ISFIELD, a village, a parish, and a sub-district in Uckfield district, Sussex. The village stands near the river Ouse and the Lewes and Tunbridge railway, 2¾ miles SW by S of Uckfield; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Uckfield. The parish comprises 1,862 acres. Real property, £2, 662. Pop. in 1851, 508; in 1861, 458. Houses, 82. The decrease of pop. was caused by the removal of cottages connected with a paper mill. The property is subdivided. The manor and much of the land belong to Henry King, Esq. Isfield Place, now a farm house, was once a beautiful mansion, the seat of the Shurleys; was surrounded by a moat, and by a lofty wall, with a kind of watch tower at each corner; and still has the Shurley arms and mottoes over the door. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £340.* Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is early decorated English, in tolerable condition; comprises nave and chancel, with low square tower; and has, on the S side, a chapel of the Shurleys, containing an elaborate altar tomb of Sir John Shurley of 1631, and interesting monuments and brasses of other Shurleys. There are an Independent chapel and a national school.—The sub-district contains also Uckfield and Little Horsted parishes. Acres, 5, 819. Pop., 2, 494. Houses, 446.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))