Lodsworth
| Lodsworth | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 St Peter's church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU927232 |
| Location: | 51°0’6"N, 0°40’47"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 672 (2011) |
| Post town: | Petworth |
| Postcode: | GU28 |
| Dialling code: | 01798 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Chichester |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Chichester |
| Website: | http://www.lodsworth.org.uk/ |
Lodsworth is a small village in Sussex, in the west of the county, sitting between Midhurst and Petworth, half a mile north of the A272 road. It is fund to the north of the valley of the River Rother and a tributary stream the River Lod runs close to the east end of the village.
The population at the 2011 Census (including Selham) was 672.
The village has a small Church of England parish church, St Peter's. It has one pub, the Hollist Arms, and a village hall. After nearly 20 years without a grocery shop, a group of villagers launched in 2007 a community-run shop, the Lodsworth Larder, built with ecological material to provide local products to local people.
Contents
The Manor House
Built by the Bishop of London, who owned the manor during the Middle Ages, when first built the Manor House would have been the finest building in Lodsworth. The present house is likely to have been the home of the Bishop's steward, who would have administered the manor.
Manorial courts would have been held there and there was a basement dungeon to hold prisoners. The Manor was held as a liberty by the Bishop, making it independent of the county justice system, so even the most serious crimes would have been tried there, and executions would have been carried out at Gallows Hill on the border with Graffham. Archaeological work during the autumn of 2002[1] revealed the foundations of a 7-metre extension to the east of the building, with 3-foot foundations resting on solid rock which may have supported a tower. It is likely that there was a great hall to the south of the building.
St. Peter's Well
The spring near St Peter's church was a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, especially for people with eye problems, and a source of revenue for the village. The well is located a few yards along a footpath that joins the lower junction of Church Lane and Vicarage Lane.
History
Little is known for certain of the village until after the Norman Conquest, when the area was given to Robert de Montgomerie, Earl of Shrewsbury. There is no certain reference to Lodsworth in the Domesday Book, although it may have been regarded as part of Grittenham, now part of Tillington but then a much larger settlement.
In 1119 Richard de Belmas, the Bishop of London, was given the manor by the Montgomerie family; and Lodsworth was made a Liberty by Royal Charter of King Henry I. This unusual status made the manor independent from the county and hundred legal system so that even the most serious crimes were tried at the manorial court held at the manor house. The manor was run by the Bishop of London's representative the Sheriff who lived at the manor house. Villagers were exempt from tolls at markets and fairs in other parishes, and all income from the manor went straight to the bishop. The manor must have been a valuable source of income to the bishop with revenue from pilgrims to St Peter's well and probably from stone quarrying, and the status of Liberty was vigorously defended and was reaffirmed by several kings, the last being Henry VI.
Transport and industry
Agriculture and Forestry use most of the land area. There is arable cropping, dairying and other grazing livestock. There are large areas of chestnut coppice on Bexley Hill, cut in rotation to produce fence materials, and areas of oak and conifers.
There is a large timberyard and sawmill at Lodsbridge, south of Halfway Bridge and a small factory at the old watermill site at Halfway Bridge.
The first transport other than pack horses or horse carts was in 1795 when the Rother Navigation was built from Pulborough to Midhurst, allowing canal barges to reach the wharf at Lodsbridge. This was used mainly to bring chalk and coal in and to export timber. The railway line from Pulborough to Petworth was extended to Midhurst in the 1860s with stations at Selham and Midhurst.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Lodsworth) |
References
- ↑ Chichester District Council, Heritage Annual Report 1998-2003 ISSN 1742-2663 p26.
- Beckingham, Peter: 'South Downs Showcase - 200 Years of Creativity around Lodsworth, Petworth and Midhurst' (Lodsworth Heritage Society, 2021) ISBN 978-1-3999-0626-5
- Hepworth, Martin and Marshall, A. E.: 'Lodsworth: the Story of an English Village' (The Weald and Downland Open-Air Museum, 1995)
- Rickman, John: 'The Land of Lod'
- Vine, P. A. L.: 'London's Lost Route to Midhurst: the Earl of Egremont's Navigation and the building of the Petworth Canal' (Sutton, 1995) ISBN 0-7509-0968-4
