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Flint implements
Flint Implements from mesolithic times (c. 4000 B.C.) are the
earliest evidence of human occupation of our district, then, from
the late iron age, signs of iron working, which flourished under
the Roman occupation when S.E. England was covered with a network
of roads. A local resident, the distinguished archaeologist Mr I.
D. Margary, traced most of them, starting with the discovery in
1929 of one from London to Lewes through Holtye (4m. E.N.E.) and
another roughly parallel to it (21/2m. W.) Other Roman remains have
since been discovered but there is nothing on public view.
The South Saxons first invaded Sussex in A.D. 477. The chief evidence
of their early settlements is Anglo-Saxon place-names (many still
in use) first recorded in 1086 in Domesday Book, which lists 13
settlements in the Hundred (administrative area) of Grenestede,
most of them offshoots of manors on the S. edge of the Weald. Grenestede
means ‘green clearing’ (in the Forest). West Grinstead
is 18m S.W.
The development of local agriculture from the swine pasture, arable
and meadow land of Domesday Book can be seen in the records of land,
mostly around Imberhorne, given to Lewes Priory in the next two
centuries. Small farms then began to establish substantially the
same pattern of enclosure and cultivation as survived to the twentieth
century and the woods provided timber for building, charcoal for
ironworks and pasture for pigs.
The first mention of Felbridge in the mid-C12 implies an important
road from London, which puts East Grinstead on the map and has been
the key to its prosperity ever since.
The original town, the High Street and its immediate area, was laid
out on its sandstone hill at some time in the early C13. No charter
has survived, but it is first styled a borough in 1235 and there
is other evidence of flourishing town life in that century, though
poorer than other Sussex towns. Houses built in the next two centuries
are still in use. The townspeople engaged in trade, kept livestock
on the Common and usually farmed a few nearby fields as well.
By the mid-C16 the parish of East Grinstead (modern East Grinstead,
Ashurst Wood and Forest Row) contained about 1,000 people, of whom
some 300 lived in the borough, which in 1564 consisted of 48 burgages
(houses carrying votes for the town’s two M.P.s), 24 cottages,
blacksmith’s forge, currying house (for dressing leather),
slaughter house, windmill, etc. In 1600 it was described as ‘a
very good towne’. It continued to thrive till towards the
end of the C18.
The bad roads meant that the Assizes were normally held here throughout
the C16, C17 and C18, the judges not caring to venture further into
Sussex, and travellers from London to Lewes, Newhaven or Brighton
spent the night here. Even when stage coaches were able to do the
journey in one day East Grinstead was the place for the mid-day
meal. The business of the inns (12 of them in 1781) and shops was
also aided by the treating at elections, the weekly market (first
mentioned in 1247 and changed from Saturday to Thursday in 1665)
and the four annual fairs. Of these, that held in December was the
chief, numbers of cattle being driven on foot from Wales from 1516
till late in the 19th century.
There was no dominant local industry. Iron working, which had flourished
most in wartime, died out during this period but we hear a good
deal of clothworkers, glovers, hatters and leatherworkers, as well
as the more specialised trades of a town and the usual professional
men.
The cause of the town’s decline was the increasing popularity
of seaside resorts throughout the C18 and specifically the growth
of Brighton. By the time the Prince of Wales patronised it in 1784
the more direct road through Cuckfield was talking traffic from
the East Grinstead route. The town steadily declined until c.1855,
as evidenced by the uncomplimentary remarks of contemporaries and
the decreases in the number of inns, in the business of the fairs
and in the numbers engaged in and variety of trades. There are virtually
no buildings of any merit from that time and there was the greatest
difficulty in raising money to rebuild the church after the tower
collapsed on it in 1785. Two serious steps were the loss of the
Assizes in 1799 and the disfranchisement of the borough in 1832.
The situation was aggravated by national problems: population explosion,
bad harvests, hard winters and the effects of years of war with
France. In 1801 the first census recorded 2,659 people in the parish
in 381 homes. In 1831 the town contained 286 houses and 1,677 people,
with almost the same number of people in the rest of the parish
in 195 houses. In 1805 the poor rate was 20/3d. in the pound.
The opening of the London-Brighton railway in 1841 isolated the
town even more but the opening, by local enterprise, of a branch
from Three Bridges in 1855 put it on the map again. Many public
improvements were undertaken in the 60 years after that date (e.g.
gas company, dispensary, National Schools, sewage and drainage)
and most of the town’s public buildings, as well as an area
of working class housing and shops between the station and the town.
The inns increased from 10 in 1850 to 16 in 1900, some light industry
was established and the stock market revived. The 1891 population
was 7,569, almost doubled in 40 years.
