Cuckfield

CUCKFIELD is a market town, parish, and polling place for the Eastern division of the county, 39 miles south from London, 10 north-east from Horsham, and 14 north-west from Lewes, pleasantly situated on an eminence nearly in the centre of the county, and about 2 miles from the London and Brighton Railway, in Buttinghill hundred, Cuckfield union, rape of Lewes, diocese of Chichester, archdeaconry of Lewes, and rural deanery of Balcombe. The houses are chiefly built of freestone, of which there are excellent quarries in the neighbourhood. The church of the Holy Trinity is a fine structure of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. There are places of worship for Baptists and Independents. The principal house in the parish is Cuckfield Park, the seat of Warden Sergison, Esq. The Union Workhouse is well situated on a ridge to the north of the town, and is a substantial brick building, and will accommodate 400 inmates, for whose accommodation the chapel adjoining was erected in 1858. A Free Grammar school was founded here in 1528, and endowed with some estates by Edward Flower, Esq., of London, and the Rev. William Spicer, of Balcombe, for the sons of parishioners of Cuckfield and Balcombe: this school has now fallen into decay, and the funds have been made available, by an order in Chancery, for the purposes of the National school. There is a police station. Gas Works were established in 1861, and also a Local Board of Health. The population, including the district of, Staplefield, was 3,196 in 1851 and 3,539 in 1861; and the area is 11,167 acres. Parish Clerk, Henry Bennett.
HAYWARD'S HEATH, 2 miles south-east, is a station on the London and Brighton Railway, 37 and a half miles from the former, and 12 and a half from the latter; it is also a telegraphic station. This favourite heath has lately been enclosed, many new villas have been erected, and several others are in course of construction. A new church, capable of holding 700 people, has been built by subscription, at a cost of £5,300, and an ecclesiastical district has been assigned to it.
STAPLEFIELD is a scattered hamlet, 2 and a half miles north-west from Cuckfield, and 5 and a half south from Crawley (its post town): it is a separate ecclesiastical district, with a small church (St. Mark's), in the Early English style, erected in 1847. There are National and Infant schools; also a chapel for Independents.

Fuller description [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]