Walberton 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
Arun District of
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, north-west of
Littlehampton
Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort, and pleasure harbour, and the most populous civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is south sout ...
, and south of the
A27 road
The A27 is a major road in England. It runs from its junction with the A36 at Whiteparish (near Salisbury) in the county of Wiltshire, follows the south coast of Hampshire and West Sussex, and terminates at Pevensey (near Eastbourne and Bexhi ...
. The land rises from above sea level, a quarter of the height of Nore Hill, the nearest foothill of the
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...
, which is to the north of the parish. The parish includes the smaller village of Binsted to the east and the larger neighbourhood of Fontwell, less than two-thirds of a mile (1 km) to the north-west. Walberton has a medieval church next to its clustered centre. Binsted's medieval church retains an original setting of village houses dispersed over farm fields.
History
The two churchyards have yielded archaeological evidence that there was settlement during the Bronze Age, about 3,500 years ago. Some fragments of brick and tile were discovered at Binsted during excavations in 1992.
[Church history. Retrieved 3 February 2021.](_blank)
/ref>
Walberton is 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 ...
of 1086 under the Hundred of Binsted (also called Avisford; called Binsted in 1086 but had its later name by 1166.) It comprised 22 villagers, 17 cottagers and six slaves, plough land, woodland and meadows, as well as a church. Binsted itself was also listed as having 8 households.
The timber lychgate to the churchyard was installed as a war memorial in 1920.
Governance
The 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 ...
named Walberton stretches north-east to Madehurst
Madehurst is a small village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England on the south slopes of the South Downs in the South Downs National Park. It is three miles (5 km) north-west of Arundel, to the west of the A29 ro ...
, with a total population taken at the 2011 census of 2,889.
Natural history
Part of Binsted is within 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 ...
. The whole of Binsted's countryside was originally assessed by the Countryside Agency as meeting the criteria for inclusion.
The space above the chancel of Walberton Church contains a colony of pipistrelle bats, which is counted annually. A figure of 300 has been recorded.
Schooling
The local school is Walberton and Binsted CE Primary School. The present building is just over ten years old. There are seven classrooms, each of which has its own piece of garden. The school also offers ample play space, a music room and computer facilities.
The school was graded Good by Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...
in all the main respects at its last inspection in May 2017. There were 208 pupils at that time and 202 at a Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) in March 2020, which concentrated on religious education.
Amenities
Walberton's ''The Holly Tree'' is recorded as a public house from 1845 and received its present name in 1867.[British History Online]
Retrieved 12 September 2011.
/ref> Towards the end of the village, there is a small duck pond. There are a few shops close to the modern village hall.
Binsted has a pub, the ''Black Horse'' and a Norman church built in 1140 CE by the monks of Tortington Priory to the immediate east. Roman and medieval pottery and tile kilns have been excavated there.[ This includes a detailed architectural description of the church.] Binsted also has a traditional summer festival, Strawberry Fair, where locally grown produce is sold for charity.
Churches
St Mary's Church in Walberton was recorded 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 ...
of 1086, which it considerably predates, as appears in its Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
and Roman-era
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
west wall.
In 1846, a small group of parishioners left St Mary's to form a Baptist church. Its present flint building dates from 1886. Since 1973, it has been affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) is a network of 639 independent, evangelical churches mainly in the United Kingdom that preach an evangelical faith.
History
The FIEC was formed in 1922 under the name ''A Fellowship ...
.
Both St Mary's and Walberton Baptist Church normally have services every Sunday and a range of mid-week activities.
Notable people
*Sir William Anson
Sir William Reynell Anson, 3rd Baronet, (14 November 18434 June 1914) was a British jurist and Liberal Unionist turned Conservative politician from the Anson family.
Background and education
Anson was born at Walberton, Sussex, the eldest son ...
(1843–1914), jurist, academic and politician, was born in Walberton.
*Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton
Frederick James Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, (23 August 1883 – 14 December 1964) was an English businessman and politician who served as chairman of the Conservative Party from 1946 to 1955.
In April 1940, he was appointed Minister of Food ...
(1883–1964), businessman and government minister, is buried in Walberton churchyard.
*Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novel ...
(1920–1992), children's writer, spent the latter part of her life in Walberton.
*The Hilton Avisford Park Hotel,[Avisford Park Hotel ] with its golf course between Walberton and Binsted, was formerly Avisford Roman Catholic Preparatory School for Boys (1928–73),[ where BBC journalist Edward Stourton (born 1957) was head boy and ]Robert Nairac
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines), Captain Robert Laurence Nairac (31 August 1948 – 15 May 1977) was a British Army officer in the Grenadier Guards who was abducted from a pub in Dromintee, south County Armagh, during an undercover oper ...
(1948–1977), an army officer abducted and murdered in Northern Ireland, spent a year teaching before university in the late 1960s.
* Lt Gen Thomas Reynell (1777-1848) is buried in the churchyard
References
External links
*
*The village's 36 listed historic buildings are described here
Retrieved 12 September 2011.
Walberton Parish Council web site.
{{authority control
Villages in West Sussex
Arun District