Plumpton Green, United Kingdom

As in the medieval Sussex Weald generally, Plumpton parish and Plumpton's manorial outliers to the north (known as 'Plumpton Boscage') had huge amounts of common land. By 1596, 240 acres (97 ha) of Plumpton Common had been enclosed and divided, though Plumpton Green remained common land until 1842. There is little evidence now of the commons. Place names like 'Riddens' Farm and Wood and 'Inholmes' Farm indicate very ancient enclosures from the wild. The place name 'Lentridge' Farm perhaps denotes the more widespread ancient presence of small-leaved lime, which is rare now in the Weald. ('Lent' = 'lind', as in 'linden', lime). The scarce Wild Service Tree is occasionally present in the hedgerows.

Schooling began in 1837, where two teachers taught in a small building (measuring 22×16' – 6.7×4.9m) in the south of the parish in Plumpton village. This was the main centre of the parish population, which was then around 275, with some 20 children attending school.

The railway station was opened 1863, two miles to the north, and the centre of the parish gradually moved towards it. By the 1870s there were three drinking establishments, the village shop and a few other small businesses to the north of the station, spaced along Station Road. There were also a number of brickmaking sites in the open fields to either side of the road. Apart from brick-making and farming there were other rural activities such as bird-scaring, hare-coursing, acorn-picking, horse-driving, steeplechasing; even collecting flowers for the May Day celebrations. The Elementary Education Act 1870 introduced compulsory education and during 1875 the newly formed Plumpton School Board approached a total of six local landowners to sell a half-acre plot for the building of the school. All refused. The threat of compulsory purchase finally procured, for £250, a corner of a meadow bordered by a stream 200m north of the railway and in 1877 building commenced on a large single schoolroom, surmounted by a prominent bell-tower, with adjoining three-bedroomed house for the schoolmaster. The parish population was about 400 at this time; the school was designed for 64 pupils, and opened in 1878. During the first few years absenteeism was very high as it was common for children to work from an early age.

The school functioned for almost a century, and was extended at least twice to accommodate the ever-increasing population. It was eventually superseded by the present school, which was built in 1974 at the end of Southdowns cul-de-sac, and provides education facilities for 150 pupils, ranging from the ages of 4 to 11 in seven educational years. The redundant old school building had a number of community uses and then became a private residence until, in the late 1980s, with the addition of three new cottages it was converted into a total of seven dwellings. The school bell, still intact in the tower, was presented to the new school, where it is prominently displayed in the courtyard. The adjoining schoolhouse was unaffected by this development, and remained unchanged.