WHY, WIVELSFIELD ?

December 2025. Wivelsfield. West Sussex.

But first, “Where, Wivelsfield ?”

Firmly Mid Sussex, though as Mid Sussex doesn’t exist in the GBG, it’s a dip into the West Sussex chapter. Here’s one I completed earlier;

Simon is making some inroads into this underrated county at the moment, a mix of micropubs along the coast and unimproved rural diners with outside loos, and I know which one you’ll prefer.

Technically I’m already in Sussex at the start of my trip on Tuesday morning, but Rye is a hefty 2 hours away, with a 20 minute change at St Leonards, which is the artistic highlight of a dreary day.

I’ve got a complicated day of travel connections, which starts at Wivelsfield Station on the Southern Express route towards Gatwick (nice train).

Why (oh why) is Wivelsfield Station so far from the village of the same name ?

Don’t tell me. I don’t care.

Hey, folks, this is your glorious, “streets paved with gold”, South East of England.

I could have waited here 16 minutes to catch the Thameslink connection to Burgess Hill, but let’s walk those streets instead.

I tried so hard on my 15 minute walk to capture something of the soul of suburban Burgess Hill*,

and this cinema is the best I could do.

So, just for fun and to annoy Russ, let’s pretend that St Wilfrids says St Winifred’s,

which is what I actually read it as, and bring you some Christmas cheer.

They were from Stockport, of course, though oddly not an Old Mudgie favourite. Not many folk know that they also sang on that song about Lowry’s cats and dogs. No one hit wonders, St Winifred’s.

Bang on noon I turn the corner and Burgess Hill’s majestic pedestrianised high street greets me,

and there, on the left, is my first pub of the day.

*Wait till you see the centre. Oh boy.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

57 thoughts on “WHY, WIVELSFIELD ?”

  1. It is a pet hate of mine when rail stations are too far out from their named locations. I mean – I love walking but I just want to BE there in the thick of it and make the most of a day trip. Sandbach station was a classic recent example – 40 minute walk away from the town so I was relieved when my friend drove us from Crewe.

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    1. I didn’t even realise Sandbach had a station!

      In the rest of Europe all stations seem to be exactly the same distance from the town centre, approx 15 minutes walk past 18 cafes and 6 bakeries. It’s probably the law.

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    2. Lana, there are various reasons why “rail stations are too far out from their named locations”.
      Sometimes, like Cheltenham, the town was already large and the station is as near as the railway could realistically get towards the town centre.
      Sometimes, like Cambridge, the railway station was built at a distance to discourage the lower classes from visiting the town.
      Worst of all is London with the Royal Commission to Investigate the Various Projects for Establishing Railway Termini Within or in the Immediate Vicinity of the Metropolis ( usually referred to as the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Railway Termini ) established in 1846 with a remit to review and report on railway termini in London. It recommended that lines north of the River Thames should be prevented from entering the central area and that was accepted which is why London has nearly a dozen termini, rather than a couple in most European capitals, and on arriving at Euston you’re still nearly two miles from the centre of London.

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      3. Brunel wanted to build his Bristol terminus in the city centre, the vision being that you could get on a train at Paddington, travel to Bristol, take a short carriage ride to the City Docks, board a transatlantic liner and sail direct to New York. However the Merchant Venturers didn’t want a nasty, smelly railway station in the middle of their city so the station ended up being built on a marsh in the outskirts. Still there though.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Yes Bill, and the train for Severn Beach sometimes leaves from his original Platform 1.
        I last did that in May 2023 for a bargain £1.95 return.

        Liked by 2 people

      7. I had to think hard about your Cambridge reference, and then I realised that while the station is perfectly placed for the Mill Road pubs (and the Youth Hostel) it’s a good 15 minutes to the colleges !

        Like

      10. And Temple Meads was ideally placed for the wonderfully lively Cattle Market Tavern, but the railway station came first, then the mail trains, then the nearest proper pub becoming the postmen’s’ canteen – rather like Holdens’s Great Western.
        Something’s gone wrong when the University of Bristol’s new £300m campus caused the historic Cattle Market Tavern to be demolished.

        Liked by 2 people

      11. Back when that Cattle Market Tavern was busiest only people called Arbuthnot and Abigail went to University, Paul. Now, nearly everyone does. Particularly noticeable in Sheffield.

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      12. I never walk from Cheltenham station to town or vice versa. I either catch the D bus or, for more fun, hire an electric scooter 🙂

        Like

  3. Why, on Why Wivelsfield, does my comment appear at the head of the blog, but not on the post itself?

    Life would be so dull without these mysteries, however.

