Ardingly ( ) is an English village and civil parish in the

Mid Sussex Mid Sussex is an area in the central part of Sussex. It may refer to: * Mid Sussex District, a local government district in West Sussex * Mid Sussex (UK Parliament constituency) * Mid Sussex Football League * Mid Sussex Times, a local newspaper * A ...

district of West Sussex, England. The village is in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty about south of London and east-north-east of the county town of Chichester. The parish covers an area of . The 2011 Census recorded a population of 1,936 an increase from 1,833 in 2001.

Heritage

There is mention of a place ''Ertlyngeleghe'', in 1396, which may refer to Ardingly. St Peter's parish church, towards the western end of the village, dates from the 14th century. Kew's wild botanic garden,

Wakehurst Wakehurst may refer to: Places: *Electoral district of Wakehurst, electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales *Wakehurst (formerly known as Wakehurst Place), a property owned by the National Trust and m ...

(previously known as Wakehurst Place) is about north of the village. Ardingly Reservoir is about west of the village. The Big-Upon-Little rock formation is close to a footpath between Ardingly and West Hoathly.

Events

In June the South of England Show early in the month and the

London to Brighton ''London to Brighton'' is a 2006 British neo-noir crime film written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams. Plot The film opens with a woman and child, Kelly and Joanne, bursting into a London toilet. Joanne is crying and Kelly has a black eye. ...

cycle event (usually held on Father's Day) attract visitors from a wide area. The South of England Showground hosts regular antiques fairs, some of which have featured on the

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

game show ''

Bargain Hunt ''Bargain Hunt'' is a British television programme in which two pairs of contestants are challenged to buy antiques from shops or a fair and then sell them in an auction for a profit. It has aired on BBC One since 13 March 2000 in a daytim ...

''. Every four years an international

Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

camp is held on the showground, attended by about 3,000 Scouts and Girl Guides from West Sussex and other areas at home and abroad. The most recent event, WS 2017, was held on 5–12 August 2017. The nex
WS event
2021 is being planned for 7–14 August 2021.

Schools

At the southern edge of the village is

Ardingly College Ardingly College () is an independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition located near Ardingly, West Sussex, England. The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and of the Woodard Corp ...

, an

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

. The village also has a Church of England primary school, St. Peters CE Primary, with about 120 pupils. Most of the children of secondary-school age attend

Oathall Community College Oathall Community College is a coeducational secondary school located between Lindfield and Haywards Heath in West Sussex, England. There are currently around 1067 students at Oathall, between the ages of 11 and 16. The college has a full sp ...

in Haywards Heath.

Public transport

Ardingly has a low-frequency bus service to the nearby towns of Haywards Heath and Crawley. Ardingly railway station was opened 1 October 1864 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.Ardingly railway station
on Disused-Stations.org.uk - Nick Catford - Accessed 9 September 2007 The Southern Railway electrified the line in the 1930s but

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways closed the line and station to passenger trains in 1963. The goods yard and connection to the

main line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

remain open as an ARC Aggregates terminal. The nearby Bluebell Railway owns the former trackbed between Ardingly and and has a long-term aspiration to re-open the line.

Notable people

Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley (15 September 1872 – 24 December 1936) was an English gardening author and instructor. Her Glynde College for Lady Gardeners in East Sussex had the patronage of famous gardening names such as ...

, a celebrated horticulturist and gardening author, moved to Culpepers, Ardingly, in 1920 and died there in 1936.Jane Brown, "Wolseley, Frances Garnet, Viscountess Wolseley (1872–1936)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004)
Retrieved 27 December 2016. Pay-walled.
/ref> * Jon Snow, journalist and television presenter, was born in Ardingly in 1947.

References

External links

Ardingly Village Website
{{authority control Villages in West Sussex Civil parishes in West Sussex