Ticehurst is both a village and a large civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The parish lies in the upper reaches of both the Bewl stream before it enters Bewl Water and in the upper reaches of the River Rother flowing to the south-east. The parish includes the parish wards of Ticehurst, Flimwell and Stonegate. The linear settlements of Berner's Hill and Union Street lie between Ticehurst and Flimwell. It lies to the south-east of Tunbridge Wells, and is about ten miles distant.
History
Ticehurst is not mentioned in the Domesday Book; the manor came into being in the 14th century. Pashley Manor is also mentioned at the same time, and is within the parish. The village's name derives from Old English; there are two possible derivations. The most plausible one is that it means wood on the Teise from the river; the second roughly translates as 'The wooded hill where young goats graze', ticce + hyrst.
Governance
Ticehurst is part of the electoral ward called Ticehurst and Etchingham. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 4,679.
The villages
Ticehurst
There is an active village club, which runs regular social events, and a monthly newsletter "News & Views" is produced by a team of volunteers. The village school serves both Ticehurst and Flimwell. There is also a comprehensive website covering most of the activities in the community. Ticehurst House Hospital specialises in the treatment of psychiatric disorders and is located in the village. Samuel Newington opened the original Ticehurst House in 1792 as a place dedicated to the care and treatment of psychiatric illness. From 1974 to July 2018 the village was home to the headquarters of the Antiquarian Horological Society, at New House, on the square. The village is also home to the first pick-your-own fruit farm to open in Britain, Maynard's Fruit Farm, made The Times "Top 50 places to eat outside in Britain" list. Outside the village there are dairies at Northiam and Stonegate, a bakery at Bodiam, family butcher in Etchingham, a smokery and two more pubs at Three Leg Cross and Dale Hill. One claim to fame is that the Scottish singer/guitarist Bert Jansch lived in Ticehurst in the late 1960s and recorded tracks for his 1971 Rosemary Lane album at his house in the village. Ticehurst was also the final residence of Evelyn Waugh's first wife, Evelyn Nightingale. The village church, St Mary's, was the venue for the wedding of her son, the journalist and theatre critic Benedict Nightingale, to the author Anne Redmon. Pashley Manor Gardens is promoted by the Historic Houses Association and by the Campaign to Protect Rural England. The gardens hold an annual tulip festival each spring. The event in 2016, between 22 April and 7 May, has 30,000 tulips, with over 100 varieties.
Flimwell
The village is linear in shape and is the largest of a group of settlements, some of which contain some large residential properties, to both west and east of the main road. Other settlements are Union Street and Dale Hill to the west, and Seacox Heath to the east. Including the surrounding woods and fields, Flimwell covers an area of approximately, of which only approximately 5% is built-up.
Stonegate
South-east from Ticehurst and due north-east from Burwash, is a small settlement, Stonegate. It came into being at the same time as the railway line from Tunbridge Wells. The station at Stonegate has hourly train services to London and to Hastings. The next stop from Stonegate to London is Wadhurst and towards Hastings is Etchingham. In Stonegate, there is a Church of England primary school and the Anglican church of St Peter.
