Felbridge

Until shortly after 1911, the area was part of the parish of Horne.[2] No reference appears to a separate settlement being here in the Domesday Book of 1086.[3]

James son of Edward Evelyn succeeded to the manors of Hedgecourt (and smaller carucate of Covelingeley) in the parish of Horne and the estate of Felbridge in 1751.[4] Julia Evelyn Medley, his granddaughter by his first wife, who had married Charles Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool held this estate, after James's Evelyn wife's death, as late as 1841.

By 1911, whereabouts it lost much of its land, amid the economic change and social reforms of the age it became the property of the Sayer family.[4] The last resident "lord of the manor" was Charles Henry Gatty FRSE FLS who died in 1903.[5]

Domewood is an area surrounded on two of its four sides by copses; it faces, across its southern boundary road, Snow Hill (B2037) the Effingham Park Hotel and Golf Course, see Landmarks; and Snow Hill, a similarly semi-wooded neighbourhood interspersed with farms which is part of an area administered by Worth, West Sussex. Separating Domewood from the village centre are Hedgecourt Lake and small surrounding copses.

Wire Mill forms a separate area which is focussed on and around a short lane, Wire Mill Lane, which ends with the Wire Mill Inn, Toad Hall and Mill End House all overlooking a small weir which releases the water from the Wire Mill Lake.[8]

This listed building marks a tapering triangular intersection between the village centre's longest streets, Copthorne Road and Crawley Down road that several times forms the West Sussex boundary.[8] In 1783 James Evelyn (descendant of John Evelyn, the diarist and famous architectural, landscape and cultural figure in Britain) "chose a large house at Hedgecourt Common – arranging for 1½ acres around it to be enclosed and used as a school". The school opened on 4 November 1783 and was substantially enlarged in 1934.[9]

This large, complex, building with part-rounded restaurant in a compact 9 hole golf course forms the southwest outcrop of the parish.

The only church in the village is the Church of England parish church of St John the Divine,[10] known as St John's Felbridge, designed by William White and built in 1865.[11] The construction is a fine example of the Victorian Gothic style.[12] An adjoining church hall was erected in 1965 and refurbished in 2012. The interior of the church was redesigned in 1972-74 and modernised in 2016. The evangelical church is part of the Diocese of Southwark and is a member of the Sussex Gospel Partnership.

The sheltered housing consists of 56 homes, mainly two bedroom bungalows but also large apartments, surrounded by 22 acres (8.9 ha) acres of parkland with an orchard, lake and woodland walks. They are managed by one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, the Mercers' Company.[13] The college was founded under the will of Richard Whittington as a college of priests and almshouse next to the church of St Michael Paternoster Royal in the City of London.[14]

Copthorne Road runs through the centre of the village and links onto the A22 near East Grinstead which is about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the southeast.

Felbridge's nearest railway stations are on the Oxted Line. East Grinstead railway station is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southeast of the main road through the village centre; and north of Wire Mill Lake and the Eden Brook, more than thirty homes are nearer to Lingfield railway station to the northeast, which is two stations closer to London.