Clayton, Sussex

CLAYTON is a parish, one mile south from Hassock's Gate railway station, 44 and a half miles from London, 7 north from Brighton, and 10 north-west from Lewes, in the Eastern division of the county, Buttinghill hundred, Cuckfield union and county court district, Lewes rape and archdeaconry, and diocese of Chichester. The church (name unknown) has undergone considerable repairs. The register dates from the year 1714. The living is a rectory, with the curacy of Keymer annexed, joint annual value £780, in the gift of Brasenose College, Oxford, and held by the Venerable James Garbett, M.A. of that college, archdeacon of Chichester. The Brighton Railway runs through this parish, and here is a tunnel, a mile and a quarter long, cut through the chalk. Clayton Hill commands a fine view. The area is 2,402 acres; in 1861 the population was 863.
ST. JOHN'S COMMON, partly in Keymer and partly in this parish, has increased greatly in importance since the opening of the station at Burgess hill; numerous villas are being erected, and occupied as country seats, by persons carrying on business in Brighton. A school for boys and girls was Win 1850, and enlarged in 1859, so as to accommodate 500 pupils. A handsome church (St. John's) has been erected for the accommodation of the district, it is of red brick, faced with stone, and is intended to accommodate 700 persons. Bricks, tiles, and brown ware pottery are extensively manufactured in this district.

[Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]