The History of Nutley by Colin Hobbs.

Nutley comprised mainly the manors of and together with Masketts, a member of the latter, Courtlands alias Newenham which had some 20 acres lying over from Fletching to the south of Fords Green, and an acre or two at Pricketts Hatch belonging to the Fletching manor of Tarring Peverel. Also a three acre piece of the manor of Fiscaridge which lay to the south of Bell Lane near to its junction with the main road.

The parish of Maresfield does not figure in the Domesday Book although most of its neighbours do. It is though, inconceivable that our Saxon ancestors did not penetrate the wilderness a little further on to Nutley. Indeed the name Sale, a suffix, occurs in old documents in a wide band from Nutley Street westwards to and including the present Hole and Alchorns Farm. This is the latter day form of the Saxon word gesell, meaning a shelter for pig drovers. Down Street runs south in an almost straight line to where it joins the road to the Downs at South Malling, an early settlement of the South Saxons. This is undoubtedly one of the ancient drof ways leading into the .

Another was via Mark Street to Fletching and the many villages in the Downs west of Lewes.

A further track leads from Horsted Keynes via the Woolpit Oak to the forest at Pricketts Hatch. The Weald was settled from the Downlands at an early stage but the outliers were taxed with the parent manor. The extent of this was shewn up in which was transferred from the Rape of Lewes to shortly before 1086. Because of this the many little settlements there were recorded separately in Domesday which would not have occurred if they had stayed within the Rape of Lewes.

No written evidence has as yet appeared as to when the manorial system came to Nutley. A reasonable guess might be around the early years of the 12 th . century. The manors of Duddleswell and Maresfield are interesting. It is well known that the whole of lies in the Duddleswell Manor although outliers lay as far away as Piltdown Crossroads, the back of the Doma Nursery at Lampool Corner, Tinkers Wood in Bell Lane, Inhams almost opposite Mark Oak, part of Horney Common and Campishill to the east of the site of the old chapel. It is however little known that Maresfield Manor is intermingled with Duddleswell all around the periphery of the forest. It may be that at one time they were one but when Duddleswell was made a manor in its own right is not known. In the Duchy of Lancaster’s accounts for the Rape of Pevensey in 1392/3 the rent of the assarts of the Forest of Asshedon was accounted for by the Bailie of the Franchise separately. Since all properties in the forest were counted as assarts this might mean that the Manor of Duddleswell had not yet been cleared, enclosed and converted into arable.

Michelham Priory in Arlington was founded by Gilbert de Aquila, the Lord of the Rape of Pevensey, shortly before 1229. At some later stage Sir Robert de Mankesie of “ Bradhurst”, Horsted Keynes, gave “Windebeche”, now The Vachery of some 100 acres near Horsted Keynes in the forest of “ Heseldon” which he had of the gift of Gilbert. The priory canons were to have fencing for enclosure under the direction of the woodreeves. Note, Horsted Keynes not Nutley. Does this infer that Nutley either did not exist or had not yet been named?. Also that the forest was under some sort of authority at this time ?.

An interesting point is that in the 1546 Valor of the Manor of Maresfield a reprise was given for the Vachery which had been disposed of by the Court of Augmentations following the dissolution of the monasteries. Thus Maresfield had been used to receive the rent which would indicate that Duddleswell was not in existence at the time of its grant. It is said that the Vachery was a dairy farm, but one may think that the grazing on the forest was not of sufficient quality for dairy animals. Perhaps rough grazing for beef cattle is more likely.

1 It is also said that a building once stood there which was still visible last century ?. It is amazing that the Rev. Edward Turner, Rector of Maresfield and one time Secretary of the Archaeological Society did not record its position.

In 1176 Richard de Aquila the Lord of Pevensey Rape founded the Free Chapel of Nutley with the endowment of land from Pestridge. Though why build a chapel half a mile from the centre of the present village ?. Very likely the village was originally centred around Masketts which had a spring nearby, the village then being drawn to its present location on the main road from Pevensey to when the castle at the former place became the administrative centre of the Rape.

