88-601: Buxted is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex in England. The parish is situated on the Weald , north of Uckfield ; the settlements of Five Ash Down, Heron's Ghyll and High Hurstwood are included within its boundaries. At one time its importance lay in the Wealden iron industry , and later it became commercially important in the poultry and egg industry. The village has both road (the high street
176-522: A London borough . (Since the new county was beforehand a mixture of metropolitan boroughs , municipal boroughs and urban districts, no extant parish councils were abolished.) In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 retained rural parishes, but abolished most urban parishes, as well as the urban districts and boroughs which had administered them. Provision was made for smaller urban districts and boroughs to become successor parishes , with
264-417: A civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government . It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes , which for centuries were the principal unit of secular and religious administration in most of England and Wales. Civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in
352-515: A Special Expense, to residents of the unparished area to fund those activities. If the district council does not opt to make a Special Expenses charge, there is an element of double taxation of residents of parished areas, because services provided to residents of the unparished area are funded by council tax paid by residents of the whole district, rather than only by residents of the unparished area. Parish councils comprise volunteer councillors who are elected to serve for four years. Decisions of
440-576: A boundary coterminous with an existing urban district or borough or, if divided by a new district boundary, as much as was comprised in a single district. There were 300 such successor parishes established. In urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes, the parishes were simply abolished, and they became unparished areas . The distinction between types of parish was no longer made; whether parishes continued by virtue of being retained rural parishes or were created as successor parishes, they were all simply termed parishes. The 1972 act allowed
528-465: A circular patch of land in the woods near Nan Tuck's Lane stays unfertile and no vegetation will grow there. Buxted is part of electoral ward called Buxted and Maresfield. The population of this ward as taken in the census 2011 was 5,534. The parish of Buxted lies partly within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , although the village itself is outside it. Tributaries of both
616-422: A city council (though most cities are not parishes but principal areas, or in England specifically metropolitan boroughs or non-metropolitan districts ). The chairman of a town council will have the title "town mayor" and that of a parish council which is a city will usually have the title of mayor . When a city or town has been abolished as a borough, and it is considered desirable to maintain continuity of
704-462: A city council. According to the Department for Communities and Local Government , in England in 2011 there were 9,946 parishes. Since 1997 around 100 new civil parishes have been created, in some cases by splitting existing civil parishes, but mostly by creating new ones from unparished areas. Parish or town councils have very few statutory duties (things they are required to do by law) but have
792-559: A city was Hereford , whose city council was merged in 1998 to form a unitary Herefordshire . The area of the city of Hereford remained unparished until 2000 when a parish council was created for the city. As another example, the charter trustees for the City of Bath make up the majority of the councillors on Bath and North East Somerset Council. Civil parishes cover 35% of England's population, with one in Greater London and few in
880-481: A civil parish which has no parish council, the parish meeting may levy a council tax precept for expenditure relating to specific functions, powers and rights which have been conferred on it by legislation. In places where there is no civil parish ( unparished areas ), the administration of the activities normally undertaken by the parish becomes the responsibility of the district or borough council. The district council may make an additional council tax charge, known as
968-529: A new code. In either case the code must comply with the Nolan Principles of Public Life . A parish can be granted city status by the Crown . As of 2020 , eight parishes in England have city status, each having a long-established Anglican cathedral: Chichester , Ely , Hereford , Lichfield , Ripon , Salisbury , Truro and Wells . The council of an ungrouped parish may pass a resolution giving
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#17327810814871056-431: A new smaller manor, there was a means of making a chapel which, if generating or endowed with enough funds, would generally justify foundation of a parish, with its own parish priest (and in latter centuries vestry ). This consistency was a result of canon law which prized the status quo in issues between local churches and so made boundary changes and sub-division difficult. The consistency of these boundaries until
