Pyecombe is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. Pyecombe is located 7 miles (11 km) to the north of Brighton. The civil parish covers an area of 887 hectares (2,190 acres) and has a population of 200 (2001 census), increasing at the 2011 Census to a population of 237.[2]
The parish lies wholly with the South Downs National Park. The planning authority for Pyecombe is the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA), the statutory planning authority for the National Park area.[3]
The name Pyecombe may derive from the Old Englishpīc, meaning "point" or "pike", and cumb, meaning "coomb" or "valley", in which case it may mean "valley marked by a projecting hill"; alternatively, it may mean "insect valley", from the Old English pēo, "insect, parasite".[4] The parish of Pyecombe comprises two settlements, one called 'Pyecombe' and the other 'Pyecombe Street'. These are about a quarter of a mile apart. The reason for the gap between the two parts of the village is unclear but it is generally thought to be a consequence of plague in the 17th century which necessitated the temporary abandonment of the main settlement and its church.
Pyecombe village lies on the London to Brighton Way Roman road, as well as on 18th and 19th century turnpike roads over Clayton Hill.[5]
The Crown Estate owned the c. 4000 acre Poynings Estate between the Norman Conquest and 1980s. The estate covered many farms in the Weald and on the Downs at Fulking, Poynings and Pyecombe. In 1984 it went up for sale. Some have noted that if the estate had entered public ownership it would have been at the heart of the South Downs National Park and could have been driving forward sustainable farming and landscape restoration. Instead tenant farmers bought it and one of the purchasers now farms 1,500 acres.[6]
Parts of the Estate, including Wolstonbury Hill, were common land, Pycombe Common, right up until 1872 when the area was victim to one of the very last usages of the Enclosure Act in Sussex.[7]
The parish lies wholly with the South Downs National Park and is the site of rich biodiversity. Opposite the church is the old forge where the Pyecombe hook was first made in the 19th century by Mr Berry, the blacksmith. The village inn is the Plough; and there is The Three Greysriding school and Brendon Stud in the locality.
The Church of the Transfiguration is the Church of England parish church of Pyecombe. The chancel and nave are 12th century; the tower was built in the 13th century. A small kitchen / toilet extension was built on the south side of the church in 2014, finished in flint to match the rest of the church. The extension won the Sussex Heritage Trust ecclesiastical award in 2015.[8] The church is a Grade I listed building, described in the National Heritage List for England as an ‘Attractive small medieval building’.[9]
Wolstonbury Hill is a chalk prominence located within the parish, owned and maintained by the National Trust. It is the location of four scheduled monuments[10][11][12][13] and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[14] It is perhaps one of the most spectacular looking Downs in the area. To the south is Pycombe and Pycombe Street, to the east is Crabtree Shaw and a big chalk pit, to the north is the Ashen Plantation and to the east is Wellcombe Bottom. There are a number of tracks up to the summit including paths from Crabtree Bottom, Danny House, Clayton and Pycombe. At least twelve native orchid species have been found in the area.
Wellcombe Bottom (TQ 292 136) like the rest of Wolstonbury Hill is owned by the National Trust. At the Trust's request, Friends of Wolstonbury, between 2007 and 2010, cleared scrub in the valley. The area is now rich in meadow flowers and the insects and butterflies that thrive on them. Seven native orchids can be found at Wellcombe Bottom in an area locally known as the "Orchid Bank".[15]
The Cow Down (TQ 281 123) is east of Newtimber Hill and south west of the A23 and Wostonbury Hill. Until 1872 it was one of the three commons of Pyecombe and the public dimension is once again recognized by its designation as Access Land. There are old anthills, wild marjoram, knapweed, betony and Devil's bit scabious and the blue butterflies that thrive on them. The rare snail, Monacha cartusiana, has been recorded on the Down.[16]
Pyecombe Golf Course (TQ 303 123) was built on an exhilarating area of ancient Down pasture and chalk heath in 1894. The area includes Rag Bottom, which was remote enough to be a cockfighting venue before the golf course's construction[17] and the windy Middle Brow. The South Downs Way passes through its northern side.
Golfers and nature conservationists are not always good bed fellows, but in this case, the golf course saved the Downs' archaic chalk grassland from being ploughed out as most of it has. After more than one hundred years of benign neglect, some of the chalk grassland and small areas of very rare chalk heath survive.[16] On such areas alkaline chalk loving and acidic heathland plants go hand-in-hand.
