Fittleworth

Bedham is a hamlet 4 kilometres (2+1⁄2 miles) east of Petworth in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is in the civil parish of Wisborough Green. Bedham consists of a farm, a derelict Victorian church and school, and a scattering of houses set high on a wooded sandstone ridge of the western Weald, at 150 metres above sea level. To the west Flexham Park is an area of commercial woodland, with large areas of chestnut coppice, and south of this is a sandstone quarry at Bognor Common. To the northeast are large areas of semi-natural forest, left unmanaged as a nature reserve, called The Mens. South of The Mens is Hawkhurst Court, a country house used as a Canadian army HQ in the buildup to the Normandy Invasion during World War II, then as a private school, before becoming private housing in the 1980s. From the early 20th century Bedham became popular with artists of limited means who wanted to "escape from civilisation". Remote cottages could be bought for £100. The composer Sir Edward Elgar lived nearby at Brinkwells for a time as a sub-tenant of the artist Rex Vicat Cole, and the studio where Elgar composed his Cello Concerto was moved up to the village and now stands as a separate house. Ford Madox Ford, author of The Good Soldier also lived in the village with Stella Bowen, an Australian artist twenty years his junior. Later residents included Miss Ethel West (d.1950) and her companion Miss Metherell who lived in Bedham Cottage - Miss Metherell using the pen name Rhoda Leigh wrote a fictional account of the hamlet, Past and Passing: Tales from Remote Sussex, which offended some local residents with its thinly veiled and exaggerated references to them. One of those offended was Mrs. Puttick who sold groceries, tobacco and sweets from the kitchen of her house opposite the lane to Warren Barn. Honour Thy Father - Recollections of Sussex Life over Two and a Half Centuries recounts much Bedham history centred on Mants, the cottage where its author Lillian Hunt's grandfather lived.

Fittleworth railway station served the village of Fittleworth in the county of West Sussex in England. It was on the London Brighton and South Coast Railway's line between Pulborough and Midhurst. The station opened some years after the line (1859) in September 1889 and closed to passengers in February 1955. Freight traffic from Fittleworth ceased in 1963 three years before total closure in 1966. The small station building remained undeveloped for many years. However it was restored and converted into a private dwelling in 1987.

Egdean (pronounced Egg-deen) is a small village in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies just off the A283 road 1.7 miles (2.8 km) southeast of Petworth. It is in the civil parish of Petworth. In earlier centuries a horse fair was held at Egdean. It was one of the last occasions on which the 3rd Earl of Egremont was seen out in public before he died in 1837. The earl gave a £20 prize for the best three-year-old colt or filly.The Anglican church of St Bartholomew, dating from the 16th century, is in regular use.

Bognor Common Quarry is a 25.1-hectare (62-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Petworth in West Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.This site exposes the Hythe Beds, part of the Lower Greensand Group, which dates to the Early Cretaceous between 146 and 100 million years ago. Fuller's earth has been found on the site, which may derive from a volcanic source to the south.The site is part of Bognor Common, which is open to the public.

Coates is a downland village in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. Coates lies one mile (1.7 km) southwest from Fittleworth and four miles (6.8 km) south-east-by-south from Petworth. It is within the ancient divisions of the Bury Hundred and the Rape of Arundel.The village is bounded north by the Rother Navigation.

Stopham is a hamlet and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Pulborough on the A283 road. It is in the civil parish of Fittleworth. The parish has a land area of 874 acres (354 ha). The 2001 Census recorded 87 people living in 39 households, of whom 40 were economically active.

Coates Castle SSSI is a 7.7-hectare (19-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Pulborough in West Sussex.This site consists of three separate areas near Coates Castle. They contain the entire known population in Britain of Gryllus campestris, a field cricket which is protected under the Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. There are an estimated 200 individuals.The site is private land with no public access.

Watersfield is a hamlet in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A29 road 3.1 miles (5 km) southwest of Pulborough. At the 2011 Census the population of the Hamlet was included in the civil parish of Coldwaltham.

