It lies south of Haywards Heath, and east of Burgess Hill, which are both comparative newcomer settlements, owing their existence to the coming of the railway in the 1840s.

Wivelsfield is much older, and was first mentioned in an 8th century charter, whilst Bronze Age and Roman finds indicate even earlier origins of settlement in the area.

[3] The settlements tended to be small farms often grouped together rather than a central village, and that is still marked by the two distinct areas called Wivelsfield and Wivelsfield Green, as well as smaller hamlets lying on the border of the old Haywards Heath to the north, Valebridge Common to the west and Ditchling Common to the south.

[5] Wivelsfield grew during the late Saxon and early Norman periods, initially as extended pastures for pannage for a number of manors to the south.

[7] In the Domesday Book of 1086, 1 1⁄2 hides at Berth here were held by William de Warenne, perhaps part of the manor of Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex.

The surviving records and memorandum books, as well as Henry Booker's memoirs, provide insights into a small rural religious community of the period.

[citation needed] The village lies in the Low Weald and immediately north of the South Downs National Park, which extends to include Ditchling.

Despite the influence of this brook, almost half of the parish drains west to the River Adur, which flows to Shoreham by Sea, reflecting the gently undulating terrain.

[9] Old Wivelsfield parish church (TQ 338 207) sits high on the Long Ridge's ancient east-west trackway that runs eastwards from Bedelands, past Theobalds, Antye, Lunces, and on beyond More Farm.

It was built on the site of a wooden church and sits next to a thousand-year-old yew, which suggests earlier use as a pagan worship place.

The yew on the north side of the church (with only half of its trunk surviving) is probably the oldest thing on the site, perhaps marking a pre-Christian holy place.

The church's dedication to St John the Baptist, whose midsummer (24 June) saints day was marked by hilltop bonfires, may represent continuity with the pagan solstice celebrations.

[13][14] In the far west, in the part that merges with the north of Burgess Hill by Wivelsfield Station, is Theobalds (TQ 325 206), a Grade II* listed building.

Unlike the streams straightened for mill leats, impoundments and drainage at Ote Hall and Antye, there remain stretches of low energy meanders where rare fish can still breed.

A hornbeam-hedged green lane tracks north from Antye to Tilebarn Wood (TQ 330 210) a hornbeam coppice with bluebells and holly.

North of Clearwaters Farm, the Wealden Clay gives way to sandstones, and the ground rises beyond ancient Kiln Wood (TQ 329 219) in Ansty to meet a new built development on the south edge of Haywards Heath, further squeezing the strategic gap between the mid Sussex towns.

[13] A patchwork of smallish woods and fields sit on the site of 'The Bishoprick', the lost Stanmer and Wivelsfield Common enclosed in 1626–30.

[13] Bounding West Wood, Hundred Acre Lane, part of an ancient south-north drove (TQ 347 189), tracks the watershed between the Adur and Ouse catchments for over a mile south from Wivelsfield Green.

The ward includes the parishes of Chailey, Ditchling, East Chiltington, Newick, Plumpton, St John Without, Streat and Westmeston.