Brightling

It would have doubtless have made East Sussex legend Jack Fuller (1757 - 1834) smile to realise just how closely he is associated with the village of Brightling even today, so many years after his death.

Mad Jack Fuller

Fuller was a larger than life character - troublesome MP, folly builder par excellence, and rich patron of both the arts and the villagers of Brightling. The unusual buildings he left around Brightling are a permanent legacy to his eccentricity.

Places of interest around Brightling

Interesting places in and around Brightling which Fuller commissioned include:

• Brightling Observatory was built for Jack Fuller and was finished in 1818. It was reputedly inspired by astronomer Sir William Herschel, a friend of Fuller and the man who discovered the planet Uranus;
• The Brightling Needle a folly obelisk which sits proudly on top of Brightling Down;
• The Sugar Loaf at nearby Dallington is another of Jack Fuller's follies, built for no other reason than to win a bet - outstanding;
• The Rotunda Temple in Brightling Park is a Georgian era pleasure dome;
• Fuller's Tower is a fabulous faux castle tower over 10 metres high, from which Jack Fuller used to enjoy the view;
• The Coade Stone Summerhouse is less spectacular, but still a lovely piece of stone work;
• And finally Jack Fuller's Mausoleum is the highly eccentric burial place of the great man. It's a 7 metre high pyramid. The rumours that the great man had been buried sitting up with a glass of something drinkable in his hand were firmly scotched by the church.

Brightling Gypsum Mine

A more modern unusual feature of Brightling is the enormous conveyor belt which stretches from the gypsum mines at Brightling all the way to Mountfield, where it is turned into plaster board - the conveyor stretches for over four miles.

Other Brightling information

The parish of Brightling also takes in the hamlets of Oxley's Green, Cackle Street, Hollingrove and Twelve Oaks.

Brightling travel notes

Brightling is tucked away far from any main roads - the A265 at Burwash is the nearest A road.

The nearest railway station to Brightling is at Robertsbridge, three miles to the north east.