Wivelsfield

There are more than 20 listed buildings in the parish.[9]

St Peter and St John the Baptist, Wivelsfield

Old Wivelsfield parish church (TQ 338 207) sits high on the Long Ridge's ancient east-west trackway that runs eastwards from Bedelands, past Theobalds, Antye, Lunces, and on beyond More Farm. It was built on the place of a wooden church and sits next to a thousand year old yew which suggests earlier use as a pagan worship place. It was replaced by a stone building around 1050 although at this point the area was regarded as an outlier of Ditchling and did not become a parish in its own right until around the 12th century. As the area prospered during the middle ages the church was extended.[4]

The sandstone rubble of Wivelsfield church is thought to have been quarried from adjacent Lunce's Common. The Yew on the north side of the church (with only half of its trunk surviving) is probably the oldest thing on the site, perhaps marking a pre-Christian holy place. The church's dedication to St John the Baptist, whose midsummer (24 June) saints day was marked by hilltop bonfires, may represent continuity with the pagan solstice celebrations. The narrow north door is Saxo-Norman. It is a Grade II listed building.[10]

Great Ote Hall

In the southwest of the parish is Great Ote Hall (TQ 331 202). It is a grand, timber framed Tudor mansion and a grade I listed building, behind a screen of woodland.[11] The east wing of the building was built in approximately 1550.[12] The west part of the building dates from 1600 though its history can be traced back to the 13th century.[5] Between 1437 and 1537 the Hall was owned the Attree family. The current owners, the Irvines, of the 350 acre Great Ote Hall Estate also own the 180 acre Randolph Farm, at Hurstpierpoint.[13][14]

Antye House

In the far west, in the part that merges with the north of Burgess Hill by Wivelsfield Station, is Theobalds (TQ 325 206), a Grade II* listed building. It is of the 16th and 18th century, with a Horsham slab roof perhaps quarried on the farm, although there is thought to have been a settlements here since the Saxon period. Its rear wing is 17th century or older and the main door is studded with the date 1627. The Attree family occupied the house from 1600 to 1823 after leaving Ote Hall.[7][15]

Also in the far west is Antye (TQ 325 206). The Antye farm house has at its core a timber framed hall house of circa 1400. Both Theobalds and Antye farms have field patterns that, even today, reflect their origin as an early cooperative farming community. Their countryside still retains a patchwork of tiny ancient woods and fields. They were sold off field by field as plots of land by the Ote Hall Estate in 1920, and the Valebridge Road and Janes Lane are ribbon developments.[13]

Bridge, River Adur

The Pellingford Brook, a tributary of the River Ouse, rises near Cleavewater Farm before heading east. It divides the parish and heavily influences its character. To the western side of the parish the eastern branch of the River Adur runs from its source on Ditchling Common. Unlike the streams straightened for mill leats, impoundments and drainage at Ote Hall and Antye, there remain stretches of low energy meanders where rare fish can still breed. Despite the influence of the Pellingford Brook, almost half of the parish drains west to the River Adur.[13]

The parish still retains its agricultural air. It still has many rich woodlands, much marshland and number of green lanes. The growth of settlement within the parish has centred around Wivelsfield Green which straggles along the road to Chailey's North Common. The area around the church, which was never very big, remains some distance away.

Pond next to Tilebarn Wood

A hornbeam-hedged green lane tracks north from Antye to Tilebarn Wood (TQ 330 210) a hornbeam coppice with bluebells and holly called. The lane passes across the infant Adur to Fox Hill in Haywards Heath. North of Clearwaters Farm, the Wealden Clay gives way to sandstones, and the ground rises beyond ancient Kiln Wood (TQ 329 219) in Ansty to meet a new built development on the south edge of Haywards Heath, further squeezing the strategic gap between the mid Sussex towns.[13]

Old Track, Bankey Wood

Hurst and Bankey Woods (TQ 348 221) and Cains Wood ((TQ 355 230) are biodiverse areas. Bankey Wood has brackeny glades where one might come across wintering Woodcock.[13]

Colwell Lane

Both Colwell Lane (TQ 345 223) and Ham Lane, (TQ 356 212) are greenways, often sunken, with superb lines of outgrown Hornbeam hedging stools. Around Ham Lane, Wilderness, Ham and Strood Woods, are old Stanmer manorial lands. They are wet woods where many of the old deciduous trees have been replaced by conifers. Only small fragments of ancient Oak and Hazel survive to the east under which bluebells grow. The relict, moor east and west of Slugwash Lane, north east of More House Farm, (TQ 353 215/6) has a riot of meadowsweet in its enclosures, and brooks scented with water mint and noisy with marsh frogs (2011).[13]

Ruins of Old Barn near Lashmar Wood

A patchwork of smallish woods and fields sit on the site of 'The Bishoprick', the lost Stanmer and Wivelsfield Common enclosed in 1626-30.[13] Bounding West Wood, Hundred Acre Lane, part of an ancient south-north drove (TQ 347 189), tracks the watershed between the Adur and Ouse catchments for over a mile south from Wivelsfield Green. Lashmar Wood (TQ 350 193) is a wood rich in bluebells and wood anemones with a large old hornbeam boundary hedge. It used to be twice the size. What is left of Mercers's Wood (TQ 357 192), and little South Wallers Wood (TQ 354 189), are also rich bluebell woods, colourful in spring. Cottage Wood (TQ 355 185) and Lambourne Wood (TQ 356 187), are both the most biodiverse in the area, having around eleven indicator plants of ancient woodland. The area by the Lambourne brook the area is lusher and the bluebells bloom after they are gone on drier ground. It is another hornbeam wood, and there is Hedge Garlic, Goldilocks buttercup and Early purple orchids (2010).[13] Cottage and Lambourne Woods are likely relics of the Fischhyrstes "Fish Wood" - of the Saxon Stanmer charter.[4]