1144-739: A parish (a "detached part") was in a different county . In other cases, counties surrounded a whole parish meaning it was in an unconnected, "alien" county. These anomalies resulted in a highly localised difference in applicable representatives on the national level , justices of the peace , sheriffs, bailiffs with inconvenience to the inhabitants. If a parish was split then churchwardens, highway wardens and constables would also spend more time or money travelling large distances. Some parishes straddled two or more counties, such as Todmorden in Lancashire and Yorkshire. High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The High Weald National Landscape
1232-416: A parish council, and instead will only have a parish meeting : an example of direct democracy . Alternatively several small parishes can be grouped together and share a common parish council, or even a common parish meeting. A parish council may decide to call itself a town council, village council, community council, neighbourhood council, or if the parish has city status, the parish council may call itself
1320-431: A population in excess of 100,000 . This scope is similar to that of municipalities in continental Europe, such as the communes of France . However, unlike their continental European counterparts, parish councils are not principal authorities , and in most cases have a relatively minor role in local government. As of September 2023 , there are 10,464 parishes in England, and in 2020 they covered approximately 40% of
1408-503: A population of between 100 and 300 could request their county council to establish a parish council. Provision was also made for a grouped parish council to be established covering two or more rural parishes. In such groups, each parish retained its own parish meeting which could vote to leave the group, but otherwise the grouped parish council acted across the combined area of the parishes included. Urban civil parishes were not given their own parish councils, but were directly administered by
1496-1079: A range of discretionary powers which they may exercise voluntarily. These powers have been defined by various pieces of legislation. The role they play can vary significantly depending on the size, resources and ability of the council, but their activities can include any of the following: Parish councils have powers to provide and manage various local facilities; these can include allotments , cemeteries, parks, playgrounds, playing fields and village greens , village halls or community centres , bus shelters, street lighting, roadside verges, car parks, footpaths, litter bins and war memorials. Larger parish councils may also be involved in running markets , public toilets and public clocks, museums and leisure centres . Parish councils may spend money on various things they deem to be beneficial to their communities, such as providing grants to local community groups or local projects, or fund things such as public events, crime prevention measures, community transport schemes, traffic calming or tourism promotion. Parish councils have
1584-409: A role in the planning system; they have a statutory right to be consulted on any planning applications in their areas. They may also produce a neighbourhood plan to influence local development. The Localism Act 2011 allowed eligible parish councils to be granted a " general power of competence " which allows them within certain limits the freedom to do anything an individual can do provided it
1672-598: A set number of guardians for each parish, hence a final purpose of urban civil parishes. With the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930, urban parishes became a geographical division only with no administrative power; that was exercised at the urban district or borough council level. In 1965 civil parishes in London were formally abolished when Greater London was created, as the legislative framework for Greater London did not make provision for any local government body below
1760-943: A small village or town ward to a large tract of mostly uninhabited moorland in the Cheviots, Pennines or Dartmoor. The two largest as at December 2023 are Stanhope (County Durham) at 98.6 square miles (255 km ), and Dartmoor Forest (Devon) at 79.07 square miles (204.8 km ). The two smallest are parcels of shared rural land: Lands Common to Axminster and Kilmington (Devon) at 0.012 square miles (0.031 km ; 3.1 ha; 7.7 acres), and Lands Common to Brancepeth and Brandon and Byshottles (County Durham) at 0.0165 square miles (0.043 km ; 4.3 ha; 10.6 acres). The next two smallest are parishes in built up areas: Chester Castle (Cheshire) at 0.0168 square miles (0.044 km ; 4.4 ha; 10.8 acres) (no recorded population) and Hamilton Lea (Leicestershire) at 0.07 square miles (0.18 km ; 18 ha; 45 acres) (1,021 residents at
1848-521: A spur to the creation of new parishes in some larger towns which were previously unparished, in order to retain a local tier of government; examples include Shrewsbury (2009), Salisbury (2009), Crewe (2013) and Weymouth (2019). In 2003 seven new parish councils were set up for Burton upon Trent , and in 2001 the Milton Keynes urban area became entirely parished, with ten new parishes being created. Parishes can also be abolished where there
