Page 17 - ‘A Blaker Family History’ The family history of Joseph Blaker (1916-2007; ‘Joe’)

© The Blaker Society
© The Blaker Society

service the coaching trade. Around 1816, the new London to Brighton Road (now
the A23) was completed, and although stagecoaches still came through Cuckfield,
traffic was drastically reduced. 1845 saw the last commercial stagecoach call
through Cuckfield.

Cuckfield Stagecoach: from ‘An Old Sussex Town’ by Maisie Wright

Nuthurst
Reason for Interest
Edmund Blaker (1576-1634) lived in Nuthurst, working there as a servant, and
was buried in the churchyard of St. Andrew’s Church. Richard Blaker (1611-
1672) married Mary Randell ( -1669) in St. Andrew’s Church, Nuthurst in 1639.

Location
Nuthurst is a village some 4km south of Horsham, Sussex and close to St.
Leonard’s Forest. Nuthurst village is one of several distinct hamlets within the
parish of Nuthurst, which comprises Maplehurst, Mannings Heath, Copsale,
Monks Gate and Sedgwick. Nuthurst lies at the point where the Tunbridge Wells
sandstone beds dip under the younger Weald clay beds to the west, the junction
between the two formations being very irregular. The sandstone formerly
supported open heathland in the north-east quarter of the parish, but it also
provided the site of Nuthurst village. The Weald clay contains scattered outcrops
of Horsham stone and other sandstones, one of the former providing the site of
Sedgewick castle. The Horsham stone beds were quarried commercially in the
past.

History
Much of the parish in the later Middle Ages lay within St. Leonard's Forest. In the
15th century, Sedgewick Park formed one bailiwick of the forest. Woodland has
continued to be plentiful in the parish since medieval times, and throughput
history many of the prominent local trades related to the use of woodland, with
farming of deer and swine in the forest, timber merchants, colliers (i.e. charcoal
makers), carpenters and wheelwrights.

There has been a church on the current site of St. Andrew’s since c. 1130, in the
th
reign of Henry I. The north chancel is 12 century, and the chancel was extended
th
th
eastwards in the 13 or 14 century. The church was further extended in 1661
and during the period 1856-1860. To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen
Victoria, the church was thoroughly repaired and restored, on the inside and
outside. St. Andrew’s today has some remarkable carved and guilded screens,
and beautiful stained glass windows several of which are Victorian in origin.

St. Andrew’s Church, Nuthurst, Sussex

The font is one of the oldest items in the church and is made of Purbeck marble;
it was restored in 1961.