History of The Village
During the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–66) Firle was part of the Abbey of Wilton's estate. Following the Norman conquest of England the village and surrounding lands were passed to Robert, Count of Mortain. Half-brother of King William I, Robert was the largest landowner in the country after the monarch. The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book, referred to as 'Ferla'. The value of the village is listed as being £44, which was amongst the highest values in the county.
The manor house, the site on which Firle Place now stands, was occupied from the early fourteenth century by the 'de Livet' (Levett) family, an ancient Sussex gentry family of Norman descent who owned the manor. The Levett family would later include founders of Sussex's iron industry, royal courtiers, knights, rectors, an Oxford University dean, a prominent early physician and medical educator, and even a lord mayor of London. An ancient bronze seal found in the 1800s near Eastbourne (now in the collection of the Lewes Castle Museum) shows the coat-of-arms of John Livet, and is believed to have belonged to the first member of the family named lord of Firle in 1316. On the bankruptcy of lord of the manor Thomas Levett in 1440, the owernship passed to Bartholomew Bolney, whose daughter married William Gage in 1472. Following the death of Bartholomew Bolney (d. 1476) without a male heir the seat of Firle Place was passed to William Gage. Firle Place has remained the seat of the Viscount Gage ever since. During the Second World War, Firle Plantation to the south of the village was the operational base of a four man Home Guard Auxiliary Unit.
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