Why is the village called Isfield? donated by Bill Colson

According to the Doomsday Book Isfield was called Sifelle. The Earl himself holds Sifelle, Godwine held it to King Edward in allodium.  In the time of King Edward it was worth 100 shillings, now £4.

Why does the church of St Margaret’s stand so far away from the Village?

There was a Church on this site before the end of the 12^th Century, and a vestige of that ancient building remains in the arch between the tower and the nave. But the village once scattered along the riverside and beside the old roman road, the roman road disappeared so long ago no one knows why.

Mixed farming was the mainstay of the community for centuries, and a mill remains to this day. The river however was utilised for another kind of mill, and fine paper was once made at Isfield. Later among the farms there were also hop gardens, there were formerly eight hop gardens and six oast houses, four of which have still their cowls. All but one of these is used as store houses. The other one has been made into a dwelling house at New House Farm. At one time the Uckfield and District Root, Corn, Butter and Hop Show was held, many prizes came to Isfield.

At hop-picking time a wagon with two horses used to go to Isfield Station around 7:30am to collect the hop-pickers and their families and take them to the hop gardens. It was a pretty sight to see them going along with prams and children, for all had to turn out. Some prams could go into the wagon, and some were tied behind it. At the end of the day they had to find their way back to the station as best as they could: the wagon was needed to take the hops to the oast house to be dried. Hop-picking was a very busy time; the women were paid for their work by the bushels picked.

Among the farmers’ wives the showing of butter caused much competition. Some were salted and some fresh, all were shown in half pound pats. The show day was a day out for the farmers and a good deal of beer was drunk, it finished with a dinner and a sing song at the Bell Hotel in Uckfield.  The old farmers used to say “We will make the old Bell ring tonight” and they did.