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Rushers Cross
Rushers Cross maps
Historic maps of Rushers Cross and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Rushers Cross maps
Rushers Cross photos
We have no photos of Rushers Cross, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Mayfield| Wadhurst| Durgates| Rotherfield| Sparrows Green| Shovers Green| Pell Green| Five Ashes| Wood's Green| Stonegate| Frant| Cousley Wood| Burwash| Eridge Green| Cade Street| Heathfield| Hook Green| Ticehurst| Punnetts Town| Three Legged Cross| Crowborough| Bayham| Lamberhurst| Groombridge| Dallington| Blackboys| Kilndown| Brightling
Rushers Cross area books
Displaying 1 of 24 books about Rushers Cross and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Rushers Cross
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East Sussex memories
People at Scrag Oak
I remember working at weekends and school holidays at Scrag Oak. I was still at school and worked there for about two years. The house and farm was owned by Mr George Edward-Jones (the spelling may be wrong). The one full time employee was Bill Bull. Bill and I built several pigsties that were still in existence the last time that I visited there. I remember working in the winter of 1962-1963. I used to travel to the farm on some old skis and was one of the few people that could make it through the huge snowdrifts. I can clearly recall the difficulty of providing fresh water for the pigs, chickens and bullocks that we kept there. One day we attached a brand new hose to a tap and turned the water on; the water froze solid before it reached the end of the hose pipe. I forget the exact temperatures reached, but the max/min thermometer reached negative figures on several occasions. You may not think that this was... Read more
Alice Eastwood Nee Colthup
My great aunt Alice was a teacher at Five Ashes village school in the early years of the 20th century. She was born in New Brompton, Kent on 29.8.1879 and died 23.12.1966 and is buried in the village. She married Fred Eastwood on 4.8.1903.
Sam Hocking was the headmaster; he came from Camborne in Cornwall. If anyone still living in the village remembers Alice, or who knows of her grave, I would love to hear from them.
Stonehurst Five Ashes
We lived at Stone Cottage, and then Stonehurst on the road between Five Ashes and Jarvis Brook for 7 years whilst I was a child. Wonderful freedom absorbing the Wealden countryside. We used the grocers shop, run by Mr Gagen, in Five Ashes. Rationioning was almost over by then. Also the pub a little bit - I do remember the 5 Ashes. The village bobby had a house on the edge of the village on the way to Cross in Hand I think. Most winters it seemed to snow a good deal and Mum had to put chains on the car to get us to school and Dad to the station.
Miss Frances Funge
Miss Funge was my great aunt. I stayed with her and her friend Miss Nellie Payne, as a child, in summer holidays. She lived in School House, Cousley Wood. She taught in the school for 50 years, starting at the age of 16. She also played the organ at the Cousley Wood Church from when she was 18. I spent a lot of time at the farm next door, run by Mr Hobbs, where I learnt to milk a cow! Very many happy days were spent there. Aunty France (as I called her) was firm but very, very kind. In School House there was no gas or electricity, just one inside cold tap, and also an outside toilet. Cooking was done on a paraffin stove from which was produced wonderful meals, cakes and biscuits. Oil lamps and candles were used, and lovely open fires. My father (her nephew) tried to persuade her to have electricity installed, to no avail. She preferred life as it was.
There was a sweet... Read more
Annie Charlotte Funge
Ever since I was a young boy I had an interest in knowing where my grandmother was born. She was born 1883, the youngest daughter of James William Funge and Annie Hayward.
Sadly she passed away in Christchurch, NZ in 1963, reaching there as a war bride in 1918 after marrying my grandfather Percy Gourdie, at Wadhurst Parish church 27 April 1918.
In 1966 I started working as a shipping clerk and my goal was to travel to England and visit Cousley Wood and see my Great Aunt Frances Funge whom I had heard so much about.
In 1968 we learnt from her nephew Raymond Ralph she had died after illness. In August 1968 I left NZ arriving Heathrow 1 September. Towards end of September my first visit to Cousley Wood took place with the help of my 2nd cousin Raymond and we motored down to Sussex on the A21. We first visited the Wadhurst Parish Church and I saw the resting place of Aunt Frances and... Read more
Batemans - My Grandfather
My grandfather, A J Hurd, was, for a time, Rudyard Kipling's head gardener at Batemans. He, my grandmother and my mother (now Joyce Richardson) and her sister (now Barbara Wainwright) lived in one of the cottages (which still exists) near the mill adjacent to Batemans. In addition to his responsibilities in the gardens, Grandpa also worked with the private hydro-electric turbine generator (which also still exists) which provided electricity to the house. That work is referred to in a letter of reference Mrs Kipling wrote for Grandpa when he moved on, which my mother still has. She also still has the letter Rudyard Kipling wrote to the local education authorities explaining to them that my mother was too young to have to walk the considerable distance to the local school, and was so bright that waiting another year wouldn't hurt!
School Memories at St.Josephs
I went to school at st.Josephs Salesian school a mile outside Burwash from 1939-1946
I recall there were about 10 pubs in the village and I stayed one summer with the Davies family who lived just before the church in a smugglers house where we went to bed through a hole in the wall .I remember the Hollamby's,Miles'and the Woodalls who were day boys.we all had some exciting and sometimes harrowing times during the war.I have been writing my autobiography with pictures for my family and recall a great deal of the eight years spent at the school.I was a Londoner I went there when I was 5 and my job was feeding the chickens helping hand milk the cows and using the shire horse to hay rake etc I spent 50 years farming through my work at Burwash.Of course it was a real village in those days,Last time I visited it was a vacant place with commuter jobs. and few real locals!!