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#17327810814871936-697: A total population of approximately 120,000 persons. The main communities are Royal Tunbridge Wells , Crowborough , Hastings and Haywards Heath . The High Weald AONB was designated under the National Park and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 in October 1983. Designation as an AONB gave official recognition to the unique landscape of the High Weald, strengthened the ability of government agencies and local authorities to conserve and enhance
2024-900: Is Wealden . The Conservative Nus Ghani was elected in the May 2015 election. Prior to Brexit in 2020, the village was part of the South East England constituency in the European Parliament . The A272 cross-country road passes through the village from west to east; it connects with the A22 and A26 roads about a mile (1.6 km) to the west. Buxted station lies on the Oxted Line between Uckfield and Crowborough . The line serves London at London Bridge railway station via East Croydon . Or you can change at East Croydon for Victoria. Civil parish In England,
2112-505: Is 2063 kilometres. Bewl Water , one of five reservoirs in the AONB, is the largest body of inland water in south-east England and one of the area's most important tourist and recreational destinations. Bedgebury Forest , a large area of ancient woodland and heath covering some 10.5 square kilometres (2,600 acres), has facilities for mountain biking, horse-riding and other recreational activities, while Bedgebury National Pinetum , which
2200-472: Is a channel of communication between district and parish tiers of government. For elections, the parish is divided into two wards, Buxted (ten seats) and High Hurstwood Ward (five seats) and includes Five Ash Down. The May 2015 election was uncontested with 13 seats being filled. Wealden District council provides the next level of government with services such as refuse collection, planning consent, leisure amenities and council tax collection. Buxted lies within
2288-573: Is also the A272) and rail links to Uckfield and to London via Oxted. The origin of the name Buxted comes from the Saxon Bochs stede (place of the beeches). The iron-making industry became a major part of Buxted's early prosperity. The first standard blast furnace was called Queenstock and was built in Buxted parish in about 1491. The cannon -making industry in the Weald started at a furnace on
2376-507: Is at present the only part of England where civil parishes cannot be created. If enough electors in the area of a proposed new parish (ranging from 50% in an area with less than 500 electors to 10% in one with more than 2,500) sign a petition demanding its creation, then the local district council or unitary authority must consider the proposal. Since the beginning of the 21st century, numerous parish councils have been created, including some relatively large urban ones. The main driver has been
2464-539: Is evidence that this is in response to "justified, clear and sustained local support" from the area's inhabitants. Examples are Birtley , which was abolished in 2006, and Southsea , abolished in 2010. Every civil parish has a parish meeting, which all the electors of the parish are entitled to attend. Generally a meeting is held once a year. A civil parish may have a parish council which exercises various local responsibilities prescribed by statute. Parishes with fewer than 200 electors are usually deemed too small to have
2552-427: Is in south-east England . Covering an area of 1,450 square kilometres (560 sq mi), it takes up parts of Kent , Surrey , East Sussex , and West Sussex . It is the fourth largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in England and Wales. It has an attractive landscape with a mosaic of small farms and woodlands, historic parks, sunken lanes and ridge-top villages. The area consists of 99 parishes and
2640-471: Is mined from the Purbeck Beds near Battle ), declined rapidly during the late 20th century to a point where less than 10% of employees are now engaged in these activities. In the case of agriculture, only around 4,500 people are now employed out of a total estimated population of 124,880. Despite this, agriculture remains an important employer, along with tourism and leisure. There are few large firms in
2728-405: Is not prohibited by other legislation, as opposed to being limited to the powers explicitly granted to them by law. To be eligible for this, a parish council must meet certain conditions such as having a clerk with suitable qualifications. Parish councils receive funding by levying a " precept " on the council tax paid by the residents of the parish (or parishes) served by the parish council. In
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2816-743: Is now owned by 2 Sisters Food Group . The Buxted site closed down in the 1980s, and is now owned by the Woodland Trust . The original parish church, St Margaret the Queen , is located in Buxted Park and was built in 1250. Its dedication is to Saint Margaret of Scotland . Other churches in the parish include St Mary the Virgin, consecrated 1887, Buxted Methodist Church, built 1907 and Holy Trinity Church in High Hurstwood. In Heron's Ghyll
