Pease Pottage
Encyclopedia
Pease Pottage is a small village
in the Mid Sussex
District of West Sussex
, England
. It lies on the southern edge of the Crawley
built up area, in the civil parish of Slaugham
.
Pease Pottage is familiar to many drivers for its motorway service station
, named after the village, which also serves as a local shop (Simply Food and W H Smith
) for the residents of the village (a footpath was constructed to allow pedestrian access from the village). It is located at the junction of the M23
and the A23
on the London
to Brighton
road, where the A264 to Horsham
joins.
The village itself has a florist's shop, a pub, a car breaker's yard
, playing fields, a golf
driving range
and course
, some small industrial units and offices.
The Pease Pottage Radar is located around half a mile west of Pease Pottage, and is visible from much of the village. It is an Air Traffic Control
Radar
for National Air Traffic Services and takes advantage of a position 460 feet (140.2 m) above sea level, some 250 feet (76.2 m) above the nearby Gatwick Airport.
Pease Pottage is also an old name for pease pudding
. It is said that the village name came from serving Pease Pottage to convicts either on their way from London to the South Coast or from East Grinstead
to Horsham
although it is not clear why convicts would travel along either route. The name Pease Pottage Gate first appears on Budgen's Map of Sussex made in 1724 at the southern end of a road from Crawley
where it met the Ridgeway, and is on the border of the parishes of Slaugham
and Worth
. This is prior to the turnpikes (1771), and so was not a toll gate. It was probably a gate between St Leonard's Forest
and Tilgate Forest (part of Worth Forest). Many local villages have Gate as part of the name (Tilgate, Colgate, Faygate etc.). The name is not on Speed's map of 1610 (surveyed in the 1590s). Gate was dropped from the name when the tollgate was removed in 1877.
to form an area known as the High Weald which extends to the sea between Hastings
and Rye, East Sussex
. The ridge is narrow to the west of Pease Pottage but widens to the east. The wet Wealden Clay forms the low ground to the north and south of the ridge. The sandstone provides good drainage and many microliths have been found dating from the Mesolithic Age. The Horsham Culture is believed to have lasted about 2000 years. Neolithic
flint
s from the South Downs
have been found to the east along Parish Lane. To the west are three Bronze Age
tumuli
. There is also evidence of a Bronze Age track that continued to be used during the Iron Age
that ran along the ridge from Horsham via Pease Pottage, Handcross
, and West Hoathly
to Ashdown Forest.
The only evidence from Saxon times comes from the political structures. The Middle Saxons
extended south from the Thames valley, and created the sub-kingdom of Sudergeona (Surrey
). The South Saxons populated the south coast. In between was a great forest known as the Andreaswald. The wet Wealden clay and dense undergrowth made this relatively inaccessible except by river, and so the Sussex Rapes were formed along the river valleys. The Ouse was navigable for small boats from Lewes up to Cuckfield from where higher drier ground and less dense vegetation made progress north easier. Thus the Rape of Lewes extended as far north as modern Crawley
. The rapes were sub-divided in Hundreds, and the area now known as Pease Pottage was in the Hundred of Buttinghill. Slaugham
is first mentioned around 1095 when the tithes were granted to the Priory of St Pancras in Lewes. The church dates from the early 12th century, and so the parish dates back to Norman
times.
The first large scale map of Sussex by Saxton in 1575 shows Crawley and Slaugham churches, The Forest of Sct Leonerds and Word Forest, but just white space between them. Speed's map of 1610 (surveyed by John Nordon about 1595) also shows Slawgha and Crawley with the Rape border passing between Schelley Forest on the west and Tylgate Forest on the east. Neither map shows any roads. It is likely that the Ridgeway from Horsham was used as it is the only dry east west route, but this went south to Handcross then east along High Street (round the headwaters of Standford Brook) to Turners Hill
and onwards to East Grinstead
. A shorter but wetter (probably impassable in the winter) shortcut developed along Parish Lane crossing Standford Brook at Cinder Banks. This clearly shown on Budgen's 1724 map which indicates a few buildings at Pease Pottage Gate with Buchan Hill to the west and a road north through Broadfield and Hogs Hill to Crawley. The road south to Handcross is not shown.
