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HARTFIELD is a village, parish, and railway station, giving name to a hundred, in the Eastern division
of the county, East Grinstead union and county court district, Pevensey rape, diocese of Chichester, and
archdeaconry of Lewes, 7¼ miles south-east from East Grinstead railway station, one mile west from
Withyham, and 8½ miles southwest from Tunbridge Wells. The church of St. Mary is a neat stone
structure, with square tower and 6 bells, and high shingled spire: it has nave and south aisle, and front
gallery: there are tablets to the Maitland, Swiney, Henniker and Jowett families, and a handsome
memorial tablet, placed by the rector in memory of his brother. the Rev. Henry Polehampton, chaplain to
the garrison of Lucknow, and killed during the siege of that place in 1857: the church has been reseated
with open sittings, accommodating 300 people, one hundred sittings being free and unappropriated, and
generally restored, at the cost of £1,000. A handsome organ, of the value of £200, has also been
presented, by C. Liddell, Esq., of Sandhurst. The register dates from 1697. The living is a rectory and
vicarage, with the chapelry of St. Peter's annexed, yearly value £636, in the gift of the Earl De La Warr,
and held by the Rev. Edward Polehampton M.A., of Pembroke College, Oxford. There is a chapel of ease
at Holtye Common, 3½ miles north of the parish. There are several small charities in this parish. There is
a National school for boys and girls, endowed with £45 per annum, and a school for the children of
cottagers living in Ashdown Forest, entirely supported by Lady Darling, of Ridge House. The new
Wesleyan chapel, erected in 1865, is a neat building of red brick. Here are also seven almshouses for the
residence of poor persons; these are called the Countess of Thanet's Almshouses: they are very neat
structures, situate on Holtye Common, and were rebuilt in 1840. The Earl De La Warr is lord of the
manor and chief landowner. The soil is clay and sandstone. There are about 70 acres of hop land in the
parish, and a few handsome private residences. The new line of railway, just completed from East
Grinstead to Tunbridge Wells, has a station here. The area is 10,267 acres, a great portion of which is
forest land; the population in 1861 was 1451.
BOLEBROOK and PERRY HILL are one mile north; HOLLY HILL, 2 miles south-west; ASHDOWN
PARK, 3 miles south-west. HOLTYE COMMON is a hamlet, 3½ miles north.