Fernhurst is a village 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, on the A286

Milford, Surrey Milford is the civil parish and large village which is south west of Godalming in Surrey, England which was a small village in the early medieval period — it grew significantly after the building of the Portsmouth Direct Line which serve ...

, to

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 ...

road, south of

Haslemere The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south west Surrey, England, around south west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill, they comprise the civil parish of Haslemere i ...

. The parish includes the settlements of Henley Common, Kingsley Green and Bell Vale, lies within the boundaries of the

South Downs National Park The South Downs National Park is England's newest national park, designated on 31 March 2010. The park, covering an area of in southern England, stretches for from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east through the counties of Hamp ...

and is surrounded by hills. The area of the parish is . In the 2001 census there were 1,158 households with a total population of 2,765 of whom 1,244 were economically active. The population had increased to 2,942 at the 2011 Census.

Geography

The village is surrounded by hills, including Telegraph Hill at , Marley Heights at , Bexley Hill at , Fridays Hill at and the highest hill in Sussex, Blackdown at , to the northeast. Fernhurst is surrounded by miles of footpaths, the path to the summit of Blackdown commencing at the ''Red Lion'' pub.Ordnance Survey

History

The village, on the

Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

, originally developed around crossroads (''The Cross'') and the village green, and ancient remains (

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

) have been found here.

Iron working Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron fro ...

took place in the 17th/18th centuries; and a

turnpike Turnpike often refers to: * A type of gate, another word for a turnstile * In the United States, a toll road Turnpike may also refer to: Roads United Kingdom * A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...

ran through the village. The church, dedicated to St Margaret, () and ''Red Lion'' pub are on the green, where several old houses still remain. With the coming of the railway to Haslemere, the village developed around and beyond The Cross, and since the 1960s the village has expanded further westwards. The village houses a commuter population, attracted by the proximity of

Haslemere railway station Haslemere railway station is on the Portsmouth Direct Line, serving the town of Haslemere, Surrey, England. It is down the line from , measured via Woking. History The large car park (to the south) and industrial estate (to the north) were ...

. In November 2006 the Fernhurst Society published a book, "Voices of Fernhurst", comprising edited extracts of oral history interviews with local villagers.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

in the same name exists. This ward includes

Linchmere Linchmere, also often spelled Lynchmere, is a village and a civil parish, the northernmost parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. As well as Linchmere village, the parish contains the settlements of Hammer and Camelsdale. Linc ...

and had at the 2011 census a total ward population of 5,334.

St Margaret's Church

The

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, dedicated to St Margaret, was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, the south aisle in 1859 and the tower and spire as part of a general restoration by

Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations. He restored castles and country h ...

in 1881. The interior is plain.

May Revels

Every May the traditional "Revels" fete is held on the green, raising funds for village societies and some local charities. The event includes various local May-time celebrations, such as

maypole dancing A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, around which a maypole dance often takes place. The festivals may occur on 1 May or Pentecost (Whitsun), although in some countries it is instead erected at ...

, and the May queen is elected from the local area. In May 2006 a film of the village for the Meridian ITV programme "Village voices" was filmed involving the revels and local craftsmen. It was screened on 15 August 2006.

Verdley estate

About a mile south east of the village lies the Verdley estate. Verdley Castle, probably a 14th-century fortified manor house, or hunting tower, now demolished, lay in present-day Henley Wood. Its concealed wooded location in a hollow afforded protection for smugglers bringing goods from the south coast. Closer to the village, Verdley Place was built by architect Anthony Salvin in 1873–5, as a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

for

Charles Savile Roundell Charles Savile Roundell (19 July 1827 – 3 March 1906) was an English cricketer, lawyer and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1880 and 1895. Roundell was born at Clifton House, County York the son of Re ...

Baron Davey Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher th ...

was living here with his wife, three daughters and a son in the 1891 census. This

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and the surrounding estate was the home of ICI's Plant Protection Division and its predecessors from 1945 at the

Fernhurst Research Station The Fernhurst Research Station was a crop protection chemical research institute in West Sussex, mainly run by ICI, for the Horticulture industry, fruit industry. The site is to the east of the A286 road, A286, around a mile south of the village o ...

and subsequently a

Zeneca Zeneca (officially Zeneca Group PLC) was a British multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was formed in June 1993 by the demerger of the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals businesses of Imperial Che ...

research and development centre. It has since been sold and converted to a residential development.

Notable people

*Louise (Lulu) Cartwright, formerly of

Ruby Flipper Ruby Flipper were a multiracial, mixed-sex dance troupe who performed dance routines to songs in the UK Singles Chart on the BBC television series ''Top of the Pops'' in 1976. Members The original Ruby Flipper line-up consisted of four female danc ...

and Legs & Co. dance troupes, grew up in Fernhurst where her father was a GP. * Margaret Hutchinson, teacher, naturalist and author lived in Kingsley Green and ran Yafflesmead Froebel School from 1931 to 1955. *

William Joyce William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born fascist and Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the Second World War. After moving from New York to Ireland and subsequently to England, J ...

, otherwise

Lord Haw-Haw Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the UK from Germany during the Second World War. The broadcasts opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling", spoken in an affected upper-class English acc ...

, spent his honeymoon in Fernhurst and patronised the ''Spread Eagle'' pub. *According to the Fernhurst Society, "proof was found" that

Joachim von Ribbentrop Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...

expressed his intention to live in Fernhurst "when Germany won the war". *It is claimed that

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

wrote ''

Principia Mathematica The ''Principia Mathematica'' (often abbreviated ''PM'') is a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics written by mathematician–philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell and published in 1910, 1912, and 1913. ...

'' in the house "Millhanger" about a mile south east of the village. *

, a notable English architect, built and lived at Hawksfold and is buried in the village. *Margaret Shaw, a diarist remembered for "A Countrywomans Journal: the sketchbook of a passionate naturalist" lived and recorded her diary in Fernurst in 1926–27.

References

External links

The Fernhurst Society
includes a history of the village
Deeds relating to Fernhurst
at the National Archives
Historical information and further sources at GENUKI
{{authority control Villages in West Sussex Chichester District