Cinder Banks takes its name from a double blast furnace
known as Worth Furnace which was producing cannons in 1547 - a double furnace was required to produce enough iron for a cannon. Originally owned by Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
, it passed to Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley
when Norfolk was accused of treason. Seymour suffered the same fate, and an inventory of his property taken in 1550 gives detailed information of the furnace which included 29 guns and six tons of shot. The furnace produced cast iron
, some of which was taken north to the Blackwater finery forge
(now under Maidenbower) to be converted into wrought iron
. The furnace closed in the early 17th century due to a shortage of iron ore and wood. Thomas Seymore in his brief ownership suggested building a new town in the nearby park of Bewbush.
The main route between London and Brighton was further east (in 1756 the London-Brighton stage coach went via East Grinstead and Lewes). A toll road from Crawley north to London was built in the early 18th century, but the road south to Brighton through Pease Pottage was not constructed until 1770. The Ridgeway (today known as Horsham Road and Forest Road) was turnpiked
in 1771 being the main Horsham-Crawley road prior to the McAdam Road being built in 1823 (now the old route of the A264 - it would have been extremely wet before it was given a hard surface). There were two London-Brighton coaches a day in each direction in 1797. The improved communications allowed people in London to have country seats in the area. In the early 19th century Hon. Thomas Erskine
(Lord Chancellor 1806-1807), son of the Earl of Buchan purchased Buchan Hill in the early 19th century and built a house in the fork between the two roads descending from the north end of Grouse Road towards Bewbush and Gossops Green. Although it is widely believed that Buchan Hill was named after his father, the name is on Budgen's map some 80 years earlier.
William Cobbett
travelled the ridgeway on 31 July 1823. "...CRAWLEY...go two miles along the road...to Brighton; then you turn to the right [at Pease Pottage] and go over six of the worst miles in England...The first two of these miserable miles go though the estate of Lord ERSKINE. It was a bare heath here and there, in the better parts of it, some scrubby birch. It has been, in part, planted with fir-trees, which are as ugly as the heath was; and, in short, it is a most villainous track." This extract from the Rural Rides
show that the countryside has not changed much in the last 180 years (apart from our definitions of villainous and beautiful and the invasion of that indestructible weed, Rhododendron ponticum
, which is rapidly taking over the woods).
In Reminiscences of Horsham by Henry Burstow he states that on 4 October 1837 he went to Peas Pottage to see Queen Victoria pass through on her way from London to Brighton. There was "a large archway made of evergreens, with VICTORIA REGINA worked on it in various coloured dahlias".
Pease Pottage would have benefited from the toll roads, but lost the Crawley-Horsham traffic in 1823 with the opening of the new McAdam
road through Faygate
, and the London and Brighton Railway
completed in 1841 which skirted along the eastern boundary of Pease Pottage cutting through Tilgate Forest alongside Standford Brook and through a tunnel under High Street. The Pease Pottage tollgate was removed in 1877. In 1896 on the day after the red flag law expired, 25 cars left London for Brighton, but half had broken down by Crawley. This event is still celebrated in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run
which still goes past Pease Pottage on the first Sunday in November.
London Brighton road traffic revived the fortunes of Pease Pottage. The green in front of the Black Swan in the centre of the village was like a fairground with charabanc
s parked, stalls, flower sellers, strolling players etc. between the wars. The pub dates back to the 19th century. A pond in front of it was filled in 1883. A smithy was next door, and later a shop and a Jet petrol station opposite, with the Busy Bee restaurant behind. The Grapes pub (closed in 2008 and demolished in 2010) was further south, and had a tin church next to it. It was originally the toll house
, and the name came from grapes growing in a greenhouse
next door.
