Home to Olympic gold medallist Jayne Torvill, England rugby international Joe Marler, former Doctor Who Tom Baker, guitarist Fred Frith and international badminton player Heather Olver, this small town hides a dark past.
In 1415 discontent was rife throughout the country so Jack Cade decided to take a stand. He roused the men of Kent ‘to correct public abuses and to remove evil counsellors’. An army of 20,000 rallied in Blackheath and fought the King’s men in Sevenoaks. Flush with triumph, the men degenerated into a murderous rob and Cade’s dream with them. He tried again at Rochester, but it was hopeless. In desperation he fled for Heathfield and hid on a local farm. But one fateful day he poked his head out at the top of Cade Street and was captured. He was dead before he reached London. His corpse was dragged through the Capital, decapitated, disembowelled and quartered. Portions were exhibited throughout the country. On the far side of Cade Street stands the Cade Stone, our most famous monument, which reads ‘Near this spot was slain the notorious rebel Jack Cade by Alexander Iden, Sheriff of Kent, AD1450. His body was carried to London and his head fixed upon London Bridge. This is the success of all rebels and this fortune chanceth ever to traitors’.
Heathfield also sports a mansion that dates back to the seventeenth century and contains a memorial named the Gibraltar Tower in commemoration of Lieutenant General George Eliott who was ennobled as Lord Heathfield for his role at the siege of Gibraltar.
On the edge of the parish stands Braylsham Castle, a modern house built in 1993 in imitation of a moated Medieval manor house, complete with working drawbridge.
Heathfield is a lively town with annual events such as the Cuckoo Fair, the Heathfield Show and Le Marché.