Burwash, archaically known as Burghersh, is a rural village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. Situated in the High Weald of Sussex some 15 miles (24 km) inland from the port of Hastings, it is located five miles (8 km) south-west of Hurst Green, on the A265 road, and on the River Dudwell, a tributary of the River Rother. In an area steeped in history, some nine miles (14 km) to the south-east lies Battle Abbey and eight miles (13 km) to the east is Bodiam Castle. Its main claim to fame is that for half of his life Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) lived in the village at Bateman's. Kipling used the house's setting and the wider local area as the setting for many of his stories in Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) and the sequel Rewards and Fairies (1910), and there is a Kipling room at "The Bear" public house, one of two pubs located along Burwash High Street. Rudyard's son, John Kipling, died during the First World War and is named on the village war memorial at the end of Bell Alley Lane. He was named after Rudyard's father, the artist John Lockwood Kipling, (1837–1911), who provided illustrations for The Jungle Book. A complete collection of Kipling's works, including Just So Stories, Rewards and Fairies, The Man Who Would Be King and Kim, was published as the "Burwash Edition" (1941). History The village developed as a trading place when King Henry III authorised a weekly market in 1252. He also allowed a three-day fair in May. Smuggling took place in the 18th and 19th centuries, and several smugglers' graves can still be seen in the churchyard of St Bartholomew's. The main road through Burwash, today's A265, was improved in the 18th and 19th centuries after it came under the administration of the Ringmer and Hurst Green turnpike trust. The trust was formed in 1765 after fifteen petitions were presented to parliament on 25 December 1764 calling for the road to be turnpiked because it was stated to be "in many places impassable for wheeled conveyances in winter". The highway covered by the trust extended for across east Sussex from Ringmer, near Lewes, in the west, to Hurst Green in the east, where it met the principal turnpike road from London to Hastings (today's A21). The first section of road to be turnpiked ran from