PYECOMBE
Picumba (xi cent.); Piccumbe (xiii cent.); Pykecombe, Pycombe (xvi cent.).
The small river Wellesbourne, to-day shrunken to
inconsiderable proportions, seems once to have flowed
down a long deep coombe to reach the sea at Brighton.
The parish of Pyecombe covers an irregularly shaped
area, 2,286 acres in extent, inclosing the head of this
coombe and the Downs to east and west. In the northwest corner of the parish is Wolstonbury Hill, 677 ft.
in height, and the Downs on the eastern side of the
parish rise to over 700 ft. They are penetrated by a
small lateral coombe containing the farm of Pangdean.
With the exception of this and a farm in the village, the
parish is mostly chalk Downland utilized only for
pasturage. On the summit of Wolstonbury Hill is a
fortified hill-town, of the Early Iron Age, to the east of
which are traces of early field systems. Among these
has been found a late Romano-British settlement,
originally approached by a deeply sunken trackway. (fn. 1)
There is a solitary barrow on the hill-top.
An ancient road crosses the parish from the col between Wolstonbury Hill and the Downs above Clayton, skirts the eastern flank of the former in a series of
deeply-cut terrace-ways, and descends the coombe to
climb Newtimber Hill at the south-western corner of
the parish on its way to Saddlescombe. The medieval
village may have been on this road, near the point where
the church now stands, overlooking the head of the
coombe, in the very centre of the parish. Pyecombe,
however, appears to have declined towards the end of
the medieval period, and there is some indication that
after the 15th century the village was revived a quarter
of a mile westwards of the earlier site, and on the col
dividing Wolstonbury from Newtimber Hill. The present village, which in 1931 contained 313 inhabitants,
is thus in two portions. To the north of the church is the
smithy, notable for its production of a famous type of
sheep-crooks, but showing no signs of antiquity, and a
few early-17th-century cottages, now deserted and falling to ruin. Nearby are a few modern cottages.
The greater portion of the village, however, is formed
by a group of cottages a quarter of a mile west of this.
Several of these are of 17th-century date, and one, now
known as No. 12, is of particular interest, being a fragment of a large house, possibly the manor-house, of midor late-16th-century date. Only one room remains
complete, and this has a good timber ceiling in two
bays, separated by a heavily-moulded beam, and having
the joists all stop-chamfered. In the north-east corner
is a doorway having moulded jambs and head; this is
now filled by a smaller modern door, and adjoins the
chimney-stack, itself apparently an insertion. The outer
walls are half-timber in large square panels with a few
wind-braces. The site of another room remains to the
east side, but it has nearly all been rebuilt, although the
old timbering may be clearly seen on the north side of
the upper floor.
On the east side of the village is the Old Rectory, a
large 18th-century building of no architectural interest.
On the south side of the parish is Pangdean farm-house,
which shows no traces of antiquity. The main road
from Brighton passes to the west of the house, dividing
just south of Pyecombe church into three roads, the
western, which is the main London road, to Newtimber
and Bolney, the eastern to Clayton and Haywards
Heath. The middle road is the old trackway passing
the church, just north of which is another road joining
all three. An inn stands at the road junction south of
the church.
