Cocking is a village,

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

Chichester district Chichester is a local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in the city of Chichester and the district also covers a large rural area to the north. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Go ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, England. The village is about three miles (5 km) south of

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town, parish and civil parish in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother inland from the English Channel, and north of the county town of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first recorded in 1186 as ''Middeh ...

on the main

A286 road The A286 is an A class road in the south of England, from its northernmost point in Milford, Surrey, to Birdham, West Sussex. It passes through the market towns of Haslemere and Midhurst, and the cathedral city of Chichester. The road is ...

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

. In the 2001 census there were 190 households in the civil parish with a total population of 459 of whom 223 were economically active. In 2011, the population was 420.

History and notable buildings

Cocking (''Cochinges'') was listed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

(1086) in the ancient

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

Easebourne Easebourne () is a village, Anglican parish and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is half a mile (0.8 km) north of Midhurst, across the River Rother on the A272 and A286 roads. The parish includes the ham ...

as having 32 households: 18 cottagers, eight smallholders and six slaves; with ploughing land, five mills and a church, it had a value to the lord of the manor of £15. The 11th century

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

parish

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

had no known dedication until 2007 when it was dedicated to

St. Catherine of Siena Catherine of Siena (Italian: ''Caterina da Siena''; 25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and on the Catholic Church. ...

. There was a Congregational Chapel in Crypt Lane, founded in 1806 and rebuilt in 1907, which is now a private house. In the centre of the village, on the corner of Mill Lane, stands the old school, now a private residence. This was built in 1870 to the designs of architects Richard Carpenter and

William Slater William, Bill, Billy or Willie Slater may refer to: * William Slater (architect) (1819–1872), English architect * William Slater (cricketer) (1790–1852), English cricketer * William Slater (swimmer) (born 1940), Canadian swimmer * William A. S ...

. The school has Gothic-style windows and door arches, is faced in flint, and has a red-tiled roof and decorative barge-boards to the gables. The former schoolmaster's house has a distinctive chimney-stack with four outlets. To the south of the village are the remains of Cocking Lime Works, abandoned in 1999, and the associated chalk pit. To the north are a few traces of the Chorley Iron Foundry, which cast the waterwheels now at the

Weald and Downland Open Air Museum The Weald and Downland Living Museum (formerly known as the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum until January 2017) is an open-air museum in Singleton, West Sussex. The museum is a registered charity. The museum covers , with over 50 historic ...

and at the Coultershaw Beam Pump. There still remain in the village some houses of 17th century origin. In 1931 the population of the village was 431. There was a ''Richard Cobden'' pub in Cocking which closed and became a private residence in the 20th century.

Richard Cobden Richard Cobden (3 June 1804 – 2 April 1865) was an English Radical and Liberal politician, manufacturer, and a campaigner for free trade and peace. He was associated with the Anti-Corn Law League and the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty. As a young ...

lived in nearby

Heyshott Heyshott is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is approximately three miles south of Midhurst. Like many villages it has lost its shop but still has one pubthe Unicorn Inn The hamlet of Hoyle is to t ...

Transport

A railway once used to serve the area at Cocking Station, on the Chichester to Midhurst line opened in 1881, but was completely closed from 1953. The village is on the Stagecoach South No.60 bus route which runs from Midhurst to Chichester.

Today

A number of buildings in the village belong to the Cowdray Estate, distinguished by their external woodwork painted yellow. The remaining village pub, formerly ''The Blue Bell'', became a restaurant with accommodation called ''The Bluebell Inn'', and stands on the corner of Bell Lane. Cocking is on the

South Downs Way The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath and bridleway running along the South Downs in southern England. It is one of 16 National Trails in England and Wales. The trail runs for from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in East Susse ...

long-distance footpath.

References

External links

Village website

Further historical information and sources on GENUKI

Detailed history and sources at British History Online
{{authority control Villages in West Sussex Chichester District