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Hadlow Down in East Sussex

Google map showing area surrounding Hadlow Down
(Wealden Cannons and Charcoal)
Location: 50.995640,0.184052
General Details
Hadlow Down in East Sussex is a very small village lying on a ridge between Cross in Hand and Buxted on the main A272 road from Heathfield to Uckfield .

It was a rural farming community with the centres of population lying either side of the main road, and until the Wealden Iron Industry was a quiet and secluded spot.

The cannon making industry in the Weald started at a furnace on the stream at Hoggets Farm lying to the north between Buxted and Hadlow Down .

The first cannon cast in east sussex was in 1543 at the furnace by Ralf Hogge(Huggett), and is immortalised by a small rhyme.

Master Huggett and his man John
they did cast the first cannon.

John was in fact a French cannon making expert whose name was Peter Baude and it is believed that his family were buried at Wartling on the Pevensey Marshes.

Hadlow Down lies between Blackboys and the farm and it is likely that many of the charcoal burners providing fuel for the furnaces came from the two villages .

When the iron industry in the south east collapsed in the early 1800's the village reverted to its rural roots, and is now a farming area.

The first chapel for the village was erected in 1836, with a gift of land from from the Earl De La Warr, and a contribution of £100 from the then Prime Minister Lord Liverpool who lived in nearby Buxted Park.

The building was rebuilt and extended just before the First World War .
Views
Hadlow Down in East Sussex is on a hill so has good views to north and south, with the northerly view towards Rotherfield being the nicest.

There is one other view that is good, this is at the Annual traction engine event held in the village in early June, with the steam driven monsters taking pride of place in the village.
Services
Hadlow Down in East Sussex has a few local services, but the major shopping centre of Uckfield only lies a few miles to the west, and Heathfield about the same distance to the east.

The busses pass regularly through the village on their way from Heathfield to Uckfield .

The nearest trains can be caught at Buxted .
Map
Hadlow Down is shown as the red symbol on the map.

Nearby Villages

(click on symbol to see the village page)
Village= Town= Recorded in Domesday=
Blackboys (Charcoal and Soot)2.89 miles
Broad Oak (Smallpox at the Academy)4.66 miles
Buxted (The first Iron Cannon in England)2.30 miles
Cade Street (Jack Cade and the Kentish rebellion)4.81 miles
Cross in Hand (The Crusaders Assembly)2.33 miles
Fairwarp (Charcoal and the Army)4.35 miles
Five Ashes (Vast collection of rock plants)1.64 miles
Fletching (Simon de Montfort and Jack Cade)
6.58 miles
Framfield (380 years without a church tower)3.26 miles
Heathfield (19th Century Natural Gas)
3.75 miles
Maresfield (Soldiers and Iron)4.22 miles
Mayfield (Saint Dunstan and the Devil)
3.84 miles
Nutley (Edward III and the Post Mill)
6.16 miles
Piltdown (The Piltdown Man hoax)5.78 miles
Punnetts Town (The Windmill on the Hill)6.44 miles
Rotherfield (Source of the rivers Rother and Uck)
3.83 miles
Rushlake Green (Open Village and Nuclear Bunker)6.83 miles
Uckfield (Traction Engine destroys bridge)4.36 miles
Waldron (Fullers Earth)
3.14 miles
Warbleton (The Iron Man)
5.94 miles
Copyright Villagenet 1998-2024
 
Local Interest
Just click an image
Hastings Area Archaeological Research Group
For all things mosaic, commissions workshops etc please contact Hannah
Wadhurst History Society
Ninfield History Group
The Bald Explorer for local documentaries
Bexhill Museum
Rye Museum
Wealden Iron Research Group
Roman, Saxon and Norman History of the South East
Sigi
Winchelsea Museum
Hastings Rock the place to listen to