During The Ashdown Forest Dispute 1876-1882 commoners and land owners were interviewed by the solicitor William Raper. Their comments were recorded in a series of notebooks:
Thorp, John. 71. Grislings. My Father and Mother when I was a boy lived at Brownings, 8 acres, at Grislings Common, then belonging to Kenward of Ridgewood Farm, Uckfield. Our family lived there nearly 100 years. My Father left it in 1829. I was born and brought up there. Kenward used the land. I well remember that while I lived there Kenward always summered his stock on the Forest and used to fetch litter every year from the Forest to litter them down. It was all grass.
After my Father and Mother left the house the land was let to Charles Shaw (dead).
...............
| John Thorp | m: 21st Oct 1804 St Andrew & St Mary Church, Fletching, Sussex | Ann Awcock | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| b: 1775 to 1780 Sussex | b: c 1780 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sarah | John | Mary | Jane | Ann | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| b: 1806 Fletching, Sussex ch: 19th Jan 1806 St Andrew & St Mary Church | b: 1808 Fletching, Sussex | b: 1814 Fletching, Sussex ch: 30th Oct 1814 St Andrew & St Mary Church | b: 1818 Fletching, Sussex ch: 13th Sep 1818 St Andrew & St Mary Church | b: 1820 Fletching, Sussex ch: 12th Nov 1820 St Andrew & St Mary Church | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| John Thorp | m: 24th Apr 1832 Holy Cross Church, Uckfield, Sussex | Mary Teague | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| b: 1808 Fletching, Sussex | b: 1803 Newick, Sussex | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Barbara | John | Sarah | Elizabeth | Harriet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| b: 1834 Uckfield, Sussex | b: 1835 Uckfield, Sussex | b: 1838 Uckfield, Sussex | b: 1840 Uckfield, Sussex | b: 1843 Fletching, Sussex ch: 10th Sep 1843 St Andrew & St Mary Church | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Weald is at Database version 14.05 which has ongoing updates to the 395,000 people; 9,000 places; 613 maps; 3,308 pictures, engravings and photographs; and 248 books loaded in the previous version
