St John Without is a small

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

Lewes District Lewes is a local government district in East Sussex in southern England covering an area of , with of coastline. It is named after its administrative centre, Lewes. Other towns in the district include Newhaven, Peacehaven, Seaford and Tel ...

of East Sussex, England, covering an area to the north-west of the town of Lewes. Much like its sister parish, St Ann Without, the parish was formed in 1894 as Lewes St John Without from the part of the ancient parish of Lewes St John outside (that is, 'without', as opposed to 'within') the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

of Lewes. From 1894 to 1974 it was in the rural district of

Chailey Chailey is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located 7 miles north of Lewes, on the A272 road from Winchester to Canterbury. The Prime Meridian passes just to the east of Chailey. The parish consist ...

. The shape of the parish, like many of the parishes north of the Sussex Downs in this area is long and thin (see link to the parish map in the External links section below). The parish includes the small hamlet of Chiltington and a few dispersed farms and houses along Allington Road to the foot of the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...

Landmarks

Clayton to Offham Escarpment is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, which stretches from Hassocks in the west and passes through many parishes including St John Without, to Lewes in the east. The site is of biological importance due to its rare chalk grassland habitat along with its woodland and scrub. Ashcombe Bottom is a wooded area in the south of the parish, which forms part of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

Blackcap The Eurasian blackcap (''Sylvia atricapilla''), usually known simply as the blackcap, is a common and widespread typical warbler. It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences between the five subspecies are sm ...

reserve. The reserve makes up a section of the Clayton to Offham Escarpment SSSI.

Notable areas

St John without is a parish squashed between

East Chiltington East Chiltington is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is centred four miles (5.9 km) south-east of Burgess Hill and five miles (8 km) north-west of Lewes. It is a strip parish of , stretchin ...

to its east and

Hamsey Hamsey is a civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The parish covers a large area () and consists of the villages of Hamsey, Offham and Cooksbridge. The main centres of population in the parish are now Offham and Cooksbridge. ...

to its west. To its north is the

parish and to the south,

Falmer Falmer is a small village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England, lying between Brighton and Lewes, approximately five miles (8 km) north-east of the former. It is also the site of Brighton & Hove Albion's Falmer ...

. Within its boundary is the ancient woodland of Warningore, the scarp top between Mount Harry and Blackcap, East Sussex and the valley of Ashcombe Bottom. The largest settlement is Chiltington. The Bevern streams runs along the northern boundary of the parish. On Allington Lane, there was the 150 acre Beechwood Common, which was enclosed by 1584. The Sussex Greensand Way, a Roman road, runs through the top of the parish.

Wickham Wood

Wickham Wood () lies to the south of the Bevern stream at the northern most point of the parish and just north of the Roman

Greensand Way The Greensand Way is a long-distance path of in southeast England, from Haslemere in Surrey to Hamstreet in Kent. It follows the Greensand Ridge along the Surrey Hills and Chart Hills. The route is mostly rural, passing through woods, and a ...

road. Its name is likely to derive from Latin. Wickham (as in vicus) indicates a small Roman settlement and the woodland. The woodland is carpeted with wild garlic and occasionally frequented by beautiful lime longhorn beetle that come from the line of lime trees at Hurst Barns in the neighbouring

parish.

Warningore Wood

Warningore Wood () spans the

and St John Without parish. It is a big wood that stands on sticky Gault Clay. It has up to 25 ancient woodland indicator species, including early purple and butterfly orchids. It mainly consists of

hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Origin of names The common English name ''hornbeam ...

trees, but there is also

wych elm ''Ulmus glabra'' Hudson, the wych elm or Scots elm, has the widest range of the European elm species, from Ireland eastwards to the Urals, and from the Arctic Circle south to the mountains of the Peloponnese and Sicily, where the species reaches i ...

, wild service,

crab apple ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries. The genus is native to the temperate zone o ...

, spindle, guelder rose and

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

Ashcombe Bottom

Ashcombe Bottom () is a woodland valley that runs south from

that has been owned by the

since 1993 with Blackcap, Mount Harry and most of the scarp. It is rich in scrubland species and has bryony, rosebay willowherb, spindle, honeysuckle and occasional

wood sage ''Teucrium scorodonia'', common name the woodland germander or wood sage, is a species of flowering plant in the genus '' Teucrium'' of the family Lamiaceae. It is native to Western Europe and Tunisia, but cultivated in many places as an ornament ...

. The ash which is being managed for ash dieback. It is a biodiverse area with many butterflies and migrant birds in spring.

Governance

St John Without is governed at local level by a

parish meeting A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish cou ...

. A merger with

parish council has been suggested, although no formal plans have been made. The next level of government is

Lewes District Council Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of the ...

. The District council supplies services such as refuse collection, planning consent, leisure amenities and council tax collection. St John Without is covered by the Plumpton, Streat, East Chiltington and St John (Without) ward which returns a single seat. In the May 2007 election, a councillor from the local Liberal Democrat party was elected. St John Without lies within the Chailey ward for the next tier of government, East Sussex County Council. The ward also includes

Ditchling Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling. ...

Newick Newick is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located on the A272 road east of Haywards Heath. The parish church, St. Mary's, dates mainly from the Victorian era, but still has a N ...

, Plumpton,

Streat Streat is a village and parish in the Lewes district of East Sussex, England, south-east of Burgess Hill and west of Lewes, within the South Downs National Park. The 11th-century parish church has no dedication; the ecclesiastical parish ...

Westmeston Westmeston is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England heavily dependent in amenities on larger Ditchling to the near-immediate northwest. It is four miles (6 km) south-southeast of Burgess Hill and (10 ...

and

Wivelsfield Wivelsfield village and the larger adjacent village of Wivelsfield Green are the core of the civil parish of Wivelsfield in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The villages are north of the city of Brighton and Hove. Wivelsfield paris ...

. The County Council provides services such as roads and transport, social services, libraries and trading standards. The UK Parliament constituency for St John Without is Lewes. Prior to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

in 2020, the village was represented by the South-East England constituency in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

References

External links

St John Without parish layout in MagicMap
{{Lewes district Civil parishes in East Sussex