Mayfield and Five Ashes is a civil parish in the High Weald of East Sussex, England. The two villages making up the principal part of the parish lie on the A267 road between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne: Mayfield, the larger of the two villages is ten miles (16 km) south of Royal Tunbridge Wells; with Five Ashes being 2.5 miles (4 km) further south. On 1 April 1999 the parish was renamed from "Mayfield" to "Mayfield & Five Ashes". Mayfield village Every September the village hosts its annual carnival. This is to commemorate the Protestants being condemned here on 23 September 1556, and being burnt at the stake in Lewes.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.villagenet.co.uk/esussex-iron/villages/mayfield.php |title=The Village Reference:Mayfield: St. Dunstan and the Devil |access-date=28 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429193907/http://www.villagenet.co.uk/esussex-iron/villages/mayfield.php |archive-date=29 April 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The festival is part of the Sussex bonfire tradition of marking the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. The procession marches through the village by torchlight on the third Saturday in September, climaxing with a firework display in the recreation ground. The money raised through the street collection is spent on charities. Governance Mayfield and Five Ashes Civil Parish falls within the electoral ward simply called Mayfield. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 2,614. Toponymy The early village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 within the Rape of Pevensey as Mesewelle, which may indicate a well on tableland or more likely "belonging to Meese", a Norman man's name, or less likely, a new well or well dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The meshing of Norman French and Anglo-Saxon into Middle English meant that one person was often referred to by several spellings in a lifetime. Various spellings of Meese include Meece, Mese, Mece, Mees, Mey, and May. The village name derives from both "Maghefeld" (a field where mayweed grows) and "maid's field" – the village sign depicts a maid. A number of 15th-century emigrants to the New World had the surname May rather than Maid, which indicates the Middle English "mayde" in signage began as a rebus. Mayfield used to be a part of the manor of Malling, to the north west of Lewes, which belonged to the Kings of Wessex. Between 823 and 836 AD, King Egbert of Wessex and his son Æthelwulf gave it to Canterbury Cathedral: it became an Archbishop's 'peculiar' in the Diocese of Canterbury, and one of the Archbishop's palaces