The revival showed the inadequacy of the town’s administration.
The borough had never been incorporated: instead of a mayor and
corporation it was run by the burgage-holders who elected a Bailiff
as their head. The parish, which became the basic unit of local
government in Elizabethan times, covered 24 square miles, including
much of Ashdown Forest. Agitation led to the setting up of a local
Board in 1884, replaced in 1894 by an Urban District of East Grinstead
and a separate parish of Forest Row, from which in 1934 Ashurst
Wood was transferred to the Urban District. The U.D. population
was 6,094 in 1901, 8,727 in 1931, 10,942 in 1951, 18,569 in 1971,
24,384 in 1991 and 23,942 in 2001. In 1974, under local government
re-organisation, it lost its U.D. status, being merged with other
authorities in a new Mid Sussex District and transferred with them
from East Sussex to West. The successor Town Council gave its chairman
the title of ‘Town Mayor’. Small areas of Surrey at
Baldwins Hill and of East Sussex at Ashurst Wood were taken into
East Grinstead in 1993. In April 2000 Ashurst Wood became a separate
parish.
One cause of growth after c.1884, following the opening of a more
direct line to London, was increasing numbers building large houses
in the district and travelling to work by train. This trend has
been intensified in the last 50 years with the development of new
private estates and the electrification of the line in 1987. Recently
there have been light industry and office developments. But its
geographical position and its communications are still the foundation
of the town’s prosperity.
Recent Developments
Within the last dozen years the town has benefited from a number
of improvements, including the commercial Atrium cinema and leisure
centre, voluntary initiatives resulting in a new East Grinstead
Sports Club and a new clubhouse and ground improvements at East
Grinstead Rugby Club (both near Saint Hill, 11/2 m. S.W. of town
centre). There is a new burns unit at the Hospital (see p.26) and
new athletics facilities at Imberhorne School that are available
to the public (11/2m. N.W. of town centre). The District Council
is proposing redevelopment of the King’s leisure centre and
the Town Council has adapted the old court house at East Court for
community uses and has been instrumental in the creation of the
Chequer Mead Arts Centre (see p.28). Closed circuit television cameras
have been installed in the town centre, where an enhancement scheme
has been put into effect. Fortnightly farmers’ markets have
been established and a ‘community health check’ has
been undertaken.
To mark the year 2000 special attention was paid to East Grinstead’s
position on the Greenwich meridian. On the initiative of a local
artist, Lisa Stumbke, an unworked block of Hoathly stone from Godstone
has been erected where the line crosses the terrace at East Court
(p.20) and elsewhere trees or roadside terra-cotta posts mark it.
The parish church is floodlit every night and panels depicting events
in the town’s history by local artists adorn the public area
of the Arts Centre (p.28). A new history of the town was produced
also.
Some Historical Events not mentioned elsewhere in this Guide
1686 Regular postal service established
1708 Free Grammar School founded by Robert Payne
1717 Second Sussex turnpike road, East Grinstead - London
1790 Spencer Perceval (Prime Minister, 1809-1812, assassinated 1812)
married at East Grinstead
1799 First local directory published
Late C18 Thomas Palmer obtained royal warrant for quill pens
1801 Mail robbery at Wall Hill; perpetrators hanged at scene
1807 First local bank established
1835 Street lighting introduced
1855 Pottery opened (abandoned 1942)
1858 Dispensary opened
1863 Street watering instituted; fire brigade established
1866 Sewage disposal system provided; railway extended to Tunbridge
Wells
1874 First local newspaper established
1880 Main drainage system installed
1882 Railway extended to Lewes
1884 Surviving railway to Oxted and Croydon opened
1891 First local council housing built
1910 First record of bus service
1914 First V.C. of war awarded to Private Sidney Godley, born in
East Grinstead
1920s W. H. Davies the poet lived here
1928 County Grammar School founded (re-organised 1970)
1943 Bombs destroyed Whitehall cinema etc., killing 108 people and
injuring 235
1944 Flying bomb destroyed many London Road shops and killed 3 people
1958 Railway to Lewes closed
1967 Railways to Three Bridges and Tunbridge Wells closed
1988 Blackwell Hollow last road in country to be re-opened after
great storm of 1987
Our history is not only what is recorded in words; it is also preserved
in buildings, landscape and topographical features, briefly dealt
with in the following pages and evident to all with eyes to see.
For those with ears to hear, it is there too in the speech of local
people, not only their memories but also the surviving dialect vocabulary,
the local form of the Sussex accent and the pronunciation of local
names, which sensitive visitors and newcomers will recognise and
respect.
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East Grinstead Introduction
Grinstead
