Nicholas Culpeper (isfield) - The rebel herbalist’s

Leave it to the rebels of the world to make an impact on history. When one thought of the “bad boy” of the herbalist world, one would automatically think of Nicholas Culpeper. This herbalist who lived in 17th century England would lead a tragically short life. Yet his brief life was nothing short of being fraught with meaning. Though his career was cut short, he would be later known as “The People’s Herbalist.” To this day, many owe Culpeper and his radical beliefs a debt of gratitude. At the time, he would use what would then be viewed as unconventional methods, and was, at a time, accused of witchcraft. But who was Culpeper?

What was it in him that made him a man of the masses?

Continued here

The History Of Nicholas Culpeper

A herbalist with a mission
Nicholas Culpeper is an important figure in the history of herbal medicine. Born 18 October 1616, he lived as a young boy with his mother, Mary, and grandfather, William Attersoll, head of the local parish, in Isfield, Sussex, England.

A small village in a country environment of wild flowers and meadows, Nicholas had the task of collecting plants for the household. It was in the family kitchen that he first witnessed the use of plants in healing and cooking. Mary, skilled in the mixing of medicines, also had knowledge of traditional ingredients and their uses.

Nicholas gained an awareness of the healing qualities that many of the local plants possessed and could identify the wide variety of herbs and flowers that grew in the surrounding fields. “In these fields, he pored over the book of nature in the same detail as his grandfather combed the book of God inside.” (Woolley, p. 20)


Read more at http://www.infobarrel.com/The_History_Of_Nicholas_Culpeper

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.

Isfield Cricket Club - By WM Wratten

Thanks to Bill Colson for the article.

Isfield Cricket Club is one of the oldest in the County, established in 1758. The late W. Wratten was elected captain of the club in 1872 and held the office for 33 years without without a break. On Whit-Monday, June 12^th 1905 he was presented with a solid silver condiment set to mark his retirement. Mrs Henry King, whose husband, Major King was then president of the club made the presentation. In those days the matches were very few, only 10 a season, wickets were pitched at 11am, lunch 1pm and tea at 5pm. Stumps were drawn at 7pm. Teams went away to play in a pair horse brake which held fourteen: eleven players, scorer, umpire and driver.

The first known ground in Isfield was in Northfield where the estate now stands. After that play moved into the field behind the oast house at Elms Farm, and then it was in the Broad piece which is just over the Old Mill Bridge, Next matches were played in the field adjoining the playing field, and now of course the pitch is in the playing field itself.

One of the away matched each year was at Sheffield park against the Lord Sheffield’s eleven. That was a grand day, a bell rung at the start of each innings, and again after lunch and tea time, everybody had to be ready or there was no match, Lord Sheffield was very strict about time.

Many stories have been told about Isfield Cricket, one was that seven runs were scored off the very first ball of a special match; It took three players to get the ball back. Another notable incident happened in a match at South Heighton when a ball landed in an empty railway truck and as the goods train was on the move, it had travelled six miles before it was picked up.

Lunch in those days was a grand affair, it was a wonder where it all disappeared too, and cold boiled beef was a rare joint with plenty of salad, new potatoes and young peas. The Landlady at the Station Hotel (now Laughing Fish) provided the lunches; she cooked the joint in the same copper as she did her washing in, which took 2 strong men to lift if out of the copper. For this effort they received a pint each, which was 2p a pint. 

Every Whit-Monday a team from the Hayes Candy company came to play a match. Mr J C Hayes was the husband of the donor of the Church organ given in 1906, and he lived at the White House in Isfield. At these matches he supplied all the refreshments and invited everyone in the village to tea on the cricket ground. After each match there was a sing song at the headquarters of the home team which of course was the village pub. Perhaps there was more cricket played at these parties than during a match.

Those who remember cricket played in Isfield in bygone days will never forget the names of Hemsley, Molineux, Ford, Heasman, Lessiter, Poste, Turner and Wratten, May the young players of today keep the old flag flying its colours of blue and chocolate, which were chosen by the late Mrs King in 1894.

Old Isfield - By V Hopkins

Thanks to Bill Colson for the article.
Many years ago this used to be a quiet village, the sand carts drawn by horses went to and fro from the sandpits to the station where the sand was shovelled into trucks and then sent to Eastbourne. The Mill also had horse drawn vans going to and from the station, loading and unloading grain. Once a boy tried to get on a van while it was moving, but he fell and then wheel went over his leg and broke it. Another van was out on the rounds when its driver was killed, and no one ever found out what happened.  The baker used to make the bread and deliver it through the village from his handcart covered with a lid, what lovely crusty bread that was! Mr Stevens the baker lived in Clappers Cottage, and his sister in law who was the midwife lived next door.

The bungalows built opposite were bought by Mr Schweir, who ran a smallholding; this was later bought by Mr J R Palmer who only recently left the village.

In those days the Mill was a water mill, I can remember the first engine being put in, the engineer had his lunch with us, and on one occasion we had a cherry tart which he enjoyed. He couldn’t understand why we all had stones left on our plate afterwards, he had eaten them all!  Formerly the Mill House went with the mill, and there was a footbridge over the stream to connect the house and the mill. The Mill House has been considerably altered since those times.

