The Middy - April 15 1999

Community stayed close knit as the railway passed it by

“Mankind is divided into two great categories. Those who love Cuckfield and those who don't know who do not know it.”

So said top London lawyer Twynihoe William Erle, a respected elder who lived at Mill Hall, to Reverend James Cooper, vicar of Cuckfield at the turn of the century.

One hundred years later the village still engenders the same kind of pride and devotion. It is the spirit of the place, the sense of community identity which has weathered the test of time.

Geographical and economic changes have wrought major differences in the infrastructure.

Cuckfield High Street is a shadow of its former self in terms of shops, banks and businesses; the beloved Cuckfield hospital has gone to make way for houses; many residents commute daily to London.

But the heart of the village still lies in its people who display the same social energy and fighting spirit which has hallmarked Cuckfield throughout the century –clubs and societies thrived in the early 1900s as they do now; church and school life were pivotal then – and Holy Trinity remains an important focal point for all generations.

Fundraising, self-help and campaigning on social issues were all important elements to keep constant throughout the century.

But it was one major change which allowed the tight social fabric to remain intact – the gradual erosion of Cuckfield's status as of town.

Still some insist it is a town and cite the charter kept in the church, but the die was cast much earlier in 1841 when Cuckfield landowners refused to have the London to Brighton railway across their property.

The onus of township inevitably shifted to the rail centre of Haywards Heath and was compounded as the new century began.

The old Petty Sessions at Cuckfield, held in the Talbot, moved to the new courthouse in Haywards Heath; the County Court also moved; and Cuckfield had become the smallest Urban District Council in the country following the Local Government Act of 1894.

It remained so until the Local Government Act of 1929 when it was amalgamated with Haywards Heath.

Untiil the First World War, Cuckfield almost seemed in a time warp.

It was a close knit community, with most people related by birth, marriage or common loyalties, born in the place where they lived and worked all their lives.

Presiding over village life were several wealthy landowners of the great houses who were benefactors in terms of both time and money. Professional families employed domestic servants, gardeners, nurses, coach men and foot men.

The High Street had 20 or 30 shops including a butcher, baker, blacksmith, grocer, saddler, clock and watchmaker, milliner, boot maker and dressmaker.

In August 1902 the Coronation of Edward VII was celebrated under the chairmanship of banker Richard Alexander Bevan, of Horsgate in Hanlye Lane – probably the most generous of Cuckfield benefactors. Captain Charles Warden Sergison, one of the most influential landowners in the district, threw open Cuckfield Park and 1,500 sat down to tea.

Mr Bevan was chairman again for the celebration of the Coronation of George V in 1911; he chaired the committee responsible for building the Queens Hall and made the largest donation to it. He was also responsible for the founding of the Cuckfield Improvement Association, one of the earliest amenity societies in the country.

In the years before the First World War, the Association provided the lime trees on Whitemans Green – now well grown – cleared a slum area now called Church Platt and, in its most ambitious project, created a bathing place.

The old mill stream north of Mackerells Cottage on the Sergison Estate was dammed at a cost of £230 and opened as a swimming pool in 1905. The Cuckfield Swimming Club was formed for classes and a gala, and the pool was taken over by Cuckfield UDC and enjoyed a half of the century until being closed on medical grounds during the polio scare in 1953.

Mr Bevan's daughter Edith was one of the bolder local spirits to join the march of the suffragists to London on July 22 1913.

In pouring rain, they gathered in Cuckfield High Street to cycle the 38 miles to the city to secure the right to vote. In the years up to the war, American entrepreneur A. G. Vanderbilt was running a daily coach drawn by five American horses and the Cuckfield Town Band was in full flow at every public event.

All this changed at the onset of war, which proved a watershed for Cuckfield as in the rest of the country. 463 men from Cuckfield went to war and all of these, 81 lost their lives.

The Queens Hall was turned into a hospital for Belgian soldiers, then it became a YMCA canteen for the Post Office Rifles who were billeted locally. Women were liberated by war work, men did not return to service the great houses.

A number of single women appeared in public life in Cuckfield and became supporters of charitable movements – Edith Payne, who endowed the Cuckfield Library, became a Poor Law Guardian; Miss Best endowed Cuckfield Cottage Homes; and Miss Eve built Old Park Close. Richard Bevan died in 1918, adding to the grief of the time – and a new, more egalitarian social order grew.