2904-740: Is the Roman Catholic Grade II listed, St John the Evangelist Church . The first, community level of government is Buxted Parish Council which meets once a month, except in August. The Parish Council is responsible for local amenities such as the provision of litter bins, bus shelters and allotments. It is also a statutory consultee on local planning applications and liaises closely with Wealden District Council on local development issues. The Parish Council works closely with WDC on safety, planning, transport and other issues and
2992-504: The 'Standards Board regime' with local monitoring by district, unitary or equivalent authorities. Under new regulations which came into effect in 2012 all parish councils in England are required to adopt a code of conduct with which parish councillors must comply, and to promote and maintain high standards. A new criminal offence of failing to comply with statutory requirements was introduced. More than one 'model code' has been published, and councils are free to modify an existing code or adopt
3080-1010: The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) to become the smallest geographical area for local government in rural areas. The act abolished the civil (non-ecclesiastical) duties of vestries . Parishes which straddled county boundaries or sanitary districts had to be split so that the part in each urban or rural sanitary district became a separate parish (see List of county exclaves in England and Wales 1844–1974 ). The sanitary districts were then reconstituted as urban districts and rural districts , with parishes that fell within urban districts classed as urban parishes, and parishes that fell within rural districts were classed as rural parishes. The 1894 act established elected civil parish councils as to all rural parishes with more than 300 electors, and established annual parish meetings in all rural parishes. Civil parishes were grouped to form either rural or urban districts which are thereafter classified as either type. The parish meetings for parishes with
3168-475: The Rivers Rother (flowing eastward) and Cuckmere flow through the parish, and were used by the iron industry for power. It is largely a rural parish, although the original Britts farmland is now largely covered by modern houses along Britts Farm Road, constructed in the 1980s. The parish contains an area of Site of Special Scientific Interest — Buxted Park , an old deer park which is very important for
3256-472: The break with Rome , parishes managed ecclesiastical matters, while the manor was the principal unit of local administration and justice. Later, the church replaced the manor court as the rural administrative centre, and levied a local tax on produce known as a tithe . In the medieval period, responsibilities such as relief of the poor passed increasingly from the lord of the manor to the parish's rector , who in practice would delegate tasks among his vestry or
3344-595: The lord of the manor , but not all were willing and able to provide, so residents would be expected to attend the church of the nearest manor with a church. Later, the churches and priests became to a greater extent the responsibility of the Catholic Church thus this was formalised; the grouping of manors into one parish was recorded, as was a manor-parish existing in its own right. Boundaries changed little, and for centuries after 1180 'froze', despite changes to manors' extents. However, by subinfeudation , making
3432-403: The monarch ). A civil parish may be equally known as and confirmed as a town, village, neighbourhood or community by resolution of its parish council, a right not conferred on other units of English local government. The governing body of a civil parish is usually an elected parish council (which can decide to call itself a town, village, community or neighbourhood council, or a city council if
3520-470: The (often well-endowed) monasteries. After the dissolution of the monasteries , the power to levy a rate to fund relief of the poor was conferred on the parish authorities by the Poor Relief Act 1601 . Both before and after this optional social change, local (vestry-administered) charities are well-documented. The parish authorities were known as vestries and consisted of all the ratepayers of
3608-403: The 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), which established elected parish councils to take on the secular functions of the parish vestry . A civil parish can range in size from a sparsely populated rural area with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, to a large town with
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3696-564: The 19th century is useful to historians, and is also of cultural significance in terms of shaping local identities; reinforced by the use of grouped parish boundaries, often, by successive local authority areas; and in a very rough, operations-geared way by most postcode districts. There was (and is) wide disparity in parish size. Writtle , Essex traditionally measures 13,568 acres (21 sq mi) – two parishes neighbouring are Shellow Bowells at 469 acres (0.7 sq mi), and Chignall Smealy at 476 acres (0.7 sq mi) Until
