Stopham is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

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 authorit ...

in the District of Chichester in

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, about west of

Pulborough Pulborough is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, with some 5,000 inhabitants. It is located almost centrally within West Sussex and is south west of London. It is at the junction of the north–sout ...

on the A283 road. It is in the

Fittleworth Fittleworth is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located seven kilometres (3 miles) west from Pulborough on the A283 road and three miles (5 km) south east from Petworth. The village has ...

. The parish has a land area of . The 2001 Census recorded 87 people living in 39 households, of whom 40 were economically active.

Manor

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 ...

of 1086 records a manor of Stopham or ''Stopeham''. Descendants of the same family, the Bartletts or Barttelots, who married the senior co-heir of the Stophams in 1379, have ensured that the same lineage, albeit with a different surname, has held the manor since the Norman Conquest of England. Since 1875 they have been baronets. Part of the present

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

is dated 1485, but there was a house on the site before that. The house was given a new east front in the 16th century but was partly demolished in 1638. Its plan is E-shaped, a layout popular for Jacobean manor houses. The house is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

Parish church

The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin are 11th-century Saxon or Saxo-

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, and the remainder of the building is 12th-century Norman. New windows were inserted in the chancel in the 13th century and in the nave in the 14th century. The west tower was rebuilt about 1600. The east window of the chancel was inserted in 1638 but is significantly older, having been transferred to its present position from the manor house. The church contains a series of monumental brasses to members of the Barttelot family: three pairs from the 15th century and one set from the early 17th century. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. St Mary's parish is part of a combined benefice with the parish of St Mary the Virgin,

Stopham Bridge

Stopham Bridge is a Grade I listed building and a

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. Despite much speculation over the construction date of this

ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be con ...

bridge, the correct date is believed to be c.1422-3. One span of the bridge was destroyed during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and replaced by a drawbridge. The bridge's central arch was modified in 1822 and bears this date. The bridge carried the A283 through the village, with traffic light control being introduced in 1936.Simmons, Donald (2016)
Stopham Bridge
Geograph, ''Accessed 24 May 2017''. The bridge was badly damaged by

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

lorries during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

but has been repaired since. In 1986, Stopham Bridge was superseded by a new reinforced concrete bridge, located just 50 feet to the north, to alleviate the large queues which built up at this point and due to increasing levels of damage to the inside of the parapet by vehicles traversing the bridge. Due to poor ground conditions, the piers of the new bridge are supported on piles that go down between 15 and 20 metres to the

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

bedrock.Simmons, Donald (2016)
The old and the new bridges at Stopham
Geograph, ''Accessed 24 May 2017''.Cox, Nigel (2009)
River Arun: A283 Stopham Road bridge
Geograph, ''Accessed 24 May 2017''.Stopham Ancient Bridge
Engineering Timelines, ''Accessed 24 May 2017''.

Economic history

The parish is bounded to the east by the

River Arun The River Arun () is a river in the English county of West Sussex. At long, it is the longest river entirely in Sussex and one of the longest starting in Sussex after the River Medway, River Wey and River Mole. From the series of small strea ...

, spanned by Stopham Bridge. There has been a bridge here since the 14th century, apparently built in 1347 and possibly of timber. The present stone bridge has seven arches and was probably built in 1422–23. The River Rother forms the southern boundary of the parish from its confluence with the Arun below Stopham Bridge. Lee Farm, about southwest of the village, is a timber-framed house Tudor with red brick nogging. A date carved in two places on the house says either "1492" or, more likely, "1592". The house is a Grade II* listed building. In the 1790s work began to make the Rother navigable to

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 ...

, beginning with a canal cut from the Arun between the Rother and what is now the A283 road. The first lock was built in the grounds of Stopham House. In 1821–22 the central arch of Stopham Bridge was rebuilt much higher than the others to give enough

airdraught Air draft (or air draught) is the distance from the surface of the water to the highest point on a vessel. This is similar to the " deep draft" of a vessel which is measured from the surface of the water to the deepest part of the hull below th ...

for navigation. Stopham has a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

, the White Hart,The White Hart, Stopham Bridge
/ref> which is on the former main road at the east end of Stopham Bridge. The A283 road now bypasses the pub and old bridge on a new bridge built in the 20th century. Stopham Vineyard was established in 2007 upon the planting of 21,000 vines on a six-hectare (15-acre) estate by its owner, Simon Woodhead.Smithers, Rebecca (2015)
Sussex vineyards in bid to put themselves on Europe's wine map
''The Guardian'', Accessed 24 May 2017.

References

Sources and further reading

* * *

External links

Engineering Timelines: Stopham Ancient Bridge
{{Authority control Civil parishes in West Sussex Villages in West Sussex