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Slinfold is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England.

Slinfold
St. Peter's parish church
Slinfold Location within West Sussex
Area	16.95 km2 (6.54 sq mi) [1]
Population	1,647 (2001 census)[2] 2,055 (2011 Census)[3]
• Density	97/km2 (250/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TQ1131
• London	45 miles (72 km) NNE
Civil parish	Slinfold
District	Horsham
Shire county	West Sussex
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Horsham
Postcode district	RH13
Dialling code	01403
Police	Sussex
Fire	West Sussex
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Horsham
Website	Slinfold Parish Council
List of places UK England West Sussex 51.070°N 0.405°W / 51.070; -0.405

Geography

The village is almost 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Horsham, just off the A29 road.

The parish covers 4,186 acres (1,694 ha). The 2001 Census recorded a population of 1,647 people[2] living in 627 households of whom 780 were economically active.^{[citation needed]}

Slinfold is the source of the western River Adur, which flows to the English Channel at Shoreham-by-Sea[4]

History

Roman remains

Alfoldean, Slinfold, West Sussex subject of a dig by archaeological television programme Time Team in 2006,[5] the site of one of a probable four mansiones on the route of Stane Street between London and Chichester.[6]

Manors

There has been a house at Dedisham, 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of the village, since at least 1271, when Henry III granted the then occupier a licence to crenellate the manor house then on the site.[7] The present house on the site appears to date from the 16th or 17th century.[7] During the English Civil War the Parliamentarian commander Sir William Waller sacked a house on this site in 1643.[7]

Slinfold Manor, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of the village, is a Georgian house built late in the 18th century.[7]

Economic and social history

Slinfold railway station on the Cranleigh Line was opened in 1865 and closed in 1965. The trackbed of the line now forms part of the Downs Link Bridleway. The route of the former Roman road linking London and Chichester passes through the parish [8] and a Roman posting station existed at Alfoldean. In 1848 it was recorded that Roman swords and brass ornaments had been found in the parish.[8]

Slinfold has a village shop and Post Office, a primary school and pre-school, a recreation ground, a village hall and one public house, the Red Lyon.[9] Where Slinfold Railway station used to be is now a Caravan Club site.[10]

Church and chapel

The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter was designed by the Gothic Revival architect Benjamin Ferrey in a late 13th-century style and built in 1861 on the site of the original medieval parish church.[11]

Slinfold Chapel is linked with Horsham United Reformed Church.[12]

Bell legend

It is said that there is a boggy hollow near Slinfold which contains a sunken bell. Long ago some villagers, hoping to retrieve the bell, sought the advice of a witch. She told them that it could only be retrieved by 12 white oxen, at midnight. The oxen were used, but one villager broke the witch's instructions by speaking, and the bell sank back into the bog.[13]

References

Sources

• Lewis, Samuel, ed. (1931) [1848]. A Topographical Dictionary of England (Seventh ed.). London: Samuel Lewis. pp. 120–123.
• Nairn, Ian; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1965). Sussex. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 328–329. ISBN 0-14-071028-0.

External links

Media related to Slinfold at Wikimedia Commons

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