49-495: Felpham ( /ˈfelpəm/ , sometimes pronounced locally as Felf-fm or Fel-thm ) is a village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex , England. Although sometimes considered part of the urban area of greater Bognor Regis , it is a village and civil parish in its own right, having an area of 1.645 square miles, (4.26 km), with a population of 9,611 people that is still growing (2001 census). The population at
98-655: A Rhenish helm unique in England and St. Nicholas Church, Worth , a 10th-century church in Worth , Crawley . Some Anglican churches and many of the numerous nonconformist chapels in the county have been converted to residential use. Cittaviveka is a Buddhist monastery in Chithurst . Pallant House Gallery in Chichester houses one of the most significant collections of 20th-century British art outside London. It includes
147-680: A Roman province . During the Early Middle Ages , the Saxons settled the area, establishing the Kingdom of Sussex in 477, which lasted until c. 827 when the kingdom was annexed by Wessex . It has a number of stately homes including Goodwood , Petworth House and Uppark , and castles such as Arundel Castle and Bramber Castle . The name Sussex, derived from the Old English 'Sūþseaxe' (' South Saxons '), dates from
196-589: A cathedral until the foundation of the diocese in 1965. Bosham Church is partly of Saxon construction and is shown on the Bayeux Tapestry as the local church of late Saxon and Danish kings of England. Many other Saxon and early Norman churches have survived in the county with little alteration including the Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin, Sompting , an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon church with
245-523: A church community hall called St Mary's Centre. Due to the 1960s redevelopment, Peartree Cottage in Vicarage Lane is now the oldest house in Felpham. It is a late medieval (c. 1500), four bay, timber-framed thatched Yeoman's house with queen struts and clasped side purlins. It had an open first bay, (probably a workshop) and still has an intact smoke bay. In the 1700s the house was 'modernised' with
294-765: A grass airfield handling light aircraft and helicopters at Chichester/Goodwood Airport . There are three main railway routes: the Brighton Main Line , the Arun Valley Line and the West Coastway Line . The Portsmouth Direct Line serves and occasionally enters the westernmost part of West Sussex, although it has no railway stations in the county. Since the 2024 general election , West Sussex has been represented by two Conservative , Three Labour and three Liberal Democrat Members of Parliament (MPs). West Sussex County Council (WSCC)
343-480: A house now named Blake’s Cottage . The poem contains the line about "England's green and pleasant land ", today known as the anthem "Jerusalem" , which were inspired by Blake's "evident pleasure" in the Felpham countryside. The cottage where he lived is depicted in the illustrations for the poem. It lies within the original village, close to the Fox public house. Of the village he wrote: Away to sweet Felpham for heaven
392-413: A place called Cymenshore in three ships with his three sons and killed or put to flight the local inhabitants. The foundation story is regarded as somewhat of a myth by most historians, although the archaeology suggests that Saxons did start to settle in the area in the late 5th century. The Kingdom of Sussex was absorbed into Wessex as an earldom and became the county of Sussex. With its origins in
441-625: A substantial body of early and mid-20th-century work bequeathed by Walter Hussey and many later works donated by Colin St. John Wilson . Worthing Museum and Art Gallery houses a large collection of Georgian and Victorian costume. The Cass Sculpture Foundation has an outdoor sculpture park at Goodwood . Significant companies in the county include Rolls-Royce Motor Cars , a substantial employer near Chichester. Gatwick Airport , with associated airlines including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic ,
490-467: A two-tier non-metropolitan county administered by West Sussex County Council . West Sussex and East Sussex were historically the single county Sussex . The South Downs are a defining feature of the county, crossing it from east to west and dividing the north and south. The downs are a chalk escarpment which falls away sharply into the Weald to the north and more gently toward the south, where there
539-596: A women's team and a successful adults team. Predators is one largest youth and adults football clubs in West Sussex and they play and train within the Bognor Regis area. The Felpham & Middleton Country Dance Club is one of the oldest extant English country dance clubs in England. West Sussex West Sussex is a ceremonial county in South East England . It is bordered by Surrey to
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#1732771783124588-635: Is a major source of direct and indirect employment. Thales Group also has a presence in the county. Nestlé has their UK headquarters in Crawley. West Sussex developed distinctive land uses along with its neighbours in the weald. The Landrace cattle transformed into Sussex cattle and Sussex chickens emerged about the time of the Roman conquest. Some of the earliest evidence of horses in Britain has been found at Boxgrove , dated to 500,000 BC. Viticulture
