Cuckfield

Cuckfield (/ˈkʊkfiːld/ KUUK-feeld) is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, on the southern slopes of the Weald. It lies 34 miles (55 km) south of London, 13 miles (21 km) north of Brighton, and 31 miles (50 km) east northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Haywards Heath to the southeast and Burgess Hill to the south. It is surrounded on the other sides by the parish of Ansty and Staplefield formerly known as Cuckfield Rural.

Aumale in Normandy has been a twin town since 1993^[3] and Karlstadt in Bavaria since 1998.^[4]

Cuckfield is known locally for its idiosyncratic system of mayoral voting; unlimited numbers of votes can be purchased for the price of one penny each, with the winner receiving the most votes.^[5] The position is purely honorary and the money raised supports local charities.

Before the modern local government system came into operation in the late 19th century it was described as being "in the hundred of Buttinghill, in the rape of Lewes". The civil parish covers an area of 431.58 ha (1066 acres), and had a population of 3,266 persons in the 2001 census, increasing to 3,500^[2] at the 2011 Census.

The origin of the name, Cuckfield (earlier spelled Kukefeld, Cucufeld, and Cucufelda), is debated but it is generally associated with the cuckoo which is the village emblem.

The village grew as a market town; and an important coaching stop between London and Brighton, since it lay on the turnpike. In 1820, 50 coaches a day were passing through; but when the railway to Brighton was to be constructed in the 1840s, local landowners objected to its projected route: it was therefore built through neighbouring Haywards Heath instead. The village lost its importance as a result. Today the A272 road also bypasses the village centre.

It became an urban district in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894, and was greatly enlarged in 1934 under a County Review Order by adding part of Chailey Rural District, Cuckfield Rural District (including the parish of Lindfield) and Haywards Heath Urban District.

The Parish Council, Cuckfield Museum and village library reside within the Queen's Hall, built in 1897 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The parish church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, has Norman foundations, although the building itself is 13th century. The lych gates are listed buildings and several of the stained glass windows as well as the pulpit and the ceiling's painting were designed by Charles Eamer Kempe (1837–1907).

In 1822, Mary Ann Mantell, wife of Gideon Mantell, found the first known iguanodon fossils among many others close to Cuckfield at Whitemans Green, where a monument to him now stands though the quarry from where he acquired them is long gone.^[6][7] He also features in the town's museum. Other attractions include the Elizabethan stately home, Cuckfield Park, to the west of the village. Cuckfield Park is reputedly haunted by its former resident Anne Pritchard Sergison, who was known to the locals as 'Wicked Dame Sergison', and who died in 1748.^[8] Bonfire Night celebrations are held here. Another Elizabethan house, Ockenden Manor, is a hotel and restaurant which has had one star from the Michelin Guide in 2001 and again 2004–2016.^[9]

Cuckfield, like most English municipal governments, has a mixed constitution. On the one hand, as a Manor, it has the customary Baron of Cuckfield, held by Lord Christian Pitt. On the other, as a parish, it has a statutory elected Parish Council led by the current Chairman of the Council, Andy Burton. The relationship between the two is the municipal equivalent of that between the Crown and Parliament.

Under the Anglo Saxons, the county of Sussex was divided into Hundreds, and the Hundreds into Manors. The Laws of Edward the Confessor confirmed the existence of barons with the right of those 'wise and learned in the laws' to lay down the customs of each county. Further, the laws went on to state that the beginning of all government in England is from the Holy Church; confirmed the rights of barons to have their own courts over their citizens to administer justice and the right of barons to have soldiers and servants, and the servants squires to themselves.

When William the Conqueror invaded in 1066, Sussex was divided into 6 vertical strips called Rapes. In addition, all Manors were converted into Baronies under French legal custom and placed under the direct ownership of the King. This included the right to sell baronies. Cuckfield fell into the Rape of Lewes and became one of the leading Manors in the Rape. There is no mention of the Manor in the Domesday Book.

The Manor was given to the Earl William de Warenne; who built a hunting lodge and a chapel in Cuckfield. This was then given as an endowment to the Cluniac Priory of Lewes. The Earl's son, William, confirmed this endowment in a charter of 1091. The third Earl went on the Crusades, and was never seen again after leaving Laodices.

