Most of Firle belongs to the Gage family, who have held the estate since 1476, and 90 of the village’s 110 properties are theirs. St Peter’s church, Grade I listed, has alabaster effigies of Sir John Gage, wearing the Garter, and his wife Philippa, and a John Piper window of the Tree of Life, installed in 1985 in memory of the 6th Viscount Gage. The painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, who lived at nearby Charleston Farmhouse, are buried in the churchyard, and so is Vanessa’s son Quentin Bell. Firle Place, the family’s house, opens on set days from May to October, and Firle Beacon, 217 metres, rises on the Downs south of the village.
