Harting is a
civil parish in the
Chichester District of
West Sussex, England. It is situated on the northern flank of the
South Downs, around southeast of
Petersfield in
Hampshire. It comprises the village of
South Harting and the hamlets of
East Harting,
West Harting and
Nyewood.
The area of the parish is . At the
2011 Census, the population was 1,451, an increase from 1,407 at the
2001 Census.
History
Harting was listed in the
Domesday Book (1086) under the ancient
hundred of
Dumpford as the large Manor of ''Hertinges'', which included 196 households encompassing South, West and East Harting. They were 134 villagers, 42 smallholders and 20 slaves. With resources including ploughing lands, meadows, woodland and nine mills, it had a value to the lords of the manor of £100. The joint lords were the church of St Nicholas, Arundel, and Earl Roger of Shrewsbury.
Apart from three generations of the Earls Montgomery the manor was in the possession of the Crown until 1610 when it was granted to the Caryll family. In 1746 the manor was purchased by the Featherstonhaugh ( ) family, in whose possession it remains.
Harting Down
The villages are overlooked by
Harting Down, a common owned by the
National Trust and part of the
Sussex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Rising to , it offers panoramic views over the
Weald to the north, to the
English Channel and the
Isle of Wight to the south.
Archaeological evidence has suggested that Harting Down was first occupied around 5000 years ago. Neighbouring
Beacon Hill Beacon Hill may refer to:
Places Canada
* Beacon Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood
* Beacon Hill Park, a park in Victoria, British Columbia
* Beacon Hill, Saskatchewan
* Beacon Hill, Montreal, a neighbourhood in Beaconsfield, Quebec
United ...
is home to a hillfort from the
Iron Age, built around 500 BC as an animal enclosure and refuge. In addition, a
cross ridge dyke was built around the same time, may have been used to control movement of people and animals along the ridgeway.
Because of its elevation Beacon Hill, just to the east of Harting Down, hosted a station in the
shutter telegraph chain, from 1796 to 1816, which connected the Admiralty in
London to its naval ships in
Portsmouth and
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
. This was replaced in 1822 by a semaphore station which operated on a slightly different route until 1847.
Bertrand Russell and his wife Dora founded the experimental Beacon Hill School at Telegraph House, which was their residence in 1927.
West of Beacon Hill is Tower hill, on top of which is the
Vandalian Tower, a folly dating to the 18th century which is in the grounds of
Uppark house. It was built to celebrate the founding of the American colony of
Vandalia in 1774, though the events of the
American Revolution meant that the colony never got off the ground. The tower is in ruins and cannot be entered, but can be seen from outside.
A large portion of the down has never been used for modern intensive farming and is thus an important site representing the
chalk grassland that once covered the downs. Plants found on the site include
quaking grass
''Briza'' is a genus of annual and perennial plants in the grass family, native to northern temperate regions of Eurasia, North Africa, and certain islands in the Atlantic.
The group is generally referred to as the quaking grasses because the ...
and the
common spotted orchid. The down supports animals such as
adder
Adder may refer to:
* AA-12 Adder, a Russian air-to-air missile
* Adder (electronics), an electronic circuit designed to do addition
* Adder Technology, a manufacturing company
* Armstrong Siddeley Adder, a late 1940s British turbojet engine
* ''B ...
s,
skylarks and several species of
butterfly.
Governance
An
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 ...
of the same name covers this parish and the neighbouring parishes of
Elsted and Treyford
Elsted and Treyford is a civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, west of Midhurst. It contains the settlements of Elsted
Elsted is a village and Anglican parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies within t ...
and
Trotton with Chithurst
Trotton with Chithurst is a civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. Trotton is on the A272 road west of Midhurst. Chithurst is about north west of Trotton. The parish also contains the hamlet of Dumpford.
In the 2001 c ...
. The ward's population at the 2011 Census was 2,026.
See also
*
Harting Old Club
The Harting Old Club is a British friendly society, originating in the village of South Harting, West Sussex, and dating back to at least 1800, but in probability at least another 75 years before that. Every Whit Monday the members parade outsid ...
*
Torberry Hill
Torberry Hill (also spelled Tarberry Hill and Torbery Hill) is an British Iron Age, Iron Age hillfort in the county of West Sussex, in southern England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, with a list entry identification number of 1015966. The hi ...
References
External links
Further historical information and sources on GENUKI
{{authority control
Villages in West Sussex
Chichester District
Napoleonic beacons in England