Stopham
| Stopham | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 St Mary the Virgin parish church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ025189 |
| Location: | 50°57’38"N, 0°32’26"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 87 (2001) |
| Post town: | Pulborough |
| Postcode: | RH20 |
| Dialling code: | 01798 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Chichester |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Horsham |
Stopham is a hamlet in Sussex, about a mile and a half west of Pulborough on the A283 road. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 87 people living in 39 households.
The hamlet has a public house, the White Hart.[1]
History
The Domesday Book of 1086 records a manor of Stopham or Stopeham. Descendants of the same family, the Bartletts or Barttelots, who married the senior co-heir of the Stophams in 1379,[2] have ensured that the same lineage, albeit with a different surname, has held the manor since the Norman Conquest. Since 1875 they have been baronets.
Part of the present manor house is dated 1485, but there was a house on the site before that.[3] The house was given a new east front in the 16th century but was partly demolished in 1638.[3] Its plan is E-shaped,[3][4] a layout popular for Jacobean manor houses. The house is a Grade II* listed building.[3]
In the 1790s work began to make the Rother navigable to Midhurst, beginning with a canal cut from the Arun between the Rother and what is now the A283 road. The first lock was built in the grounds of Stopham House. In 1821–22 the central arch of Stopham Bridge was rebuilt much higher than the others to give enough airdraught for navigation.[5]
Parish church
The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church, St Mary the Virgin are 11th-century Saxon or Saxo-Norman, and the remainder of the building is 12th-century Norman.[4] New windows were inserted in the chancel in the 13th century and in the nave in the 14th century.[6] The west tower was rebuilt about 1600.[4] The east window of the chancel was inserted in 1638 but is significantly older, having been transferred to its present position from the manor house.[6] The church contains a series of monumental brasses to members of the Barttelot family:[6] three pairs from the 15th century and one set from the early 17th century.[4] The church is a Grade I listed building.[6]
St Mary's parish is part of a combined benefice with the parish of St Mary the Virgin, Fittleworth.[7]
Stopham Bridge
Stopham Bridge is a Grade I listed building[5] and a Scheduled Monument. Despite much speculation over the construction date of this ironstone bridge, the correct date is believed to be c.1422-3. One span of the bridge was destroyed during the Civil War and replaced by a drawbridge. The bridge's central arch was modified in 1822 and bears this date.[5]
The bridge carried the A283 through the village, with traffic light control being introduced in 1936. The bridge was badly damaged by Army lorries during the Second World War but has been repaired since.[5]
In 1986, Stopham Bridge was superseded by a new reinforced concrete bridge, located just 50 feet to the north, to alleviate the large queues which built up at this point and due to increasing levels of damage to the inside of the parapet by vehicles traversing the bridge. Due to poor ground conditions, the piers of the new bridge are supported on piles that go down to the sandstone bedrock.[8]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Stopham) |
- Aylesworth.net: Bartlett Family History
- Engineering Timelines: Stopham Ancient Bridge
- Saxon Churches in Sussex: Stopham
References
- ↑ The White Hart, Stopham Bridge
- ↑ Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. Barttelot baronetcy
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 National Heritage List 1265614: Manor Farmhouse (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Nairn & Pevsner 1965, p. 342
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 National Heritage List 1005889: Stopham Bridge (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 National Heritage List 1226926: The Parish Church of St Mary (Grade I listing)
- ↑ Archbishops' Council (2010). "Benefice of Stopham and Fittleworth". Church of England. http://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice.php?B=10/323BK.
- ↑ Stopham Ancient Bridge, Engineering Timelines, Accessed 24 May 2017.
- Jervoise, Edwyn (1930). The Ancient Bridges of the South of England. I. Westminster: The Architectural Press for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. pp. 57–58.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Sussex, 1965 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09677-4
- Vine, P.A.L. (1995). London's Lost Route to Midhurst The Earl of Egremont's Navigation. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0750909684.
