SULLINGTON
SULLINGTON lies on and below the northern scarp
of the South Downs, 7½ miles (12 km.) NNW. of
Worthing. The ancient parish covered 2,338 a. (fn. 32) Of
that, 120 a. lay in two detached parts at Broadbridge
and Broadbridge Heath, respectively 2 miles WSW.
and 2 miles WNW. of Horsham and more than 9
miles from the rest. The detached parts evidently
represent Sullington's Wealden pasture. Both were
transferred to Horsham parish in 1878. (fn. 33) The
history of Broadbridge Heath is treated under
Horsham. The remaining part of the parish, covering 2,218 a. (898 ha.), is long and narrow, 4½ miles
from north to south by at most 1¼ miles from east to
west. In the south the boundaries were undefined;
further north the western boundary follows lanes
and the eastern boundary lanes and field
hedges.
Broadbridge and Broadbridge Heath lie mainly on
Weald clay. (fn. 34) The main part of Sullington spans the
strata which underly the rising ground at the edge of
the Weald. The northern end, at a height of c. 100 ft.
(30 metres), overlies Hythe and Sandgate beds with
an inlier of Weald clay at Wantley. The centre lies on
Gault clay and Upper Greensand. In the south the
ground rises to the top of the chalk escarpment,
reaching 649 ft. (148 metres) and 675 ft. (205 metres)
respectively on the twin peaks of Sullington and
Barnsfarm Hills, and then slopes gently into the
coombes on the south side of the downs, the southern
tip of the parish being at c. 300 ft. (91 metres). (fn. 35)
A Roman road crosses the north end of the main
part from east to west, leaving the parish at Roundabouts. (fn. 36) A south-north route across the parish
follows Sullington and Water lanes as far as Heath
common. There it divided into two, one branch leading to West Chiltington by Water, Northlands, and
Threals lanes across Eastbridge, just north of the
parish boundary but a responsibility of Sullington
tithing in 1538, (fn. 37) the other branch leading to Thakeham. The route may have formed part of a drove road
from Ferring to Horsham (fn. 38) and may be the road
from Thakeham to Sullington mentioned in 1229. (fn. 39)
Threals and Northlands lanes were no longer
thoroughfares in 1983. Sullington Lane may have
been the causeway of Sullington for whose repair
money was left in 1557. (fn. 40) Two other lanes running
parallel with it, Barnsfarm Lane from Barnsfarm
Hill to Clayton on the east, and Chantry Lane on the
western boundary, may also have been early drove
roads. The parish is crossed near Clayton by the road
from Pulborough to Washington, turnpiked in
1810. (fn. 41) The stretch near Sandgate park was diverted
to the south in 1828 at the application of G. J.
Gibson, owner of the park. (fn. 42) The road was disturnpiked in 1877. (fn. 43) The road from Thakeham to
Storrington, turnpiked in 1824, (fn. 44) crosses the parish
north of Sullington Warren.
Newbridge, which took the road from Broadbridge
Heath to Billingshurst across the Arun, was maintainable by Broadbridge farm (in Broadbridge) in
1615, (fn. 45) and by the inhabitants of Sullington tithing
and others in the 18th century. (fn. 46)
Sullington c.1875
Neolithic settlement in the parish may be indicated
by finds of arrowheads and by a long bank and ditch
across the spur of Sullington Hill. (fn. 47) Bronze Age
bowl barrows have been recorded there and on
Sullington Warren; a cinerary urn was discovered in
a barrow at the Warren opened in 1809, and a burial
or cremation was found on Sullington Hill in 1940. (fn. 48)
What were presumably Bronze Age spearheads and
swords were found in 1812 north of Sandgate. (fn. 49) It
has been suggested that Cobden, in the south end of
the parish, is a Celtic site, (fn. 50) and allegedly Roman
house sites were found at Chantry Bottom on the
western boundary in 1919. (fn. 51)
Settlement remained scattered until the 20th century. The name Sullington may describe a settlement
in a hollow near the western boundary. Pre-Conquest
references to 'Sillinctune' probably mean Chollington in Eastbourne. (fn. 52) The church, whose earliest
parts are of c. 1000, stands on the Upper Greensand,
on the spring line: it is surrounded on three sides by
the manor farmstead, and the old rectory lay c. 300
