Cocking, Sussex
| Cocking | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 Cocking village centre | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU878176 |
| Location: | 50°57’5"N, -0°45’3"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 420 (2011) |
| Post town: | Midhurst |
| Postcode: | GU29 |
| Dialling code: | 01730 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Chichester |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Chichester |
| Website: | www.cocking.org |
Cocking is a village in Sussex, about three miles south of Midhurst on the main A286 road to Chichester.
The 2001 census recorded 190 households in the civil parish, with a total population of 459.
History and heritage
Cocking (Cochinges) was listed in the Domesday Book (1086) in the Hundred of Easebourne as having 32 households: 18 cottagers, eight smallholders and six slaves; with ploughing land, five mills and a church, it had a value to the lord of the manor of £15.[1]
The parish church is of the 11th century.[2] It had no known dedication until 2007 when it was dedicated to St Catherine of Siena.[3] There was a Congregational Chapel in Crypt Lane, founded in 1806 and rebuilt in 1907, which is now a private house.[4]
In the centre of the village, on the corner of Mill Lane, stands the old school, now a private residence. This was built in 1870 to the designs of architects Richard Carpenter and William Slater. The school has Gothic-style windows and door arches, is faced in flint, and has a red-tiled roof and decorative barge-boards to the gables. The former schoolmaster's house has a distinctive chimney-stack with four outlets.[5]
To the south of the village are the remains of Cocking Lime Works, abandoned in 1999, and the associated chalk pit.[6] To the north are a few traces of the Chorley Iron Foundry, which cast the waterwheels now at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum[7] and at the Coultershaw Beam Pump.[8]
There still remain in the village some houses of 17th century origin. In 1931 the population of the village was 431.[9]
There was a Richard Cobden pub in Cocking which closed and became a private residence in the 20th century.[10] Richard Cobden lived in nearby Heyshott.[11]
A railway once used to serve the area at Cocking Station, on the Chichester to Midhurst line opened in 1881, but was completely closed from 1953.
About the village
A number of buildings in the village belong to the Cowdray Estate, distinguished by their external woodwork painted yellow.[12]
The remaining village pub, formerly The Blue Bell, became a restaurant with accommodation called The Bluebell Inn, and stands on the corner of Bell Lane.
Cocking is on the South Downs Way long-distance footpath.[13]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Cocking, Sussex) |
References
- ↑ "Open Domesday: Cocking". https://opendomesday.org/place/SU8717/cocking/. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1026062: Cocking Church (Grade I listing)
- ↑ "Ancient church is given a name - after 900 years". Chichester Observer. 11 April 2007. http://www.chichester.co.uk/news/top-stories/ancient-church-is-given-a-name-after-900-years-1-1500348. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
- ↑ "GENUKI: Cocking Congregational Chapel". https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SSX/Cocking/CockingCongregationalChapel. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
- ↑ Lewis, Roland (2007). What The Victorians Did For Sussex. Snake River Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-1906022044. https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-The-Victorians-Sussex-Guide/dp/1906022046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360765343&sr=8-1.
- ↑ Martin, Ron (2003). "Cocking Lime Works" (PDF). Sussex Industrial History. Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society. http://sias.pastfinder.org.uk/sih_1970_2008/33-2003.pdf.
- ↑ "Watermill from Lurgashall". The Buildings. Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120721221516/http://www.wealddown.co.uk/Buildings/Watermill-from-Lurgashall. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ↑ "Coultershaw Beam Pump". Sussex Mills Group. http://www.sussexmillsgroup.org.uk/coulter.htm. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ↑ A History of the County of Sussex - Volume 4 pp 43-47: Parishes: Cocking (Victoria County History)
- ↑ "Gravelroots: Old photographs of Cocking". http://www.gravelroots.net/history/50.html. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1025929: Dunford House (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "Midhurst Tourist Guide: Cowdray Park". http://www.midhurst.org/cowdray-park.shtml. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
- ↑ "The South Downs Way: Amberley to Cocking". http://www.southdownsway.co.uk/sdw_amberley_cocking.html. Retrieved 28 January 2014.