I remember my brother sitting on a sack what was attached to a chain, and being hauled up to the very top of the mill. The men nearly had a fit as he went through each trap hatch, but all went well.
The Bridge cottage was lived in by the Funnels, and Mr Funnel was the preacher at the chapel that is now closed.

Isfield Church lies in a very peaceful spot across the fields where long ago the village used to be, it is a lovely church and there my daughter was christened, confirmed and married.

Is is believed that there was an underground passage from the Shurley Chapel to Isfield Place, and it would be interesting to know if it still exists.

Major King was a fine old squire, and when he lived at Isfield Place everyone had to bow when meeting him. When he died the school children lined the path to the church for his funeral, and he was carried on a farm wagon lined with evergreens. He was laid to rest in the family vault, the only time it has been opened for a very long time. His widow established a fund in his memory to help people in the village, and this is still used for Christmas Comforts. At one time the school for Isfield children was held in one room on a plot opposite Chestnut Farm although it had a roll of no less than eighty scholars. But later the building that has recently been converted into the Village Hall was opened and attended by many children, some of whom walked a long way daily. Happy memories of those days remain among us, the school was used for concerts, and some of these were given by the children and were very good.

For years the organist at St Margaret’s lived at Barcombe Mills and he walked or cycled to and from church each Sunday to play at the morning and evening services.

One truly sad event in the village was when foot and mouth disease occurred at Newhouse Farm, and all the livestock had to be slaughtered and burnt, Mr Cheale the farmer was our milkman at that time. He delivered the milk by horse and cart, measuring it out into our jugs from large milk can.

The first Post Office in the village was at The Elms and dealt mainly in stamps, the postman would cycle from Uckfield with the letters which he delivered to the post office. Then the ladies (Burton, Joslin and Wren) would take them round to the houses while the postman sat in his hut in the sandpit all day until it was time to collect the evening mail and take it back to Uckfield.

Many changes have been made to the cottage homes of those days, some have altogether disappeared, and replaced by newer homes. The site of one of these is now occupied by Sappers. Here there once stood a thatched cottage in which lived Mr and Mrs Francis, He was a shoe repairer. Next door were two cottages which were later combined to make Imperial House and the Village stores we next door which are called Grafton Villa’s, which was a butchers and the large front window still remains.

Two cottages known as Chapel Cottages were also altered to make the bungalow now called Robins Post. Not far away in the garden of Side View Cottage stood a wooden hut which served as a shop for a visiting shoe repairer who came two or three days a week.

The village once has its own Brass band and this took pride in its parades on such occasions as Hospital Sunday, Postcards show the band marching behind a banner and between the Fire brigade and the Boy Scouts on July 23^rd 1922. Mr Charlie Heasman, for many years a choir man with a fine bass voice also played the big drum, this very instrument was found in the roof of The Elms.

After the First World War the memorial hall was put up in a combined effort by the village people, its first caretaker who was Mr Goodman took pride of it in his garden; an old postcard shows him standing before the open door under a very large board announcing Isfield Memorial Hall. In this picture there is no annexe room to the right of the door, that was added later. Dances, Socials and whist-drives were well attended there for many years.

Isfield History

Isfield lies just off the main A26 Uckfield to Lewes main road, and is well hidden in the Ouse valley.

The Romans established a staging post in the village, near a ford across the Ouse, this was on a section of Ermine Street which ran from Newhaven to London , passing through Lewes and Isfield and Maresfield .

The village was recorded as Sifelle in the Domesday book , and whose original owner was Earl Harold Godwin later to become King Harold who died at Battle .

Simon de Montfort passed through the village on the way back to London after the Battle of Lewes with King Henry III in 1264. He must have come down this route as well as his troops prayed before the Battle at nearby Fletching .

The present church was started in the late 1100's and was located in the middle of the village, but the Black Death of 1348 saw the village move away from the church to its current location. The roof of the church is an example of local buildings roofed with Horsham Tiles .

Nicholas Culpepper was raised in the village of Isfield. His grandfather William Attersole. was the rector of St Margarets, His father had died 19 days before his birth so as a new born, in 1616, he came to reside at Isfield Rectory.

Nicholas Culpepper is the most famous English herbalist writing in English. His book The English Physitian, or 'An Astrologo-Physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of this Nation' -remains in production, as it has done in countless forms since it was first published in 1653.

In the 1770's Reverend William Clarke from nearby Buxted , discovered a black marble slab in the Church, which was believed to be from the tomb of Gundrada the daughter of William the Conqueror . It was borrowed or looted depending on your outlook by the Shurleys (The local landowners) from the Priory of St Pancras at Lewes during the Dissolution of the Monastries by King Henry VIII.

On October 18th 1858 the station was opened, and was a stop on the Uckfield to Lewes line which provided access for the local produce to the towns in the area, but was shut on 23rd February 1969. Nowadays the Lavender Line Preservation Society runs the 600 yds of track as a memorial to the ages of the Southern Region Railway. The line is named after the local coal merchant who used the line until it closed. Trains run on the line at weekends in the summer and a visit to the well preserved station and track should be put on your agenda.

http://sussex.villagenet.co.uk/isfield.php