1. Link the user with those inhabitants and their surroundings of just over 350 years ago.

2. Reveal many of the interesting and perhaps less familiar parts of Haywards Heath

3. Expose the many vantage points and views both with the town and beyond its boundaries.

Haywards Heath, our town name, first appears as "Heyworthe" in deeds which survive from 1265. At that time a Philip of Hayworth is mentioned and one year later, Thomas of Hayworth, in 1358, a land transaction mentions John of Hayworth... 'of the parish of Cuckfield'. As Wyn Ford wrote:

The name Hayworth is taken to indicate some sort of fence or enclosure. We can be fairly definite about what kind of enclosure it was. We know that much of the Weald was afforested, that is, reserved for conserving game for the use of the king or local magnate ( in this case the Earl of Warenne); there is a letter from Edward I addressed to the warden of the chace at Cuckfield and Worth, and in the enquiries of 1279 the jurors of Buttinghill hundred, in responding to a question about animal reserves, complained of the damage done by the animals to the crops of those who lived close to the unenclosed reserves. We know from Domesday that these reserves possessed special enclosures called haiae or hays, in which game was conserved for hunting. The name Hayworth seems to mean an enclosure for keeping animals for sport.

It was during the lordship of the Hardham family that, in 1638, Nicholas Hardham commissioned James FitzOsberne to survey his land - and surrounding areas- to delineate the Waste of the manors of Heyworthe and its associated manor, Trubweek. Details of the roads and trackways, property owners and tenants are recorded. The map notes that the 'bound-treaders' in 1638 were Thomas Renfielde, aged 72 (who lived at what is now Burnt House, off Copyhold Lane, Cuckfield); Robert Woods, aged 62 and Nicholas Hardham (aged 28). Given the ages of Nicholas' companions, it is clear that detailed local knowledge gathered over years, was considered important.

The Waste was that part of a manor where the land was poor and had not been taken into cultivation. Some of those tenants and landowners living around the Waste would have had rights - perhaps to cut firewood, gather furze for kindling or to allow their animals to graze or forage. The Waste at Heyworthe was not common land and belonged to the lord of the manor.

During the 17th century and after Nicholas Hardham's death in 1662 (following a series of mortgage arrangements and sale) the family of Warden ( Butlers Green) acquired the manors of Heyworth and Trubweek, including the Waste portion and a number of freehold properties as well. By inheritance, marriage and Act of Parliament (which allowed the surname to continue) these lands came into the ownership of the Sergison family. Much of the Waste portion was sold and developed during the 19th century, after the coming of the railway, to create the town as we know it. The last portion of the Sergison estate was sold in 1968 when a section of open land, Blunt's and Paige's Wood was bought for public use by the District Council.