Pease Pottage

Pease Pottageis a village in theMid SussexDistrict ofWest Sussex, England. It lies on the southern edge of theCrawleybuilt-up area, in thecivil parishofSlaugham.
The village has a motorwayservice station, named after the village, which also serves as a local shop for the residents of the village (a footpath was constructed to allow pedestrian access from the village). It is located at the junction of theM23and theA23on the London toBrightonroad, where the A264 toHorshamjoins.
The Church of the Ascension, achapel of easetoSt Mary's Church, Slaugham, opened in 1875, but is no longer in use.
Pease Pottage Radar is about1⁄2mi (0.8 km) west of Pease Pottage and is visible from much of the village. It is anair traffic controlradarforNATSand takes advantage of a position 460 feet (140 m) above sea level, some 250 feet (76 m) above the nearbyGatwick Airport.
Pease Pottage is also an old name forpease pudding. It has been said that the village name came from serving this food to convicts either on their way from London to the South Coast or fromEast GrinsteadtoHorshamalthough this seems implausible and it is not clear why convicts would travel along either route. The name Peaspottage Gate first appears on Budgen's Map of Sussex made in 1724 at the southern end of a road fromCrawleywhere it met the Ridgeway, and is on the border of the parishes ofSlaughamandWorth. This is prior to theturnpikes(1771), and so was not a toll gate. It was probably a gate betweenSt Leonard's ForestandTilgate Forest(part of Worth Forest), and probably a reference to soft muddy ground.Many local villages have Gate as part of the name (Tilgate, Colgate, Faygate etc.). The name is not onJohn Speed's map of 1610 (surveyed in the 1590s). Gate was dropped from the name when the tollgate was removed in 1877.
Pease Pottage is situated on the Forest Ridge of theHigh Weald. This ridge is formed from the resistant sandstones and thin clays of theCretaceousHastings Bedsand stretches fromHorshamin the west to reach theEnglish Channelcoast in the east betweenHastingsandRye. The ridge is narrow to the west of Pease Pottage but widens to the east. WetWeald Clayforms the low ground to the north and south of the ridge. The sandstone provides good drainage and manymicrolithshave been found dating from theMesolithic Age. The Horsham Culture is believed to have lasted about 2,000 years.Neolithicflintsfrom theSouth Downshave been found to the east along Parish Lane. To the west are threeBronze Agetumuli.
Pease Pottage lies on an ancient, pre-Roman trackway that ran in an east to west direction along the Forest Ridge fromAshdown ForestthroughWest Hoathly,Turners Hilland Pease Pottage toHorsham. This pre-historic ridgeway pre-dated the predominantly north–south-oriented Roman roads built by the Romans to link the south coast of England to London, and to connect with the strategically important Wealden iron industry, such as the London to Brighton trunk road 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Pease Pottage andStane Streetfurther to the west. The ridgeway, running as it did in an east–west direction across the Weald, was probably of long-standing importance and of great antiquity. The route can be traced on Ordnance Survey maps and can be discerned on the ground in various places e.g. as an old sunken trackway running through Worth Forest east of Pease Pottage.
The only evidence fromSaxon timescomes from the political structures.TheMiddle Saxonsextended south from the Thames valley and created the sub-kingdom of Sudergeona (Surrey). TheSouth Saxonspopulated 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 SussexRapeswere formed along the river valleys. TheRiver Ousewas 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 modernCrawley. The rapes were sub-divided inhundreds, and the area now known as Pease Pottage was in theHundred of Buttinghill.Slaughamis first mentioned around 1095 when the tithes were granted to thePriory of St Pancrasin Lewes. The church dates from the early 12th century.
The first large scale map of Sussex byChristopher Saxtonin 1575 shows Crawley and Slaugham churches, St. Leonard's Forest and Worth 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) toTurners Hilland onwards toEast Grinstead. A shorter but wetter (probably impassable in the winter) shortcut developed along Parish Lane crossing Standford Brook at Cinder Banks. This is 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 doubleblast furnaceknown as Worth Furnace which was producingcannonsin 1547 – a double furnace was required to produce enough iron for a cannon. Originally owned byThomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, it passed toThomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeleywhen 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 producedcast iron, some of which was taken north to the Blackwaterfinery forge(now underMaidenbower) to be converted intowrought 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-Brightonstage coachwent 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) wasturnpikedin 1771 being the main Horsham-Crawley road prior to theMcAdam Roadbeing built in 1823 (now the old route of theA264– 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.
In the early 19th centuryHon. Thomas Erskine(Lord Chancellor 1806–1807), son of theEarl of Buchanpurchased 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 towardsBewbushandGossops Green. Although it is widely believedthat Buchan Hill was named after his father, the name is on Budgen's map some 80 years earlier. The house is now the home ofCottesmore School.William Cobbetttravelled the ridgeway on 31 July 1823., and wrote about it in hisRural Rides:
InReminiscences of HorshambyHenry Burstowhe states that on 4 October 1837 he went to Pease 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 newMcAdamroad throughFaygate, and theLondon and Brighton Railwaycompleted 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 theLondon to Brighton Veteran Car Runwhich still goes past Pease Pottage on the first Sunday in November.
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 Grapespub(closed in 2008 and demolished in 2010) was further south, and had a tin church next to it. It was originally thetoll house, and the name came from grapes grown in agreenhousenext door.
To the south of Pease Pottage is Tilgate Forest Row which had three shops, ablacksmithand post office. The Pease Pottagecricketfield 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 theM23 motorwayin 1975 which continued as theA23 road, a two lanedual carriagewaysouth toHandcrosswith the houses of Tilgate Forest 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 Forest 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, mainlybungalows. 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 thiscul-de-sacis inCrawleyand there are now houses along the west side so the gap between Pease Pottage and Crawley has disappeared.
There are a number of commercial activities in the village, including the large car breakers yard on Brighton Road. Just south of this was theBritish Airports AuthorityManagement Centre, the site next occupied by the Crawley Forest Schoolopened on 18 September 2009 byGloria Hunniford. The school was registered as an independent special school and a children's home withOfsted. The registration was 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.
The site is now occupied by the controversial 'Cedars' UK Borders Agency Detention Centre,housing families temporarily before deportation. This was opened as a response to objections to children being held at theYarl's Wooddetention centre.
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 oldMet Officesite next door (which is strictly inColgate).
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 descendant ofJohn 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. It was designed by the London partnership ofErnest GeorgeandHarold Peto, and SirEdwin Lutyenswas 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 before the Second World War, then housed Canadian Army Officers (there was a Canadian Army Camp north of Horsham Road), since when it has been used byCottesmore 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 was owned by DameMargot Fonteynand 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.
Pease Pottage featured in the 1953 filmGenevieveas a very remote village deep in the Sussex countryside.
The fictionalDoctor WhocharacterMelanie Jane Bushlived at 36 Downview Crescent before joining theSixth Doctoras a companion in the23rd season. The town and its history feature prominently in the audio storyThe Wrong Doctors.
Pease Pottage was also featured in the 1911 novelThe Four Men: A FarragobyHilaire Bellocas the starting point of a side road.