637-573: Is a narrow strip of flat land between the hills and the coast. The coastal strip widens to the west, where it is punctuated by Chichester Harbour which is a ria . The county has a long history of human settlement dating back to the Lower Paleolithic era. During the Roman conquest of Britain , Romans conquered the Atrebates , West Sussex's indigenous Britons, and incorporated the area as
686-453: Is a part of the economy, with wineries producing mainly sparkling wine of varied quality. The table below shows the population change up to the 2011 census, contrasting the previous census. It also shows the proportion of residents in each district reliant upon lowest income and/or joblessness benefits, the national average proportion of which was 4.5% as at August 2012, the year for which latest datasets have been published. It can be seen that
735-622: Is needed to recharge the chalk aquifers from which much of the water supply is drawn. The M23 motorway runs from London to the south of Crawley . The A23 and A24 roads run from London to Brighton and Worthing respectively with the A29 a little further west ending in Bognor Regis . Other major roads are the A272 which runs east to west through the middle of the county and the A27 which does
784-516: Is provided by the University of Chichester and Chichester College . At least 40 sports are active in West Sussex. Sussex CCC was the first first-class county cricket club, formed in 1839, and was a cradle for club cricket. Sussex is home to Fontwell Park Racecourse . The county has one Football League club located in Crawley , that is Crawley Town F.C. BBC South television covers
833-433: Is provided through a mix of around 240 infant , junior , primary , first and middle schools. Colleges include The College of Richard Collyer , Central Sussex College , Northbrook College and The Weald School . Independent schools in the county include Christ's Hospital near Horsham , whose students wear Tudor style uniform, Seaford College , Lancing College and Hurstpierpoint College . Tertiary education
882-571: Is the authority that governs the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex. The county contains 7 district and borough councils ( Adur , Arun , Chichester , Crawley , Horsham , Mid Sussex and Worthing ), and 159 town, parish and neighbourhood councils. West Sussex County Council has 70 councillors ; the majority of them being Conservative. There are 46 Conservative councillors, 11 Liberal Democrats , 9 Labour Party councillors and 4 Green and Independent Alliance councillors. The Chief Executive and their team of executive directors are responsible for
931-471: Is there: The Ladder of Angels descends through the air On the turrett its spiral does softly descend Through the village it winds, at my cot it does end. The "turrett" in the verse is Hayley's house, east of the church, which he built around 1800. It was in Felpham that Blake had his altercation with the drunken soldier John Scofield, who was trespassing in his garden. This led to Blake's trial for sedition because of Scofield's allegation that he had cursed
980-802: The Norman and the Gothic styles, and has been called by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner "the most typical English Cathedral". The Cathedral Church of Our Lady and St Philip Howard in Arundel is the Roman Catholic cathedral of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton . Built in French Gothic style and dedicated in 1873 as the Catholic parish church of Arundel, it was not designated
1029-413: The kingdom of Sussex , the later county of Sussex was traditionally divided into six units known as rapes . By the 16th century, the three western rapes were grouped together informally, having their own separate Quarter Sessions . These were governed by a separate county council from 1888, the county of Sussex being divided into the administrative counties of East and West Sussex. In 1974, West Sussex
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#17327717831241078-541: The 2011 Census was 9,746. Felpham lies on the B2259 coastal road. The 12th century Anglican parish church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary . There is also a Methodist church close to the three-way junction of Felpham Way, Flansham Lane and Middleton Road, in the east of the village. Felpham is mentioned in a charter of 953 by which King Eadred granted thirty hides of land there to his mother Queen Eadgifu . It
1127-426: The 29 years to 2011 it averaged 1902 hours of sunshine per year. Sunshine totals are highest near the coast with Bognor Regis often having the highest in mainland England, including a total of 2237 hours in 1990. Mean annual temperature for southern coastal counties is around 11 °C. The coldest month, January, has mean daily minimum temperatures of around 3 °C near the coast and lower inland. July tends to be
1176-765: The Saxon period between AD 477 to 1066, and the history of human habitation in Sussex goes back to the Old Stone Age . The oldest hominin remains known in Britain were found at Eartham Pit, Boxgrove . Prehistoric monuments include the Devil's Jumps , a group of Bronze Age burial mounds, and the Iron Age Cissbury Ring and Chanctonbury Ring hill forts on the South Downs. The Roman period saw
1225-668: The area, operates its own youth wing. It is situated next door to the Arun Leisure Centre which has extensive playing fields. Felpham has a recreation ground, King George's Field , named after King George V . Felpham Colts Football Club (including mixed teams, boys' teams and girls' teams) is the largest youth football club in West Sussex. It has 26 teams competing in local football leagues and has been in existence since 1973. The club's teams train at King George V Field on Saturday mornings and play at Shrubbs Field in nearby Middleton-on-Sea and King George V Field on Sundays. In
