Warminghurst is a village and former

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 ...

, now in the parish of Thakeham, in the Horsham 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 lies on the

Ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...

to Heath Common road 2.4 miles (3.9 km) northeast of Storrington. In 1931 the parish had a population of 93. On 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Ashington. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Warminghurst's Anglican church, was declared redundant in 1979. The Grade I-listed 13th-century building is now cared for by the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. In 1676 Henry Bigland sold Warminghurst Manor to

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

. Using this house, the Penn family were able to hold secret monthly meetings for

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

from the local Horsham district and when Penn left England in 1682 for his first visit to America, he had many of these local Quakers join him. In 1707 he sold the house to James Butler who had it demolished and then erected another on the site, which was then subsequently demolished by the

Duke of Norfolk Duke of Norfolk is a title in the peerage of England. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the title refers to the county of Norfolk. The current duke is Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk. The dukes ...

in 1806. The large barn and farm buildings which survive today behind Park Lane likely do not date from Penn's house but from the early 18th century mansion of James Butler.

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Villages in West Sussex Former civil parishes in West Sussex Horsham District {{WestSussex-geo-stub