Frant

The East Sussex village of Frant is located at the very northern corner of East Sussex on the northern extremity of the High Weald.

Frant history

A small settlement existed at Frant in Saxon times, and probably well before then too.

At the time of the Norman Conquest Frant was a small outlying settlement of Rotherfield, with a chapel, rather than a fully-fledged village in its own right.

In 1296 Frant market and winter fair started up following the grant of a charter from King Edward I.

Iron and smuggling

Like many villages in this part of East Sussex, Frant did well out of the iron industry in the 16th and early 17th centuries.

The following two centuries were tougher times, with villagers augmenting meagre agricultural livings by smuggling contraband along supply routes from the coast to the main markets in London.

The Captain Swing agricultural rioters were particularly active in the countryside around Frant in the winter of 1830-31.

Places of interest around Frant

Interesting places in and around Frant include:

• St Alban's Church which was built in 1819;
• Saxonbury Hill and fort;
• Bayham Old Abbey is a ruined monastery four miles east of Frant on the River Teise - the ruins are in the care of English heritage;
• Shernfold Park House a large Victorian house of 1853;
• Eridge Park an SSSI noted for its lichens and ancient woodland on the lower Tunbridge Wells Sandstone;
• Map Wood Nature Reserve which is owned by the National Trust;
• The Sussex Border Path passes through the middle of Frant village.

More about Frant

The churchyard contains a memorial to Sir Stratford Canning who shipped back numerous Assyrian sculptures to add to the collection of the British Museum while he was British Ambassador to Turkey. Not the sort of thing that you could get away with today.

The parish of Frant contains the smaller hamlets of Bells Yew Green and Eridge Park

Frant travel notes

The nearest town to Frant is Tunbridge Wells, over the border in Kent.

Frant is on the A267 between Tunbridge Wells and Mayfield.

Frant has its own railway station, but it is situated a mile east of the main part of the village at Bells Yew Green.