Kirdford 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 authorit ...

in the

Chichester District Chichester is a local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in the city of Chichester and the district also covers a large rural area to the north. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Go ...

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. Its nearest town is Petworth, located southwest of the village. The parish has an area of . In the 2001 census 912 people lived in 373 households, of whom 448 were economically active. At the 2011 census the population was 1,063. The village has an Anglican church dedicated to St John the Baptist plus an Evangelical non-denominational chapel "Kirdford chapel" and two pubs, ''The Foresters Arms'' and the ''Half Moon''. Other amenities include a shop and the village hall which was enlarged in 1977. In the Middle Ages iron production using

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 ...

and charcoal, and

forest glass Forest glass (''Waldglas'' in German) is late medieval glass produced in northwestern and central Europe from approximately 1000–1700 AD using wood ash and sand as the main raw materials and made in factories known as glasshouses in forest a ...

making were important industries. In the twentieth century apple growing was established through a cooperative venture, Kirdford Growers, based at the western end of the village. This has now ended and the warehouse site is being used for house building. In 2011, Kirdford Village Stores won 'Best Corner Shop' in the Telegraph's Best Small Shops in Britain Awards.

The parish church

There is no reference to a church 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 ...

of 1086. The Grade I listed church of St. John the Baptist is built of local sandstone and roofed with Horsham stone slabs. Herringbone masonry and the style of column capitals indicate that the nave is early twelfth century. The north aisle is thirteenth century and the tower fifteenth. The tower carries a peel of six bells and a clock. There are four stained glass windows by

Charles Eamer Kempe Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lich ...

.A church near you
/ref> Near the road junction to the west of the church an inscribed stone set into the old rectory wall warns against drunkenness in no uncertain terms.

References

External links

Kirdford Village Website
{{authority control Villages in West Sussex