3784-411: The 19th century with the advent of the railways, which made access from London much easier. The resources brought into the area by wealthy incomers created and maintained the many parks and gardens that are now characteristic of the High Weald landscape. Today the High Weald is still economically dependent, not so much on wealthy landowners but on large numbers of commuters living there who travel outside
3872-591: The 2011 census, Newland with Woodhouse Moor and Beaumont Chase reported inhabitants, and there were no new deserted parishes recorded. Nearly all instances of detached parts of civil parishes (areas not contiguous with the main part of the parish) and of those straddling counties have been ended. 14 examples remain in England as at 2022, including Barnby Moor and Wallingwells , both in Nottinghamshire. Direct predecessors of civil parishes are most often known as "ancient parishes", although many date only from
3960-511: The 2021 census). The 2001 census recorded several parishes with no inhabitants. These were Chester Castle (in the middle of Chester city centre), Newland with Woodhouse Moor , Beaumont Chase , Martinsthorpe , Meering , Stanground North (subsequently abolished), Sturston , Tottington , and Tyneham (subsequently merged). The lands of the last three were taken over by the Armed Forces during World War II and remain deserted. In
4048-493: The Buxted and Maresfield Ward, which provides two councillors. The May 2015 election returned two Conservative councillors. East Sussex county council is the third tier of government, providing education, libraries and highway maintenance. Buxted falls within the Buxted Maresfield district. Roy Galley, Conservative, was elected in the May 2013 election with 51.4% of the vote. The UK Parliament constituency for Buxted
4136-570: The English population. For historical reasons, civil parishes predominantly cover rural areas and smaller urban areas, with most larger urban areas being wholly or partly unparished ; but since 1997 it has been possible for civil parishes to be created within unparished areas if demanded by local residents . In 2007 the right to create civil parishes was extended to London boroughs , although only one, Queen's Park , has so far been created. Eight parishes also have city status (a status granted by
4224-642: The High Weald are referred to as the Weald Forest Ridge . This ridge includes a number of ancient heathland forests, notably Ashdown Forest , St Leonards Forest , Worth Forest and Dallington Forest . Ancient woodland covers 22% of the Weald Forest Ridge (total woodland cover is 40%), which represents a significant proportion of the resource in the UK. Farming was a marginal activity and production typically mirrored local demand; woodland however
4312-738: The administration of the poor laws was the main civil function of parishes, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866 , which received royal assent on 10 August 1866, declared all areas that levied a separate rate or had their own overseer of the poor to be parishes. This included the Church of England parishes (until then simply known as "parishes"), extra-parochial areas , townships and chapelries . To have collected rates this means these beforehand had their own vestries, boards or equivalent bodies. Parishes using this definition subsequently became known as "civil parishes" to distinguish them from
4400-557: The area to work, mainly to the Crawley/Gatwick conurbation, the coastal towns and London. Today 70% of residents commute to work outside the area while less than 7% make their living directly from the land. Several long distance paths cross the AONB: High Weald Landscape Trail , Wealdway , 1066 Country Walk, Saxon Shore Way , Vanguard Way and Sussex Border Path . The total length of footpaths
4488-399: The charter, the charter may be transferred to a parish council for its area. Where there is no such parish council, the district council may appoint charter trustees to whom the charter and the arms of the former borough will belong. The charter trustees (who consist of the councillor or councillors for the area of the former borough) maintain traditions such as mayoralty . An example of such
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#17327810814874576-414: The church) was cleared away and the village then took up its present location. By 1836, the entire original village centre was no more, having been relocated to the site it occupies today. Some of the outlying houses pre-date this move, such as Britts, a 17th-century farmhouse, which still stands. The original manor house was built further down the hill next to the railway where Queen Victoria once visited –
4664-598: The conservation of invertebrates. Buxted Park is now a country house hotel, owned by Hand Picked Hotels around which there are some lovely walks. The wholesale Buxted Chickens had a factory in Buxted as well as one in Five Ash Down. Buxted Chickens was founded by Antony Fisher , who also founded the Institute of Economic Affairs . The Buxted brand, formerly owned by the Grampian Country Foods ,
