Henfield
WHY I LOVE. . .
It was 18 years ago that I was offered a job in Sussex but I was
living in Surrey at the time so decided to make the move and cut
my commute to a minimum. I can’t remember now what made
me choose this village of all the beautiful parts of Sussex but I
ended up buying the first house I viewed on the northern edge
of Henfield.
One of the largest village communities
in the Horsham district of the county,
Henfield has a thriving centre that lies
33 miles south of London and 12 miles
northwest of Brighton. It sits on the A281
and is surrounded by beautiful Sussex
countryside with the Downs to the South.
It is not just a pretty place; it also has a
bit of history behind it too.
Henfield was the home of Colonel
Henry Bishop, who was appointed
Postmaster General by King Charles
II. Bishop introduced the world’s first
known postmark that takes his name in
1661. The “Bishop Mark” was designed
to show the date on which a letter was
70
received by the post and to ensure that
the dispatch of letters would not be
delayed. These were the world’s first
hand-struck postage stamps. Bishop
died in 1692 and is buried in Henfield
churchyard.
Henfield predates the Domesday Book
and was mentioned in The Charter of
Osmund, a manuscript dated 770 in
which King Osmund of the West Saxons
granted land at Henfield to build a
church. St Peter’s Church, one of three
in the village, was the result. Parts of the
current building date back to 1250 and
it is located at the highest point in the
village. According to the its website, the