Some support for this theory may be gained from the fact that the sub Manor of Masketts was centred around the site of the chapel, although that was in the Manor of Maresfield. Duddleswell also had a few acres here. The earliest manorial rentals show a goodly number of small crofts and tofts in this area. The habitations of which disappeared over the years as they were engrossed into bigger units. A toft is an enclosed piece of land usually adjacent to a house. A croft is a piece of ground on which a house stands or formerly stood. The chapel went out of use before 1541 when its chalice was presented to the Church of Maresfield. Presumably it had fallen into disrepair, which was the fate of many sparsely populated parish churches at that time.

Another essential feature of the medieval manor was the mill. In early days this was always driven by water. Nutley mill was situated just to the west of Millbrook Hill. It would have been one of the first buildings to have been erected in the village and made of wood. Crown property was notoriously badly maintained being in the hands of officials who at the best had little concern or at the worst plundered their responsibilities. How many times Nutley mill fell down is not known, but certainly by 1546 when the Manor of Maresfield was valued pending it’s sale to Sir John Gage of Firle it was in disrepair. By 1645 however the mill appeared to have been working since a corne and water mill 3.5 acres and two crofts adjacent to the forest called Penncrofts was leased to Thomas Wood of Maresfield. The account of Land Tax for 1754 makes no mention of the mill. The Tithe Appropriation map of 1841 shows the site of a defunct mill no longer in water.

The following rentals are the earliest known properties in Nutley/Mark Street. The Chantrysale of 26 acres to the north west of Pricketts Hatch at one time belonged to the Chantry of Maresfield. It was appropriated by the Crown under the Chantry Acts of Henry VIII and Edward VI.. This was bought shortly after by Sir John Gage from speculators and held by him of the Crown Manor of Hampton Court. There are not any other exceptions known. All early properties of Nutley are here.

MAP OF ASHDOWN FOREST AND THE SURROUNDING AREA 1610 2 The first extant surveyor of the Duddleswell tenantry was not until 1564 when a jury of 24 of the principal tenants of the manor met. The following are the Nutley properties they reported upon. All are treated as assarts and thus copyhold.

PROPERTY TENANT ACRES RENT

Besschents ( cottage ) Walter Afforde 1.5 1/6.5 Le Shelfe ( tenement ) Walter Afforde 3 Holltrowghe Walter Afforde 1 ( cottage ) Thom Bertelet 2 7 Thom Bertelet 1.25 Prickettshatch ( cottage ) Thos Gavel 8 Inholms Michael Hawkins 3 4.5 Millbrook Margaret Inffelde 1 6 Shepardes Margaret Inffelde 1 Johane Dynes ( tenement ) Johnes Infelde 2 4 Newecrofte ( cottage ) Johes Penyfolde 2 ½ Le Lepe ( tenement ) Johes Penyfolde 2 Johes Penyfolde 1 Shelf House ( house ) Thom Shelley 2 1/8 Campishill ( house ) Thom Shelley 5 Symis/Nether/Sawters ( tenement ) Thom Sponer 2 10 Castelltrowghte Ricus Yeoman 1/8 Nutley Inn Rogerus Yeoman 40 10/-

TOTAL 69.75

The Court records of properties do not survive earlier than 1615 and the next rental of tenants was not until 1636 when some further properties had come into being.

Sale (messuage ) John Penfolde 9 8 Butt Place ( cottage ) Maria Sheppard 0.25 2 Shopcroft/Greencroft Richard Croft 4 8 ( cottage ) Les Marles Richard Croft Nutley ( cottage ) Richard Awcocke 0.5 2 Prickettshatch ( cottage ) John Bullock 6 Larretts ( cottage ) Roger Larrett 2 Nutley Gate ( cottage ) John Weekes 6 Brabies Hatch ( messuage ) Illegible 1 4 Tinkers Thos Awcocke 11 4.5

Records only exist for the grant of 20 perches to John Bullock in 1629 for the above. This being a time when encroaching on the forest was hotly resisted and from the very small rent per acre of these properties it would seem likely that they had been granted many years before. The rent of 4d per acre was the going rate from at least 1380 until the inflationary times of the late 16 th . and early 17 th . centuries.

