Rodmell is a small village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located three miles south-west of Lewes, on the Lewes to Newhaven road and six and a half miles from the City of Brighton & Hove and is situated by the west banks of the River Ouse. The village is served by Southease railway station, opened in 1906. The Prime Meridian passes just to the west of the village. The village name has been variously spelled as Ramelle or Redmelle, Redmelde, Radmelde and Radmill. It most likely derives from Brittonic where Rhod denotes a wheel and Melin refers to a Mill, hence mill wheel. A less likely derivation is from Old English read *mylde, " red soil". Before the time of the Norman conquest the manor of Rodmell was held by King Harold II. At the time the Domesday Book was compiled, there was a church in Rodmell, which was granted to Lewes Priory by William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey. The early Norman church is dedicated to St. Peter. The font is believed to be Saxon, predating the building itself. More recently, Monk's House was the home of the author Virginia Woolf for twenty-one years until her death in 1941. The village is bisected by the road from Lewes to Newhaven which passes through Iford. This road also passes the neighbouring village of Southease. The village was part of the Holmstrow hundred until the abolition of hundreds in the 19th century.
Governance
At a local level Rodmell is governed by Rodmell Parish Council. Their responsibilities include footpaths, street lighting, playgrounds and minor planning applications. The parish council has seven councillors, although only six were filled in the uncontested May 2007 election. The next level of government is the district council. The parish of Rodmell lies within the Kingston ward of Lewes District Council, which returns a single seat to the council. The election on 12 May 2015 elected a Liberal Democrat East Sussex County Council is the next tier of government, for which Rodmell is within the Newhaven and Ouse Valley West division, with responsibility for Education, Libraries, Social Services, Civil Registration, Trading Standards and Transport. Elections for the County Council are held every four years. The Liberal Democrat Carla Butler was elected in the 2013 election. The UK Parliament constituency for Rodmell is Lewes. The Liberal Democrat Norman Baker served as the constituency MP from 1997 but the Conservative Maria Caulfield was elected in 2015. At European level, Rodmell is represented by the South-East region, which holds ten seats in the European Parliament. The June 2014 election returned 3 Conservatives, 1 Liberal Democrat, 4 UK Independence, 1 Labour and 1 Green, none of whom live in East Sussex.
Landmarks
is the parish church. There is a Site of Special Scientific Interest within the parish. Lewes Brooks is of biological importance and is part of the flood plain of the River Ouse. It provides a habitat for many other invertebrates such as water beetles and snails. Breaky Bottom is the name of a valley within the parish. Breaky Bottom vineyard produces a well-known English wine and former gold medallist in the Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge. The historic Northease Manor is located between Rodmell and Southease. Originally a chapelry and then a private house, it has been a private school since the late 1960s. The main building dates from the 17th Century; a large thatched barn known as the "Tudor Hall" and the walls of an adjacent building are significantly older. The Abergavenny Arms is a public house that has run in the village for a very long time under many managements. The pub temporarily ceased trading at 6pm on 1 January 2009, and re-opened in November 2009.
Notable people
The lyrical novelist Virginia Woolf lived in Monk's House for twenty-one years until her death. She left the house for the last time on 28 March 1941, took a walk through the local fields, and drowned herself in the nearby River Ouse. Her husband Leonard Woolf continued to live there until his death in 1969. The house was bought by the University of Sussex as Virginia's papers had been left to the university. It was acquired and restored by the National Trust.
Captain F W Hartman and his wife Dorothy C M Hartman lived at Northease Manor during the 1930s. Captain Hartman was Master of the Southdown Hunt now the Southdown and Eridge Hunt. As Master of Fox Hounds, he hosted a Hunt Ball at Northease in January 1938 which was reported in the Times. He and his wife were directors of Lendrum & Hartman Limited, London, sole concessionaires of imported Buick and Cadillac cars from America. They supplied King Edward VIII with a custom built Buick in 1936, which was transported with him by warship to France on his abdication.
The Rev. Henry Goodman, a Nonconformist preacher, who was expelled from the church at the Restoration. Subsequently, on 29 May 1670 he went down to Lewes to preach at the request of his friends. 'Great caution was used to prevent danger; but some informers slyly mixed with the audience. He preached on Eph. v. 16, "Redeeming the time", whereas they fixed on the words following "because the days are evil". Mr. Goodman, living at a distance, escaped the fine; but unconscionable fines were levied on many of his hearers, and they were levied still more unconscionably.'
In popular culture
Rodmell was the venue of a local cricket match which was immortalised by A. G. Macdonell in his humorous novel England, Their England, in which it was called "Fordenden, Kent".
