Bodiam () is a small village and

civil parish In England, 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, w ...

in the Rother District of

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

, England. It lies in the valley of the River Rother, near to the villages of Sandhurst and Ewhurst Green.

Geography

South of the village of Bodiam and extending to the railway station is the site of a Roman settlement investigated in the 1960s. The site was located within the former Guinness hop gardens and the excavations were undertaken in between the rows of hops. A comprehensive landscape survey was carried out around 2016. The village is on the line of the Roman road from Rochester to Westfield near Hastings. This road crossed the River Rother at the same position as the present bridge having approached from close to the parish church. At the Kent Ditch to the north at the County boundary the Roman road can be seen in the bank of the present watercourse outcropping as a solid layer of waste material from iron smelting,(slag). This had been recorded in the 1960s and re-examined by later fieldwork in 2000 by Neil Aldridge of the Kent Archaeological Society as part of a project supported by the Romney Marsh Research Trust. The extent of the road surface was found to be wider than previously thought and extends under the present road bridge. Although famous for its castle, Bodiam was also in a main hop-growing area in the last century and was famous for growing hops for Guinness. Reginald B.

Levett Levett is a surname of Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from eLivet, which is held particularly by families and individuals resident in England and British Commonwealth territories. Origins This surname comes from the village of ...

of Court Lodge Farm sold part of his land to Guinness to grow hops. A railway was built to provide transport for the hoppers, the Kent and East Sussex Railway (K&ESR), which is a tourist attraction. The village sits almost directly on the 51st Parallel and the same micro-climate that was so ideal for hops has been equally beneficial for the growing of wine grapes. Several local producers including Oastbrook Estates, are now producing English still and sparkling wines. There is a 12th-century church, which contains a brass of a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

with the arms of the de Bodeham family, one of the first lords of the manor. Originally it was a port and crossing point from

Battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...

to North Kent. During the medieval period a great moated castle

Bodiam Castle Bodiam Castle () is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III of England, Edward III, with the permission of Richard II of England, R ...

, was built which is now a visitor attraction. There is a small range of houses, a pub (The Castle), and a restaurant (The Curlew).

Climate

Education

It has two schools: Bodiam Primary School, a

state school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

, and Claremont Senior School, an independent. Bodiam Manor School went bankrupt in 2006; consequently Claremont Senior School took over at the start of September 2011.

Notable people

Bodiam was the birthplace in 1881 of Miss A. E. (Ada Elizabeth) Levett, a leading medieval scholar and vice-principal of St. Hilda's College, Oxford. Levett was one of the first female professors of history in England, having been awarded a chair in history at Westfield College,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1929.

References

*Bodiam as a Landscape of Work, Topographical and Geophysical Survey, Barker, Caitlin, Johnson, Sly and Strutt, 2016.

External links

Hop growing in Bodiam
* {{authority control Villages in East Sussex Civil parishes in East Sussex Rother District