PARISH FARMS

In times past the parishes of Capel and Tudeley, and that part of the present parish which was once in Pembury, had many farms, some of which can have been little more than smallholdings. Now the land has been consolidated into comparatively few agricultural businesses covering hundreds of acres, and most of the former farmhouses are now just private residences, often with their barns, stables and oast houses converted into dwellings.

The register of listed buildings identifies the following as current or former farmhouses. Many retain the name 'farmhouse', but are no longer home to a family working the surrounding land as an independent enterprise.

Reeds Farm Cottage; Badsell Mains (formerly Plummers Farm); Badsell Manor; Mill House; Castle Hill Farmhouse; Burgess Hill Farmhouse (formerly Mayday Farm); Tanners Farmhouse; Crockhurst Street Farmhouse; Finches Farmhouse; St.Norton's Cottages; Hoppers Hospital; Tatlingbury Farmhouse; Stream Cottage; Half Moon Cottage; Dislingbury Farmhouse; Ploggs Hall; Stone Castle Farmhouse; Postern Park Farmhouse; Upper Postern Farmhouse; Bank Farmhouse; Lilley Farmhouse; Sherenden Farmhouse; Brook Farmhouse; Brook Cottage; Hale Farmhouse; Sandling Farmhouse; Latters Farmhouse; Church Farmhouse, Capel; Lydd Farmhouse; Park Farmhouse; Gate Cottage and Gate House (originally one property built as a farmhouse); 1, 2 and 3 Old School Cottages (also originally one property built as a farmhouse); Church Farmhouse, Tudeley; Moat Farmhouse; Wenhams Cottages (formerly Smith's Farm).

Others, not appearing on the register, include Spring Farm; Gonerils; Colts Hill Farmhouse; Wealdview Farmhouse; Tudeley Brook Farm; Amhurst Hill Farm; Forest Farm; Little Reeds Farm (formerly Bailey's); Capel Court Farm (formerly Potter's, formerly Chapman's); Rabbit's Farm (now Barham Oast); Bunkers Hill Farm (now Bouncers Bank). Glebe Farm, now long demolished, once stood at the junction of Alders Road and Five Oak Green Road, and the 1843 Tithe Map shows the original Church Farm, Capel, stood to the west of the graveyard, roughly opposite the junction with Half Moon Lane, where the existing gateway might mark the former entrance.

This list is almost certainly not exhaustive, and if anyone has further information, especially photographs of buildings when they were working farms, we would be very pleased if they would let us know.

Don Foreman