Fittleworth
| Fittleworth | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 The southern approach at The Swan | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ009194 |
| Location: | 50°57’55"N, -0°33’50"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 978 (2011) |
| Post town: | Pulborough |
| Postcode: | RH20 |
| Dialling code: | 01798 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Chichester |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Arundel and South Downs |
Fittleworth is a village in [[Sussex, in the west of the county, three miles west from Pulborough on the A283 road and three miles south-east of Petworth. It is in the county's Bury Hundred in the Rape of Arundel.
The village has a parish church, a primary school and one pub, The Swan. It is within the ancient divisions of the. The village is bounded south by the Rother Navigation.
In the 2011 census the parish population weas recorded as 978, to include the hamlets of Egdean and Stopham.
History
Fittleworth is noted in 1167-8 as Fitelwurda, by 1279 Fyteleworth, 1438 Fetilworth and 1488 Fitelworthe. The Olde English FitelanweorJ translates as " the enclosure of Fitela."[1] The name 'Fitela; is otherwise known only from the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf as nephew of mythological hero Sigmund, and known in the Old Norse Völsung Saga as 'Sinfjotli'.
The manor of Fittleworth, in the reign of King Edward I, was held by William Dawtrey and subsequently by the Bishopric of Chichester[2]
The Lee and Stanley families were major landowners in Fittleworth through the centuries, as well as the Duke of Norfolk. Also among major property owners were the families of Levett and Edsaw.[3][4]
From 1536 The Swan was the coaching inn, and permitted a change of horses for the royal couriers of the King's Post en route from London to the coast, before the long climb up the South Downs at Bury Hill.[5]
The village was served by Fittleworth railway station, on a branch line of the now-defunct Midhurst Railways, from 1889 to 1963.[6]
Landmarks
There are two bridges at Fittleworth, both of stone; one of two arches, the Clappers Bridge, belongs only to the mill stream; the other, of three, spans the River Rother and is sixteenth century, though the piers may be older.[7] The middle span was enlarged in the 1780s to take barge traffic through to Midhurst. When the road was widened in 1967, the Clappers Bridge was rebuilt in entirety. Fittleworth Bridge was partially rebuilt to take a 25-foot road about twice the previous width.[8]
The Swan on the north side of the Rother Navigation is a coaching inn with history possibly going as far back as the late 14th century. The Ancient Order of Froth Blowers (Motto: "Lubrication in Moderation") was founded here in 1924. The guild was created "to foster the noble Art and gentle and healthy Pastime of froth blowing amongst Gentlemen of-leisure and ex-Soldiers". It attracted an extraordinary half a million members in the 1920s and 1930s. Lager beer was ineligible, The Swan rule book stating: "it is unseemly and should be avoided always excepting by Naval Officers visiting German Colonies.".[9][10] Many Victorian Artists have left paintings on the panelling of the lounge,[11] including George Vicat Cole|George Cole, Rex Vicat Cole (who sub-let his nearby cottage Brinkwells to Edward Elgar in 1917), A.W. Weedon and Philip Stretton. One of the Visitors' Books contains music and words to 'A Song to the River' by composer Sir Hubert Parry[12] visiting for a boating trip. E.V. Lucas, Lamb's biographer, thought it the most ingeniously placed inn in the world. "It seems to be at the end of all things. The miles of road that one has travelled apparently have been leading nowhere but the Swan."
Coates Castle in the village of Coates, Sussex is a Grade-II mansion about one and half miles south east from the southern boundary of Fittleworth. An area around Coates Castle has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest which contains the entire known remaining British population of the Field Cricket Gryllus campestris.[13]
Paintings of Fittleworth Mill
A c.1826 painting by J.M.W. Turner is in the collection of the Tate.[14] An 1834 painting by John Constable is in the Victoria and Albert Museum,[15] painted whilst visiting Lord Egremont at Petworth, where he encountered sculptor Francis Leggatt Chantrey and painter Thomas Phillips, Turner having been unable to come.[16] Constable took home richly coloured sand and soil from Fittleworth Common and subsequently asked his Arundel-based brewer friend and amateur painter George Constable[17] to send him samples of the paint from some slimy posts near the Mill.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Fittleworth) |
References
- ↑ The Place Names of Sussex R.G. Roberts (1914) Cambridge University Press https://archive.org/stream/placenamesofsuss00robeiala/placenamesofsuss00robeiala_djvu.txt
- ↑ Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.
- ↑ A History of the Castles, Mansions, and Manors of Western Sussex, Dudley George Cary Elwes, Charles John Robinson, Published by Longmans & Co., London, 1876
- ↑ Arthur Levett was living at Fittleworth in the early seventeenth century, where he was regranted family arms by the College of Arms.[1]
- ↑ research by Hugo Donnelly
- ↑ Smith, Keith and Mitchell, Vic (1981). Branch Lines to Midhurst. Middleton. ISBN 0-906520-01-0
- ↑ Bridges of the Western Rother by Rev A A Evans From Volume 10 of the Sussex County Magazine 1936
- ↑ Fittleworth Bridge, G D Johnston Sussex Notes and Queries Vol XV11 May 1968 No.1
- ↑ "Notes on Fittleworth | Jon Edgar". http://www.jonedgar.co.uk/notes-on-fittleworth/.
- ↑ The pubs that made history, Ian Herbert and Danielle Dwyer, The Independent, London, 10 February 2006
- ↑ http://www.swaninn.com/cont/cntHistory.asp?strPre=imgLnd03&strPro=imgExt02&strNav=HisTemplate:Dead link
- ↑ Fittleworth – A Time of Change 1895–1916 (2009) Ed. A. Brookfield ISBN 978-0-9564125-0-8
- ↑ SSSI listing and designation for Coates Castle
- ↑ "'Fittleworth Mill on the River Rother', Joseph Mallord William Turner, c.1825–7". http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-fittleworth-mill-on-the-river-rother-d24606.
- ↑ "Fittleworth Mill, Sussex | Constable, John (RA) | V&A Explore the Collections". https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1041971/fittleworth-mill-sussex-watercolour-constable-john-ra/.
- ↑ John Constable: A Kingdom of his Own (2006) Bailey, A. (Chatto & Windus)
- ↑ "'Landscape with Cottage and Figures', George Constable". http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-landscape-with-cottage-and-figures-t03236.
- Fittleworth – A Time of Change 1895–1916 (2009) Ed. A. Brookfield ISBN 978-0-9564125-0-8 Reuniting the Photographic Albums and Notes of John Smith 1852–1925