Saint Augustine’s
Scaynes Hill

Scaynes Hill

The village of Scaynes Hill dates back only to the nineteenth century, although it contains a number of buildings, mostly farmhouses originally, that are much older than this. Nowadays it is a small community of about a thousand people in four hundred homes either side of the A272. The village and its surrounding area forms a Church of England parish, which in turn forms part of the civil parish of Lindfield Rural.

Perhaps because of its small size and its proximity to Haywards Heath, there are relatively few facilities here. It has one other place of worship apart from Saint Augustine’s, a Strict Baptist Chapel slightly further north along Church Road. There is a Primary School with an impressively good recent record (there is also an independent school within the parish boundaries), a recreation ground (Scaynes Hill has four teams in the Mid-Sussex Football League), a modern and attractive Millennium Village Centre (which contains two halls, a stage, a changing room and a kitchen, as well as the Lindfield Rural Parish Council office), a small but very friendly Social Club, and two public houses, the Farmers and the Sloop. There is a petrol station with a small shop in it, and a car dealer near it. There used to be a Post Office in the village, but this closed in 2007, and has now been replaced by the village architect’s practice.

Around Scaynes Hill there is mostly farmland, though to the north of the village is Costells Wood, and to the south is Anchor Wood, both areas of ancient woodland. Both Costells Wood, most of which is owned by the Woodland Trust, and the common near it, owned by Lindfield Rural Parish Council, have been designated as Sites of Nature Conservation Importance; part of the common is acid grassland and plants such as Devils-bit Scabious and Tormentil grow there. North of Costells Wood is Henfield Wood, while to the southeast of the village lie small Rock Wood, and then, farther off, Great Wood and Clearwater Lake. The River Ouse defines part of the northern boundary of the parish of Scaynes Hill. You can find a map, with optional satellite view, on the Location page, provided that your browser is set up to use Javascript.

Like many Sussex villages, Scaynes Hill has a distinctive sign. In fact, it has more than one….

The proper village sign, erected to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II on 2^nd June 1977, has an anchor in it. This is also part of the primary school's logo, part of the Scaynes Hill Cricket Club’s logo, and is the former name of the Farmers public house (and is still the name of LRPC-owned dewpond between it and the A272), even though Scaynes Hill is some distance away from the sea. The explanation lies in the “Hill”. In old times, when horse-drawn traffic was the norm, there was a problem with hills. There was no problem in getting up them — though perhaps the horses might have disagreed. The problem lay in going down a steep slope, in a vehicle without effective brakes. If the carriage or cart started moving faster than the horses, or if carriage and horses all went downhill too fast, there was likely to be an accident. For this reason it was necessary to anchor some vehicles to the top of the slope, where the Anchor pub was, to ensure that they made a controlled descent of the hill.

There is also a bunch of grapes in the village sign. This marks the existence of a vineyard within the village, at Rock Lodge. The vineyard has been rented by Plumpton Agricultural College and forms part of the Plumpton Estate.

Another feature of Scaynes Hill, in the past, was quarrying. Even today it is possible to see exposed yellow sandstone of the Cuckfield Sandstone Member here; it was this building sandstone, uncommon in the south-eastern part of Britain, that was used to build the famous Lancing College Chapel. Unfortunately, it was not very good at resisting corrosion from salty sea air, and so the Chapel needs a lot of maintenance. There is no longer quarrying in the village.