1274-679: The building of Fishbourne Roman Palace and rural villas such as Bignor Roman Villa together with a network of roads including Stane Street , the Chichester to Silchester Way and the Sussex Greensand Way . The Romans used the Weald for iron production on an industrial scale. The foundation of the Kingdom of Sussex is recorded by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year AD 477; it says that Ælle arrived at
1323-547: The county a winterbourne , the River Lavant , flows intermittently from springs on the dip slope of the chalk downs north of Chichester. Some intermittent streams are known in the local dialect as "rifes". The county makes up 1.52% of the total land of England , making it the 30th largest county in the country . West Sussex is the sunniest county in the United Kingdom, according to Met Office records. Over
1372-421: The county are More Radio Worthing (serving Worthing , Shoreham , and Littlehampton ), More Radio Mid-Sussex (serving Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath ), 107 Meridian FM (for East Grinstead ) and V2 Radio (for Chichester ). Felpham Community College KS5: AWE, CMC, DCH, DMG, GSL, SAY, SBU. Until the 1970s, students from primary schools in the village of Felpham attended secondary schools in
1421-545: The county excluding Haywards Heath , Burgess Hill , East Grinstead and Shoreham-by-Sea which are covered by BBC South East . ITV Meridian also covers the county. Crawley is covered by both regions and by BBC London and ITV London . BBC Radio Sussex is the BBC local radio station for the county, broadcast from studios in Brighton . The commercial local radio station is Heart South , and community radio stations in
1470-722: The county town, has a cathedral and city status , and is situated not far from the border with Hampshire . Other conurbations of a similar size are Burgess Hill , East Grinstead and Haywards Heath in the Mid Sussex district, Littlehampton in the Arun district , and Lancing , Southwick and Shoreham in the Adur district. Much of the coastal town population is part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation . Rustington and Southwater are
1519-496: The day-to-day running of the council. West Sussex County Council is based at County Hall, Chichester and provides a large range of services including education, social services, fire and rescue, libraries, trading standards, town and country planning, refuse disposal and consumer services. The West Sussex Youth Cabinet is a group of local representatives and four UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) representatives, who are elected by young people in West Sussex. The Youth Cabinet represents
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1568-637: The early 2010s a men's team was started and went on to win a number of promotions, currently playing in the West Sussex Football League Division Two South, with the reserve team playing three divisions below in Division Five South. Like the youth teams, their home ground is the King George V Playing Field. Predators Youth started in 1994 with only a few players and has grown to 14 youth teams
1617-542: The east. The English Channel lies to the south. The area has been formed from Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous rock strata, part of the Weald–Artois Anticline . The eastern part of this ridge, the Weald of Kent, Sussex and Surrey has been greatly eroded, with the chalk surface removed to expose older Lower Cretaceous rocks of the Wealden Group . In West Sussex the exposed rock becomes older towards
1666-552: The insertion of a chimney built within the smoke bay and three exterior walls replaced with flint with rubble infill. Peartree has a small Victorian extension faced with galleted knapped flint. Two small bays were added to the south face of the house in the early 1900s. In the 1940s the house was owned by the Jagger family, namely David Jagger (1891–1958). He and his siblings, Edith Jagger (1880–1977) and Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885–1934) were all celebrated artists. Charles's best friend
1715-513: The job. Most settlements in West Sussex are either along the south coast or in Mid Sussex, near the M23 / A23 corridor. The town of Crawley is the largest in the county with an estimated population of 106,600. The coastal settlement of Worthing closely follows with a population of 104,600. The seaside resort of Bognor Regis and the market town of Horsham are both large towns. Chichester,
1764-604: The king. Blake has a road named after him, Blake's Road, the road on which his former residence is sited, and a memorial window dedicated to him in St Mary's Church. Blake's host, Hayley, was also famous in his day for having turned down the offer of the position of poet laureate in 1790. The village has a village hall , called the Memorial Hall, built in remembrance to the fallen from the First World War and
1813-419: The latter two are part of the Brighton and Hove built-up area , which extends into East Sussex and has a total population of 474,485. The interior of the county is generally rural; the largest towns are Crawley (118,493) and Horsham (50,934), both located in the north-east; Chichester is in the south-west and has a population of 26,795. West Sussex contains seven local government districts , which are part of