To the south of Pease Pottage is Tilgate Forest Row which had three shops, a blacksmith
and post office
. The Pease Pottage Cricket
Field was between here and Pease Pottage (now a car breakers yard). The cricket field was made in 1874, but was ploughed up in 1939 as part of the war effort. It had a London horse-drawn tram
as a pavilion. The ground was up to county ground standards.
The next major change to Pease Pottage was the opening of the M23 motorway
in 1975 which continued as the A23 road
, a two lane dual carriageway
south to Handcross
with the houses of Tilgate Row facing onto it. The service station was opened in about 1990. The road layout was changed again in the mid 1990s with the A23 moved a few yards west and widened to three lanes. The old southbound carriageway became a new road to Handcross, and another new road was built on the other side of the A23 to Woodhurst. Tilgate Row is now separated from Pease Pottage by ten traffic lanes.
A large number of houses have been built since 1946 when Pease Pottage consisted of a few buildings near the crossroads, and a few isolated buildings on the A23. The first development was west along Horsham Road, mainly bungalow
s. This was followed by modern estates behind the Black Swan, and to the west of the old A23 (now Brighton Road South). The last of these was on the site of Hemsleys nursery, south of which are Finches playing fields. Some apartments have been built on the old maintenance deport on the east side of Old Brighton Road North. The northern end of this cul-de-sac
is in Crawley
and there are now houses along the west side so the gap between Pease Pottage and Crawley has disappeared.
. The school is registered as an independent special school and a children's home with Ofsted
. The registration is for a mixed provision (i.e. boys and girls) with an age range of 7–18 years and caters for 35 residential and 20 day pupils.
There are also large warehouses next to the old crossroads, and two small industrial parks - one between Brighton Road and the A23, and the other along Parish Lane. Finally there are some units at the golf driving range on the west of the village and the old Met Office
site next door (which is strictly in Colgate
).
The original house at Buchan Hill was built in the early 19th century by Hon. Thomas Erskine (Lord Chancellor in 1806). His father was the Earl of Buchan from which it may have taken its name, although Buchan Hill is named on Richard Budgen's map of 1724, and its name may have attracted him. This house was built in a fork between two roads running north towards Bewbush and Gossops Green. Today the right of way descends along the west branch as far as the site of the old house, turns east across the front of it then north along the east branch. John Jervis Broadwood (a descendent of John Broadwood
) occupied it in the 1860s.
The new Buchan House was built in 1883 by Philip Feril Renault Saillard who made his money from a new dye used for ostrich feathers. It was located NE of the original which was subsequently demolished, and had three drives - north, south and east. The latter linked it with the London-Brighton road, and runs along the border between Slaugham and Crawley. It cost £40000 - a lot in those days. It was designed by the London partnership George and Peto, and Sir Edwin Lutyens
was also involved. The house was occupied by his daughter after his death in 1915 and subsequently was bought by Upland House School. It was occupied by the Pearl Assurance Company during the war, since when it has been used by Cottesmore School
.
Woodhurst was constructed as a country house in the early 19th century. It was just off the A23, but now is at the southern end of Old Brighton Road South, and is really in Handcross although it cannot be accessed from there. It has an interesting history having been owned by Dame Margot Fonteyn
and used as a ballet school. During World War 2 it was occupied by the Canadian army and was later used by the NHS as Woodhurst Hospital (there are several postcards of this taken in 1955), and later 55 older people with learning difficulties living in residential care provided by Surrey Oaklands NHS Trust. This closed in 2003, and the site is being developed as a Diagnostic and Treatment Centre and Care Home by Sussex Health Care.
as a very remote village deep in the Sussex countryside.
The fictional Doctor Who
character Melanie Jane Bush
lived at 36 Down View before joining him (Business Unusual
) - this is a fictitious address, but perfectly possible as both the North
and South Downs
can be seen from Pease Pottage.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in the Mid Sussex
Mid Sussex
Mid Sussex is a local government district in the English county of West Sussex. It contains the towns of East Grinstead, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill....
