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Isfield
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(Simon de Montfort and the Lavender Line)
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General Details
Isfield lies just off the main A26 Uckfield to Lewes main road, and
is well hidden in the Ouse valley.
The Romans established a staging post in the village, near a ford
across the Ouse, this was on a section of Ermine Street which ran from
Newhaven to London , passing through Lewes and Isfield and Maresfield .
The village was recorded as Sifelle in the Domesday book , and whose
original owner was Earl Harold Godwin later to become King Harold who
died at Battle .
Simon de Montfort passed through the village on the way back to London
after the Battle of Lewes with King Henry III in 1264. He must have come
down this route as well as his troops prayed before the Battle at nearby
Fletching .
The present church was started in the late 1100's and was located in
the middle of the village, but the Black Death of 1348 saw the village
move away from the church to its current location. The roof of the
church is an example of local buildings roofed with Horsham Tiles .
Nicholas Culpepper was raised in the village of Isfield. His grandfather
William Attersole. was the rector of St Margarets, His father had died
19 days before his birth so as a new born, in 1616, he came to reside at
Isfield Rectory.
Nicholas Culpepper is the most famous English herbalist writing in English.
His book The English Physitian, or 'An Astrologo-Physical Discourse of the
Vulgar Herbs of this Nation' -remains in production, as it has done in
countless forms since it was first published in 1653.
Many thanks for the above details to Haskel Adamson
- Medical Herbalist Bsc (hons) Herbal Medicine. Lewes, Sussex
In the 1770's Reverend William Clarke from nearby Buxted , discovered a
black marble slab in the Church, which was believed to be from the tomb
of Gundrada the daughter of William the Conqueror . It was borrowed or looted
depending on your outlook by the Shurleys (The local landowners) from
the Priory of St Pancras at Lewes during the Dissolution of the Monastries
by King Henry VIII.
On October 18th 1858 the station was opened, and was a stop on the Uckfield
to Lewes line which provided access for the local produce to the towns in the
area, but was shut on 23rd February 1969. Nowadays the Lavender Line
Preservation Society runs the 600 yds of track as a memorial to the ages
of the Southern Region Railway. The line is named after the local coal
merchant who used the line until it closed. Trains run on the line at
weekends in the summer and a visit to the well preserved station and
track should be put on your agenda.
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Services
 Isfield has a few local services, but the main shopping centres
are at Uckfield to the north and Lewes to the south.
The nearest trains run from Uckfield to stations to London , and
Lewes with trains along the coast.
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