One of the best-known guide books of Sussex says of Scaynes Hill, ‘A hamlet to the east of Haywards Heath’. As so little was written about the village I live in, I decided to find out the real history of it. I started collecting information on January 14th, 1965. At first I did not collect much, but gradually it built up. I set about it by asking all the old people about the village; some knew a lot, some knew nothing. I am sure that some of the old people who gave me information enjoyed remembering their younger days. From what little the guide book said, seemed dull and unreal, but now with all I have found out, it is a real and lively place. I have still not completed this history, but I will try hard to find all of it before it fades away from the memories of the old folk.

The village name was really Sckames Hill, but over the years it has changed to Scaynes Hill. In earlier days the village was called Henfield, and Henfield Place takes its name from this. The village has always been a farming place, and the blacksmith’s shop was where the garage at Henfield Place is now; and the oak tree there was always surrounded by cartwheels and old iron, hence all the crocuses. Opposite the school (now the Old Schoolhouse), about eighty years ago, there was a Post Office, a grocer’s, and a draper’s, all in one. In 1908 it was converted into dwellings. The Post Office was moved to Luckens Stores. When it (i.e. the former Post Office) became dwellings, the storeroom was made into a house, the cartshed into a butcher’s shop, and the other end of the row of cottages was a cobbler’s. The cobbler’s name was Taffy, but, alas, when the first world war came, Taffy gave up the shop. When Henfield Place was built, the blacksmith’s shop was removed ….. the carpenter’s, the wheelwright’s, and the blacksmith’s were all taken over by the Lewes Road Sawmills between the world wars. About a hundred years ago schooling took place in the Church. At the beginning of this century there were from 80 to 100 pupils in the School, coming from Freshfields Crossroads, from beyond Blackbrook, and from Chailey Common, walking every day. Church Road used to be called Nash Road after Nash Farm. The (present) School (now the Old Schoolhouse) used to be a Chapel, but the Church people bought it about 80 years ago. The corridor and the tower have been added since.

An earlier Chapel was in a field at Chapeland, near Clearwater, the entrance to which was at the bottom of Scaynes Hill. Footpaths to the Chapel went from the top of the hill down what is now Clearwater Lane, and through the fields opposite Nash Farm.

Once you could see Birling Gap and all the surrounding countryside from the top of Scaynes Hill. Many were the tales handed down about the Gap being seen from the hilltop. Nearby, close to the Anchor, is a pond … also at the top of the Hill there used to be a tollgate for over a hundred years. It is possible that Crown Cottage was once the tollkeeper’s lodge. On the opposite side of the Lewes Road, the south side, the Reddings was once the only private house. Both the Anchor Inn and the Sloop (Inn) have names to do with the sea, as Scaynes Hill was once connected to the sea at Cuckmere by the River Ouse.  Smugglers used to come up the river in sloops and other boats, and the bricks used to build Balcombe Viaduct on the main London to Brighton Railway were also brought up the Ouse.

The Anchor Inn has two original Phoenix fire plaques. These were metal plates supplied by the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company to be displayed on buildings insured with them, in the days when fires were put out by private fire brigades. If you were not insured with them, and showing one of their plaques, they did not deal with the fire!

Opposite Rock Lodge is an old quarry. Some of the stone was used in the building of St. Wilfrid’s Church (Haywards Heath), and for Lancing College. The quarrymen used to cut through the rock with smooth edged saws. Every Friday a cart would collect the stone and take it to Haywards Heath Station for transport to Lancing. A Mr. Andris (?Andress) led a gang of about eight men, and when over 80 years of age he went on cutting stone by himself for nothing. After the second world war, an explosive-mad man was put in charge, getting stone for a war memorial. One day he blew up some stone and bits flew everywhere. One piece went right through the chimney of Mr. Graham’s house (Inces), narrowly missing Mr. H.A. Bugg, who was working on the roof. The footpath known as the Twitten had, at one time, a squeeze-stile at the road end, and an eve-gate and a kissing-gate at the School end. All these were designed to keep out the cattle and other stray animals. The house where Mr. and Mrs. Silverwood live at the end of Ham Lane was made about a hundred ago. Until then, the road to Awbrook Farm and to the Wilderness was by the Anchor Inn, probably just a track. The Womens’s Institute was started in March 1917, in the old Reading Room, the Hall was built in the 1920s, and the new Reading Room was built at the same time.

(This article, by Anne Fermor, aged 10, was a contribution to the first issue of the Scaynes Hill School Magazine, published at the end of last term, and is here reprinted by the permission of the authoress:  Anne, who has now completed her education at this School, goes to the Grammar School in September, and has promised, so far as here studies will allow, further contributions, which we hope to reproduce;  her interest in local history is worthy of emulation).