Lavant is a

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 ...

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, north of

. It includes three villages: Mid Lavant and East Lavant, which are separate Anglican

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 ...

es, and the much smaller West Lavant. It takes its name from the River Lavant which flows from East Dean to Chichester. The

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 ...

between

and

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 ...

runs through the parish. The villages were served by a station in Mid Lavant, on the railway line that ran between Chichester and Midhurst, but this closed in stages between 1931 and 1991.

History

Prehistory

In 1993, the Lavant drum, a small

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

cylinder, was discovered during excavations at Chalk Pit Lane. It is one of only five known objects of its type, and the only one discovered outside of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. (The other four are the three Folkton drums, discovered in 1889 in North Yorkshire, and the Burton Agnes drum, discovered in 2015 in East Yorkshire.) It has been suggested that these objects were tools used to measure cord to standard lengths which were used in the construction of monuments such as Stonehenge and the timber circle at

Durrington Walls Durrington Walls is the site of a large Neolithic settlement and later henge enclosure located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in England. It lies north-east of Stonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north of Amesbury in Wiltshire. ...

East Lavant

East Lavant was listed in the Domesday Book. In 1861, the population of the parish (with West Lavant) was 421, and the area was .

Mid Lavant

Mid Lavant (''Loventone'') 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 ...

Singleton Singleton may refer to: Sciences, technology Mathematics * Singleton (mathematics), a set with exactly one element * Singleton field, used in conformal field theory Computing * Singleton pattern, a design pattern that allows only one instance ...

as having 20 households: 10 villagers and 10 smallholders; with ploughing land and a mill, it had a value to the lords of the manor, Guy of Lavant and Ivo of Grandmesnil, of £9. In 1861, the area of the small parish was , and described in Kelly's Directory of 1867 as "principally arable". The population in 1861 was 257. The Duke of Richmond was the principal landowner and patron of the parish church. The village pub is named after the

Earl of March Earl of March is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of England. The title derived from the "marches" or borderlands between England and either Wales ( Welsh Marches) or Scotland (Scottish Mar ...

. The parish church is dedicated to St Nicholas. It contains the May family vault, with a monument of Lady Mary May by

John Bushnell John Bushnell (1636–1701) was an English sculptor, known for several outstanding funeral monuments in English churches including Westminster Abbey. Life He was born in 1636 in Holborn in London the son of a plumber. Around 1650 he was appr ...

Landmarks

Kingley Vale lies on the border of the parish; it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a national nature reserve and is noted for its yew woodlands. Archaeological remains from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

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 ...

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 lette ...

times have been identified.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward includes

Westhampnett Westhampnett (or West Hampnett) is a village and civil parish in the district of Chichester in West Sussex, England, located northeast of Chichester on the former A27 road, now by-passed. The village is pre-Norman and is home to many listed bui ...

with a total ward population taken at the 2011 census of 2,365.

Sport

Lavant is home to two sporting clubs, Lavant Football Club and Lavant Cricket Club.

Notable people

* William Humphry (1814-1865), cricketer

References

{{authority control Chichester District Civil parishes in West Sussex