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      1. Bill,
        And it’s such varied scenery for the thirty-something minutes and 13½ miles.
        2½ years ago I did that trip with an unexpected spare day and broke my journey at Clifton Down and Montpelier stations for the Highbury Vaults, Brewhouse & Kitchen and Old England.
        I used Temple Meads railway station most during the 1980s with being invited by friends to biannual parties at their house overlooking Bedminster station.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Martin, they were anything but Dinner Parties. I remember plain wholesome food by the cauldron, usually three firkins of beer and always at least a couple of polypins of Wilkins cider from Mudgley – and great company from as far as London and Glasgow.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Martin, I had never heard of him but a minute ago learnt that he is an English screenwriter, producer, director and former actor with a film, theatre, and television career spanning more than 60 years.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. (The comment that I originally posted expressed sympathy for Martin’s having to pass good pubs for maybe lesser ones – but for a tick – and also admiration for the resolve that this implied. All trace of it seems to have disappeared now.)

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  4. “WHY, WIVELSFIELD ?”

    (looks up at pic)
    Blimey! Is that to keep folk from having one too many before they leave the pub?

    “December 2025. Wivelsfield. West Sussex.”

    (looks up)
    Spanish Court, eh? I guess that’s where they’d hoped to try Franco, if possible, considering they’d never get a fair trial in Spain itself. 😉

    “a mix of micropubs along the coast and unimproved rural diners with outside loos, and I know which one you’ll prefer.”

    You might be surprised.

    “with a 20 minute change at St Leonards, which is the artistic highlight of a dreary day.”

    (looks down)
    Crickey. That doorway looks a bit like it’s from the 1966 TV series The Time Tunnel:

    (Some TV trivia: The Time Tunnel premiered in North America the same year that Star Trek did. The critics raved over The Time Tunnel, which only lasted one season. As for Star Trek… 😎)

    “Why (oh why) is Wivelsfield Station so far from the village of the same name ?”

    I see others (more knowledgeable than I) have given comment on this. Let me just say that, where I live, an island that is 283 miles long, 63 miles wide (at its widest) and home to almost 900,000 people, we have no railway whatsoever.

    “Hey, folks, this is your glorious, “streets paved with gold”, South East of England.”

    Pfft. That only means the GLA (Greater London Area) and the beachy bits, like Southwold.

    “I could have waited here 16 minutes to catch the Thameslink connection to Burgess Hill, but let’s walk those streets instead.”

    (checks Google maps)
    They’re barely a mile apart!

    “I tried so hard on my 15 minute walk to capture something of the soul of suburban Burgess Hill*,”

    (looks up AND down)

    Oof, and double oof.

    “and this cinema is the best I could do.”

    (looks down)
    That looks like some place in mid-west USA where tumbleweeds roll by.

    “So, just for fun and to annoy Russ, let’s pretend that St Wilfrids says St Winifred’s,”

    (rolls his eyes at that dry bit of sardonic humour)

    (looks down)
    But, nice segue. (slow golf clap)

    “Not many folk know that they also sang on that song about Lowry’s cats and dogs. No one hit wonders, St Winifred’s.”

    Blimey. I know that Matchstalk song!
    Mind you, I don’t think it was the same St. Winifred’s ensemble on that one. 😊

    “and there, on the left, is my first pub of the day.”

    Hopefully you can push your way through the crowded high street.

    “*Wait till you see the centre. Oh boy.”

    It had better be in your next post (already posted) or I shan’t sleep tonight!

    Cheers

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      1. “The full horror of Burgess Hill is yet to come. Oh boy.”

        Yikes! I may have to wait till tomorrow to catch up on that as I just finished my yearly Christmas chauffeur gig for my darling wife and a friend of hers. They sit in the back of the car, drinking hot chocolate (with Kahlua) and blankets across their laps while I drive them around town to look at the Christmas lights of various homes. This is the fifth year doing that. It’s now about a two hour, slow, drive, and this year’s weather was wind and rain (sigh). But they loved it, as usual. Getting to natter away while I drive to and fro is as much fun for them as the lights. 😊

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I’ve seen that Kahlua bottle, I think, it’s quite bright and garish ?

        Driving slowly round looking at people’s Christmas lights is just a form of kerb crawling, no ? At least, that’s what I assumed kerb crawling was in my teens. Never knew what jaywalking was, either.

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      3. I hope I haven’t oversold the Burgess Hill highlights. The real takeaway is the ChatGPT comment, one of the funniest I’ve ever seen. When AI is funnier than humans you’re in trouble.

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      4. “Your comments on the parts of England paved with gold are astute. I do have some very intelligent readers.”

