Firle

Firle

Infobox UK place
official_name=Firle
country=England
region=South East England
static_

static_image_caption=The Street, Firle
area_footnotes=cite web |url=http://www.eastsussexinfigures.org.uk/webview/ |title=East Sussex in Figures |accessdate=2008-04-26 |publisher=East Sussex County Council]
area_total_km2=13.9
population=327 (Parish-2007)
population_density= Pop density mi2 to km2|61|precision=0|abbr=yes
os_grid_reference=TQ494067
latitude=50.84
longitude=0.12
post_town=LEWES
postcode_area=BN
postcode_district=BN8
dial_code=01273
constituency_westminster=Lewes
london_distance=convert|47|mi NNW
shire_district=Lewes
shire_county=East Sussex
"For the suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, see Firle, South Australia."

Firle is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. Firle refers to an old-English/Anglo-Saxon word "fierol" meaning overgrown with oak. [cite web |url=http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name=Verrill |title=Surname: Verrill |accessdate=2008-09-19 |work=SurnameDB |publisher=Name Origin Research] The original division of East Firle and West Firle still remain, however East Firle is now simply confined to the houses of Heighton Street which lie to the east of the Firle Park. West Firle is now generally referred to as Firle, although West Firle remains its official name. It is located south of the A27 road four miles (9 km) east of Lewes. [cite web |url=http://www.westfirle.com/interest.htm |title=Firle Village |accessdate=2008-09-19 |date=2008-04-11 |publisher=westfirle.com]

History of the village

During the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–66) Firle was part of the Abbey of Wilton's estate. Following the Norman conquest of England the village and surrounding lands were passed to Robert, Count of Mortain. Half-brother of King William I, Robert was the largest landowner in the country after the monarch. [cite web |url=http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/landownersm-o.html |title=Landowner M–O |accessdate=2008-07-05 |work=The Domesday Book Online |publisher=domesdaybook.co.uk ] The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book, referred to as 'Ferla'. The value of the village is listed as being £44, [cite web |url=http://www.secretsofthenormaninvasion.com/part60.htm |title=Table of Domesday Values |accessdate=2008-07-05 |publisher=secretsofthenormaninvasion.com ] which was amongst the highest values in the county.

The manor house, the site on which Firle Place now stands, was occupied from the early fourteenth century by the 'de Livet' (Levett) family, an ancient Sussex gentry family of Norman descent who owned the manor. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=x-MrAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA139&lpg=RA1-PA139&dq=inquisitions+and+assessments+johannis+lyvett+ferles&source=web&ots=M9E2UJIDXM&sig=soR9BEfxfy5CS97-B4FXXTMOKqQ&hl=en Johannis Lyvett, Lord of Firle, 1316, Inquisitions and Assessments relating to Feudal Aids, Great Britain Public Record Office, 1908] ] (The same family would produce founders of Sussex's iron industry, royal courtiers, knights, rectors, an Oxford University dean, a prominent early physician and medical educator, and even a lord mayor of London). [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=NTLj3Y0knlIC&pg=PA437&lpg=PA437&dq=levet+sussex&source=web&ots=F8O5eFjRkZ&sig=aMVxmD68yn4MVDstFckB-0RN7k4 Le Neve's Pedigrees of the Knights] ] An ancient bronze seal found in the 1800s near Eastbourne (now in the collection of the Lewes Castle Museum) shows the coat-of-arms of John Livet, and is believed to have belonged to the first member of the family named lord of Firle in 1316. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=rbAHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=john+livet+lewes&source=web&ots=0bUJBlFNKk&sig=kHqRsi2S4zy1Kv_9sDRLVbY4OEg&hl=en A Handbook for Visitors to East-bourne, George Frederick Chambers, 1868] ] On the bankruptcy of lord of the manor Thomas Levett in 1440, the lordship passed to the Bolney family, whose daughter married William Gage. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=L0oJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=%22john+livet%22&source=web&ots=nOx1cFG2Q9&sig=D-Y92x0O26lMNLTpfLkPYCbpsR0 John Livet's arms] ]

The Greengage at Firle

The word greengage almost certainly derives from one of the Gage family, though there is some confusion over whether it was the Reverend John Gage who is credited with their import from France in the 17th century or William Hall Gage, who is credited with initiating their import into England from France.

Notable residents

The writer Virginia Woolf visited nearby Lewes in December 1910 cite web |url=http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/leisureandtourism/localandfamilyhistory/localhistory/authors/woolf.htm |title=Virginia Woolf (1882 1941) |accessdate=2008-09-19 |date=2008-07-15 |publisher=East Sussex County Council] and decided to relocate in Firle, where she rented a house and renamed it "Little Talland House". [cite web |url=http://www.virginiawoolfsociety.co.uk/vw_res.firle.htm |title=Virginia Woolf - Firle Village |accessdate=2008-09-19 |last=Wilkinson |first=Sheila M. |date=2001|publisher=Virginia Woolf Society GB] Pointz Hall, a fictional manor from her novel "Between the Acts", is believed to be inspired by Firle Place. Woolf's sister, painter and interior designer Vanessa Bell, moved to Firle in 1916 taking residence with her live-in lover Duncan Grant in Charleston Farmhouse, which subsequently became a regular haunt of the Bloomsbury Group. Vanessa Bell, her son Quentin Bell, and Duncan Grant are all buried in the churchyard of St Peter's, Firle.

Writer Katherine Mansfield, who had close ties with the Bloomsbury Group, also lived in Firle for a brief time. Her landlord was economist John Maynard Keynes, who moved to Firle in 1925 and died there in 1946. Keynes was cremated and his ashes scattered above the downs of nearby Tilton.