The sixth Earl was one of King John's advisers in granting Magna Carta. In Magna Carta, the existence, rights and responsibilities of government by manorial lordships were confirmed and distinguished from those of the greater barons: the former continuing to hold power by right of administration, the latter by writ (and later letters patent) to sit in the House of Lords. In addition, Magna Carta declared that barons shall only be fined by their equals in proportion to the gravity of their offence; the right of barons to escheat land from any man within his manor and that the appointment of barons should be only to men that know the law of the realm and are minded to keep it well.

In 1245, Bishop Richard de la Wych, Bishop of Chichester (later St. Richard, patron of Sussex) made the parish church independent from the priory by creating a vicarage and appointing the first vicar, Fr. Walter de Warnecamp.^[10]

In 1255, King Henry III issued Earl John Warenne with Cuckfield's first grant for a market. These markets were held on Tuesdays with a fair on 8 and 9 September. It is most likely that the southern boundary of the market was the churchyard, and the northern one along the line of Ockenden Lane. The Earl married King Henry III's sister. During the Barons' War, the Earl had taken the side of the King. King Edward I made him Governor of Scotland, but was defeated by William Wallace at the Battle of Stirling in 1297. His great sorrow, however, was the death of his only son; who was killed in a tournament at Croydon in 1297 (just before the birth of the latter's son, also John, who succeeded to the Earldom, and the Manor of Cuckfield, at 17 years of age. He then married Princess Joanna de Bar, daughter of King Edward I. The Earl had little training or education (save in war from his late grandfather) and proved to be a faithless husband. When he divorced, his estates were taken by the King.

Earl John Warrene left no legitimate heirs; so the Manor went to his sister's son, Richard 13th Earl of Arundel. His son, Richard 14th Earl of Arundel, after governing the Realm during the minority of King Richard II, was beheaded by the King in 1394. His son-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk, succeeded to the Manor, but was soon himself banished. The Duke's son, Thomas, returned from France to England with King Henry IV and had King Richard II handed into custody. The Duke married Princess Beatrix, daughter of the King of Portugal, and the Manor was settled on her. The Duke died childless, and the Manor was then divided amongst his four sisters by coparcenary.

In 1573, the Earl of Derby sold his quarter of the Manor of Cuckfield to Henry Bowyer, a local iron master. Iron was a major industry in the area form as early as the 13th century right up till the 18th century. In 1574, Lord Bowyer and his wife Lady Elizabeth Bowyer dismantled the Mediæval manor hall near the church to build a new manor house, now Cuckfield Park.

In 1596, the case of Heddy v. Wheelhouse (1596) Cro. Eliz. 591 ruled that rights emanating from royal grants and prescriptions (especially for markets and fares) remain in being despite the dormancy of their usage.

In 1670, King Charles II granted a licence to Lord Walter Hendley and five others to hold a weekly market at Cuckfield for the benefit of the inhabitants. In 1792, there was a Friday market and fairs on Whit Thursday, 25 May, 16 September and 29 November (but all these had lapsed by 1888). A weekly stock market was held on Tuesdays, but this was transferred to Haywards Heath in 1868 before it became a Sainsbury's supermarket. Under Heddy v. Wheelhouse, the Baron of Cuckfield is entitled to a pitch penny and stall penny from all businesses within a six and one third mile radius from the village for each day of trading.

Lord Bowyer had to sell the Manor to Walter Covert of Slaugham; whose great granddaughter parted with it in 1735 to Thomas Sergison (formerly Thomas Warden).^[11] The Manor then succeeded to Thomas' brother, Michael in 1766 until his death in 1784. Lord Michael Sergison held courts there in 1770 and 1781. Francis Jefferson (who also took on the Sergison name) succeeded to the Manor in 1784 with his wife Anne. Lady Sergison continued to hold the moiety as widow until her death in 1806; after which her 3 sons held the Manor in turn: Lord Warden Sergison (died 1811), Lord Francis (died 1812), and their sister Lady Anne (wife of Fr. W. S. Pritchard, who took the name Sergison at their marriage).

Lady Anne Sergison's son, Warden George Sergison, inherited the Manor in 1848. In 1865, he acquired the remaining half of Cuckfield Manor from William, 4th Earl of Abergavenny. The whole manor, thus reunited, descended from Lord Warden George Sergison to his son Major Warden Sergison in 1867; then, his son (Captain Charles Warden Sergison) succeeded in 1888. At his death in 1911, the Manor devolved upon his eldest daughter, Prudence; who married then Colonel Sir Bertram Sergison-Brooke dying without male heirs. Their younger daughter, Cynthia, married Sir Basil Stanlake Brooke.^[12] The title then remained dormant until 2024.

