We are reminded by the Brook Street Design Statement of 2014 about a couple of rumoured secret societies in this northerly outpost of Cuckfield. Exploratory missions to verify these facts have set out but sadly none have so far returned:
Brook Street lies within the protected High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is predominately working farmland, with sheep and dairy cattle on the tenant farms such as Sidnye Farm, Lullings Farm and Great Bentley Farm which together constitute a substantial proportion of the 2000 acre Borde Hill Estate.
The community has a couple of its own 'secret' societies. The ‘Brook Street Apple Society’ which every autumn collects apples from surrounding areas to produce its own special cider brew and holds its annual cider party the following summer. Also the highly fictitious ‘Brook Street Rowing Club’ which holds its annual dinner in one of the village pubs around Christmas.
Wikipedia adds further enlightenment on the 'Rowing Club':
Brook Street Rowing Club is Cuckfield's oldest and most traditional rowing club. It was founded in either 1840 or 1841, its minutes and membership record run continuously back to 1850. Records before this date have been lost. The club's committee meet (and have always met) at The Ship (a Public House in Whitemans Green, Cuckfield). Although the Club no longer owns any boats, members enjoy all of the social and gastronomic advantages of its more physically active sister clubs locally.
Sources
Cuckfield Village and Brook Street Design Statement, Cuckfield Village and Brook Street Design Statement,
Supplementary Planning Document
Wikipedia entry for Brook Street Rowing Club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_Street_Rowing_Club
York Rowing Boat, United States Public Domain photograph.
Contributed by Malcolm Davison.
For a Victorian comment on Brook Street please follow link.....
and accident at Brook Street...