Iping is a village and

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 o ...

in the

Chichester Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, 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. Publi ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

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 ...

, England. It lies within the

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 authorit ...

of Stedham with Iping, just off the A272 road west 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 ...

. The village lies on the River Rother.

Etymology

The

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

name means settlement of the family or followers of a man called Ipa.

History

Iron age

There is an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

contour fort on the hill at Hammer Wood north of the village.

Iping Roman station

This rectangular earthwork with rounded corners lies astride the Roman road between two major British tribal centres at Noviomagus Regnorum (

) and Calleva Atrebatum ( Silchester), which runs north–south through Iping. Measuring , the area enclosed by the turf defences was about , and would have contained the official posting station or mansio and perhaps an iron-smithy. It is similar in size to the way stations at Hardham and Alfoldean on Stane Street. The station is situated at National Grid Reference SU:844261 (51° 1'40.46"N - 0°47'51.16"W), just over two miles to the north of Iping village and little over half a mile from the crossroads in the centre of the village of

Milland Milland is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is situated north of the A272 road on the border with Hampshire. In the 2001 census the parish covered and had 332 households with a total population ...

, just south-east of the point where the Roman road crossed the Hammer Stream. Although unexcavated, surface finds of Roman material have been found within the confines of the earthwork. It could easily be confused with the Hammer Wood Iron Age contour fort which lies much closer to modern Iping.

Domesday Book

Iping 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 manus ...

(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 des ...

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 15 households: eight villagers, two smallholders and five slaves; with woodland, ploughing land, meadows, a church and a mill, it had a value to the lord of the manor of £4.

Modern era

In 1861, the population of the parish was 404 and its area was . Iping is the setting for the classic

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The Invisible Man ''The Invisible Man'' is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in '' Pearson's Weekly'' in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devo ...

''. Iping Water Mill was producing paper until the 1920s when a fire ended 900 years of various types of milling.

Parish church

St Mary's Church, Iping, is a solid sandstone Victorian church which was rebuilt in 1885. The church was built on the site of an old Saxon church and it is thought an even earlier church was on the site before this.

Commons

Iping Common sits south of the A272 and is managed by the

Sussex Wildlife Trust The Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT) is a conservation charity which aims to protect natural life in Sussex. It was founded in 1961 and is one of 46 wildlife trusts across the UK and the Isle of Man and Alderney. , it has 33,000 members and manages ...

. This heathland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is part of the larger Iping and Stedham Commons.

References

External links

Further historical information and sources on GENUKI
{{authority control Villages in West Sussex