This raises a problem, undoubtedly the 24 good men and true of the manor would have known of all the property there in 1564. Why some properties were omitted from the schedule is a mystery. Indeed one not mentioned was known to have been granted in the 1380s. Twyford Inholmes, 20 acres freehold, of great antiquity was not mentioned in a rental until 1826. Freeholders were supposed to perform suit of court and 3 report changes of ownership. In practice they frequently did not do so and there was not much the Manorial Lord could do about it. Whitehouse Lands for long in the hands of the Earls of Dorset and after them the Earls of Thanet also escaped notice, although at 27 acres it was one of the biggest properties in the manor. Modern day notion of consistency was a rare commodity then.

MARESFIELD MANOR 1546

MARKSTREET

PROPERTY TENANT FREE/COPY ACRES RENT

Fogglersffelde Awcocke Nich C 4 1/- Marle Awcocke Nich F 2 (messuage) Awcocke Rich F 15 2 Botthill Awoode Thurs F 1 Henworth Awoode Thursday F 4 Annayesholle Awoode Thurs F 7 2 Bartholets Hawkins Thos F 40 10 Marlefield Hawkins Thos F 4 8 Stevenslond Hawkins Thos F ½ Tynkars Hawkins Thos F 4 Wosthers Hawkins Thos F 1/8 Lyghtrowe (in Fletching) Payne Robt C 25 ¾ Knayvesfelde/Wildsale Penyfolde John C 2 11.5 Oldeland/In the Sale Spooner Thos F ¾ At Hoglettsbridge Spooner Thos 6

NUTLEY

Vacherie Alderswolde John 4/6 Legeshurst Alderswolde John F 18 1/7.5 Whitylecrofte Alderswolde John F 1.5 Campekeslodge Alderswolde John F 6 7 Masketts manor (tenement) Alderswolde John F 13/6 Wormscroft/Sedars Alderswolde John F 1/- Redelond Awcocke Nich C 10 6 Nottley (tenement) Bullman Art F 30 ¾ (hall) Bullman Art F 1 Edes (tenement) Bullman Thos F 1/- Ideswell (messuage) Bullman Thos F 3 4.5 Leyland Bullman Thos F 20 2/3 Chappell land (tenement) Bullman Thos F 1 near Sale Cavill John C 2.5 Nortons Cavill John C 3 Wyldesale Cavill John C 1/0.5 In the Sale Cavill John C 3.5 Roghelands Cavill Rich F 20 1/6 Le Marle Gratwicke Jas C 3 3.5 Huntersland/at Stonemead Hawkins Thos F 20 7/- Vynalls Hawkins Thos F 3 2 Hetherycroft Shelleye Thos F 5

4 Huntershaghe Shelleye Thos F 1 Knightskettelog Shelleye Thos F 8 Camviles Syliarde John F 2 Longland Syliarde John F 6 Mellond Syliarde John F 1/6 Coppies (messuage) Symon Raffe C 1/1 Welfelde Symon Raffe C 2 Coulstocks Symon Raffe C 1

The Manor of Masketts records show that there was a Nutley Cross on the road to where it was crossed by a track from Stonegate to Nutley Chapel. Masketts had an area of some 280 acres.

MASKETTS c. 1535 All are freehold.

PROPERTY TENANT ACRES RENT

Waleys & Wulfrans Rycharde Levat 6 8 Scomevile also Hillend Rycharde Levat 3 3 (tenement) Watermans Rycharde Levat 6 1/6 Dewberrys Rycharde Levat 8 Melbrok Rycharde Levat 11.5 Cowstocks (tenement) also Battyscroft &Tomyscroft Rycharde Levat 1 2 Leggesfeilde Rycharde Levat 4 2 Pilchers Grove Rycharde Levat 2 Waye Rycharde Levat .5 Pilchers Thomas Cavill 20 ½ Trankmer also Knightes also Pondcroft & Pondmead George Shelley 5 2/8 Setherislande George Shelley 4 Knights Legge George Shelley 2 Waye George Shelley 0.5 Hugletts George Shelley 3 6 Seaschapys George Shelley 1 Hooneylands John Styddoll 6 3/1 Reynoldes Felde John Awcocke 11 1/8 Broomfeilde Thyrston Awoode 4 9 Leggefeilde Lord of the manor 8 Tompsyns Lord of the manor 1/1 Whilscrouch Lord of the manor 2 Stonegate Lord of the manor 6 2