In August 2024, Christian Alexander Pitt succeeded to the Manor.^[13] Lord Pitt is a practicing Roman Catholic from a Greek Orthodox background, a training barrister at Lincoln's Inn and a member of Reform UK. From his maternal ancestry, he is a descendant of Emperor Peter the Great through House Derugin. From his paternal ancestry, he is a descendant of many prominent English noble families including House Pitt, House Boleyn and House Villiers.

Since succeeding to the Manor, the Baron has begun a range of initiatives that follow the historic origins of the title. These include arbitration services through the Manorial Court, investitures for a modern form of knighthood and a direct democracy Assembly for tenants within Cuckfield and Haywards Heath: to open the deliberation of local policy to the wider citizenry.^[14] Local citizens may join here.

Cuckfield is home to Warden Park Secondary Academy, one of the main secondary schools serving the Haywards Heath area and to Holy Trinity CE (A) Primary School,^[15] Cuckfield. The latter is one of the oldest schools in the country; it was founded in the early 1500s as the local grammar school.^[16][17] The founder was Edward Flower, a London merchant tailor in about 1512 and endowed by his will in 1521 with lands in Westerham and £100 to be laid out in other lands. Other endowments were added, but in 1589, the original endowment was leased at a perpetual rent of £20. In consequence in 1819, the schoolmaster had an income of a mere £28.8s.0d. In 1844, as a result of local discontent, the Court of Chancery made a scheme reorganising the school like a National School and the existing National School (established in 1812) was discontinued. The teaching of Latin and Greek were discontinued and the fees fixed at a maximum of a shilling. The teacher no longer had to be a clergyman.

In 1886, the National Society gave £15 and the school formally became a National School. A proposal to rebuild the school between 1935 and 1950, and money collected for this was returned to the donors. The school was reorganised again in 1964 under the Chichester Diocesan Board of Finance. In 1991, the school was rebuilt on a new site.^[16] The old school was acquired by the church in 1992 for use as a church hall.^[18][19]

• Natasha Bedingfield (born 1981 in Cuckfield) – singer, songwriter and record producer
• Daniel Betts (born 1971 in Cuckfield) – actor
• Ross Chisholm (born 1990 in Cuckfield) – Harlequins rugby player
• Hermione Cockburn (born 1973) – geologist and broadcaster, was brought up in the village^[20]
• Tommy Cook (1901–50) – Sussex cricketer and Brighton & Hove Albion and England footballer, born in Cuckfield^[21]
• Kirsten Cooke (born 1952 in Cuckfield) – actress
• Alfred Denning, Baron Denning (1899–1999) resided in Cuckfield from 1935 until 1963
• Dom Dwyer (born 1990 in Cuckfield) – footballer who represented the United States national team^[22]
• Tara Fitzgerald (born 1967 in Cuckfield) – actress
• The brothers Edward,^[23] James (both actors) and Robert Fox (a producer) all grew up in the village; their mother died there in 1999
• Sally Geeson (born 1950) – actress, best remembered for her role in the British sitcom Bless This House with Sid James was born in the village^[24]
• Dominic Glynn (born 1960 in Cuckfield) – composer of Doctor Who between 1986 and 1989
• Mike Hazlewood (1941–2001) – singer, songwriter and composer, born in Cuckfield
• Henry Kingsley (1830–1876) – novelist, lived in Cuckfield for his last two years^[25]
• Nancy Osbaldeston (born 1989) – ballet dancer and principal dancer of Royal Ballet of Flanders
• Charles Sergison (1655–1732) – owner of Cuckfield Park
• Katie Stewart (1934–2013) – British cookery writer, lived for many decades and died in Cuckfield
• Jamie Theakston (born 1970 in Cuckfield) – television presenter, producer, and actor.
• Nick Van Eede (born 1958 in Cuckfield) – lead vocalist and co-founder of the British-based band Cutting Crew
• Thomas Vicars (1589–1638) – 17th-century theologian, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Cuckfield (1622–1638)^[26]
• James Vince (born 1991 in Cuckfield) – Hampshire and England cricketer^[27]

• Cuckfield Compendium
• Cuckfield Connections
• Manor of Cuckfield
• Cuckfield Parish Council