Patching is a small
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
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 ...
that lies amid the fields and woods of the southern slopes of the South Downs in the
National Park 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 ...
, England. It has a visible hill-workings history going back to before the
Domesday survey of 1086–7. It is centred four miles (6.4 km) to the east of
Arundel and quarter of a mile from
Clapham
Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
History
Early history ...
, to the north of the
A27 road. The civil parish covers an area of .
In the centre of the village is the 13th century Church of St John the Divine,
restored
''Restored'' is the fourth
studio album by American contemporary Christian music musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004 by BEC Recordings.
Track listing
Standard release
Enhanced edition
Deluxe gold edition
Standard ...
in 1888. Above the village on the South Downs are groups of neolithic flint mines, represented by slight hollows and mounds.
Michelgrove Park, once the site of a great house where
Sir William Shelley
Sir William Shelley (1480?–1549) was an English judge.
Life
Born about 1480, he was the eldest son of Sir John Shelley (died 3 Jan. 1526) and his wife Elizabeth (died 31 July 1513), daughter and heir of John de Michelgrove in the parish of Cl ...
entertained
Henry VIII and later home of the
Shelley Baronets
There have been three baronetcies created for members of the Shelley family, one in the Baronetage of England and two in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. The three recipients of the titles represented two different branches of the family ...
, is in the north of the parish. It is crossed by 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 Su ...
long-distance footpath marking the supposed route of
Charles II's flight to France in 1651.
References
External links
Clapham and Patching villages website
Villages in West Sussex
Arun District
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