St Mark's Church, Hadlow Down

Hadlow Down's name suggests that a settlement existed in Saxon times: it was first recorded as Headda's leah, a forest clearing (leah in Anglo-Saxon) governed by Headda. "Down" was appended in the 14th century to describe the hilly nature of the land, and the present name emerged by the early 19th century, when the present linear village began to develop. The village straddled the boundary of two large rural parishes, Buxted and Mayfield, and was nominally served by those villages' churches—St Margaret the Queen's Church and St Dunstan's Church respectively. These were both more than three miles away, Furthermore, a Nonconformist place of worship—the Providence Chapel—had been founded in…

St Mark's Church is a Gothic Revival building in the 14th-century Perpendicular style. It is built entirely of local stone. There is a short tower at the west end, topped by a recessed broach spire with shingles and dormer openings.

St Mark's Church was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 31 December 1982; As of February 2001, it was one of 2,020 Grade II listed buildings, and 2,173 listed buildings of all grades, in the district of Wealden. The parish is now united with that of Buxted. Legally known as the Parish of Buxted and Hadlow Down, its three churches (St Margaret the Queen's Church at Buxted Park, St Mary the Virgin in the centre of Buxted village and St Mark's) serve a large rural area with the east–west A272 road at its centre. The western boundary is close to the hamlets of Five Ash Down and Cooper's Green on the A26; the eastern side runs close to Five Ashes village and the A267 road; and the…