Museum bid to Heritage Lottery Fund

Building on the experience of the Redicovering America local history project and the nationally renowned St Francis hospital collection a bid is being prepared to help Haywards Heath develop a town museum. The museum will include artifacts from the early days of mental treatments including a straight jacket and padded cell! It also will show how St Francis hospital, formerly the Brighton Asylum, carried out enlightened treatments for its day with music therapy, a farm and craft workshops to help the patients. This unique collection will form the corner stone of the museum as many local people came to the town to train or work in the hospital. Building on this will be a collection of people's memories and donations to create a historical record for the town to be used by schools, groups and the public whether locals or visitors. To support the bid you can send an e-mail to debby@cedarcottage15.fsnet.co.uk or write to the Haywards Heath Town Museum Project, 72 New England Road, Haywards Heath RH16 3LD. The Museum will be dedicated ot the memory of Malcolm Cleroux who was killed recently in a car accident. He worked tirelessly to create this and died before his dream could be realised.

Bentswood community project

A recent community event at Heyworth school launched the Bentswood community project and Pilgrim Local Action Team. Various organisations and groups of Bentswood residents were there including the PCT, Sussex Police Mobile unit, MSDC, Neighbourhood Watch, HH healthcheck, the credit union etc. The Pilgrim Local Action Team are looking at the community's worries about crime and disorder. It is also interested in how the local community wants to develop its local amenities and community cohesion - especially since the closure of Pilgrim Court upset so many residents by dispersing them out of the area. Groups of local parents are organising summer fun days for the community and Anna Kennedy the community worker can be contacted on 01444 446303 or anna.kennedy@downland.org.uk. Some people complain that Bentswood has a bad reputation, maybe this came from the 1980s Suede song Bentswood Boys. Suede's singer Bret Anderson grew up in Lindfield. Areas can find it hard to throw off images sometime so perhaps it's better to embrace what makes the area special instead. Celebrate Bentswood by getting involved ....

Print off your own copy of the booklets

It is now possible to download copies of the Rediscovering America series booklets by clicking on the title on the right side of the page. It may not look like the printed version, copies of which are available in the public library or Heyworth School may still have copies of book 3 for sale. The booklets came from people's memories and photos of living in or growing up in Bentswood. All thanks go to them for sharing their stories with everyone.
Book 1 Barn Cottage: cows, cottages and football heroes was launched in2001 at the formal opening of Barn Cottage pavilion and 50th anniversary reunion of the famed football team "Bentswood United". The picture on the front is of Woodside Cottage - one of the first house to be built of concrete which had disappeared from people's memories. This house was where the new Barn Cottage pavilion now stands.
Book 2 America Lane: in the footsteps of William Allen tells the story of William Allen, Quaker philanthropist and social reformer of the early 19th century whose ideas on helping the poor to help themselves led to the creation of the "America" allotment colony in 1824. All the road names eg Penn, Washington, Quaker, Boston, New England,Maryland,mayflower and references to Pilgrims come from this idea of "America" and new opportunity
Book 3 The story of New England Road: 125 years of living and working - the life story of a road!

William Allen would be happy with new gardening project

The IMPACT project located in Western Road is running a new food and gardening project based in the Bentswood area. Through the project local volunteers offer to act as mentors for people hoping to improve their growing skills, providing tools for hire and sharing seeds and cuttings. Gardening demonstrations on using natural methods and fun activites for children are also now possible using volunteers' own gardens or the demonstration allottment on America Lane. Talks and one to one sessions on producing cheap and easy meals are also planned through the project. Recipes have been put together to help people who've never really got to grips with cooking in the past or want to build up their skills. Contact Simon at IMPACT Foundation 151 Western Road, Haywards Heath 01444 457080 to get involved.

