Dallington

The small village of Dallington features a stunning Grade II listed church with a crenellated tower and a rare spire that dates back to the early 16th century. The spire is special as it is tiled in stone – a very unusual building material for church spires. The tower and spire are the only remaining original elements of this parish church and the remainder was rebuilt in 1864. The tower’s west face features the carved shield and buckle symbol denoting the Pelham family, one of whom fought in the Battle of Poiters in 1356.

Sir John Pelham is just one of many connections this small village has to war heroes. In 1940 Flying Officer Peter Guerin Crofts crash-landed in Dallington at 1:55 in the afternoon. He bailed out before the plane made contact with the ground but unfortunately succumbed to his wounds shortly after touching down. At his mother’s behest, a memorial cross was put in place to mark the spot where he fell. It is still tended by the Heathfield R.A.F.A.

The late Captain ‘Mac’, a camouflage artist and Fleet Street cartoonist, resided in the village for 45 years. He was a balloon observer during the First World War and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His cartoonist work started in the soldiers’ newspaper ‘Blighty’.

Dallington’s final war hero, a captain in the Sussex Yeomanry Cavalry, was John ‘Mad Jack’ Fuller who is also responsible for much of the unusual architecture featured around the village. Brightling Park is a country estate that has been a racehourse training facility for more than 30 years and is well-known for its various follies and its observatory, all of which were designed by Sir Robert Smirke for Mad Jack Fuller in the early 1800s. Mad Jack was a philanthropist, a patron of the arts and sciences and he  helped found the Royal Institution. In a field north of the B2096 lies one of his most famous follies ‘The Sugar Loaf’, which is well worth a visit.