Piddinghoe is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located in the valley of the River Ouse between Lewes and Newhaven, five miles south of the former, downstream of Southease. The village was once a central player in Sussex smuggling. It is also notable for having the only remaining bottle-shaped brick kiln in the country. St John's Church is one of three in the Ouse Valley with a round Norman tower, the others being at nearby Southease and Lewes. Piddinghoe is regularly visited by sailing enthusiasts as the body of water by the village is a fine location for dinghy sailing in particular but also windsurfing. An old saying of unknown origin says that "Piddinghoe people shoe their magpies". One theory is that this refers to the habit of shoeing oxen, which if black and white, were called magpies.
History
Piddinghoe does not appear in the Domesday Book, but by 1220 a manor of that name was in the hands of William de Warenne. In the 13th century the village name appears as Peddinghowe or Pidingeho and in the 14th century as Pydynghowe. The village was part of the Holmstrow hundred until the abolition of hundreds in the 19th century. In 1929 part of the parish on the coast was made into the parish of Peacehaven.
Governance
At a local level Piddinghoe is governed by Piddinghoe Parish Council. Their responsibilities include footpaths, street lighting, playgrounds and minor planning applications. The parish council has five seats available although only four were filled in the uncontested May 2007 election. The next level of government is the district council. The parish of Piddinghoe lies within the Kingston ward of Lewes District Council, which returns a single seat to the council. The election on 12 May 2015 returned a Liberal Democrat East Sussex County Council is the next tier of government, for which Piddinghoe 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 Piddinghoe is Lewes. The Liberal Democrat Norman Baker served as the constituency MP from 1997 until 2015, when Conservative Maria Caulfield was elected. At European level, Piddinghoe is represented by the South East region, which holds ten seats in the European Parliament. The June 2014 election returned 3 Conservatives, 1 Liberal Democrats, 4 UK Independence, 1 Labour and 1 Green, none of whom live in East Sussex.
