Lavant is a

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, England, north of

. It includes three villages: Mid Lavant and East Lavant, which are separate Anglican

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es, and the much smaller West Lavant. It takes its name from the River Lavant which flows from East Dean to Chichester. The A286 road between

and

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester District in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother (Western), River Rother, inland from the English Channel and north of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first reco ...

runs through the parish. The villages were served by a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

in Mid Lavant, on the railway line that ran between Chichester and Midhurst, but this closed in stages between 1931 and 1991.

History

Prehistory

In 1993, the Lavant drum, a small

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

cylinder, was discovered during excavations at Chalk Pit Lane. It is one of only five known objects of its type, and the only one discovered outside of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. (The other four are the three

Folkton drums The Folkton Drums are a very rare set of three decorated chalk objects in the shape of Drum (container), drums or solid cylinders dating from the Neolithic Europe, Neolithic period. Found in a child's grave near the village of Folkton in northe ...

, discovered in 1889 in North Yorkshire, and the Burton Agnes drum, discovered in 2015 in East Yorkshire.) It has been suggested that these objects were tools used to measure cord to standard lengths which were used in the construction of monuments such as

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

and the timber circle at

Durrington Walls Durrington Walls is the site of a large Neolithic settlement and later henge enclosure located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in England. It lies north-east of Stonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north of Amesbury in Wiltshire ...

East Lavant

East Lavant was listed in the Domesday Book. In 1861, the population of the parish (with West Lavant) was 421, and the area was .

Mid Lavant

Mid Lavant (''Loventone'') was listed 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

(1086) in the ancient

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of Singleton as having 20 households: 10 villagers and 10 smallholders; with ploughing land and a mill, it had a value to the lords of the manor, Guy of Lavant and Ivo of Grandmesnil, of £9. In 1861, the area of the small parish was , and described in Kelly's Directory of 1867 as "principally arable". The population in 1861 was 257. The

Duke of Richmond Duke of Richmond is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created four times in British history. It has been held by members of the royal Tudor and Stuart families. The current dukedom of Richmond was created in 1675 for Charles ...

was the principal landowner and patron of the parish church. The village pub is named after the

Earl of March Earl of March is a title that has been created several times, respectively, in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of England. The title derives from the "marches" or borderlands between England and either Wales (Welsh Marches) or Scotland (S ...

. The parish church is dedicated to St Nicholas. It contains the vault of the May family, seated at Rawmere House in Mid Lavant, with a monument of Lady Mary May by John Bushnell.

Landmarks

Kingley Vale lies on the border of the parish; it is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

, a national nature reserve and is noted for its yew woodlands. Archaeological remains from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

times have been identified.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

in the same name exists. This ward includes Westhampnett with a total ward population taken at the 2011 census of 2,365.

Sport

Lavant is home to two sporting clubs, Lavant Football Club and Lavant Cricket Club.

Notable people

* William Humphry (1814–1865), cricketer

References

{{authority control Chichester District Civil parishes in West Sussex