Manors
The manor of PYECOMBE may have
derived from one or both of the two manors
of Pangdean held in 1086 by William son
of Rainald of Earl Warenne. (fn. 2) Thomas de Poynings,
a successor of William son of Rainald, held land at Pyecombe in 1248. (fn. 3) In 1284 Luke de Poynings, and in
1316 Margery widow of Michael de Poynings, were
returned as holding Pyecombe of the Earl Warenne by
military service. (fn. 4) By July 1316, however, a manor of
Pyecombe was held in demesne by John de Warenne, (fn. 5)
and it continued in the hands of the lords of the rape,
passing to the Duke of Norfolk in 1439, (fn. 6) and coming
eventually in 1476 to Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk,
after the death of her husband. (fn. 7) Pyecombe was one of
the manors which, in consideration of the marriage of her
infant daughter Anne with Richard son of Edward IV,
she surrendered to the queen in 1478. (fn. 8) It does not,
however, appear to have been among those settled
on the young Richard, (fn. 9) nor is it to be found among
the possessions of the four heirs to the Mowbray half
of the barony after his death in 1483. (fn. 10)
A reference to a manor of 'Picombe alias Pingdeane',
held by Viscount Montagu, (fn. 11) suggests that by this time
the manor had become merged in that of Pangdean
(q.v.). In the early 19th century it was said that Pyecombe had not been reckoned as a manor in the memory
of man, but that it lay in the manors of Pangdean,
Clayton, Poynings, and Saddlescombe. (fn. 12)
There were two manors of PANGDEAN (fn. 13) in 1086,
both of them held by William son of Rainald of Earl
Warenne. One, assessed at 10 hides, was held before
the Conquest by Levfel of King Edward; the other, of
9 hides, was held by Osward of the same king. (fn. 14) To
what extent the later manor was derived from these it
seems impossible to decide. (fn. 15) The overlordship descended with the rape along with the manor of Pyecombe, being held in 1455 by John, Duke of Norfolk, (fn. 16)
but by the beginning of the 16th century the manor
appears to have become separated from the barony of
Lewes.
Pangdean was held by Thomas de Poynings on his
death in 1339, by the service of inclosing 2 perches
round Earl Warenne's park at Ditchling and ½ perch
round the park of Cuckfield. There were 3 acres of
park attached to the manor. (fn. 17) It descended with the
manor of Poynings (q.v.), (fn. 18) lapsing to the Crown in
1797, after which a lease of the manor farm was made
to William Stephen Poyntz and his wife, who were still
tenants in 1834.
Soon after the Conquest, land in Standean (fn. 19) [Standena (xi cent.); Staunden (xiii cent.); Standen (xv cent.)]
was held by Fredesend daughter of Hugh son of Rainer. (fn. 20)
Early in the 13th century land in Standean was held in
fee by Robert de Freavill, a Norman, of Earl Warenne,
who in 1228 was permitted to resume possession of it. (fn. 21)
Very soon afterwards the earl appears to have bestowed
the land as half a knight's fee upon William de Munceus
or Monceux, possibly a descendant of Edith daughter
of the 1st William de Warenne and his wife Gundrada. (fn. 22)
The overlordship of this half-fee devolved in 1439
upon the Duke of Norfolk, (fn. 23) and
was still held by his successor,
the Earl of Arundel, in 1465. (fn. 24)
After that its history is uncertain,
though about 1625 it still owed
suit at the castle of Lewes. (fn. 25)
After being in the tenancy of
William de Monceux in the 13th
century, ST ANDEAN, now referred to as a manor, was in 1448
settled upon Philippa, younger
daughter of Sir Thomas Dacre,
and her husband Robert Fiennes, with remainder to
the elder daughter Joan wife of Richard Fiennes. (fn. 26)
Joan survived her husband and died holding the manor
in 1487. (fn. 27) The manor subsequently descended as
Hurstpierpoint (q.v.), being held in 1571 by Gregory
Fiennes, Lord Dacre. (fn. 28)
Fiennes. Azure three lions or.
Meanwhile, however, Thomas Nudygatt or Newdegate was seised at the time of his death in 1559 of the
tenement of 'Haselholte otherwise called Standen'. (fn. 29)
His heir in 1575 was holding a free tenement containing about 56 acres and a sheep pasture called Standen
in Pyecombe of Francis Carew, the lord of the manor of
Plumpton and son of Sir Nicholas Carew, who held
Pangdean as Receiver of the Crown. (fn. 30) This had
formerly, it is said, been held 'by copy of Court Roll'. (fn. 31)
The link between the Dacre and Carew ownership does
not appear.