William Allen Quaker philanthropist (1770-1843) created the allotment colony for the poor of Lindfield on what is now America Lane and would have approved of anything that helps people understand better the growing of their own vegetables and fruit, creating nutritious meals and promoting self sufficiency. The cottages built on America Lane had gardens that stretched down to the cemetary on Western Road (opposite IMPACT) and following Allen's instructions using composts, good husbandry and the growing of potatoes people were encouraged to feed themselves and their families. Allen set out his principles in his pamphlet "Colonies at Home" which were based on his experiments in different soil dressings,growing techniques etc that he developed being a chemist by profession and the first President of the Pharmaceutical Society. Allen was also a leading light in the abolition of the Slave Trade and, like IMPACT, supported people in Africa with tools and seeds. So let's get gardening ...

Heyworth School mentioned in new book

The story of Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty who lived at Petland House, top of New England Road, is told in a new book called Dark Horse: a life of Anna Sewell by Adrienne E Gavin. The books shows how Anna, who was disabled and used a horse and trap to get around lived briefly with her parents Isaac and Mary Sewell in the 1840s in Haywards Heath. Heyworth schol is close to the site of where the house was and sports a blue plaque to Anna and a black horse as its emblem.

Exhibition contents

Full list of exhibition panels.
1. William Allen and the Birth of an idea - why the “America” cottages were built, the memories of the last owner of the estate The growth of Bentswood - describing how Bentswood Cresent was built to house the people leaving the cottages
2. Why America? - How the area got called its name and hence America Lane which in on the site now
3. Remembering the cottages - the memories of two sisters who grew up in one of William Allen’s cottages
4. William Allen 19th century agriculturalist - the cottages were meant to sustain the families who lived there and William Allen set out how they should do it
5. Local farms - shows how people got local milk from the farm at Barn Cottage and mentions the Prisoners of War housed there who built local pre-fabs
6. Wartime memories - especially of children growing up and the evacuees who came. Canada comes to America - describes the Canadian soldiers who lived in the woods during the first part of WWII
7. The “donkey field” where Heyworth School now stands, and other children’s memories from 1930s and 40s
8. Developing and growing – Bentswood becomes a distinct neighbourhood showing the shops and churches on New England Road
9. Hanbury Stadium & the Pilgrim - includes the story of Bentswood United who played on Barn Cottage Green in the 1950s. Barn Cottage Green itself had a building which has now gone where the new sports pavilion has been built
10. Shops and services in New England Road served the area with whatever they needed
11. Western road brick making - describing how they were made, together with the development of The Cemetery in Western Road
12. The fight for Heyworth School threatened with closure and removal to the new housing estate at Bolnore Village. The parents fought a strong campaign that caused the authorities to re-think.

Heyworth school to safeguard the project

As the history project was aimed at marking the Millennium, having received Millennium funding from the Scarman Trust to set it up, it now feels time to move the project onto a more permanent home. It has been proposed to offer the project to Heyworth School for safekeeping and to use with the school children for local studies work. This will also mark the success of the local campaign to keep Heyworth School in New England Road.

This was marked by a tea party with the Mayor of Haywards Heath Cllr Clive Chapman at the school on Wednesday 10 December 2003. The exhibition and other history materials were handed to the school's acting Head Teacher Gary Thompson. Heyworth School serves Bentswood, one of the poorer areas of Sussex, and has a strong community spirit. The local children will build on the project's work with research of their own with their parents and grandparents, of growing up in this part of Mid Sussex.

Many of the older residents whose story was told in the exhibtion attended the tea party. Special mention was made of those who sadly are no longer with us:
Mrs Handsworth - who ran the choir and played the organ at the Church of the Presentation,
Mrs Wickham-Martin - whose mother was the last owner of the America cottages estate who remembered visiting them as a child in the 1930s,
Gladys Mitchell (nee Kember) - who grew up in the cottages with her sister Audrey and
Vic Hayden - one of the first residents of Bentswood Road who supported the project from the start and helped—along with Michael Loosen and Dennis Philpott - get together the 50th anniversary reunion of Bentswood United football team.