District of West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It lies on the southern edge of the Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
built up area, in the civil parish of Slaugham
Slaugham
Slaugham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located seven miles to the south of Crawley, on the A23 road to Brighton...
.
Pease Pottage is familiar to many drivers for its motorway service station
Motorway service area
In the UK motorway service areas, also known as service stations, are places where drivers can leave a motorway to refuel, rest, or take refreshments. The vast majority of motorway services in the UK are owned by one of three companies: Moto, Welcome Break and RoadChef. Extra are also developing a...
, named after the village, which also serves as a local shop (Simply Food and W H Smith
W H Smith
WHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...
) for the residents of the village (a footpath was constructed to allow pedestrian access from the village). It is located at the junction of the M23
M23 motorway
The M23 motorway is a motorway in England. The motorway runs from south of Hooley in Surrey, where it splits from the A23, to Pease Pottage, south of Crawley in West Sussex where it rejoins the A23. The northern end of the motorway starts at junction 7 on what is effectively a spur north from...
and the A23
A23 road
The A23 road is a major road in the United Kingdom between London and Brighton, East Sussex. It became an arterial route following the construction of Westminster Bridge in 1750 and the consequent improvement of roads leading to the bridge south of the river by the Turnpike Trusts...
on the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
road, where the A264 to Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
joins.
The village itself has a florist's shop, a pub, a car breaker's yard
Wrecking yard
A scrapyard or junkyard is the location of a dismantling business where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies...
, playing fields, a golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
driving range
Driving range
A driving range is an area where golfers can practice their swing. It can also be a recreational activity itself for amateur golfers or when enough time for a full game is not available. Many golf courses have a driving range attached and they are also found as stand-alone facilities, especially...
and course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
, some small industrial units and offices.
The Pease Pottage Radar is located around half a mile west of Pease Pottage, and is visible from much of the village. It is an Air Traffic Control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
Radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
for National Air Traffic Services and takes advantage of a position 460 feet (140.2 m) above sea level, some 250 feet (76.2 m) above the nearby Gatwick Airport.
Pease Pottage is also an old name for pease pudding
Pease pudding
Pease pudding, sometimes known as pease pottage or pease porridge, is a boiled vegetable product, which mainly consists of split yellow or Carlin peas, water, salt, and spices, often cooked with a bacon or ham joint...
. It is said that the village name came from serving Pease Pottage to convicts either on their way from London to the South Coast or from East Grinstead
East Grinstead
East Grinstead is a town and civil parish in the northeastern corner of Mid Sussex, West Sussex in England near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders. It lies south of London, north northeast of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester...
to Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
although it is not clear why convicts would travel along either route. The name Pease Pottage Gate first appears on Budgen's Map of Sussex made in 1724 at the southern end of a road from Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
where it met the Ridgeway, and is on the border of the parishes of Slaugham
Slaugham
Slaugham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located seven miles to the south of Crawley, on the A23 road to Brighton...
and Worth
Worth, West Sussex
The civil parish of Worth, which includes the villages of Copthorne, West Sussex and Crawley Down, covers an area of and has a population of 9888 persons. The ecclesiastical parish was one of the larger West Sussex parishes, encompassing the entire area along the West Sussex/Surrey border between...
. This is prior to the turnpikes (1771), and so was not a toll gate. It was probably a gate between St Leonard's Forest
St Leonard's Forest
St. Leonard's Forest is at the western end of the Wealden Forest Ridge which runs from Horsham to Tonbridge, and is part of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It lies on the ridge to the south of the A264 between Horsham and Crawley with the villages of Colgate and Lower Beeding...
and Tilgate Forest (part of Worth Forest). Many local villages have Gate as part of the name (Tilgate, Colgate, Faygate etc.). The name is not on Speed's map of 1610 (surveyed in the 1590s). Gate was dropped from the name when the tollgate was removed in 1877.
