Publications relating to Rudgwick

Rudgwick Preservation Society publishes a number of books on the village and walks in the surrounding area. Please contact us if you wish to purchase a book (P & P extra).

All books are also available at lulu.com/bookstore (not booklets).

   PUBLISHED 2025

History and Enclosure of Tisman’s Common, Rudgwick

Roger Nash                      £12

185pp, colour where possible.

This is the story of the enclosure of three commons firstly in 1813, but then finally the remainder in 1854. it is also the story of the farms which ring the common and the cottages built on the common from the medieval days to the 20th century. Finally, the development of a fruit and horticulture industry from 1890 to the present day is outlined. Tisman’s Common is not Rudgwick! It is unique in Sussex.

  PUBLISHED 2024

The Story of a Rowhook Windmill

Roger Nash     £5

57pp, colour where possible.

This slim volume is about a 19th century windmill at Snell Farm, its owners and millers, in the manor of Dedisham, with additional information about the history of Rowhook farms, customers and neighbours of the mill. It completes a ‘trilogy’ of books on three Rudgwick mills.

The House on the Hill, Pallinghurst and its People

Roger Nash     £13

235 pp, colour where possible

This book has been a long time in the making, having been written for RPS website in 2009 (now removed). With new sources, the book is substantially enlarged and updated. Pallinghurst estate grew to be very large, and a substantial new house was built around 1900 at Upper Hillhouse Farm, Rudgwick. Thomas Langton was first to join this farm with nearby Pallinghurst Farm in Cranleigh. Jonah Oastler then created a much larger estate. Erwin Schumacher was builder of the house, calling it Pallinghurst Park. His family changed their surname to Ffennell.

As the estate grew, expanding from Rudgwick and Cranleigh into Loxwood and Alfold, many farms and woodlands across the Sussex-Surrey borders were acquired. Ernest MacAndrew was the last owner. On his death in 1958, the estate was broken up.

Some descendants of the Schumachers and the MacAndrews led interesting often international lives, notably Raymond Shumacher in South Africa and Oxford. Many stories about the estate have been discovered: the demise of Wogau & Co in pre-Revolutionary Moscow and its consequences; a descendant who died in the Beirut explosion of 2020; the fatal plane collision over Pallinghurst; the mystery suitcase left in Pallinghurst Hotel in the 1960s; the point-to-points at Tisman’s; most recently the founding of a Japanese school, Rikkyo, at Pallinghurst. Additionally, the author has found space for the stories of ordinary estate workers to balance those of wealthy owners.

The Brabys, A Rudgwick Family, Successful Enrepreneurs

Roger Nash           £8

117pp, colour where possible

The Brabys lived at Maybanks, adjacent to Rudgwick near Cox Green, in the 19th century. They were local benefactors, as well as Rudgwick landowners. Their origins go back to 18th century Rudgwick and Ockley, from where as wheelwrights, they left for Lambeth, becoming very successful and astonishingly inventive. Marriage brought them to Maybanks. A succession of James Braby names is handled by numbering generations! The first James at Maybanks had a brother John who built Wimblehurst in Horsham; his son Frederick became a very successful industrialist in the galvanised metal trade, and having married a Slinfold-born wife, also had local connections. The wider family get their spot in the telling of a very Victorian success story, including the founders of Pennthorpe School wo brought th school to Rudgwick in 1939.

PUBLISHED 2023

The Story of Gibbons Mill and Mill Farm

Roger Nash              £11

176pp, colour wherever possible

The history of the medieval  to the modern, the history of milling and the separately owned farm, coming together in one ownership in the 20th century, now split in a different way. Read about the West and Churchman families at the farm, the Gibbons and the Botting families at the mill, the end of milling and introduction of hydroelectricity, gentrification, Pennthorpe School in the war, and much more.

Published 2022

Lynwick Through Time, A Farm, A House and an Estate in Rudgwick

Roger Nash          £14.00         

230  pp, colour wherever possible.

The history of a house, farm and 1000 acre estate which covered much of Rudgwick from Tismans Common to Cox Green, and neighbouring Baynards (Surrey) too. this book is also the life story of John Aungier, who was the owner of Lynwick House and its large estate up to 1922, a seminal date in Rudgwick’s history.

Rudgwick Pubs, Life and Times, 18th to 20th Centuries

Roger Nash,      £10.00

165 pp, many colour illustrations. the history of eight pubs (of which five are still trading).

The Story of Wanford Mill and The Mill House

Roger Nash,      £7.00

103 pp, many colour illustrations, the history of Bucks Green’s ancient mill, and its millers.

 

OLDER BOOKS

First World War

 Pub. 2018

Price £12.00

Price £7.00

BOTH BOOKS bought together £15.00

Walks

Available for download, Horsham District Council Heritage Trails (20 trails across the District). Visit https://horshammuseum.org/learn/heritage-trails.

Rudgwick: A High Point in the Low Weald

Published 2021 – RUDGWICK TRAIL

Book 2: Walks around Rudgwick – Six more pub walks in the Weald, 72 pp

by Roger Nash,

published RPS 2009

£2.00

Geology

The Geology of Rudgwick Parish Church, 16pp 

by Roger Birch,

published RPS 2007

Free on application (+p&p)

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Architecture

by Diana Chatwin,

published RPS 1996

Sorry, out of print

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Walks

Book 1: Rudgwick Walks – Seven pub walks in the Weald

by Roger Nash,

published by RPS 2007

Sorry, Out of print

The walks are now available for download from this website.

ALSO BY ROGER NASH

DEPENDANT BRETHREN OF SUSSEX AND SURREY,

A History of the Cokelers

Published 2021, available from the author, £15.00 + pp, via contacts page on this website. Also available from Lulu.com/bokshop.