From the above it will be seen that in the mid sixteenth century Nutley/Mark Street had about twenty dwellings. At the 1831 census Maresfield had 233 properties inhabited by 313 families comprising 1650 persons, an occupancy of 7 persons per house and families of an average of 5.25 persons. This was at a time when the population was increasing rapidly. 300 years before the population of Nutley could not have been more than 100. By 1636 the number of recorded properties had increased by 8 or some 40 persons. The increase was nearly all in the manor of Duddleswell and then mainly within the pale of Ashdown Forest. Only Maresfield Manor had any other unsettled land and then but a few roadsides available in Nutley. These were taken by squatters at Horney Common and Jessops Hill but frequently they were quickly thrown out.

5 In the Elizabethan period Nutley would have been fairly prosperous. Of some 35 males of working age 25% would have had some connection with the local iron trade, most of these would be non specialised, such as cutting wood for the furnaces and digging mine (ore) and combined part time working with agriculture.

Accounts kept by the Henslowe family between 1571/81 mention payments for work to some 100 persons engaged in the Maresfield and iron industry. Less than 10 of these seem to have been property owners in the Parish of Maresfield. At this time agriculture would have employed approximately one man or boy per 25/30 acres. By the 1630s the position was much different as the population had increased. The iron trade was in the doldrums. It had always relied heavily on the arms trade. It is thought that by this date only the Maresfield works was producing armaments locally. The long running Spanish wars had ended and the Dutch trade had been taken by the Swedes. The Parish of Maresfield was receiving financial support from Wivelsfield.

In 1650 and again in 1658 Parliament commissioned surveys of the Manor of Duddleswell in order to see if the forest could be more profitably used. These had schedules of the tenants, but again some were omitted. Charles the Second was restored to the throne before the recommendations could be put into effect. He was indebted to his family’s supporters who had beggared themselves in his father’s cause.Unfortunately he had no funds with which to reward them. Consequently the Earl of Bristol was granted the lease of the forest for £200 per annum. Falling behind with the rent he then leased it to Richard Sackville, the Earl of Dorset. The Sackvilles were long practised at the art of extending their rights or establishing them where none existed and the Restoration was a time of unparalleled licentiousness, led from the top. Soon the sell off of the central areas of the forest began, though the common areas specified by Parliament were first spared. However by the 1680s the grants of land were coming thick and fast. The established locals objected to any diminution in their common land. In the time honoured manner of the independent Sussex peasant they combined to throw down the ditches and hedges put up by the incomers. In 1693 following the judgement given in a law suit “ The Earl of Dorset and Lessees versus John Newnham and others”, most grants were confirmed and many others allowed, although without right of common. The following is a schedule of the Manorial grants from 1615 until they ceased in the early 1850s. The numbers on the right hand side are those on the map by Messrs. Whitpaine and Shoebridge, surveyors to the 1693 settlement. A poor copy of this map was made by John Kelton in 1747. It is reproduced in most of the Forest books being visually attractive if not accurate.