Village features

St Peters Church notably contains an alabaster effigy of Sir John Gage wearing his Order of the Garter and lying beside his wife Philippa. It also has a John Piper stained-glass window in warm colours, depicting Blake's Tree of Life. There are also memorials for those named Bolney, Moreton, Levett, Swaffield and others. The current vicar is The Reverend Peter Owen-Jones.

"The Ram Inn" is the only remaining one of the village's three original public houses, that previously all acted as resting stops on the Lewes to Alfriston coach road. It used also to be the village court room where the rents for tenants farmers were collected and set.

Firle Cricket Club was founded in 1758 and is said to be one of the oldest in the country. Even earlier in 1725 Sir William Hall Gage challenged the Duke of Richmond to a game of cricket, one of the first recorded matches. The club continues to be central to village life and has two teams which both compete in the East Sussex Cricket League. The Firle 1st XI are in ESCL Division 8 and the Firle 2nd XI are in ESCL Division 12. Previously both teams played in the Cuckmere Valley League; 2007 was their first year in the ESCL.

South of the village lie the South Downs and Firle Beacon, which reaches a height of 217 m. The beacon was once a lighting beacon used as part of a warning system during the Spanish Armada. On the site there are also around fifty bronze age burial barrows. Firle Bonfire Society is first mentioned in 1879 in a diary of the then vicar of Firle, Reverend Crawley. The society forms part of a network of bonfire societies in the Lewes area which serve the purpose both of remembering the Gunpowder Plot and of recalling the fate of the Sussex Martyrs. The village holds its celebrations in October before the main event in Lewes. Traditionally the Firle Bonfire Society Pioneers wear Valencian costumes. Other costumes include Spanish Ladies and a Military Contingent. It is customary for the bonfire night to feature the burning of some effigy other than Guy Fawkes; in 2003 they sparked controversy by burning an effigy of a gypsy caravan. [BBC News item, 30 October 2003 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/3228833.stm] ]

Landmarks

Firle Escarpment is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) within the parish which extends into the neighbouring parish of Glynde and Beddingham. The site is an extensive area of chalkland which hosts a wide range of flora. The rarest of these is the early spider orchid "Ophrys sphegodes". [cite web|url=http://www.english-nature.org.uk/special/sssi/sssi_details.cfm?sssi_id=1000986 |title=Natural England - SSSIs |accessdate=2008-05-25|publisher=English Nature]

References

External links

* [http://www.escl.org.uk/ East Sussex Cricket League]
* [http://www.firlebonfire.com Firle Bonfire Society]
* [http://www.charleston.org.uk Charleston Farmhouse]
* [http://www.firleplace.co.uk Firle Place]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Firle — dans l East Sussex. Firle est l une des paroisses civiles du district de Lewes de l East Sussex en Angleterre. Son nom tire son origine d un mot Anglo Saxon qui signifie bois de chêne. Elle est mentionnée comme faisant partie de l abbaye de… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Firle — bezeichnet: eine Gemeinde im District Lewis im englischen East Sussex, siehe Firle (East Sussex) einen Vorort der australischen Stadt Adelaide, siehe Firle (Australien) Firle ist der Name folgender Personen: Otto Firle (1889–1966), deutscher… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Firle — Firle, Walter, Maler, geb. 22. Aug. 1859 in Breslau, war anfangs Kaufmann und widmete sich erst in seinem 20. Jahre der Malerei bei Löfftz in München. Nach beendigten Studien unternahm er eine Reise nach Italien und nach Holland, und in letzterm… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Firle — Firle, Walter, Maler, geb. 22. Aug. 1859 zu Breslau, Schüler der Münchener Akademie und von Löfftz; Hauptwerke: Morgenandacht in einem holländ. Waisenhause (Berlin), Im Trauerhause (Breslau), Heilige Nacht (Bremen), Vergib uns unsere Schuld… …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Firle — This unusual and interesting name is of Anglo Saxon origin, and is one of the oldest locational surnames to have survived to the present day. The surname derives from the place called Firle in Sussex, which is recorded in the Saxon Charters of… …   Surnames reference

  • Firle Place — is a Manor house in Firle, East Sussex, United Kingdom and is the family seat of Nicolas Gage, 8th Viscount Gage, whose family the Viscounts Gage have owned the land at Firle for centuries since acquiring it from the Levett family in the… …   Wikipedia

  • Firle Beacon — is a hill in the South Downs of southern England. [cite book |title=Footprint England |last=Godfrey Faussett |first=Charlie |year=2004 |publisher=Footprint Travel Guides |isbn=1903471915 |pages=p. 192 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=l… …   Wikipedia

  • Firle, South Australia — Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb name = Firle city = Adelaide state = sa caption = lga = City of Norwood Payneham St Peters postcode = 5070 est = pop = 1,258 (2006 census) [Census 2006 AUS|id =SSC41511|name=Firle (State Suburb)|accessdate …   Wikipedia

  • Firle Bonfire —    Sussex. In November 2003 the Firle Bonfire Society burned a caravan with effigies of Gypsies looking out of the window and anti Gypsy graffiti painted on it. This was in line with an annual tradition of burning effigies of political figures on …   Historical dictionary of the Gypsies

  • Rudolph Firle — Rudolph Ernst Adolph Firle (* 14. September 1881 in Bonn; † 2. Juli 1969 in Bremen) war ein deutscher Marineoffizier, Publizist und Direktor des Norddeutschen Lloyds. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Biografie 1.1 Familie, Ausbildung und Beruf 1 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”