Ninfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden 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 Su ...

, England. The village is quite linear and centred 4 miles (6.4 km) north of

Bexhill-on-Sea Bexhill-on-Sea (often shortened to Bexhill) is a seaside town and civil parish situated in the county of East Sussex in South East England. An ancient town and part of the local government district of Rother, Bexhill is home to a number of arc ...

where two roads cross: the A269 from Bexhill to Battle and the A271 to Hailsham. The parish covers 2,500 acres (1,010 ha); approximately the northern half of which is in the

High Weald High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

AONB. To the west of the village is Standard Hill, said to be the place that William the Conqueror placed his flag after the Battle of Hastings. As with many other Wealden villages, it was involved in the iron industry: that fact is commemorated by the presence in the village of a set of iron

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

Smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

was also rife in the eighteenth century. The village name is said to come from the fact that it was originally composed of nine and three quarter fields. A legal record, of 1452, mentioning a Sussex village as "Nempnefeld", may refer to Ninfield.

Civil parish and civic events

The parish council consists of nine councillors. They put on several events, including a gala with professional cabaret, each year to raise money for nominated charities such as Alzheimers and Sussex Ambulance.

Amenities

Ninfield has a primary school, a shop and two pubs- ''The Kings Arms'' and the ''Blacksmiths Inn''. It has two churches, its medieval parish church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin; and the Methodist church.

Cultural references and former residents

Ninfield was once featured in an episode of the classic comedy The Goon Show entitled ''The Nadger Plague'' and first broadcast by the BBC in October 1956. In the episode, set in the 16th century, the residents of Ninfield were left terrified when two carriers of the titular plague, which caused the seats of peoples' trousers to "burn out", arrived in the village. The episode was written by

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where h ...

, a sometime resident of

. James T.A. Osborne (d. 1979), painter, artistic print maker, etcher and engraver long settled in Ninfield.

Local government

Ninfield is currently drawn, for the purposes of the fair apportionment of District Councillors as part of

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

: ''Ninfield and Hooe with Wartling''. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 2,543.

Built-up component

The central, contiguous area of 558 homes on 65 hectares has been identified as a small Built-up Area, in the statistical government bodies definition (ONS and GSS) and had in 2011 a total of 1,307 residents. Population density of this area was 20.1 persons per hectare.

Notable people

eSports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

participant and sim-racer Jimmy Broadbent is from Ninfield.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in East Sussex Civil parishes in East Sussex Wealden District