Eridge Green - (The home of the Neville Family)

General Details

Eridge Green in East Sussex is a small village on the Crowborough to Tunbridge Wells road.

It was until this century, the home of the workers from Eridge Park.

The area was settled in the Iron-Age when Saxonbury Camp was built with its defensive ditch , to the south east of the village near Mark Cross .

The village is closely tied with the Neville family who arrived in England with William the Conqueror and settled at Eridge Park . Their decendants the Abergavenny family together with their monogram are found on many of the properties in this village and others in thge area such as Frant and Rotherfield. The same monogram is found in Abergavenny in Wales , showing the influence of this family. ( The monogram is of a large letter A, a bull, a Tudor Rose and a portcullis ) Eridge had a forge which was established before the 1500's but until 1550 it only produced wrought iron implements. The Neville family invested a great deal in this forge, providing mill ponds to give a regular supply of water. After 1550 the forge was producing cannons for the Nevilles . Near the station was another furnace which was known as Hamsell furnace but which went bankrupt in 1708 ending 150 years of service.

In the 1573 Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the Eridge Park hunting lodge for 6 days on her journey through Kent and Sussex in which she visited many local influencial families.

In 1792 the second Earl of Abergavenny converted the old house into a gothic Castle , which was renamed Eridge Castle , this became the Abergavenny family's primary residence.

During the Napoleonic era, a military camp was to be found nearby towards Groombridge , and in 1793 eighteen soldiers died from smallpox and were buried in Frant churchyard. The present stone buildings all around the area date from the late 1800's when all the wooden buildings were rebuilt to please the eye of the Abergavennys.

The area was affected by the Swing riots in the autumn of 1830 with the land workers demanding reasonable wages, these were put down forceably by army on 15th November. A number of local workers were imprisoned or transported to the colonies.

In 1838 a folly was built by the Abergavenneys on the top of Saxonbury Hill and is a round tower with arrow slits.

In the mid 1800's the train line from Lewes to London was opened and passed through Eridge Station , which lies about 1 mile to the south of the village in a very pretty valley.

Eridge Castle was demolished just before the Second World War by Lord Abergavenny and a modern house built, when the name reverted to Eridge Park.

Views

Eridge Green in East Sussex is on the brow of a hill and has many beautiful open views especially towards Crowborough . Eridge Park is beautiful with many walks throughout the area.

The area near the station is very pretty, especially if you travel towards Groombridge .

If you take the back road which goes next to the church, you come to some very pretty woodland with rocky outcrops.

Services

Eridge Green in East Sussex has a public house but no other services.

The station was built in the mid 1800's and is at the bottom of the hill on the Crowborough road . It has regular trains running to Uckfield to the south and to London to the north.

The nearest shopping centres are at Crowborough to the south and Royal Tunbridge Wells to the north.

Map

Eridge Green is shown as the red symbol on the map.

Nearby Villages
(click on symbol to see the village page)