        Ta. But I think old age, or just years of experience (?) play a bit part in that. 😉

        Liked by 1 person

      6. “that’s what I assumed kerb crawling was in my teens. Never knew what jaywalking was, either”.
        I’m still not quite sure of the difference but am confident that I’ve never done either.

        Liked by 1 person

      8. “Old age rarely brings insight in my experience, just dogmatism”.
        But I’ve had my three score years and ten without experiencing dogmatism !

        Liked by 1 person

      10. “Driving slowly round looking at people’s Christmas lights” several miles from me means
        staffordforum.com/xf/index.php?threads/haughton-christmas-lights-and-the-lousy-public-who-assume-they-can-do-as-they-please.20748/#post-497519

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      12. Yes Martin, Brewood’s not bad and I got there a few times last year before Carlsberg denied the Bridge Inn its Banks’s Mild and Marstons Old Empire.
        My worst memories of driving are homeward bound through Haughton for several Decembers, as dark as going to work early morning, and families mesmerised by the garish flashing tat hardly differentiating between the pavement and the main A518 that links Stafford and Telford. Not so bad the other eleven months, Haughton is a village of two halves named after the pubs – the Shropshire End ( yes, nearest Shropshire ) and the Bell End. With Alan Turner as licensee, the Bell was a GBG perennial, maybe before your time.

        Liked by 1 person

      13. “Driving slowly round looking at people’s Christmas lights is just a form of kerb crawling, no ? At least, that’s what I assumed kerb crawling was in my teens. Never knew what jaywalking was, either.”

        I think kerb crawling pertains to cruising for certain ladies of the evening.😉

        I only drive slow when it’s a really good display (not the ladies of the evening). Our town is small enough that there’s not a lot of traffic on a Sunday night. If necessary, I’d pull over to let other cars by, or if a particular display was noteworthy.

        As for jaywalking; that’s practically impossible NOT to do where we live. Heck, I don’t even have a sidewalk to walk on for a good ten houses or so where I live. And on the walk to my doctor’s office, I have to cross the road a few times as the sidewalk ends on one side and continues on the other!

        Liked by 1 person

      17. “I thought jaywalking was crossing before the green signal !”

        Technically it’s “cross or walk in the street or road unlawfully or without regard for approaching traffic”, so crossing before the green signal would count. 😉

        And even that has changed since the initial use. The term jay-driver was used for new drivers of automobiles, in Kansas City, back when horses where still a thing:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaywalking#Origin

        And, I think they use the term ‘jay’ because the state of Kansas is known as the Jayhawks, which was coined during the 1850’s as a derogatory by pro-slavers against abolitionists.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I’d never heard of Time Tunnel. There’s a few clips on You Tube, it looks well produced and has a decent premise. I don’t think Star Trek had as straightforward a path to legendary status as you might think, did it ? It certainly seemed to dominate my pre-teen watching c.1975.

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      1. Star Trek had a rocky start, to be sure. Partly because they were up against Time Tunnel when both shows started, and the media swooned over Time Tunnel. Heck, Star Trek, if I remember correctly, was cancelled and brought back due to a big stink by the fans.

        Once they got re-rolling, they did just fine.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Paul, yes it’s a lovely journey.

    There’s actually a pub on Clifton Down Station itself, had a few names but currently Steam. Also handy for the Vittoria and W G Grace (Spoons). None of them as good as the Highbury though.

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    1. Yes Bill, and I used the Highbury Vaults most as a Smiles pub. It still had an unspoilt interior two years ago and I think I noticed a train set round one of the rooms.
      With a dozen nights with friends and a dozen more since then at the Youth Hostel, Bristol is by far my most visited south-west city.

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      2. One of the first pubs I visited when starting to tick the GBG was the Highbury under Smiles. There’s a recent picture on my blog with five Youngs handpumps, all with slightly different pump clips.

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  6. RM, if they’d built the station where they originally wanted to, you would be literally a minute to the King St pubs. Would have meant flattening the glory that is Queen Square though. There’s an entrance to the King William, Bristol’s only Sam’s pub, actually on the square.

    I was at Bristol University at the time the Cattle Market Tavern was busy. We weren’t all Arbuthnot and Abigail. Don’t remember any Garys or Kevins though.

    No pubs in Severn Beach any more, last one was knocked down 20-odd years ago. Plenty in Sea Mills, Shirehampton and Avonmouth though, all on the Severn Beach line.

    As for the Portishead/Bristol rail link, I was about to say it will NEVER HAPPEN, but Wiki tells me it’s due to open in 2027. I’ll believe it when I see it.

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      1. Didn’t know about this. I feel eBay calling.
        If it’s set in 1985-86, it’s actually a couple of years after my time (1980-83) Don’t suppose much had changed though.

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