Ringmer Explained

Official Name:Ringmer
Country:England
Type:Village and civil parish
Region:South East England
Static Image Name:Ringmer Village Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1428252.jpg
Area Footnotes:[1]
Area Total Km2:25.9
Population:4,648
Population Ref:(Parish-2011)[2]
Population Density:459/sqmi
Os Grid Reference:TQ445124
Coordinates:50.89°N 0.05°W
Post Town:LEWES
Postcode Area:BN
Postcode District:BN8
Dial Code:01273
Constituency Westminster:Lewes
London Distance: N
Shire District:Lewes
Shire County:East Sussex
Website:Parish Council website

Ringmer is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England.[3] The village is east of Lewes. Other small settlements in the parish include Upper Wellingham, Ashton Green, Broyle Side, Norlington, Little Norlington and Shortgate.

Description

Ringmer is one of the largest villages in Southern England.[4] There has been human habitation since at least Roman times.[5] The parish church, dedicated to St Mary, was probably built in the 13th century.[6] One of its rectors, named to the living in 1533, was William Levett, named in the same year as rector of Buxted, and one of the most improbable figures in English ecclesiastical history.[7]

Ringmer has two schools, Ringmer Primary School for ages 4–11 and King's Academy (formerly Ringmer Community College) for students aged 11–18.The symbol of Ringmer is a tortoise named Timothy, after the female tortoise that the naturalist Gilbert White carried back to Selborne in Hampshire in 1780.[8] White’s aunt Rebecca Snooke lived in Delves House where Timothy had the run of the courtyard garden. Timothy died in 1794, a year after White.

Governance

Ringmer is part of the Lewes District Council electoral ward of Ouse Valley and Ringmer. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 6,422.[9] It is in the Ringmer and Lewes Bridge Division of East Sussex County Council.

The UK Parliament constituency for Ringmer is Lewes. The Liberal Democrat Norman Baker served as the constituency MP from 1997 until 2015, when Conservative Maria Caulfield was elected. As of July 2024 Liberal Democrat James MacCleary is the MP.

Prior to Brexit in 2020, Ringmer was part of the South East England constituency in the European Parliament.

Landmarks

Ringmer Mill stood for centuries on Mill Plain overlooking Ringmer. This post mill was in operation until 1921 but collapsed in 1925 leaving the mill post, on which the body of the mill rotated, standing as a local landmark.

Plashett Park Wood is a Site of Special Scientific Interest partly in the parish. It is a site of biological importance as an area of ancient woodland. Plashett Wood and the adjoining Plashett Park Farm provide habitats for a wide variety of breeding birds and bats, and a number of rarer invertebrates and flora.[10]

Sport and leisure

Ringmer has a Non-League football club, AFC Ringmer, which played at The Caburn ground until 2020; from season 2020/21 games are played at a new ground behind King's Academy.

Notable residents

2006 fireworks factory fire

On 3 December 2006 the Festival Fireworks factory, which is in the parish near Shortgate, caught fire detonating the display pyrotechnics stored on the site. Successive explosions then followed for more than eight hours. Sussex Police, which described it as "a serious incident", established a exclusion zone around the factory. Television pictures showed a large fireball at the centre of the blaze. Two members of Sussex fire services died and nine fire service workers were injured, along with two members of the public and two police officers. Hundreds of rockets continued to explode more than five hours after the initial blasts.[13]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: East Sussex in Figures . 26 April 2008 . East Sussex County Council.
  2. Web site: Civil parish population 2011. 12 October 2015.
  3. OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009.
  4. Web site: Archived copy . 7 January 2015 . 4 March 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190617/http://www.lewes.gov.uk/Files/plan_caa_ringmer.pdf . dead .
  5. Web site: Ringmer - Tourist Information on the towns and villages in Sussex . 7 January 2015 . 8 January 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150108010753/http://www.touristnetuk.com/south-east-england/sussex/towns/ringmer.asp . dead .
  6. Web site: Home . ringmerchurch.org.uk.
  7. Dunkin . Edwin Hadlow W. . Contributions towards the Ecclesiastical History of the Deanery of South Malling . Sussex Archaeological Collections . 1875 . 26 . 73 . 10.5284/1085488 . free.
  8. Web site: Ringmer East Sussex - (Poor Roads and riots) and English Village UK . 7 January 2015 . 8 January 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150108015708/http://sussex.villagenet.co.uk/ringmer.php . dead .
  9. Web site: Ouse Valley and Ringmer Ward population 2011. 12 October 2015.
  10. Web site: SSSI Citation - Plashett Park Wood . Natural England . 12 October 2008.
  11. News: Lady Callaghan of Cardiff . London . The Independent . 30 March 2005.
  12. News: Obituary: Lord Callaghan . BBC News . 26 March 2005.
  13. News: Fireworks depot blaze kills two . 20 July 2008 . 3 December 2006 . BBC Southern Counties News . BBC.