Rodmell 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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the Lewes District of

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...

, England. It is located three miles (4.8 km) south-west of

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of t ...

, on the

to Newhaven road and six and a half miles from the City of

Brighton & Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton a ...

and is situated by the west banks of the River Ouse. The village is served by

Southease railway station Southease railway station is located east of the village of Southease in East Sussex, England. It is on the Seaford branch of the East Coastway Line, measured from via Redhill. The station is surrounded by agricultural land. The South Down ...

, opened in 1906. The

Prime Meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great ...

passes just to the west of the village. The village name has been variously spelled as ''Ramelle'' or ''Redmelle'' (11th century), ''Redmelde'' (12th century), ''Radmelde'' (13th century) and ''Radmill'' (18th century). It most likely derives from Brittonic where ''Rhod'' denotes a wheel and ''Melin'' refers to a Mill, hence mill wheel. A less likely derivation is from Old English ''read *mylde'', " lace withred soil". Before the time of the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

the manor of Rodmell was held by King Harold II.Rodmell
A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7, L. F. Salzman (editor), retrieved 21 April 2009 At the time the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

was compiled, there was a church in Rodmell, which was granted to

Lewes Priory Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building. History The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and ha ...

William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey (died 11 May 1138) was the son of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey and his first wife Gundred. He was more often referred to as ''Earl Warenne'' or ''Earl of Warenne'' than as Earl of Surrey.G. E. ...

. The early Norman church is dedicated to

St. Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupation ...

. The font is believed to be

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

, predating the building itself. More recently,

Monk's House Monk's House is a 16th-century weatherboarded cottage in the village of Rodmell, three miles (4.8 km) south of Lewes, East Sussex, England. The writer Virginia Woolf and her husband, the political activist, journalist and editor Leonard ...

was the home of the author

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...

for twenty-one years until her death in 1941. The village is bisected by the road from

to Newhaven which passes through Iford. This road also passes the neighbouring village of

Southease Southease is a small village and civil parish in East Sussex, in South East England between the A26 road and the C7 road from Lewes to Newhaven, East Sussex, Newhaven. The village is to the west of the River Ouse, Sussex and has a church dedica ...

. The village was part of the Holmstrow hundred until the abolition of hundreds in the 19th century.

Notable buildings and areas

Like many of the county's southern parishes, Rodmell, is a long thin parish. From southeast to the northwest, it runs from Saltdean over the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...

to the Lewes Brooks and as far as the River Ouse. To the north is the Iford parish and to the south is

. There are many reasons why the Downland area is special as well. The South Downs Way crosses the scarp top. West from the track, on the Down between Highdole Hill and Fore Hill, there are many surviving marks from a busy

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

and Roman village. It used to be called ‘Isenden’, a Tolkienesque name, which sounds like it meant ‘Ouse dean’. Unusually, the long and convoluted dry valley behind the scarp does not drain southwards to the sea, but easterly, then northerly to the Brooks and the Ouse. There are also many surviving Down pasture sites that deserve to be known better. Michael Light, a worker at South Farm, has written a book/pamphlet with a number of editions recording the birds he has seen in the parish. In 2005 he recorded turtle dove,

barn owl The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himala ...

and

little owl The little owl (''Athene noctua''), also known as the owl of Athena or owl of Minerva, is a bird that inhabits much of the temperate and warmer parts of Europe, the Palearctic east to Korea, and North Africa. It was introduced into Britain at ...

breeding in the area. He also recorded dotterel and yellow wagtail on passage on the flooded arable fields.

St Peter's Church

St Peter's Church St. Peter's Church, Old St. Peter's Church, or other variations may refer to: * St. Peter's Basilica in Rome Australia * St Peter's, Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia * St Peters Church, St Peters, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia ...

is the parish church and dates from the 12th century. It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

and unlike many churches it has retained its original features. Consequently it is among the earliest surviving examples of

Norman architecture The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used f ...

in the country.

Lewes Brooks

There is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

(SSSI) within the parish. Lewes Brooks is of biological importance and is part of the flood plain of the River Ouse. It provides a habitat for many other invertebrates such as water beetles and snails.

Monk's House

Monk's House is 16th-century weatherboarded cottage that is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. It lies on the villages eastern boundary with the Lewes Brooks. It was inhabited by members of the

Bloomsbury group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton St ...

, Leonard and the novelist Virginia Woolf, from 1919 until Leonard's death in 1969.

Northease Manor

The historic Northease Manor is located between Rodmell and

. Originally a chapelry and then a private house, it has been a private school since the late 1960s. The main building dates from the 17th Century; a large thatched barn known as the "Tudor Hall" and the walls of an adjacent building are significantly older.

Mill Hill

Running west from the Village up the scarp slope is Mill Hill (). This landscape is full of impressive viewpoints. Standing on Mill Hill is almost like being on a cliff from which you can see down to Seaford Bay and across to the long shoulder of Southease Hill. Often such steep slopes have been saved from intensive farming and the agrochemicals that implies, but unfortunately Mill Hill was not spared. Only at its base and along the old drove footpath on its northern edge does the old wildlife survive intact. Now it is well managed though and the herbs and insects are returning. Along the footpath edge you can still find

bastard toadflax Bastard toadflax or bastard-toadflax is a common name for a plant which may refer to: *'' Comandra'' *'' Thesium humifusum'' {{Short pages monitor