The Two Memorials
In 1450 a group of Sussex farmers, led by Jack Cade, marched on London to air their grievances with the government. After a couple of days their protest ended in disaster, whilst Cade ended up beheaded and quartered. His name lives on today in the hamlet of Cade Street. A century later the Warbleton ironmaster, Richard Woodman, was burnt at the stake in Lewes for his failure to believe in the state-imposed religion of the day. A memorial stone stands adjacent to his former house in Warbleton churchyard.
Route Details
LENGTH – 8 miles
TIME – 5 hours
START – Old Heathfield Church, School Hill, Old Heathfield, TN21 9AH.
PARKING – On street parking adjacent to Old Heathfield Church.
TOILETS – No public toilets available.
REFRESHMENTS – Pubs at Old Heathfield, Cade Street (¼ mile off route), Rushlake Green, Warbleton and Vines Cross. Village shop at Rushlake Green.
CAUTION
This walk contains stiles.
Icon key
Caution
Cafe
Car park
Gradient
Picnic area
Pub
Shop
Start point
Toilet
Step by Step Guides
A
Starting at Heathfield Church (1) and using the waymark (W14323) to guide you, turn onto the path ahead.
B
In approx. 100m you will find a gate (G0867). Continuing on, you will come across the first bridge (B3732) followed quickly by another bridge (B0477) and a stile (S1077).
C
Just head, there will be a stile (S1076) and from there, you will continue along the path until you reach another stile (S1075) and you will continue on the path straight ahead.
D
Walk along the path for approx. 200m where you will find the Jack Cade Rebellion (2). Walking ahead, you will then come to a gate (G1400), to the right of which is a Squatters Settlement (4) Cross Battle Road, where you will see Jack Cade Memorial (3). Use the waymark (W02885) as your point of entrance to the next path.
E
Close to the entrance to the path, there is a stile (S1057) and another approx. 100m away, at which point you should take the next right.
F
There is a gate (G1397), leading you to follow the track up to a stile (S1915), leading you to follow the path down approx. 200m to another stile (S1059).
G
Follow the path to Huglett’s Lane and cross the road towards the gate (G7272) opposite, which leads to another path.
H
Approximately 100m from the gate there is a stile (S1917) and another (S1918) approx 70m away, after which you will find Punnett Town Windmill (5).
I
After walking approx. 400m, you will come to a bridge (B2801), after which you will come to another bridge (B2800).
J
Follow the path down to a gate (G0857) leading to Upper Greenwoods Lane. Go left along Upper Greenwoods Lane and in approx. 220m, turn right onto Cold Harbour Lane.
K
In approx. 50m, turn left onto on the path, where you will find a stile (S1913) and following the path you will find another stile (S1911). You will then be on North Street.
L
You will see a Former Chapel (6) there. Walk down North Street for approx. 200m, and cross Battle Road to Bakery Lane opposite. Walk for approx. 20m and turn left where you will find a gate (G4468) leading onto a path.
M
At the end of the path, there is another gate (G4469). Continue to follow the path to another gate (G0634). In approx. 70m there is a stile (S0712).
N
Following the path down, there is a waymark (W14094). In approx. 200m, there will be a stile (S6177) and a bridge (B0328) close together, along with some steps (R0079) and followed by a waymark (W01276), at which you turn right.
O
Approximately 300m down the path, there will be a waymark (W10042), and approx. 70m after there will be a bridge (B2708) followed by a stile (S1035) leading onto Flitterbrook Lane.
P
Turn left onto Flitterbrook Lane and walk approx. 700m down the road. You will need to cross the road to a path where you see a waymark (W01303) and an entrance gate (G0636), where you will also find Modern Memorial (7).
Q
Follow the path down and you will come to one of a series of bridges (B0475) and where you will also find the Ironworks (8). Continuing on the path, there will be a bridge (B8211), and similarly distanced is another bridge (B0474), as well as a stile (S0735). Approx. 130m away is a stile (S1041) an additional bridge (B0473), and you will be in Toll Wood. Approx. 200m away is another bridge (B0272).
R
There will be a gate (G0838) at the end of the path, where you will turn right onto Kingsley Hill. Continue on this road for approx. 650m, at which point you will go right towards Warbleton.
S
In appox. 200m on the left side of the road, you will see a waymark (W01338) where you will need to turn left. There is a gate (G4462) and some steps (R1340) there too, with some more steps (R1339).
T
You will then come across Warbleton Church (9), closely followed by Woodman’s Capture (10). In approx. 200m, turn left onto the path. In approx. 200m, you will find a waymark (W01340), followed by a second waymark (W01340). In approximately 250m, there is a bridge (B0335) followed by some steps (R1040).
