Wadhurst

Wadhurst is a small market town in East Sussex, and the centre of the civil parish of Wadhurst, which also includes the hamlets of Cousley Wood[?] and Tidebrook[?].

Situation

Wadhurst is situated on the Kent-Sussex border 7 miles east of Crowborough and about seven miles south of Tunbridge Wells[?]. Other nearby settlements include Ticehurst[?], Burwash[?], Mayfield[?] and Heathfield[?] in East Sussex, and Lamberhurst[?], Hawkhurst[?] and Cranbrook[?] in Kent.

Physically, Wadhurst lies on a high ridge of the Weald - a range of wooded hills running across Sussex and Kent between the North Downs[?] and the South Downs[?]. The reservoir of Bewl Water[?] is nearby. The Teise[?], which is a tributary of the Medway, and the Limden[?] rise within the civil parish of Wadhurst.

Buildings and people

Wadhurst is a small market town (chartered 1253), and has kept a good range of shops considering its size. The population of the civil parish is about 4,500.

There are three buildings of particular architectural interest in the town itself, and a good range of old manor houses and farms nearby. The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul dominates the centre of the town. Wadhurst's heritage as a centre of the iron industry is shown by the many iron gravestones in the church. There are two early Georgian houses on the High Street, the old Vicarage and Hill House.

The rest of the town is in a variety of vernacular styles, dating from the 15th century onwards, though little in the centre of the town is very modern apart from a range of shops which replaced the Queens Head hotel, demolished in a jet crash in the 1950s.

The Victorian era saw the town expand towards the new railway station, about 1.5 miles north of the town. The station is on the line from London Charing Cross to Hastings via Tunbridge Wells[?], and was opened in 1851 by the South Eastern Railway[?]. This expansion brought the hamlets of Sparrow's Green, Turners Green and Best Beech Hill into the town.

Wadhurst today

Wadhurst is a prosperous town and an important centre for London commuters, although it is far enough from London not to feel completely like a dormitory town. It has active clubs and societies, and a secondary school (Uplands Community College) that performs well in local league tables. As with much of south-east England, traffic has become a problem in recent years.