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Interesting Facts About Uckfield

Introduction

The town council consists of 15 councillors, representing five wards: West ward (2 councillors); New Town (4); North (3); East (3); and Ridgewood (3). Mayoral elections take place every year. Uckfield was previously represented at Westminster by Charles Hendry, Member of Parliament for the constituency of Wealden from 2001 until he stood down at the 2015 general election. On 7 May 2015 Nus Ghani was elected as the MP for Wealden with a majority of 22,967. In the 2017 snap general election, Ghani was re-elected with a slightly increased majority of 23,268.

History of Uckfield

The first mention in historical documents is in the late thirteenth century. Uckfield developed as a stopping-off point on the pilgrimage route between Canterbury, Chichester and Lewes. The settlement began to develop around the bridging point of the river, including the locally famous Pudding Cake Lane where travellers visited a public house for slices of pudding cake; and the 15th-century Bridge Cottage, the oldest house still standing in Uckfield, now a museum. The town developed in the High Street and in the New Town areas (the latter to the south of the original town centre).

The Eversfield family, who later became prominent in Sussex history, giving their name to the prime waterfront street of St Leonards-on-Sea, first settled in Uckfield from their Surrey beginnings. The family, who later owned the mansion Denne Park in Horsham, which they represented in Parliament, acquired a large fortune through marriage, real estate acquisition and iron foundering. Their climb to wealth and prominence was a heady one: in fifteenth-century Sussex they were described as ‘yeomen’, but within a generation they were already among the first rank of Sussex gentry.

General Info

The town of Uckfield has grown up as a road hub, and on the crossing point of the River Uck. Traffic on the A26 between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Lewes, from the north-east to the south-west, joins with that on the A22 London – Eastbourne road around the town on its bypass; whilst the long-distance cross-country A272 road (the old pilgrimage route) crosses them both north of the town.

As the town has grown, new housing estates were developed: Hempstead Fields, Harlands Farm, Rocks Park, West Park, Manor Park and Ringles Cross among them.