SIDLEY

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Sidley is an ancient settlement, now a village with a lane leading to Buckholt Farm and the marshes of Combe Valley. At the heart of the village, Sidley has a List II 14th century public house with 18th century additions called The New Inn. The villages have fought a successful campaign to save the pub. The New Inn was the focus of smuggling operations and a deadly battle was fought on the village green in front of the inn on the 3rd January 1828.

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To read how the smugglers used Sidley

and how the battle was fought - read Item 4 on this page:

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One of the most important aspects of Sidley's history is the railway station at Bexhill West which took a branch line across the 17 Arches Viaduct to Crowhurst Station. The line crossed the whole of Combe Valley from side to side and the old brickwork and trackway can still be seen in the woods on either side of the marshy Valley of the Combe Haven. Sadly , the viaduct was dynamited after Dr Beeching's railway cuts.  To celebrate Sidley Station, the comedian Eddies Izzard has produced a model railway which is housed in Bexhill Museum.

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To see this superb model railway, go here:

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In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Sidley like this:

SIDLEY, a hamlet in the SE of Sussex; 5 miles S of Battle. It has a post-office under Battle, and a fair on the Monday after 29 June.

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