Ford, Sussex
| Ford | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 St. Andrew by the ford | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ000036 |
| Location: | 50°49’26"N, 0°34’48"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,690 (2011) |
| Post town: | Arundel |
| Postcode: | BN18 |
| Dialling code: | 01903 or 01243 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Arun |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Arundel and South Downs |
Ford is a village in Sussex, centred two miles south of Arundel and west of Worthing. The parish very gently slopes to the east, where it has the public track alongside the River Arun.
The parish includes HM Prison Ford, otherwise known as Ford Open Prison centred on the site of two former government installations, the RAF Ford Battle of Britain airfield and the Royal Naval Air Station HMS Peregrine. These have a small commemorative garden, Rollaston Park, along the road of the same name.
Ford railway station is on the West Coastway Line which has the listed building and pub next to it on semi-rural Arundel Road. Some larger units of Rudford Industrial estate are in the south of the parish.
The Arundel Arms next to the station is on the Arundel Road. It is a Grade II listed building.[1]
Parish church
The Church of England parish church is ‘Saint Andrew-by-the-Ford’. It stands near the River Arun, surrounded by a walled churchyard entered through a wrought iron gate. This is an Anglo-Saxon church, which was built in about 1040, and substantially rebuilt by the Normans. The church is a Grade I listed building.[2]
There are Saxon and Norman lancet windows in the north wall of the nave, which survives from the original building. There is a surviving early 12th-century Norman chancel arch with carved decoration. Over a north door in this wall, which leads to a vestry, there are fragments of Anglo-Saxon interlaced carving. The Decorated Gothic east window dates from about 1320 and the Perpendicular Gothic west window dates from about 1420.
The brick-built Jacobean south porch is from about 1640 and has a pedimented Dutch gable. The wooden bell-turret, painted white as a navigational landmark for ships, has two bells, the smaller of which was by Robert Rider, who is known to have worked 1351 and 1386.
The font, carved from a square limestone block, may be Saxon or Norman and stands on a modern Bath Stone plinth.
"Eco-town" proposal
In 2008 Ford was shortlisted on the government's "Eco Town" plan. The Government earmarked its airfield site as a proposed core of a new settlement. The local council held a public consultation, which included Ford was one of thirteen suggested locations, across the United Kingdom, for a new town, but following a significant and vocal local campaign, citing a large number of adverse factors, the government abandoned plans for a substantial urban settlement here.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Ford, Sussex) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1222219: Arundel Arms
- ↑ National Heritage List 1233989: St Andrew-by-the-Ford (Grade I listing)
