Kingston near Lewes | |
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Original Ashcombe Mill |
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Kingston near Lewes shown within East Sussex | |
Area | 5.7 km2 (2.2 sq mi) |
Population | 831 (2011) |
• Density | 383/sq mi (148/km2) |
OS grid reference | TQ394083 |
• London | 45 miles (72 km) N |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | LEWES |
Postcode district | BN7 |
Dialling code | 01273 |
Police | Sussex |
Fire | East Sussex |
Ambulance | South East Coast |
EU Parliament | South East England |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Kingston PC |
Kingston near Lewes is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book and is located two miles (3.2 km) south of Lewes on the slopes of the South Downs.
The village is small and situated at the base of the South Downs. Features include the primary school, village hall, riding stables, and the local pub The Juggs, which is housed in a 14th-century cottage and now leased to the Kentish brewer Shepherd Neame. The pub and Juggs Lane (a road used as a public path which runs by it), are named after the fish-carrying baskets used by Brighton fishwives on their way through Kingston to the market at Lewes. The path may still be traversed by foot, but is unsuitable for vehicles (though legal for them), and continues almost to Brighton.
Many of the older houses are in the original village centre, "The Street", a picturesque mixture of cottages and larger farmhouses that leads past St Pancras Church and the village pound, where stray sheep were once kept, to the South Downs Way.
During the 1930s to 1950s, a number of substantial houses were built on Kingston Ridge and in the early 1960s orchard land was developed to form what is known locally as "the estate", family houses that helped serve the establishment of the University of Sussex at that time. During the construction of the estate, a new village green, St. Pancras Green, was built. It features tennis courts and a cricket ground, and in summer supports occasional rounds of the traditional Sussex game of stoolball. The radical reputation of the university influx earned this new green the nickname "Red Square" from some of the more traditional locals.