4752-650: The core of the distinctive Weald anticline . At its margins are the relatively flat clay vales of the Low Weald, the Greensand Ridge , the North Downs and South Downs . At the centre, the sandstones and clays formed geologically of the Hastings Beds of the early Cretaceous period rise up to give the characteristic forested ridges of the High Weald. This geology and the subsequent dissection of
4840-537: The council are carried out by a paid officer, typically known as a parish clerk. Councils may employ additional people (including bodies corporate, provided where necessary, by tender) to carry out specific tasks dictated by the council. Some councils have chosen to pay their elected members an allowance, as permitted under part 5 of the Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003. The number of councillors varies roughly in proportion to
4928-464: The council of the urban district or borough in which they were contained. Many urban parishes were coterminous (geographically identical) with the urban district or municipal borough in which they lay. Towns which included multiple urban parishes often consolidated the urban parishes into one. The urban parishes continued to be used as an electoral area for electing guardians to the poor law unions . The unions took in areas in multiple parishes and had
5016-466: The council will an election be held. However, sometimes there are fewer candidates than seats. When this happens, the vacant seats have to be filled by co-option by the council. If a vacancy arises for a seat mid-term, an election is only held if a certain number (usually ten) of parish residents request an election. Otherwise the council will co-opt someone to be the replacement councillor. The Localism Act 2011 introduced new arrangements which replaced
5104-525: The creation of town and parish councils is encouraged in unparished areas . The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 created a procedure which gave residents in unparished areas the right to demand that a new parish and parish council be created. This right was extended to London boroughs by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 – with this, the City of London
5192-463: The desire to have a more local tier of government when new larger authorities have been created, which are felt to be remote from local concerns and identity. A number of parishes have been created in places which used to have their own borough or district council; examples include Daventry (2003), Folkestone (2004), Kidderminster (2015) and Sutton Coldfield (2016). The trend towards the creation of geographically large unitary authorities has been
5280-439: The ecclesiastical parishes. The Church of England parishes, which cover more than 99% of England, have become officially (and to avoid ambiguity) termed ecclesiastical parishes . The limits of many of these have diverged; most greatly through changes in population and church attendance (these factors can cause churches to be opened or closed). Since 1921, each has been the responsibility of its own parochial church council . In
5368-473: The eldest son of the Anglican curate at the time, Rev. Alfred Charnley Lawrence. The manor house, known as Buxted Park , was purchased by the then Prime Minister, Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool , in the early part of the 19th century. He set about extending the park surrounding the house, and eventually coerced the villagers to vacate their own houses to enable him to do so. The village (although not
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#17327810814875456-534: The established English Church, which for a few years after Henry VIII alternated between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England , before settling on the latter on the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558. By the 18th century, religious membership was becoming more fractured in some places, due in part to the progress of Methodism . The legitimacy of the parish vestry came into question, and
5544-511: The forest surrounds, is said to be the most complete collection of conifers on one site anywhere in the world, and a major tourist attraction. Ashdown Forest is an internationally important area of lowland heathland occupying the highest sandstone ridge-top of the High Weald. It was also the setting for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories of AA Milne . Accounting for two-thirds (65.5%) of the AONB's heathland, it receives special protection as
5632-455: The government at the time of the Local Government Act 1972 discouraged their creation for large towns or their suburbs, but there is generally nothing to stop their establishment. For example, Birmingham has two parishes ( New Frankley and Sutton Coldfield ), Oxford has four, and the Milton Keynes urban area has 24. Parishes could not however be established in London until the law was changed in 2007. A civil parish can range in area from
5720-464: The house being the Chequers of its day. The original house burnt down in the latter part of the 19th century and was rebuilt in its present location. According to local legend , the ghost of Nan Tuck, a woman from Rotherfield who allegedly poisoned a man in the 17th century, is said to haunt Nan Tuck's Lane in Buxted. Supposedly, the murder was quickly discovered and Tuck evaded her pursuers over
