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Wych Cross
Wych Cross maps
Historic maps of Wych Cross and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Wych Cross maps
Wych Cross photos
We have no photos of Wych Cross, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Chelwood Gate| Forest Row| Colemans Hatch| Ashdown Forest| Brambletye| Sharpthorne| Danehill| Nutley| Ashurst Wood| Horsted Keynes| Highbrook| West Hoathly| Hartfield| East Grinstead| Fairwarp| Ardingly| Fletching| Turners Hill| Maresfield| Cowden| High Hurstwood| Crawley Down| Felbridge| Crowborough| Scaynes Hill| Lindfield| Buxted| Haywards Heath
Wych Cross area books
Displaying 1 of 24 books about Wych Cross and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Wych Cross
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East Sussex memories
The School Journey
I was a pupil at Michael Faraday at Westmorland Road, London SE17, at about 1953 when we went on the 'school journey'. I will add to this my first holiday away from home. One evening at just before bedtime after a few nights there in the dormitary one of the boys was very irritable and kicked another, which resulted in him crying followed by most of the rest of us because boy, were we suddenly homesick. The teachers must have been used to it I suppose... more to come.
Happy Holidays
I attended Southfield School in Gravesend, Kent and we had a week's summer camp at the Isle of Thorns, what an adventure, we were away from home for the first time, it was a holiday never to be forgotten even after all these years. I remember walking through the woods to the local shop to spend our money on Cydrax and sweets, kids today do not realise what delight can be got from simple pleasures.
Lt Spencer Baker - Died at Passchendaele 1917
Spencer Baker was my grandfather's cousin. He grew up at Forest Farm, Chelwood Gate, son of Spencer snr and Susan Baker (née Lindfield). Spencer was a building contractor and at the age of 29, in 1909, he left Chelwood Gate to work in Saskatoon, Saskatchawan, Canada. Although this 1927 photograph of the Red Lion was taken 10 years after his death on 26th October 1917 in the mud of Passchendaele, he would have recognised it.
Spencer enjoyed cricket and in Canada he joined the Saskatoon Cricket Club. In 1914 he enlisted in the Canadian army as a reservist in the Saskatoon 29th Light Horse and in 1917 he applied to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the CEF, to the western front. He was then 37, but to appear younger he falsified his age as 34 on his attestation papers. He went to France as a Lieutenant in the Canadian Infantry, 46th Battalion. Along with his company commander, Capt Kennedy, Spencer led... Read more
Granary or Mill Forest Row
In the 50's and 60's, I remember the building on the left of this photograph being a mill where they ground flour. You can just see a horse and cart in the lower left of the picture, and I believe that just above this was a first floor opening with a static crane for lowering sacks into the wagons. I can remember going inside and looking out through this opening as a small child, and being frightened by the height. Opposite, were some cottages and a parade of shops; a newsagents and an electrical shop. Eventually, some of the cottages were knocked down to make way for a telephone exchange, probably in the late 50's or early 60's. On a Friday lunchtime we were able to go out of the primary school, and walk up this road to the fish and chip shop (owned by the Sitwell's, I believe) by the war memorial and buy cod and chips. My parents only let me do this on a couple of occassions,... Read more
Families
On the 27th of December 1956 my ex-husband KEITH GEORGE JEARY was born at 6 UPPER CLOSE where he lived with his parents until we were married at Holy Trinity Church on the 6th of November 1982 - both of my children Emily and Dominic were duly christened at Holy Trinity in 1984 and 1986 respectively as was their father in 1957. My ex-parents-in-law Audrey and George Jeary settled in Forest Row in 1954 and on 2nd May 1990 Audrey died of heart failure in the bathroom at 6 Upper Close - George lived on at the house until he was brought to live in a nursing home close to Keith in 1996 - and where he died in 1997 - both are now buried in the little graveyard at Forest Row. My memories only go back as far as 1975 when I met the JEARY family - Keith worked in the village TV Shop JACKSONS as an apprentic television engineer whilst going to college to get his profesional qualifications... Read more
Cumbers of Upper Close
Dad had lived at No 51 for many years. Myself and my two brothers grew up here, went to the local primary school, where Mr and Mrs Jupp were the heads. All three of us went onto Sackville Secondary in nearby East Grinstead, before going our seperate ways. Barry still lives in the village, but we all enjoy going back to our childhood home. Mum and Dad have since "gone south" to Uckfield!
Life on The Forest, 1940s on
We moved to Yew Tree Cottage, out on the Forest, in December 1940, when I was 20 months old, and my father finally sold up in the early 1980s. I loved the Forest, and was allowed to roam free from an early age. I have many memories of the wide open spaces [yes, they were then, when the smallholders cut and gathered the vegetation for their animals' food and betting, and cut birch for firewood]. Once, when I'd wandered off [aged about 4] to meet the postman, who came from the Forest Row direction, when he didn't come apparently I just kept on walking. I remember feeling sleepy and lying down by a bridge to sleep, and being woken by the search party, probably Dad [Tom Townsend], Mr Card and Mr Everest. I wasn't at all bothered, just loved the attention. Everybody knew everyone in those days, and houses weren't generally locked up. If you went to see anyone and they weren't in, you just went in... Read more
