IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Bentswood Crescent, HAYWARDS HEATH, RH16 3QP

Built as a council estate in the 1930s on the site of Bent's Wood from which the estate got its name. The road itself links Barn Cottage Lane to Bentswood Road.

A continuation of Oathall Avenue until the junction with Barn Cottage Lane whereupon it changes to Hanbury Lane. The road and adjacent estates were developed in the late 1940s on the former Bent's Wood.

Built in the 1930s on the site of Bent's Wood and running from Bentswood Road to Barn Cottage Lane.

The current estate was built in the last seven or eight years on the site of Pilgrim Court built in the early 1950s as sheltered housing for the elderly. Pilgrims Gardens is located off America Lane with a footpath that runs north to Bentswood Crescent.

At the junction with Barn Cottage Lane, Hanbury Lane becomes Washington Road that was developed sometime between 1947 and 1955 on the northern part of Bent's Wood.

Running in a crescent shape north of Washington Road and developed sometime between 1947 and 1955 on the northern end of Bent's Wood. Most of the road names in this part of Haywards Heath, that was originally in the parish of Lindfield up to the 1930s, either have connections to America, the name given to the former smallholding settlement set up by William Allen, or quakers, which Allen was one, or indeed Allen himself. The exceptions are Barn Cottage Lane and Bentswood Crescent named after local places.

Along with Penn Crescent the road was developed after the Second World War on the site of Bent's Wood linking up Oathall Avenue and the junctions of Barn Cottage Lane and Hanbury Lane.

The name of the residential road that links Bentswood Road with Washington Road. This section, the northern part, was developed after the Second World War, unlike the eastern portion, see Image, that had been completed by the mid 1930s. The Bentswood estate is named after the wood it was built on.

Built in the late 1940s to serve the new estate that was built along America Lane. Currently containing Washington Fish & Chips, the Mad Hacker gents barbers, Strands & Co beauty saloon, McColls local store, a small Boots pharmacy and Saltwerkz cafe. To the immediate east is Image

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