Hartfield (St. Mary)

HARTFIELD (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of East Grinsted, hundred of Hartfield, rape of Pevensey, E. division of Sussex, 6 miles (E. S. E.) from East Grinsted; comprising North and South Hartfield, and containing 1603 inhabitants. This parish, which is bounded on the north by the Kent Water, is on the road from East Grinsted to Tonbridge-Wells, and comprises 10,267 acres, whereof 92 are waste land or common. It contains a portion of Ashdown Forest, and is more than 7 miles in length. The surface is hilly, and from the hills of Gills' Lap and High Beeches are extensive views; the soil varies from a dry sand to a rich loam, and the valleys are watered by the Medway, the Bole, and a stream issuing from the forest. A cattle-fair is held on the second Thursday after Whit-Sunday. The living is a rectory and vicarage, valued in the king's books at £10, and in the patronage of the Earl Delawarr: the tithes have been commuted for £881. 12. 6.; the glebe consists of 1½ acre. The church is partly in the early and partly in the decorated English style, with a tower surmounted by a spire. St. Peter's, a chapel of ease, erected at Holty Common, in 1834, is a neat building in the pointed style. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans. The Rev. Richard Randes, in 1640, founded a free school and endowed it with property now producing about £27 per annum; and in 1725, the Earl of Thanet gave a rent-charge of £10, in augmentation of the master's salary. Here are springs, the water of which is similar to that of Tonbridge-Wells. At Bolebrooke are the remains of an old mansion, formerly the residence of the Sackville family, ancestors of the ducal house of Dorset: in 1770 it was purchased by Lord George Germain, who, when created a peer, took from this place his second title of Bolebrooke; but in 1790 it was again united to the possessions of the Sackvilles.