1862-399: The most populous district of West Sussex is Arun containing the towns of Arundel , Bognor Regis and Littlehampton : The current total population of the county makes up 1.53% of England's population. West Sussex has a comprehensive education system, with a mix of county-maintained secondary schools and academies and over twenty independent senior schools. In addition primary education
1911-526: The nearby town of Bognor Regis. A secondary school was opened in Felpham in 1974/5 as Felpham Comprehensive School. In 1978 it accommodated around 800 pupils and in 1980 the initial intake of pupils had reached the sixth form. The neighbouring Arun Leisure Centre was also completed at this time with the School sharing its sports facilities. The school was renamed as Felpham Community College in c.1991 by which time pupil number had risen to around 1300. The college
1960-426: The next largest settlements in the county. There are several more towns in West Sussex, including Arundel , Midhurst , Petworth , Selsey , Steyning , Henfield , Pulborough and Storrington . Other notable villages include Billingshurst , Copthorne , Crawley Down , Cuckfield , Hassocks , Hurstpierpoint and Lindfield . West Sussex is bordered by Hampshire to the west, Surrey to the north and East Sussex to
2009-497: The north of the county with Lower Greensand ridges along the border with Surrey including the highest point of the county at Blackdown . Erosion of softer sand and clay strata has hollowed out the basin of the Weald leaving a north facing scarp slope of the chalk which runs east and west across the whole county, broken only by the valleys of the River Arun and River Adur . In addition to these two rivers which drain most of
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2058-518: The north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Crawley , and the county town is the city of Chichester . The county has a land area of 1,991 square kilometres (769 sq mi) and a population of 892,336. Along the south coast is a near-continuous urban area which includes the towns of Bognor Regis (63,855), Littlehampton (55,706), and Worthing (111,338);
2107-450: The same but closer to the coast. The A259 is a local alternate route to the A27 in the eastern coastal strip. Gatwick Airport , which handled over 33 million passengers and had over 250,000 aircraft movements in 2011, is located within the borders of Crawley , and is the second largest airport in the United Kingdom. There is also a considerably smaller local airport at Shoreham Airport and
2156-657: The views of the young people West Sussex at county level. Elections for the Youth Cabinet and UKYP in West Sussex run every year in March. The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, otherwise called Chichester Cathedral , is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester . It was founded as a cathedral in 1075, when the seat of the bishop was moved from Selsey Abbey . The cathedral has architecture in both
2205-638: The warmest month when mean daily maxima tend to be around 20 °C. A maximum temperature of 35.4 °C occurred at North Heath, Pulborough on 26 June 1976. Coastal high temperatures are often moderated by cooler sea breezes. Monthly rainfall tends to be highest in autumn and early winter and lowest in the summer months, with July often being the driest month. There is less rainfall from summer convective showers and thunderstorms than in inland areas. The county can suffer both from localised flooding caused by heavy rainfall and from water shortages caused by prolonged periods of below average rainfall. Winter rainfall
2254-536: Was fellow artist Augustus John (1878–31 October 1961) who may well have visited Peartree because carved into one of the sagging jowl posts is the image of a bearded man who looks uncannily like the young Augustus John. Great expansion of the village took place between 1930 and 1960 when three (nominally) gated housing estates were developed, and again in the 1970s when two public housing developments took place on farmland between Felpham and its neighbouring village of Middleton-on-Sea . In December 2006 planning permission
2303-403: Was granted for further development, this time on farmland to the north. Felpham has three primary schools, Bishop Tufnell CE Infant and Bishop Tufnell CE Junior Schools (both Church of England Aided Schools) and Downview Primary (Infant and Junior) School. A third infant and junior school is planned to be added as part of the current housing plans. Felpham Community College , the main school in
2352-559: Was made a single ceremonial county with the coming into force of the Local Government Act 1972 . At the same time a large part of the eastern rape of Lewes (the Mid Sussex district which includes the towns of Haywards Heath , Burgess Hill and East Grinstead ) was transferred into West Sussex. Until 1834, provision for the poor and destitute in West Sussex was made at parish level. From 1835 until 1948 eleven Poor Law Unions , each catering for several parishes, took on
2401-528: Was mentioned in the Domesday Book of the 11th century, under the hundred of Binstead: "St Edward's Abbey [Shaftesbury] holds and held Felpham before 1066..." Its value before 1066 was said to be £10. The poet William Blake was introduced to the village by his friend William Hayley and lived in Felpham for three years between 1800 and 1803. He wrote Milton: A Poem in Two Books , while living in
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