East Hoathly with Halland

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East Hoathly is a parish and village in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England, 4 miles (6.4km) north-west of Hailsham. The parish includes the nearby hamlet of Halland. Both were located on the A22 road to Eastbourne; a bypass now takes traffic away from East Hoathly, where there was a sharp bend. The origin of the name is said to be from the family name of De Hodleigh, landowners in the 12th century.

East Hoathly has three public houses (The Black Lion, The Kings Head and The Foresters Arms), a primary school, a church (which has no dedication) and a village recreational area where tennis, cricket and football are played.

The village was the home of Thomas Turner (1729-1793), a local diarist, in the 18th Century.

East Hoathly has its own bonfire society and holds a huge bonfire event each year around the 5th November. Society members dress in an array of costumes ranging from cowboys and Indians, to Vikings and military personnel.

Birthplace of founding member/keyboard player of the progressive rock band Genesis, Tony Banks.

On December 3, 2006 the Festival Fireworks factory in nearby Shortgate caught fire detonating the display pyrotechnics stored on the site. Successive explosions then followed for more than eight hours. Sussex Police, which described it as "a serious incident", established a 200m-exclusion zone around the factory. Television pictures showed a large fireball at the centre of the blaze. Two members of Sussex fire services died. Nine fire service workers were also injured along with two members of the public and a police officer. Hundreds of rockets continued to explode skywards more than five hours after the initial blasts. [1][2]