History
Pease Pottage is on a ridge of sandstones and thin clays known as the Hastings Beds which extends east from HorshamHorsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
to form an area known as the High Weald which extends to the sea between Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
and Rye, East Sussex
Rye, East Sussex
Rye is a small town in East Sussex, England, which stands approximately two miles from the open sea and is at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede...
. The ridge is narrow to the west of Pease Pottage but widens to the east. The wet Wealden Clay forms the low ground to the north and south of the ridge. The sandstone provides good drainage and many microliths have been found dating from the Mesolithic Age. The Horsham Culture is believed to have lasted about 2000 years. Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
s from the South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
have been found to the east along Parish Lane. To the west are three Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
tumuli
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
. There is also evidence of a Bronze Age track that continued to be used during the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
that ran along the ridge from Horsham via Pease Pottage, Handcross
Handcross
Handcross is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A23 road 4.2 miles south of Crawley.Nymans Garden, of parklands run by the National Trust, is near to Handcross, as are of woodland and water gardens at High Beeches Garden.Handcross has two public houses,...
, and West Hoathly
West Hoathly
West Hoathly is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, located south west of East Grinstead. In the 2001 census 2,121 people, of whom 1,150 were economically active, lived in 813 households. The parish, which has a land area of , includes the hamlets of...
to Ashdown Forest.
The only evidence from Saxon times comes from the political structures. The Middle Saxons
Middle Saxons
The Middle Saxons or Middel Seaxe were a people and their territory which later became, with somewhat contracted boundaries, the county of Middlesex, England. It included the early London settlement. The area was part of the Kingdom of Essex, but was ceded to Mercia in the 8th century....
extended south from the Thames valley, and created the sub-kingdom of Sudergeona (Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
). The South Saxons populated the south coast. In between was a great forest known as the Andreaswald. The wet Wealden clay and dense undergrowth made this relatively inaccessible except by river, and so the Sussex Rapes were formed along the river valleys. The Ouse was navigable for small boats from Lewes up to Cuckfield from where higher drier ground and less dense vegetation made progress north easier. Thus the Rape of Lewes extended as far north as modern Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
. The rapes were sub-divided in Hundreds, and the area now known as Pease Pottage was in the Hundred of Buttinghill. Slaugham
Slaugham
Slaugham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located seven miles to the south of Crawley, on the A23 road to Brighton...
is first mentioned around 1095 when the tithes were granted to the Priory of St Pancras in Lewes. The church dates from the early 12th century, and so the parish dates back to Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
times.
The first large scale map of Sussex by Saxton in 1575 shows Crawley and Slaugham churches, The Forest of Sct Leonerds and Word Forest, but just white space between them. Speed's map of 1610 (surveyed by John Nordon about 1595) also shows Slawgha and Crawley with the Rape border passing between Schelley Forest on the west and Tylgate Forest on the east. Neither map shows any roads. It is likely that the Ridgeway from Horsham was used as it is the only dry east west route, but this went south to Handcross then east along High Street (round the headwaters of Standford Brook) to Turners Hill
Turners Hill
Turners Hill is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. The civil parish covers an area of , and has a population of 1,849 ....
and onwards to East Grinstead
East Grinstead
East Grinstead is a town and civil parish in the northeastern corner of Mid Sussex, West Sussex in England near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders. It lies south of London, north northeast of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester...
. A shorter but wetter (probably impassable in the winter) shortcut developed along Parish Lane crossing Standford Brook at Cinder Banks. This clearly shown on Budgen's 1724 map which indicates a few buildings at Pease Pottage Gate with Buchan Hill to the west and a road north through Broadfield and Hogs Hill to Crawley. The road south to Handcross is not shown.
Cinder Banks takes its name from a double blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
known as Worth Furnace which was producing cannons in 1547 - a double furnace was required to produce enough iron for a cannon. Originally owned by Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was a prominent Tudor politician. He was uncle to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of the wives of King Henry VIII, and played a major role in the machinations behind these marriages...
