Page 10 - ‘A Blaker Family History’ The family history of Joseph Blaker (1916-2007; ‘Joe’)

© The Blaker Society
© The Blaker Society

Sussex was the Reigate and Crawley Turnpike Act, 1697. Every horse was
charged a penny, every stage coach, hackney coach, carriage, wagon or cart,
sixpence, every score of sheep a penny, every score of calves or hogs twopence,
and every score of cattle sixpence.

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Subsequently, during the first seventy years of the 18 century, a basic grid of
trunk roads was established between the main centres of population in the
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county. The advent of the railways in the early/mid 19 century served to
further dramatically increase access and population movement. It is difficult in
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the 21 century to imagine how difficult travel and communication was for our
ancestors – the world is now a much smaller place!

4.2 Mid Sussex Villages
An overview of the Sussex parishes is shown below:

Map of Mid Sussex Parishes

Key Areas of Interest in Mid Sussex

Balcombe
Reason for Interest
• Harriett Blaker (1850-1933) married John Botting (1851-
1930): September 1872, St. Mary’s Church
• Ann Blaker (1854-1903) married Henry John Beal (1848-
): February 1879, St. Mary’s Church
Several children from these marriages were baptised in St. Mary’s Church,
Balcombe.

Location
Balcombe is a village and civil parish in mid Sussex. It lies 50km south of London
and 26km north of Brighton. The village of Balcombe is situated between the
towns of Haywards Heath and Crawley, and lies close to Ardingly Reservoir, at
the heart of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

History
The origin of the name Balcombe has long been subject to conjecture. ‘Coombe’
certainly refers to the steep sided valley where the old mill was. ‘Bal' could be
the old Celtic word for ‘sun' (or a ball of hot iron?) or more likely an abbreviation
of the Saxon Tribe ‘Bealda'. It is also possible that the name Balcombe means
‘Mining Place Camp’. ‘Bal’ is a Cornish word meaning a mining place, so it is
possible that the same word existed in Ancient British Celtic. Although ‘Coombe’

or ‘Combe’ can mean a ‘valley’ it can also come from the Roman ‘camp’. So
possibly from its name Balcombe could have once been a Romano-British mining
settlement. We will never know!!

From clearings in the forest over 2,000 years ago, small groups of individual
farms developed, over the centuries. In the 1850s, a large part of Balcombe