Chiddingfold

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chiddingfold is a village in the heart of The Weald in the Waverley district of Surrey, England, and lies on the busy A283 between Milford and Petworth. A church (St Mary's), 14th century pub (The Crown), forge, pond, shops and cottages lie on three sides of a large village green. There was also a brick works.

Chiddingfold was long famous for its glass-making - during the reign of Elizabeth I, there were no fewer than eleven glass works on the green. Chiddingfold glass was used in some of the finest buildings in the land, including St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, and St George's Chapel, Windsor.

Today the village is best known for its torchlit procession, bonfire and fireworks display on a weekend close to November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day). The bonfire takes weeks to build and is generally as big as a house. In 1929, bonfire-related delinquency led to the last recorded reading of the riot act in the UK. In 2005, some local youths burned down the bonfire 2 weeks before the day and it had to be hastily rebuilt.

Rock group The Stranglers - then called The Guildford Stranglers, and prior to that The Chiddingfold Chokers - were based in Chiddingfold for a while during the early seventies and frequented 'The Crown'. And, talking of rock groups, this is where Genesis built their studio The Farm in the early 1980s.

Chiddingfold has recently opened an Archive where you can see the history of Chiddingfold and the previous owners of Chiddingfold houses.Chiddingfold has a population of around 2,000 people.

Villagers enjoy visiting The Crown Inn, The Swan Inn(which was recently flooded and refurbished), an participating in the seasonal Chiddingfold Horticultural Society competitions.