Cross-in-Hand is a small village outside Heathfield town to its west, in the Wealden District situated in

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 is occasionally referred to as Isenhurst.

The village

Cross-in-Hand is situated at the junction the A267 running between

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sand ...

and

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

, and the B2102 which terminates in Cross-in-Hand but joins the A22 in

Uckfield Uckfield () is a town in the Wealden District, Wealden District of East Sussex in South East England. The town is on the River Uck, one of the tributaries of the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse, on the southern edge of the Weald. Etymology "Uck ...

. It is the easternmost location of the A272 road, which continues west to the A30 in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. The village has a high street on the B2102 road that links Cross-in-Hand to

. Retail shops include a petrol station, wooden furniture shops, a motorcycle shop, a bakery, and a funeral director's. The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church is dedicated to

St Bartholomew Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Most scholars today identify Bartholomew as Nathanael, who appears in the Gospel of John (1:45–51; cf. 21:2). New Testament references The name ''Bartholomew ...

, and there is one pub, the ''Cross in Hand''. Other village facilities include a village hall, rugby football, bowls and tennis clubs.

Etymology

The

English Place-Name Society The English Place-Name Society (EPNS) is a learned society concerned with toponomastics and the toponymy of England, in other words, the study of place-names ( toponyms). Its scholars aim to explain the origin and history of the names they st ...

gives the earliest reference to the village as ''Cruce Manus'', the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for Cross-in-Hand, recorded in 1547, which by 1597 was being rendered ''Crosse atte Hand'' and by 1656 was being called ''Crosse in the Hande''. The name is believed to be based on a legend that

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

assembled here before sailing for the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

from

Rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

to fight

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

. An alternative explanation is that it is the place where some murderers managed to escape their pursuers by turning to face them with a cross in their hands.

History

The village historically provided services to the iron trade, and a windmill called the "New Mill" has stood at its current site since 1868, although it was built in Framfield in 1855. The reason for this time delay is that the mill was originally placed a quarter of a mile from its current location in its year of construction, and was moved on the command of the local squire at the time, Louis Huth. The first Heathfield Agricultural Show was held there in 1946.

Cross-in-Hand Raceway

The village had its own

Stock Car Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses. It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It originated in the southe ...

circuit which opened for racing as a dirt track on 17 October 1965,

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

's Trevor Carpenter winning the final. A second meeting, two weeks later, was cancelled due to bad weather and then the track remained closed until 20 July 1969 when the new concrete track was used for the first time. Neil Thomas of Ashford won all three races that day with Trevor Carpenter winning one of the

Superstox Superstox is a type of single seat formula racing, similar to Sprint car racing developed in the 1960s in the United Kingdom. Racing is 'contact' whereby drivers can use the front bumper to help dislodge any car in front. Like most other forms ...

heats and Del Stickings winning the final. The track closed after protests from local residents and the last meeting took place on 6 August 1972.Living with Spede, The First Ten Years of Spedeworth International During the 1971 and 1972 seasons the track had its own Auto Spedeway team called the Cross in Hand Tigers. They were managed by Spedeworth's managing director, Les Eaton and included drivers Dave Pierce (captain), Dave Hindle, Alan Cox, Biffo Sweeney, Art Fowler and Gordon Street.

References

External links