“It is unanimously agreed upon by the principal inhabitants of the Parish of Alfriston at a meeting this day held at the Star in the said Parish that the Parish Officer shall purchase wheels, yarn and other proper materials for all the poor Inhabitants of the said Parish (who are now cloathed at the Parish expense) with an Intent that they shal spin knit and sew in order to provide industry in the said Parish.”

Even socialised health services existed at least two hundred years ago, for on April 8^th 1777, the Alfriston Vestry agreed to take on Charles Rendell to doctor the poor except where broken bones, smallpox or the French pox were concerned. He was to receive £2. 12. 6d. per annum. Two years later it renewed the agreement and the salary with the addition that the doctor was “not to be compelled to go out of the Parish without being Allow(ed) the Common Customary pay for Drugs and Journeys.”

Chiddingly never seems to have had any Poor Law medical service, perhaps because in the 18^th century, as in 1821, no doctor lived in the parish. It established, however, a House in which the poor could be put to work and where also the very young and the aged could be lodged. Between June 18^th, 1770 and April 8^th, 1778, the Chiddingly Workhouse inmates wove 1058 yards of linen which were distributed to the Poor of the Parish. One particular item recorded was the payment of 1s. 9¾d. to Widow Newman for spinning 7¼ pounds of wool.

Many of the aged poor ended their days in the Workhouse. Old Dame Stephens, for instance, was admitted to the Chiddingly Workhouse on October 26^th, 1778, with possessions that provide an interesting insight into the equipment likely to have been possessed by the typical Sussex cottage housewife of the time:

Ten months later another entry in the records reads: “Then whent Old Dame Stephens from the Work House to Mayfield but soon came to the Work House again.” Why had the old lady gone to Mayfield? What had she hoped to find there? A son to support her, or a daughter? Did she merely want to die among relatives?Whatever she sought, she did not find it. The Parish Work House was the last, sad refuge.