Pangdean farm (TQ 293 117) is likely to be older than Pycombe itself as it features in the Domesday Book, whilst Pyecombe does not.[16] Glover suggests the name might come from the Old English term pinca denu meaning, "Valley frequented by finches".[18] In the past there was no fast road through the valley as the roads went over the hilltops. Now the A23 lies right next to the farmhouse. The deep coombes to the west and east of Pangdean Farm have rich biodiversity and the din of the road quietens.
The woods on the hillside are Pangdean Holt and the dry valley is Holt Bottom
Pangdean Holt (TQ 300 112), north west of the Chattri, up and east from the farmstead and south of the golf club is an ancient woodland. It was a woodland seven hundred years ago, which means there's a fair chance it's been woodland for millennia. The Anglo-Saxons called woods dominated by a single species ‘holts’ and hazel is the main woody species at Pangdean Holt. There are ten plant species indicative of the Holt's antiquity which given the steep slope is a good total.[6] There's redcurrant, pignut, early purple orchis, sanicle and early dog-violet. The richest area of the wood is at the slope top, where there can be wild strawberries, raspberry and gooseberry. There are several big and old ash trees that bear lichens and liverworts.
Pangdean Bottom (TQ 282 111) is the west of the A23 and actually sits outside Pyecombe and in the Brighton jurisdiction, though long part of Pyecombe's landscape. It is rented by a tenant farmer from Brighton and Hove City Council, who have owned it since 1924. It includes ancient chalk grassland slopes where there are still chalkland flowers and butterflies. In late summer, the valley's north side has one of the largest populations of autumn ladies-tresses orchid has been recorded, on the valley's north side, together with a large population of the white variety of the self heal violet. The scrub at the head of the valley is old and diverse, with wayfaring tree, old man's beard, honeysuckle, hazel, and gorse.[16]
In July 2021 the Sussex-based 'Landscapes of Freedom' group, together with Nick Hayes and Guy Shrubsole of the 'Right to Roam' network, organised a mass trespass in protest against the lack of public access to this valley and its management for game bird shooting, which has badly affected its chalk grassland wildlife.[19] Over three hundred people walked from Waterhall, Brighton, to Pangdean Bottom in protest.[20] The public are actively discouraged from walking in the area and scrub has been allowed to grow on the pristine downland, whilst other parts have been ploughed out.[21]
Pyecombe civil parish contains seven listed buildings. Of these, one is Grade I and the remaining six are Grade II. The parish contains five scheduled monuments.
The Parish Church (Church of the Transfiguration) (List Entry Number 1025593). Chancel and nave 12th century, tower 13 century; 'an attractive small medieval building'.[9]
Iron Age earthworks, Wolstonbury HillRoman road and 18th century coaching road north of Pyecombe church (List Entry Number 1005821). The monument includes a Roman road and a late 18th century coaching road, the Brighton to Lovell Heath Turnpike, with 19th century realignments.[5]
Cross dyke and bowl barrow 310m south east of Wolstonbury Camp (List Entry Number 1015226), a univallate cross dyke and a bowl barrow situated on a chalk spur which projects to the south east from Wolstonbury Hill.[10]
Platform barrow 300m south of Wolstonbury Camp (List Entry Number 1015227), a roughly circular, flat-topped mound situated on a chalk spur which projects to the south east from Wolstonbury Hill.[11]
Romano-British farmstead, field system and trackway on Wolstonbury Hill (List Entry Number 1015228), a farmstead dating to the late Romano-British period and its associated field system and trackway, on the north eastern slope of Wolstonbury Hill.[12]
Wolstonbury Camp: a Ram's Hill type enclosure on Wolstonbury Hill and associated later remains (List Entry Number 1016153), a Late Bronze Age Ram's Hill type enclosure situated on Wolstonbury Hill, a clay-with-flints capped chalk hill.[13]
^Kain, R., Kain, R.J., Chapman, J. and Oliver, R.R., 2004. The Enclosure Maps of England and Wales 1595-1918: A Cartographic Analysis and Electronic Catalogue. Cambridge University Press.
^Pearce, David; Stott, Katherine (2017). "Ten Years of Monitoring Butterfly Orchids on Wolstonbury Hill". JOURNAL of the HARDY ORCHID SOCIETY. 14 (83).
^Bangs, David (2018). Land of the Brighton line : a field guide to the Middle Sussex and South East Surrey Weald. [Brighton]. ISBN978-0-9548638-2-1. OCLC1247849975.