, it passed to Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, KG was an English politician.Thomas spent his childhood in Wulfhall, outside Savernake Forest, in Wiltshire. Historian David Starkey describes Thomas thus: 'tall, well-built and with a dashing beard and auburn hair, he was irresistible to women'...
when Norfolk was accused of treason. Seymour suffered the same fate, and an inventory of his property taken in 1550 gives detailed information of the furnace which included 29 guns and six tons of shot. The furnace produced cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
, some of which was taken north to the Blackwater finery forge
Finery forge
Iron tapped from the blast furnace is pig iron, and contains significant amounts of carbon and silicon. To produce malleable wrought iron, it needs to undergo a further process. In the early modern period, this was carried out in a finery forge....
(now under Maidenbower) to be converted into wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
. The furnace closed in the early 17th century due to a shortage of iron ore and wood. Thomas Seymore in his brief ownership suggested building a new town in the nearby park of Bewbush.
The main route between London and Brighton was further east (in 1756 the London-Brighton stage coach went via East Grinstead and Lewes). A toll road from Crawley north to London was built in the early 18th century, but the road south to Brighton through Pease Pottage was not constructed until 1770. The Ridgeway (today known as Horsham Road and Forest Road) was turnpiked
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
in 1771 being the main Horsham-Crawley road prior to the McAdam Road being built in 1823 (now the old route of the A264 - it would have been extremely wet before it was given a hard surface). There were two London-Brighton coaches a day in each direction in 1797. The improved communications allowed people in London to have country seats in the area. In the early 19th century Hon. Thomas Erskine
Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine
Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine KT PC KC was a British lawyer and politician. He served as Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom between 1806 and 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents.-Background and childhood:...
(Lord Chancellor 1806-1807), son of the Earl of Buchan purchased Buchan Hill in the early 19th century and built a house in the fork between the two roads descending from the north end of Grouse Road towards Bewbush and Gossops Green. Although it is widely believed that Buchan Hill was named after his father, the name is on Budgen's map some 80 years earlier.
William Cobbett
William Cobbett
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
travelled the ridgeway on 31 July 1823. "...CRAWLEY...go two miles along the road...to Brighton; then you turn to the right [at Pease Pottage] and go over six of the worst miles in England...The first two of these miserable miles go though the estate of Lord ERSKINE. It was a bare heath here and there, in the better parts of it, some scrubby birch. It has been, in part, planted with fir-trees, which are as ugly as the heath was; and, in short, it is a most villainous track." This extract from the Rural Rides
Rural Rides
Rural Rides is the book for which the English journalist, agriculturist and political reformer William Cobbett is best known.At the time of writing in the early 1820s, Cobbett was a radical anti-Corn Law campaigner, newly returned to England from a spell of self-imposed political exile in the...
show that the countryside has not changed much in the last 180 years (apart from our definitions of villainous and beautiful and the invasion of that indestructible weed, Rhododendron ponticum
Rhododendron ponticum
Rhododendron ponticum, called Common Rhododendron or Pontic Rhododendron, is a species of Rhododendron native to southern Europe and southwest Asia.-Description:...
, which is rapidly taking over the woods).
In Reminiscences of Horsham by Henry Burstow he states that on 4 October 1837 he went to Peas Pottage to see Queen Victoria pass through on her way from London to Brighton. There was "a large archway made of evergreens, with VICTORIA REGINA worked on it in various coloured dahlias".
Pease Pottage would have benefited from the toll roads, but lost the Crawley-Horsham traffic in 1823 with the opening of the new McAdam
John Loudon McAdam
John Loudon McAdam was a Scottish engineer and road-builder. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface that would be more durable and less muddy than soil-based tracks....
road through Faygate
Faygate
Faygate is a hamlet in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A264 road 3.4 miles south west of Crawley. It has a railway station on the Arun Valley Line with trains connecting to London and Portsmouth. The village is in the green belt between Crawley and Horsham.The village...