6 PROPERTY DATE AND GRANTEE ACRES RENT

Prickettshatch 15/11/1631 John Bullock 0.0.20 6 21/8/1639 Anne Sheppard 1.3.00 6 Jessops Hill 20/4/1669 John Gorring 0.1.00 6 Great Sharnden 14/12/1669 Rich Combes 5.0.00 10/- Rounds 14/12/1669 Rich Combes 0.2.00 6 By Swinefall 4/7/1671 Alice Goord 0.2.00 1/- Jessops Hill 17/12/1672 Rich Homewood 0.1.00 6 East Lepe Field 9/1/1674 Geo Shelley 3.0.00 6/- Waggoners Bottom 29/8/1682 Rich Homewood 5.0.00 10/- 52 Swinefall 19/1/1684 Henry Coope 18.0.00 45/- 51 Near Nutley Croft 25/5/1687 John Awcock 1.0.00 2/- Sweet Minepits 25/5/1687 John Awcock 5.0.00 10/- 59 Nutley Croft 25/5/1687 John Awcock 5.0.00 10/- 56 Little Shelf 25/5/1687 John Awcock 2.3.00 5/6 58 Londonderry 5/5/1687 John Awcock 2.2.00 3/- 60 Marlpits 4/10/1687 Rich Cooper 6.0.00 12/- 62 Abut Milland Wood 4/10/1687 Henry Bryant 1.0.00 2/- 63 Abut Milland Wood 4/10/1687 Henry Bryant 6.0.00 12/- 64 Near Marlpit 4/10/1687 John Vincent 7.0.00 14/- 61 Near Marlpit 4/10/1687 John Vincent 7.0.13 14/- 61 East Croft 3/4/1688 Oliver Gear 2.0.00 4/- 49 Lower Minepit 21/8/1688 Ed Morrice 6.0.00 6/- 53 Upper Minepits 11/9/1688 Thos Smith 10.0.00 20/- Court House 26/10/1688 Adriane Duffield 0.0.20 2/- Pricketts Hatch 30/10/1693 Rich Norman 2.1.00 4/- 46 Brabies Hatch 30/10/1693 Will Frye 1.0.08 2/- Waggoners Well 30/10/1693 Will Homewood 21.1.00 42/6 52 10/7/1694 Thome Brown 0.2.00 2/6 4/3/1700 Rob Pynion 0.2.00 5/- Spring Croft 11/6/1728 John Norman 2.0.00 4/- Brabies Hatch 30/4/1756 Francis Devall 0.2.00 1/- Maresfield 10/5/1763 Wm Bleach 2.0.00 4/- Nutley 18/1/1769 Thos Garson 0.1.00 5/- Nutley 18/1/1769 Jas Wilden 4.0.00 8/- Nutley Street 3/5/1771 Caesar Curry 4.0.00 8/- Marle Pits 11/6/1779 Geo Scrace 4.00 8/- Near Vachery 11/6/1779 Henry Jugg 1.2.00 3/- Near Mill Stream 15/11/1780 Ed Wheatly 2.0.00 4/- 8/6/1782 Jos Billings 2.0.00 4/- 6/12/1793 Will Billings 2.2.00 5/- Broom Bank 7/11/1795 Diplock 2.0.00 4/- Fords Green Gilbert 1.0.00 2/- Dodds Bank 31/5/1844 John Farmer 2.0.00 20/- Dodds Bank 3/4/1847 Ed Russell 0.3.00 5/- Old Brick Kiln 3/4/1847 Ed Russell 0.2.01 Millbrook 23/7/1849 Thos Coppard 1.3.00 10/- Millbrook 23/7/1849 Thos Coppard 0.0.30 Millbrook 1/8/1850 Jas Wood 0.0.10 4/- Millbrook 1/8/1850 Jas Wood 0.0.30 Leapend 1/8/1850 Jas Wood 1.0.24 5/- 3/7/1851 Wm Willden 1.0.24 5/- 3/7/1851 Wm Willden 0.0.02 7 3/7/1851 Thos Wood 0.2.37 3/- 3/7/1851 Thos Wood 0.1.00 Road Field 3/7/1851 John Brown 0.0.02 3/- Nutley/cott 17/11/1852 John Thorpe 0.0.08 1/-

Note the considerable lapse of time between 1795 and 1844. This did not mean that enclosures had not taken place, but rather that the Manor had been slack in chasing up squatters. Most of the subsequent grants were noted as having been enclosed for more than 40 years. By 1852 the Manor had ceased granting land, the reason is not known.

