Madehurst is a small 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 on the south slopes of the South Downs in 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 ...

. It is three miles (5 km) north-west of

Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much large ...

, to the west of the

A29 road A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

. The village of Madehurst is in two well-wooded valleys, listed in park guides.

Economy

Many of the few inhabitants are farmers, retired, or commute as far afield as London, Portsmouth or Brighton.

The parish church

The

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

parish church, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, is built of local

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

. It was restored and enlarged in 1864, when the north aisle and a new chancel were added.

Notable residents

Theodora Elizabeth Lynch Theodora Elizabeth Lynch, born Foulks (1812–1885) was an English poet and novelist. Biography Theodora Elizabeth Foulks was the daughter of Arthur Foulks and his wife, Mary Ann McKenzie. She born at Dale Park, Madehurst, Sussex, in 1812 ...

, a novelist, was born here in 1813.

Recreation

For its population, the village has a notable Cricket Club. A new pavilion was completed in 2011 which features luxury showers. The view from near Dale Park Farm over New Barn Farm towards Parletts Farm is elevated stretching for tens of miles and open to public visits. A listed walk and marked path is to the local summit at ''Bignor Post'': this starts from Chichester Lodge (on the A29) in the south-west, proceeds through The Drove, New Barn and Parletts farms and finishes at Stammers Wood in the north-west. Other paths scale the local slopes, including The Denture along part of the northern boundary which nearby joins the

Monarch's Way The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West Sus ...

through the hills. The parish aside from its aged

cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Asteroid cluster, a small asteroid family * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study t ...

has been kept mostly undeveloped; before the creation of the National Park, consistently new buildings, residential or commercial, have proven to be against applicable planning policies since the 1950s.

Gallery

File:Madehurst Church from road.JPG, The church seen from the road

References

External links

Madehurst circular walk
Villages in West Sussex Arun District {{WestSussex-geo-stub