In 1617 Francis More died seised of a messuage and
lands called 'Haselholt alias Standen' in the parish of
Pyecombe and was succeeded by his son Thomas (fn. 32) who
was subsequently included among the free suitors of
Lewes Castle for lands called UPPER STANDEAN
in Piecombe, formerly of Lord Dacre and once held by
William Monceux as half a knight's fee. (fn. 33)
Lower Standean, in the parish of Ditchling, is mentioned in 1537. (fn. 34)
The hamlet of Standean is now owned by Capt.
George Bernard Nickson.
Church
Pyecombe Church, of which the invocation is unknown, stands in an isolated
position on the southern slopes of Wolstonbury Hill and on the west side of the ancient way,
which crosses its eastern end. The church consists of
nave, chancel, and western tower, a north porch, and a
small modern vestry north of the chancel arch. The
whole building is covered with rough-cast, and the
stone-work of the windows is all modern. It is thus
difficult to date the portions of the church with certainty, but from internal evidence it would appear that
nave and chancel are 12th century and the western
tower 13th century. The nave has two windows on
either side, each being a 15th-century two-light window
in a rectangular frame with a label-mould, all the stonework being a renewal. A similar window in the west
wall of the tower lights the tower space, and the east
window was originally of this form. (fn. 35) The chancel has
two single-light windows on either side. The westernmost of these may be copies of early-14th-century
originals, but the eastern windows are almost certainly
modern copies of their neighbours replacing the original
12th-century windows. The east window is modern
pseudo-Norman. The tower is small and plain, except
for two very large buttresses supporting the western
angles, probably additions of the 14th century or later.
Part of a 13th-century tombstone has been built into
the lower part of the south buttress. The tower has a
simple pyramidal roof of low pitch, and its upper stages
are lit by very small windows, appearing to-day merely
as holes through the rough-cast facing. The upper half
of the blocked early-14th-century south doorway of the
nave remains externally as a shallow recess with a
segmental head. The north porch is very plain, with a
Horsham stone roof and a simple pointed-arched doorway, probably of post-Reformation date. (fn. 36) Within it
is the north doorway of the nave, a simple pointed archway, the stones of which have all been coarsely re-tooled
and given draughted margins. Its scoinson arch is segmental and similarly tooled.
PARISH CHURCH PYECOMBE
The lofty tower arch is plain and has neither responds
nor imposts. The chancel arch is 12th-century and
quite plain, the semicircular arch rising from simple
impost mouldings which have been entirely re-tooled,
as has the whole of the arch and its responds, with coarse
chiselling and draughted margins. On either side of the
arch are lateral arches, apparently entirely modern. In
the usual position in the chancel is a good piscina of
14th-century date, with an elaborately foliated ogee
head and double basins, fluted internally. The font has
a lead bowl, of late-12th-century date, with elaborate
patterning of scroll-work. The base is modern. The
church was restored in 1844, 1897, and again in
1914.
The tower contains one old bell, invoking St.
Katherine, and believed to date from the 15th century. (fn. 37)
The church possesses a much-altered communion
cup, the stem of which is Elizabethan, possibly of the
year 1568, the bowl 17th century, and the foot probably 18th century; the paten cover may be Elizabethan; there are also a chalice and flagon of 1883; a
paten of 1854; a pewter flagon dated 1733; and a
pewter plate given in 1765. (fn. 38)
The registers begin in 1561.
Advowson
The church of 'Pingeden' was
granted to the Priory of St. Pancras at
Lewes by Adam de Poynings and his
wife Beatrice, and this grant was confirmed by successive Earls Warenne in about 1095 and 1140. (fn. 39) Another
Adam de Poynings in 1180 renounced to the same
priory all his rights in the church of Pyecombe, (fn. 40) and
in 1272–3 Luke de Poynings made a similar renunciation. (fn. 41) It would appear that all these grants refer to
the same church, which continued in the hands of the
priory until, as the church of Pyecombe, it was surrendered to the king in 1537. (fn. 42) In 1538 it was granted
to Thomas Cromwell, (fn. 43) but returned again to the
Crown, in whose hands it remained. (fn. 44) The living was
annexed in 1933 to Newtimber (q.v.) and is now in the
gift of the Lord Chancellor and Mrs. Hort alternately.