Lindfield first appeared as Lindefeldia, ‘open land with lime trees’, in a Saxon charter of 765 AD, in which King Ealdwulf granted lands for the building of a Minster church. By Domesday the lands were held by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1343, Edward III granted the town a royal charter to hold a market every Thursday and two annual eight day fairs. For centuries the summer fair was one of the largest sheep sales n Sussex.

There are tales of 300 horses carrying contraband being led up the High Street on a dark night in 1782. It is said that there are smugglers’ tunnels near All Saints’ Church but if they do exist, they remain hidden to this day!

By the 18th century the London-Brighton stage coach was arriving at the Red Lion and in 1841 the London-Brighton railway opened, passing to the west of the parish with a ‘Station for Cuckfield and Lindfield Towns’ on open land that was to become the town of Haywards Heath.