Coldwaltham is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is divided in two by the A29 road and lies 2.4 miles (3.9 km) southwest of Pulborough which has both a railway station on the Arun Valley Line and a bus connection to Worthing. It is around a 30-minute drive from Gatwick Airport. The 2011 Census population included the village of Hardham plus hamlet of Watersfield. The 13th century Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Giles; a rare 11th century gravestone and a simple Saxon font are present on the site. A yew tree near the north west corner is among the oldest in England, believed to be over 3000 years old. There is one pub, the Labouring Man. Sandham Hall is used for village events. The Church of England primary school shares a headteacher with Amberley School.

The South Downs Light Railway is a 10+1⁄4 in (260 mm) gauge railway at Pulborough in West Sussex, England. The line opened in 2000 (after adjusting the gauge to 10 1/4 from 7 1/4 as there was a line there before the South Downs Light Railway arrived, and operates around the grounds of Pulborough Garden Centre. On a regular day one of their two Exmoor Steam Locomotives will be in-charge of the service. Their two Exmoor’s are named ‘Pulborough’ and ‘Peggy’. The railway hosts a range of scale locomotive which includes an LNER Flying Scotsman ,6100 royal Scot, 6220 coronation The railway has their own engine shed which has a workshop at the back of it. Just outside the engine shed there is a traverser to move the engine. There is also a drop-down pit so the engines can be inspected underneath. The old engine shed has now been converted to the railway's carriage shed. The railway has two stations, Stopham Road Station (where most people will start their journey) and Hardham Halt which is used during gala days and during Christmas as the North Pole. 2020 was the railway's 20th year of operating in its current location and they hoped to host a 20th Gala Weekend which wpound have most likely host visiting engines plus special attractions. The railway announced that the gala weekend woils happen in August, however it was impacted by the COVID pandemic. The railway has developed a lot since they first opened including a new expansion, new engine shed, new workshop plus a new station (Hardham Halt).

The River Rother flows from Empshott in Hampshire, England, to Stopham in West Sussex, where it joins the River Arun. At 52 kilometres (32 mi) long, most of the river lies within West Sussex except for the first 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) which lie in Hampshire. The upper river, from its source to Midhurst, has been used to power watermills, with the earliest recorded use being in 1086, when the Domesday survey was conducted. Although none are still operational, many of the buildings which housed the mills still exist, and in some cases, still retain their milling machinery. This upper section is also noted for a number of early bridges, which have survived since their construction in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The lower river, from Midhurst to its junction with the River Arun, has been used for navigation. Boats used the section from the Arun to Fittleworth following improvements made to the Arun in 1615, and after the Arun Navigation was completed in 1790, the Earl of Egremont made the river navigable up to Midhurst by constructing eight locks and some small cuts. The work was completed in 1794, and many of the bridges built at that time still survive. With the opening of the Mid-Sussex Railway branch to Midhurst in 1859, traffic declined, and commercial use of the river had ceased by the 1880s. Pleasure boats continued to be used on the river for many years, and published accounts of journeys along the decaying navigation appeared in 1914 and 1920. The navigation was officially abandoned in 1936, after an undergraduate pointed out that it was still a public right of way. The river flows through the South Downs National Park, and is a designated Site of Nature Conservation Importance, in recognition of its value for wildlife. It supports a wide range of fish, and its upper reaches are the only location in Sussex where native white clawed crayfish can be found. The quality of the water is generally good, and the river is measured at four gauging stations, three on the main channel, and one of the River Lod, just before its junction with the Rother. Water from the underlying Lower Greensand aquifer and the adjacent chalk aquifer helps to maintain the flows during the summer months, despite the fact that large volumes are abstracted from both the aquifers and the river for the public water supply.

The Petworth Canal was one of Britain's shorter lasting canals, opened in 1795 and dismantled in 1826. Upon completion of the Rother Navigation, the Earl of Egremont used his estate workforce to build the 1¼ mile long canal from just upstream of the Shopham Cut to Haslingbourne, with two locks, each with a rise of 8 feet and 6 inches. The Haslingbourne Stream was diverted to provide the water supply, and still flows in the canal bed from Haslingbourne to the site of Haines Lock. The initial intention was to extend the canal through the Shimmings Valley to Hamper's Green on the north side of Petworth, then northwards to join the Wey Navigation at Shalford.