encouraged by Hogge to come to England and work alongside him using their combined skills to make a canon of iron. Their success made them all incredibly wealthy. Levett died in 1554 and Hogge took over the foundries and was appointed Gun founder to Queen Elizabeth 1st who also granted him a monopoly on the export of “cast iron ordnance” to foreign countries. All this is summed up in the Buxted couplet

“ Master Hugget and his man John
They did cast the first canon”

Hogge sometimes called Hugget, built a very large house at the entrance of the park and just so that no one misunderstood whose house it was, he made a cast iron rebus; it depicts a boar and under it’s belly, the date 1583.

On leaving the park and turning right on the A272 I stopped just past the High Hurstwood junction on the left, and walked back to it. Directly opposite the junction and above a high hedge, the Hogge rebus was displayed for all to see. The Boar with the date underneath its belly left no room for doubt as to who owned the house. Many might feel the sign, denoting ownership, also indicated aspects of megalomania on the part of Ralf Hogge!

Now it was time to move on to Blackboys the next village. I wanted to go via a small lane –Nan Tuck’s. On returning to the car I continued past Buxted station (this is the modern village) and turned right at the first junction towards Framfield and Blackboys. At the second junction I turned left into “Nan Tuck’s Lane”.

Nan Tuck was another of those people like George Watson who didn’t fit with society. Nan who lived here alone in the 17th century was an old and stooped lady possibly in the first stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately her appearance and actions frightened some people who thought she was a witch. The residents decided to rid her from the village maybe even to burn her; she fled down the eponymous named lane and into the forest where she was never seen again.

I continued along Nan Tuck’s Lane, straight over the junction to Blackboys about 1½ mile further ahead.

Blackboys.

The name Blackboys conjures up young boys covered in charcoal dust from the iron foundries all around the area; indeed everything would have been black including the trees. I mention this because experts on the origination of place names seem to believe the village name is a reference to the black trees. For my part I like to think of thirsty youths coming over to the inn for a pint after a hard days work. The Blackboys Inn was established in the 13th century and is still going strong, whereas the iron industry faded out in the first part of the 19th century.

Like Buxted Park the village has it’s connections with the stage and films. The inn was owned and run by a famous and immensely popular cockney comic – Ronald Shiner. He sometimes used to assert that he had been a Canadian Mountie. If that were true I am sure the inn would have been very popular with the Canadian soldiers billeted in the village during the last world war.

A much more internationally renowned star lived in the area; born Vivienne Hartley, she is better known as Vivienne Leigh having taken part of her first husband’s name - Leigh Holman. She was born in India but was brought to a convent in England as a child when war broke out. It was at the convent that she (aged 6) met her best friend (aged 8) who were both to reach the highest levels of stardom; the friend’s name was Maureen O’Hara.

Her second husband was one our greatest actors Lord Olivier. They met in 1937 and just two years later he was to star as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, awarded Best Film, and she was awarded a Best Actress Oscar for Gone with the Wind.

When Olivier was made a Lord, she sometimes accompanied him to the House of Lords. However keeping quiet was not something that came naturally to her, and on at least one occasion she had to be removed from the House.

Throughout her life she always liked to live in properties that had water features and her Blackboys home at Tickeridge Mill has a beautiful millpond. I hope she is now at peace; her ashes were spread over the pond followimg her cremation in London.

At lunch I reflected that it was almost certain that Ron Shiner and the Oliviers would have known each other. I thought how fantastic it would have been to finish this chapter while having a meal with them. Perhaps their spirits will join you for lunch sometime when you next visit.