Walberton

Walberton
St Mary's Church, Walberton
Walberton  Walberton shown within West Sussex
Area	10.44 km2 (4.03 sq mi)
Population	2,174 (Civil Parish)[1]
– density	208/km2 (540/sq mi)
OS grid reference	SU972059
– London	50 miles (80 km) NNE
Civil parish	Walberton
District	Arun
Shire county	West Sussex
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ARUNDEL
Postcode district	BN18
Dialling code	01243
Police	Sussex
Fire	West Sussex
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Arundel and South Downs
List of places UK England West Sussex

Coordinates: 50°50′41″N 0°37′11″W / 50.84471°N 0.6198°W / 50.84471; -0.6198

Walberton is a village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England centred five miles (8 km) north-west of Littlehampton, and south of the A27 road. The land rises from 10 metres above sea level to 35 metres, a quarter of the height of the nearest foothill, Nore Hill, of the South Downs which is outside of the parish to the north. The civil parish, administering local community buildings, fields and paths includes the smaller village Binsted to the east and larger neighbourhood of Fontwell, less than a kilometre north-west. Walberton has a medieval church by its clustered village centre; Binsted's medieval church still retains its original landscape setting where the village houses are dispersed around the farm fields, rather than clustered by the church.

Amenities

Binsted has a pub, the Black Horse and its own Norman church built in 1140 A.D. by the monks of Tortington Priory to the immediate east.^[2] Roman and medieval pottery and tile kilns have been excavated there.^[3] Binsted also has a traditional summer festival the Strawberry Fair where locally grown produce is shown and sold for charity. Part of Binsted is within the South Downs National Park; the whole of Binsted's countryside was originally assessed by the Countryside Agency as meeting the criteria for inclusion; but in 2015, the community, businesses, natural beauty and wildlife of Binsted are threatened by 'Option B' proposals for a new Arundel Bypass. More information on this threat to Walberton and Binsted's amenities can be read here.

St Mary's Church in Walberton has a Saxon font and west wall. There is a large pub, The Holly Tree. This is recorded from 1845 and has been called by its present name since 1867.^[4] Towards the end of the village there is a small village pond where children often feed the ducks. There are a small number of shops and a post office next to the modern village hall.

Walberton Village Hall

Notable people

• Sir William Anson (1843–1914), jurist, academic and politician, was born in Walberton.^[5]
• Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton (1883–1964), businessman and government minister, is buried in Walberton churchyard.^[6]
• Rosemary Sutcliff (1920–1992), children's writer, spent the latter part of her life in Walberton.^[7]
• The Hilton Avisford Park Hotel,^[8] with its golf course between Walberton and Binsted, was formerly Avisford Roman Catholic Preparatory School for boys (1928–73),^[3] where BBC journalist Edward Stourton (born 1957) was head boy and Robert Nairac (1948–1977), an army office abducted and murdered in Northern Ireland, spent a year teaching before university in the late 1960s.

References

External links

• Media related to Walberton at Wikimedia Commons
• The village's 36 listed historic buildings are described here: Retrieved 12 September 2011.
• Walberton Parish Council web site.