America Lane, Haywards Heath

Image: © Simon Carey Taken: 15 Aug 2015

Viewed from the mini roundabout which contains the junctions of Bentswood Road on the left and Western Road heading off behind the photographer to the right. For many centuries this roughly marked the parish boundary of Cuckfield and Lindfield with the later only absorbed by the growing Haywards Heath in the 1930s. The lane is named after a small settlement which was created in the 1820s by William Allen, a quaker industrialist and social reformer. The idea was to provide a small cottage with a large plot to chose agricultural labourers who wished to work and stay off the poor rates. The cottages lined the southern side of the road facing Bent's Wood, which then stretched north to Scrase Stream, with the plot, a thin strip attached to each cottage, stretching southwards to the parish boundary adjacent to Petland Wood. Allen's idea was to produce 'Colonies at home' in order to discourage emigration and encourage self sufficiency amongst the rural poor. Initially known as The Colony it was soon locally nicknamed America which stuck. The settlement did well and remained in place up to the Second World War. In the 1930s this part of Lindfield parish had been transferred to Haywards Heath and with it the urbanisation that initially had stopped at this road junction, see http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw039524?name=HAYWARDS%20HEATH&gazetteer=HAYWARDS%20HEATH&POPULATED_PLACE=HAYWARDS%20HEATH&COUNTY=West%20Sussex&ADMIN_AREA=Mid%20Sussex&ref=4 for an aerial view of 1932 with the cottages and their plots still in place. A decision was taken during the 1940s to demolish all the cottages which was carried out in 1944 and replace it with a new housing estate which was largely completed by 1950, see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/geography/researchprojects/sussexairphotos/1940/6-3055.jpg for an aerial view from 1947 with the cottages gone, the estate under construction along with the marked out new course of the lane, and the northern part of Image complete. The lane itself originally ran eastwards then turned north up what is now Image then east again along what is now Image The new road which avoided these turns was built in the late 1940s and the eastern end reduced to a bridleway on the construction of Westlands Road in the early 1970s. In the distance are Image and Image

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