, and the London and Brighton Railway
London and Brighton Railway
The London and Brighton Railway was a railway company in England which was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway runs from a junction with the London & Croydon Railway at Norwood - which gives it access from London Bridge, just south of the River Thames in central London...
completed in 1841 which skirted along the eastern boundary of Pease Pottage cutting through Tilgate Forest alongside Standford Brook and through a tunnel under High Street. The Pease Pottage tollgate was removed in 1877. In 1896 on the day after the red flag law expired, 25 cars left London for Brighton, but half had broken down by Crawley. This event is still celebrated in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run
London to Brighton Veteran Car Run
The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is the longest-running motoring event in the world. The first run was in 1896, and has taken place most years since then. To qualify, the cars must have been built before 1905...
which still goes past Pease Pottage on the first Sunday in November.
London Brighton road traffic revived the fortunes of Pease Pottage. The green in front of the Black Swan in the centre of the village was like a fairground with charabanc
Charabanc
A charabanc or "char-à-banc" is a type of horse-drawn vehicle or early motor coach, usually open-topped, common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It was especially popular for sight-seeing or "works outings" to the country or the seaside, organised by businesses once a year...
s parked, stalls, flower sellers, strolling players etc. between the wars. The pub dates back to the 19th century. A pond in front of it was filled in 1883. A smithy was next door, and later a shop and a Jet petrol station opposite, with the Busy Bee restaurant behind. The Grapes pub (closed in 2008 and demolished in 2010) was further south, and had a tin church next to it. It was originally the toll house
Toll house
A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road or canal. Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and early 19th centuries...
, and the name came from grapes growing in a greenhouse
Greenhouse
A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...
next door.
To the south of Pease Pottage is Tilgate Forest Row which had three shops, a blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
and post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
. The Pease Pottage Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
Field was between here and Pease Pottage (now a car breakers yard). The cricket field was made in 1874, but was ploughed up in 1939 as part of the war effort. It had a London horse-drawn tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
as a pavilion. The ground was up to county ground standards.
The next major change to Pease Pottage was the opening of the M23 motorway
M23 motorway
The M23 motorway is a motorway in England. The motorway runs from south of Hooley in Surrey, where it splits from the A23, to Pease Pottage, south of Crawley in West Sussex where it rejoins the A23. The northern end of the motorway starts at junction 7 on what is effectively a spur north from...
in 1975 which continued as the A23 road
A23 road
The A23 road is a major road in the United Kingdom between London and Brighton, East Sussex. It became an arterial route following the construction of Westminster Bridge in 1750 and the consequent improvement of roads leading to the bridge south of the river by the Turnpike Trusts...
, a two lane dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...
south to Handcross
Handcross
Handcross is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A23 road 4.2 miles south of Crawley.Nymans Garden, of parklands run by the National Trust, is near to Handcross, as are of woodland and water gardens at High Beeches Garden.Handcross has two public houses,...
with the houses of Tilgate Row facing onto it. The service station was opened in about 1990. The road layout was changed again in the mid 1990s with the A23 moved a few yards west and widened to three lanes. The old southbound carriageway became a new road to Handcross, and another new road was built on the other side of the A23 to Woodhurst. Tilgate Row is now separated from Pease Pottage by ten traffic lanes.
A large number of houses have been built since 1946 when Pease Pottage consisted of a few buildings near the crossroads, and a few isolated buildings on the A23. The first development was west along Horsham Road, mainly bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
s. This was followed by modern estates behind the Black Swan, and to the west of the old A23 (now Brighton Road South). The last of these was on the site of Hemsleys nursery, south of which are Finches playing fields. Some apartments have been built on the old maintenance deport on the east side of Old Brighton Road North. The northern end of this cul-de-sac
Cul-de-sac
A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...
is in Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
and there are now houses along the west side so the gap between Pease Pottage and Crawley has disappeared.
Commercial activities
There are a number of commercial activities in the village, the best known of which is the large car breakers yard on Brighton Road. Just south of this was the British Airports Authority Management Centre, now occupied by the Crawley Forest School opened on 18 September 2009 by Gloria HunnifordGloria Hunniford
Gloria Hunniford is a Northern Irish TV and radio presenter, and formerly a singer.-Biography:...