5808-634: The landscape, and provided priority for financial support for these objectives from the principal government agency responsible for AONBs, the Countryside Agency (now Natural England ). AONBs do not possess separate administrative structures like Britain's National Parks, but rely on existing structures. In the case of the High Weald, this requires co-ordination of the policies and management activities of fifteen local authorities, comprising four counties (Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent) and eleven district authorities. The High Weald lies at
5896-476: The late 19th century, most of the "ancient" (a legal term equivalent to time immemorial ) irregularities inherited by the civil parish system were cleaned up, and the majority of exclaves were abolished. The census of 1911 noted that 8,322 (58%) of "parishes" in England and Wales were not geographically identical when comparing the civil to the ecclesiastical form. In 1894, civil parishes were reformed by
5984-468: The mainstay of the rural economy, though the majority of farms were and remain small and seldom very profitable. Today, agriculture, mainly livestock farming, remains the main AONB land use, but in 2007 it only accounted for 67.5% of the total area, an increase of 6% from 2000; by 2010 agriculture may account for less than half the area. Employment in the traditional rural industries of the High Weald, agriculture, forestry and mineral working (gypsum, notably,
6072-465: The mid 19th century. Using a longer historical lens the better terms are "pre-separation (civil and ecclesiastical) parish", "original medieval parishes" and "new parishes". The Victoria County History , a landmark collaborative work mostly written in the 20th century (although incomplete), summarises the history of each English "parish", roughly meaning late medieval parish. A minority of these had exclaves , which could be: In some cases an exclave of
6160-465: The new district councils (outside London) to review their parishes, and many areas left unparished in 1972 have since been made parishes, either in whole or part. For example, Hinckley , whilst entirely unparished in 1974, now has four civil parishes, which together cover part of its area, whilst the central part of the town remains unparished. Some parishes were sub-divided into smaller territories known as hamlets , tithings or townships . Nowadays
6248-494: The next few days by climbing hedges and hiding in hay ricks. It is said her intention was to take sanctuary in Buxted Parish Church – according to the right of asylum , if one could reach a church and touch the altar, a fugitive might escape punishment – but with local officials pursuing her, she was forced to run into the woods. According to the tale, she disappeared there and was never seen again. Legend holds that
6336-488: The other conurbations. Civil parishes vary greatly in population: some have populations below 100 and have no settlement larger than a hamlet , while others cover towns with populations of tens of thousands. Weston-super-Mare , with a population of 71,758, is the most populous civil parish. In many cases small settlements, today popularly termed villages , localities or suburbs, are in a single parish which originally had one church. Large urban areas are mostly unparished, as
6424-448: The parish has city status). Alternatively, in parishes with small populations (typically fewer than 150 electors) governance may be by a parish meeting which all electors may attend; alternatively, parishes with small populations may be grouped with one or more neighbours under a common parish council. Wales was also divided into civil parishes until 1974, when they were replaced by communities , which are similar to English parishes in
6512-401: The parish the status of a town, at which point the council becomes a town council . Around 400 parish councils are called town councils. Under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 , a civil parish may be given one of the following alternative styles: As a result, a parish council can be called a town council, a community council, a village council or occasionally
6600-404: The parish. As the number of ratepayers of some parishes grew, it became increasingly difficult to convene meetings as an open vestry. In some, mostly built-up, areas the select vestry took over responsibility from the entire body of ratepayers. This innovation improved efficiency, but allowed governance by a self-perpetuating elite. The administration of the parish system relied on the monopoly of
6688-562: The parish; the church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and became voluntary from 1868. During the 17th century it was found that the 1601 Poor Law did not work well for very large parishes, which were particularly common in northern England. Such parishes were typically subdivided into multiple townships , which levied their rates separately. The Poor Relief Act 1662 therefore directed that for poor law purposes 'parish' meant any place which maintained its own poor, thereby converting many townships into separate 'poor law parishes'. As
