UCKFIELD, a small town, a parish, and a district, in Sussex. The town stands on the river Ouse, on the Lewes and Tunbridge-Wells line of railway, 8 miles NE by N of Lewes; enjoys pleasant environs; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling place; carries on malting, brewing, brick and tile making, and a trade in corn and timber; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, a hotel, a corn exchange, a later English church enlarged in 1840, an Independent chapel built in 1866, Baptist and Wesleyan chapels, an endowed grammar-school, national schools, a workhouse, charities £11 and 14 acres of land, and fairs on 14 May and 29 Aug.—The parish comprises 1,717 acres. Real property, £6,196; of which £15 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 1,590; in 1861, 1,740. Houses, 308. There are several mansions, several neat villas, and two observatories. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £365.. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury.—The district contains 11 parishes, and is divided into 4 sub-districts. Acres, 74,230. Poor rates in 1853, £10,624. Pop. in 1851, 17,631; in 1861, 17,260. Houses, 3,296. Marriages in 1863, 112; births, 630,-of which 54 were illegitimate; deaths, 285,-of which 86 were at ages under 5 years, and 21 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,037; births, 5,906; deaths, 3,305. The places of worship, in 1851, were 14 of the Church of England, with 4,541 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 847 s.; 3 of Baptists, with 650 s.; 8 of Wesleyans, with 865 s.; and 3 undefined, with 920 s. The schools were 14 public day-schools, with 1,136 scholars; 49 private day-schools, with 1,081 s.; 16 Sunday schools, with 1,257 s.: and 2 evening schools for adults, with 43 s.

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