. The school is registered as an independent special school and a children's home with Ofsted
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....
. The registration is for a mixed provision (i.e. boys and girls) with an age range of 7–18 years and caters for 35 residential and 20 day pupils.
There are also large warehouses next to the old crossroads, and two small industrial parks - one between Brighton Road and the A23, and the other along Parish Lane. Finally there are some units at the golf driving range on the west of the village and the old Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
site next door (which is strictly in Colgate
Colgate, West Sussex
Colgate is a small village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, about four miles north east of Horsham.A small village, with it's origins at the northern edge of St. Leonards Forest, it has no shops or retail facilities. There is a pub "The Dragon", and a church and a...
).
Country houses
There are two country houses just outside the borders of Pease Pottage, but which have it as a postal address, and are accessed from the village.The original house at Buchan Hill was built in the early 19th century by Hon. Thomas Erskine (Lord Chancellor in 1806). His father was the Earl of Buchan from which it may have taken its name, although Buchan Hill is named on Richard Budgen's map of 1724, and its name may have attracted him. This house was built in a fork between two roads running north towards Bewbush and Gossops Green. Today the right of way descends along the west branch as far as the site of the old house, turns east across the front of it then north along the east branch. John Jervis Broadwood (a descendent of John Broadwood
John Broadwood
John Broadwood was the Scottish founder of the piano manufacturer Broadwood and Sons.-Life:Broadwood was born 6 October 1732 and christened 15 Oct 1732 at St Helens, Cockburnspath in Berwickshire, and grew up in Oldhamstocks, East Lothian...
) occupied it in the 1860s.
The new Buchan House was built in 1883 by Philip Feril Renault Saillard who made his money from a new dye used for ostrich feathers. It was located NE of the original which was subsequently demolished, and had three drives - north, south and east. The latter linked it with the London-Brighton road, and runs along the border between Slaugham and Crawley. It cost £40000 - a lot in those days. It was designed by the London partnership George and Peto, and Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
was also involved. The house was occupied by his daughter after his death in 1915 and subsequently was bought by Upland House School. It was occupied by the Pearl Assurance Company during the war, since when it has been used by Cottesmore School
Cottesmore School
Cottesmore is a preparatory school in the United Kingdom, which has been preparing children for public schools since 1894. It is predominantly a full boarding school although there are a limited number of places for both weekly and day boarders...
.
Woodhurst was constructed as a country house in the early 19th century. It was just off the A23, but now is at the southern end of Old Brighton Road South, and is really in Handcross although it cannot be accessed from there. It has an interesting history having been owned by Dame Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
and used as a ballet school. During World War 2 it was occupied by the Canadian army and was later used by the NHS as Woodhurst Hospital (there are several postcards of this taken in 1955), and later 55 older people with learning difficulties living in residential care provided by Surrey Oaklands NHS Trust. This closed in 2003, and the site is being developed as a Diagnostic and Treatment Centre and Care Home by Sussex Health Care.
In the media
Pease Pottage featured in the 1953 film GenevieveGenevieve (film)
Genevieve is a 1953 British comedy film produced and directed by Henry Cornelius and written by William Rose. It starred John Gregson, Dinah Sheridan, Kenneth More and Kay Kendall as two couples comedically involved in a vintage automobile rally...
as a very remote village deep in the Sussex countryside.
The fictional Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
character Melanie Jane Bush
Melanie Bush
Mel, also sometimes referred to as Melanie, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A computer programmer from the 20th Century who is a companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, she was a regular in the programme from 1986 to 1987...
lived at 36 Down View before joining him (Business Unusual
Business Unusual
Business Unusual is a BBC Books original novel written by Gary Russell and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Sixth Doctor, Melanie Bush, and the Brigadier....
) - this is a fictitious address, but perfectly possible as both the North
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs...
and South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
can be seen from Pease Pottage.