6776-499: The perceived inefficiency and corruption inherent in the system became a source for concern in some places. For this reason, during the early 19th century the parish progressively lost its powers to ad hoc boards and other organisations, such as the boards of guardians given responsibility for poor relief through the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 . Sanitary districts covered England in 1875 and Ireland three years later. The replacement boards were each entitled to levy their own rate in
6864-411: The population of the parish. Most rural parish councillors are elected to represent the entire parish, though in parishes with larger populations or those that cover larger areas, the parish can be divided into wards. Each of these wards then returns councillors to the parish council (the numbers depending on their population). Only if there are more candidates standing for election than there are seats on
6952-485: The private sector, and most firms are very small. Significant wealth has been brought into the High Weald over the centuries by those from outside wishing to live there. The trend for prosperous urban dwellers to move to the countryside is apparent as early as the 14th century. Kent was the most popular destination due in part to its accessibility to London and its particular form of land tenure which enabled land to be freely negotiable. The process of migration accelerated in
7040-471: The sandstone core by rivers such as the Ouse , Medway and Rother are fundamental to its underlying landscape character. The headwaters of these rivers have cut deep, steep-sided valleys (ghylls) which are wet and clayey. On this underlying geological structure centuries if not millennia of human activity have created the landscape that is visible today. The entire Weald was once heavily wooded and, even though
7128-459: The sons of a large landowner in the Hollington area of Hastings, Sussex. In his lengthy will, parson William Levett left large charitable bequests which he directed be supervised by his friend Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu . Richard Woodman , an ironmaster was born here, but he was burnt as a Protestant martyr in 1557. The novelist George Alfred Lawrence was born in Buxted in 1827,
7216-443: The stream at Hoggets Farm lying to the north between Buxted and Hadlow Down . The first cast-iron cannon made in England was cast in 1543 by Ralf Hogge , an employee of Parson William Levett , a Sussex rector with broad interests, paradoxically enough, in the emerging English armaments industry. Levett was removed as Buxted's vicar in 1545 by Thomas Cranmer , Archbishop of Canterbury . But thanks to friends in high places, Levett
7304-594: The time of the Domesday Book , 1086, the High Weald was the most wooded natural area in England. Today, 24.6% of the AONB is woodland, compared with a national figure of about 9%. Of this, 17.6% is ancient woodland ; in other words, over half the area's woodlands are ancient. The area of the High Weald AONB represents only 1% of England yet it has 3.4% of England's woodlands, making it one of the most densely wooded landscapes. The highest sandstone hills of
7392-640: The vast woodland that lay between the North Downs and South Downs, which was known to the Celtic Britons as Coit Andred , to the Romans as Silva Anderida , and to the Saxons first as Andredesleage and later Andredesweald , has been much reduced and fragmented as the result of human activity over the last 1,500 years, woodland remains at a much higher density in the High Weald than elsewhere. At
7480-666: The way they operate. Civil parishes in Scotland were abolished for local government purposes by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 ; the Scottish equivalent of English civil parishes are the community council areas established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , which have fewer powers than their English and Welsh counterparts. There are no equivalent units in Northern Ireland . The parish system in Europe
7568-498: Was established between the 8th and 12th centuries, and an early form was long established in England by the time of the Norman Conquest . These areas were originally based on the territory of manors , which, in some cases, derived their bounds from Roman or Iron Age estates; some large manors were sub-divided into several parishes. Initially, churches and their priests were the gift and continued patronage (benefaction) of
7656-496: Was measured in terms of how many hogs it would support in the Domesday survey , the raising of which in woodland mainly ceased by the 20th century. The rapid growth of the iron industry from about 1490, together with the development of crafts such as weaving and tanning, made it, for a time, one of the wealthiest districts of England. By the 18th and 19th centuries these activities had moved to more favourable areas, leaving farming as
7744-471: Was quickly reinstated. After regaining his clerical position, Levett died a very wealthy man, thanks to his iron mining and smelting operations, founded by his brother John Levett, one of the founders of the Sussex iron industry and one of the wealthiest men in Sussex, who controlled 20 Sussex manors at his death in 1535. The family is of Norman descent and one of the oldest in Sussex. William and John Levett were
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