U
In approximately 300m, you will see a waymark (W06397). Continue on the path ahead and you will come to a gate (G0644) and a stile (S3203). Turn right onto Foords Lane, and walk approx. 300m, where you will find Bonfire Celebrations (10), and where you will turn right onto Nettlesworth Lane.
V
In approx. 250m, on the left side of the road, there will be a gate (G2357) and a waymark (W05178), followed by some steps (R0364). There will be a stile (S3206) and a waymark (W05179), closely followed by another waymark (W05180) and stile (S3207).
W
Approximately 150m away is another
waymark (W05181) and stile (S3208) followed by an additional stile (S3209)
approx. 200m after. Continuing on the path, you will come to another stile
(S0229) and waymark (W05182). Keep to the path on the right for approximately
530m.
X
You will come to a stile (S6281). There will be two paths directly in front of you, take the one on the right. Continue up the lane past Old Drove Road (4) and you will come to a stile (S1086) and a bridge (B2792). As you continue on the path, you will see Sapperton Manor (3). You will come to a stile (S1084) followed by a bridge (B0481).
Y
There will be a gate (G6346) and in approx. 200m you will come to a bridge (B0480). You should turn right here and in approximately 30m, turn right again at the waymark (W10286). You will come to a bridge (B8200) and continuing around the pond, you will come to Twissells Mill (2) followed by an additional bridge (B0478). Walk up towards a gate (G6827) and follow the path to a stile (S6386).
Z
You will come to Nettlesworth Lane, where you will come to another stile (S1079). Follow the footpath ahead and you will get to another stile (S1078). In approximately 100m, you will get to a lane, followed by a gate (G0859), shortly followed by a stile (S1066). You will then be on Church Street, where you will turn left and walk approx. 25m up where you will again find Heathfield Church (1)
Points of Interest
1
Heathfield originated as a swine pasture owned by the inhabitants of Bishopstone (near Seaford). By the 13th century, it had developed as a settlement in its own right and its church was constructed at this time. In the 19th century, a pottery industry had developed, including the manufacture of memorial plaques for use as gravestones. Several of these rare Harmer Terracottas (named after their maker) can be seen about the church and graveyard. Another stone bears the odd poem “A happier couple there never was wed, But much more so now that they are dead”.
2
Looking out to sea from here in 1450 smoke from the burning of Rye by the French fleet may have been visible in the distance. Coming on top of high taxes to pay for the war with France, this proved the final straw for many small property owners. Led by Jack Cade (using the alias John Mortimer), an Irishman living in Kent, they defeated a royal army in Kent, marched on London and entered the city unopposed.
3
Once in London, Cade and his followers stormed the Tower of London but failed to take the fortress. They killed the Archbishop of Canterbury and Henry’s treasurer, Sir James Fiennes, as well as the Sheriff of Kent. These first two had their heads cut off and placed on poles kissing each other. The royal troops regrouped and fought the rebels to a standstill. In an arranged truce, Cade presented a list of his demands to royal officials. The officials assured Cade that these would be met and Cade, in turn, handed over a list of his men so that each could receive a royal pardon. Most of the mob accepted the promise of pardon and slipped away. But neither the king nor Parliament had actually agreed to any of the rebel’s demands. Henry VI demanded Cade’s arrest and the rebel leader fled. The new Sheriff of Kent, Alexander Iden, pursued Cade and caught him on 12 July 1450, allegedly at this very spot. Cade was mortally injured, and he died on his way back to London. His corpse was hung, drawn and quartered, and his head placed on a pole on London Bridge. “This is the success of all rebels and this fortune changeth ever to traitors” states his epitaph.
4
Prominent on the horizon ahead is Punnetts Town windmill, nicknamed “cherry clack”. This octagonal smock mill is notable for having been built at Biddenden in Kent and moved here in 1856 in pieces on a large cart to replace a mill which had burnt down. It worked on its new site until damaged in 1924. The sails were removed with one being sold for only 30s and the others broken up for firewood. After World War II, the mill was gradually restored using parts from other windmills at Polegate and Staplecross.
5
As the iron industry collapsed, unemployment hit the Weald hard. Homeless people begun to squat on the vast, former Warbleton Common and on the wide roadside verges of the Heathfield to Battle road. In time, these illegal cottages became permanent settlements such as Cade Street and Punnetts Town. These settlements are distinguished by their lack of conventional churches, but instead possess a range of simple chapels, including this former example in Punnetts Town, now converted to a house.
