A Brief History of Danehill

by Derek Rawlings

2,500 years ago Danehill was on the route of a trading track, connecting the North and South Downs. From Wych Cross it followed the course of the A275 road as far as Danehill village and from thence along Freshfield Lane. However, it was the Saxons in the 7th century who coined the name Denne (Dane) Hill, meaning the enclosure on the hill in the forest but they did not live there. Between the Norman conquest and the start of the 14th century, a period of expanding population, the people living at Sheffield Park made clearings in the forest for additional fields, from which many of Danehill's farms evolved.

The earliest houses in the parish to survive were erected about 1450. Two of them, The Forge and the White House were either side of Danehill village green. In Tudor times the introduction into the High Weald of blast furnaces, for smelting iron, led to the creation of a flourishing iron industry. Although there were no furnaces in Danehill, there were some in Horsted Keynes and Fletching, and iron ore was mined here and our woodland used to produce charcoal as fuel for the process. The new industry and a general increase in economic activity led to a greater use of the road. The White House became an inn, probably as early as 1600, with packhorse trains stopping there on their way to and from London, Lewes and Brighton. In 1752 the main road was turnpiked and the improvement to the surface allowed the introduction of stage coach services.

Because of the better communications, a number of rich people settled in the area. In the 1820's the Davis brothers came into the parish and created estates. One purchased Woodgate, now Cumnor House School, which was already a gentleman's residence and the other built Danehurst. Their presence led to the foundation, in 1835, of Holy Trinity Chapel, where the War Memorial now stands. This was the last part of the green to be enclosed. The chapel was replaced by the present church in 1898 as a memorial for H.C.Hardy of Danehurst. In 1850 Danehill was created an ecclesiastical parish out of parts of Fletching and Horsted Keynes and in 1898 a civil parish. The latter was enlarged in 1991 to take in Twyford and Pippingford Park.

In 1864 most of Chelwood Common was enclosed and Beaconsfield and Stone Quarry roads laid out. When in 1884 a direct railway line was established from East Grinstead to London many of the new fields were planted with gooseberries for which there was a ready sale on the London market.

A National School was established in 1865 and a school room, 53ft X 18ft, built to accommodate 120 children. There would have been one qualified teacher with one or two pupil teachers. A house for the master and two enlargements followed, and by 1880 the school could take 220 pupils.

After the Great War the road was improved to take the increasing motor traffic; electricity was brought into the parish and the Isle of Thorns opened as a holiday camp for poor boys from London. House building increased after the Second War, including the Council's Oak Tree Cottages development; a sewerage works was built to serve part of the parish and all houses were connected to a mains water supply. The parish came within the designated High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the centre of Danehill village was made a Conservation Area.

...back to Index Page