From some time early in the 19 th . century the Manor had been in the habit of renting out small parcels of land on the forest as allotments. Inevitably some of these were built upon and some were later granted in the schedule above. In 1879 the Lord of the Manor, Lord De La Warr tried to deny the commoners’ custom on the forest and the ensuing court case was initially in his favour. By 1881 however the commoners’ solicitor, William Augustus Raper of Battle had prevailed in an appeal. As a result of the Parliamentary Ashdown Forest Enabling Act of 1886 further encroachment was forbidden and conservators appointed to run the forest. All persons who had enclosed before 1869 were given their land, to whom and by what process is as yet unknown. Persons enclosing after that date had to buy their land at a price of approximately £25 per acre. A map and schedule of this is kept in Records Office, Lewes.

This was not the end of the centuries old disputes on the forest however. What had happened was that the large local landowners had taken over the running of the forest from the De La Warrs. The cottagers considered that no notice had been taken of their interests and in March 1886 at a meeting in the Nutley Inn formed the Ashdown Forest Protection Association with some 200 members. The first conservators were appointed by the Land Commissioners for . Mr. Freshfield, the Bank of England’s solicitor of Kidbrooke Park and later Hindleap Warren, was allowed to stand although he had no land qualifying him to do so. Lady Shelley’s holdings were so great as to practically render her, at one vote per acre, a one woman committee. Mr. Raper was appointed by the Land Commissioners to value the later encroachments for purchase. The rate at which the properties were valued and his high handed manner caused much anger and distress. This was much at variance with his past treatment of some of the people when acting for the commoners against Lord De La Warr. His initial valuations were in the region of £40-£70 per acre, based not just upon the value of the land but on the value of the land and any improvements they had made and buildings they had erected upon it.

Evidence was given that the valuations were several times the rate for the area. The very old and well marled Nutley Inn rented at 13/- p.a., another Shelley farm in Maresfield 8/-p.a., a farm in Buxted sold at £13 per acre while 3.5 acres at were sold by the self same Land Commissioners for £60. Rents were approximately 5% of the land. Eventually the sturdy foresters, aided by some of the gentry appalled at the treatment of them prevailed. Thomas Vinall at Ashdown Cottage had his valuation for 1 acre and 18 perches reduced from £43/10- to £27/16/3 and James Carr at Dodds Bank 16 perches reduced from £18 to £5/10/-. A perch was 5.5 yards square and 1/160 th . of an acre.

Ill feeling between the commoners, who were usually anything but “ common”, and the cottagers developed along political lines, the former being Conservative and the latter and their allies Liberal. By present day standards the behaviour of the large landowners towards those less fortunate was incredible. The aforementioned Freshfield presented a father and daughter at East Grinstead Magistrates’ Court, the father for taking a fallen bough off the forest, value one halfpenny, and his daughter for receiving it. The case was dismissed. 8 Captain Noble of Forest Lodge, Nutley, Chairman of the Magistrates’ Court committed to gaol several members of the Ridley family of Nutley for cutting down trees on the forest. This before they were tried. The self same Captain Noble’s gardener cut turf on the forest. When challenged he denied it came from the forest or that he knew of it. The Rector of Maresfield tried to defend him in the press but came off second best in an exchange with Mr. Elphinstone Barchard of Duddleswell. One Tasker and his sons were reported as taking wood to Lord De La Warr’s brickyard in in contravention of the Act. Mr. Bernard Hale a large landowner in South Hartfield was reported as still enclosing land without payment. No action by the conservators was taken against these gentlemen. The head of a poor family of broom makers in Chelwood was however committed to prison for cutting old heather which he and his ancestors had done for many years. The Primrose League, a Conservative front organisation, was allowed the use of Nutley School. The Foresters’ Association was initially denied the use of it for their meetings which attracted up to 400 people.

The Foresters’ Minute Book, together with many local newspaper cuttings are in the East Sussex Records Office in Lewes.

Eventually the Foresters gained two places on the Conservators Committee. It would be nice to say that they lived happily ever after but the sturdy and some might say cussed nature of the old forester families prevails unto this day. The writer comes from many generations of such folk.

Written in the 1990’s.

Acknowledgements.

Ashdown Forest Map of 1610 and 1747 from the Weald website.

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