6
Rushlake Green was sited just outside the western boundary of the 100 acre estate of Warbleton Priory with the buildings away to the south-east. This was actually the resited Priory of Hastings which moved to this inland site in 1417, as the sea eroded its original site. Roads were diverted to run around the estate and Rushlake Green seems to have developed as a planned settlement adjacent to the western gate. Barely more than a century later in 1537, the priory was gone, part of Henry VIII’s reorganisation of the English Church with its revenue confiscated for the crown. This ushered in a period where the official state religion swung quickly between catholic and protestant and those of one view were likely to be in conflict with those of the other.
7
Leaving Rushlake Green, a much more modern memorial can be seen. This is a kissing gate, erected in memory of Ian Price who was killed near the spot whilst repairing power lines after the October 1987 hurricane.
8
Marklye ironworks operated between about 1545 and 1650. The banks of the pond and its overflow can easily be seen from the footpath on this walk. Among the first of its ironmasters was a man called Richard Woodman, who lived in the nearby Warbleton village. However his tenure of the works was set to be very short-lived.
9
Richard Woodman was a churchwarden at Warbleton church, where he had provided a fine, iron door to one of the tower rooms. He was a protestant, and unusually for the time, literate and hence able to read the bible for himself. The vicar, George Fairbank, in contrast, had quickly changed his beliefs to those of a catholic in line with the state as Queen Mary came to the throne. Conflict between the two was inevitable once Woodman had begun to publicly criticise Fairbank’s sermons “for turning head to tail” and preaching “clean contrary to that which he had before taught”. However, Fairbank had the state on his side. Woodman was arrested and imprisoned in London where he was “examined” as to his beliefs on no fewer than 32 occasions before being set free on 18 December 1555 as they could find no heresy and his arrest appeared to be illegal. Woodman left the country. And yet, visible in the churchyard, is his memorial stating “Close by in the meadow behind stood the Abode of Richard Woodman farmer and ironmaster burnt at Lewes 22 June 1557”.
10
Woodman’s downfall was, in effect, his business interests. After a time he returned to Warbleton and lived quietly in his house immediately south of the churchyard. However, his presence was betrayed to the authorities by his brother, who coveted his wealth. What happened next is described in Woodman’s own words “A little girl, one of my children, came running in, and cried, ‘Mother, mother, yonder cometh twenty men!’ I, suspecting straightway that I was betrayed, stirred out of my bed, and whipt on my hose, thinking to have gone out of the doors. My wife, being amazed at the child’s words, looked out at the door, and they were hard by. Then she clapped to the door, and barred it fast, and they bade open the doors, or else they would break them in pieces. There was a place in my house that was never found, into which place I went. And as soon as I was in, my wife opened the door, whereby they asked for me; and she said I was not at home. Now when they could not find me, one of them went to him that gave them word that I was at home, and said, ‘We cannot find him.’ Then he asked them whether they had sought over a window that was in the hall for that same place where I was hid. Then they began to search anew. Then I had no shift, but set my shoulders to the boards that were nailed to the rafters to keep out the rain, and brake them in pieces, which made a great noise; and they that were in the other chamber, seeking for the way into it, heard the noise, and looked out of a window, and spied me, and made an outcry. But yet I got out, and leaped down, having no shoes on. So I took down a lane (the path this route follows) that was full of sharp cinders, and they came running after, with a great cry, with their swords drawn, crying, ‘Strike him, strike him!’ which words made me look back, and there was never a one nigh me by a hundred foot: and that was but one, for all the rest were a great way behind. And I turned about hastily to go my way, and stepped upon a sharp cinder, with one foot; I stepped into a great miry hole, and fell down withal; and ere ever I could arise and get away, he was come in with me.”
11
After a show trial, Woodman was burnt alive at the stake at Lewes with nine other martyrs in an effort to scare the population from following in his footsteps. However, others in the area also suffered. Whilst a total of 17 people were burnt at Lewes, a further 4 were burnt at Mayfield to the north of here. These combined totals included 5 people from Mayfield, Margery Morris and James Morris her son of Cade Street and George Stevens, another from Warbleton. These events are commemorated as an integral part of the massive bonfire night celebrations in Lewes every year.
Disclaimer
Whilst we have taken reasonable endeavours to ensure the information is up to date and correct, you will be using the information strictly at your own risk. If you come across any inaccuracies whilst you are on your walk, please contact Wealden District Council’s Economic Development and Wellbeing team.
The self-guided walk descriptions are provided to help you navigate your way, however we recommend that you plan your route prior to walking the route and that you carry an Ordnance Survey map of the area being walked and follow your position on the map as you proceed.
Please note, we cannot be responsible for the conditions of the footpaths and land and you are responsible for your own safety.