metres to the north-east. There is no evidence of a
village. A mill on the western boundary existed in
1086. (fn. 53) Cobden in the south, a separate settlement
with its own inclosed fields, existed by 1473; (fn. 54) an
alleged deserted medieval village there (fn. 55) may be the
same site as the suggested Celtic site mentioned
above. Later there is evidence of no more than the
farmhouse and of some cottages destroyed in the
Second World War. (fn. 56) East of the church Barns Farm
existed by 1623, (fn. 57) and ½ mile further north there was
settlement at Clayton by the 13th century; (fn. 58) Court
Barton on the main east-west road there is 17thcentury, and in the late 18th century there were a
few scattered houses along the road. (fn. 59) A cottage at
Sandgate was mentioned in 1661; (fn. 60) two cottages and
Sandgate Lodge north of the road were built there in
the 1790s. The park round the house, including
lodges and cottages, was created in the 19th century. (fn. 61) A school was opened west of the Thakeham
road in 1866. (fn. 62)
Those settlements were separated by the wastes of
Sullington Warren and Heath common from an
area of scattered farmsteads to the north. Wantley
was mentioned in 1296; there were two farms there
probably by 1327 and certainly by the 15th century. (fn. 63)
Roundabouts was mentioned in 1686. (fn. 64) The present
Roundabouts farmhouse, which has a traditional
three-roomed plan with internal chimney, was built
in the 18th century. Threals was mentioned in 1691, (fn. 65)
and Northlands in 1626, (fn. 66) and Leather Bottle
Cottage, formerly an inn, at the corner of Water
Lane and Thakeham Road, is early 17th-century.
At Threals and Northlands the farmhouse had been
demolished by 1876. (fn. 67)
There was little new building until after the First
World War, when about half Sandgate park was sold
for building plots (fn. 68) and an area round Sullington
Warren and in the far north of the parish were developed as part of the growth of Storrington and West
Chiltington respectively. In 1923 the rector recorded
that many buildings 'of a superior description' were
going up at the corner of Chantry Lane, while
Sullington Warren was 'being rapidly fringed in a
north-westerly direction by a heterogeneous class of
dwelling, mostly of a bungalow type.' (fn. 69) By the
Second World War the Warren estate north of
Chantry Lane, and Marley Way south of Thakeham
Road, had been built up; houses spread northwestwards along Fryern Road on the western boundary, and the rural district council built Warren
Hamlet north of Thakeham Road. Grove Lane,
Bower Lane, and Birchtree Lane were laid out north
of Roundabouts. (fn. 70) Building round the Warren encouraged moves to preserve it, and 28 a. were bought
by the National Trust in 1935. (fn. 71) Another 35 a. were
bought by the rural district council in 1959, and
another 16½ a. c. 1973. (fn. 72) In 1939-40 an army camp
was built south of Barns Farm; it was used c. 1950 as
a resettlement camp for Poles and others. (fn. 73) Building
continued after the war in the same areas as before
and along Storrington Road, but there were still few
houses south of the main road in 1983. In the 1970s
an industrial estate and some isolated small factories
grew up along Water Lane.
The detached part of the parish at Broadbridge
was a manor by 1243; (fn. 74) the hamlet consisted of a
manor house, of which part dating from the 15th
century survived in 1983, a mill, and by 1840 a
cottage. (fn. 75)
There were 21 taxpayers in Sullington in 1327,
and 23 in 1332. (fn. 76) What was presumably Broadbridge
contained 10 recorded houses in 1665, when Sullington tithing contained 21. (fn. 77) A total of 90 adults was
recorded in the parish in 1676, (fn. 78) and there were c.
25 families in 1724. (fn. 79) The population, 256 in 1801,
remained roughly constant until the 1870s apart from
a brief peak of 320 in 1831. After the removal of
Broadbridge and Broadbridge Heath, with 77 inhabitants in 1811 and 108 in 1891, the population fell
from 246 in 1871 to 200 in 1881; it then fluctuated
for forty years between a maximum of 212 in 1891
and a minimum of 149 in 1901. From the 1920s
numbers rose rapidly from 178 in 1921 to 922 in
1951, 1,354 in 1961, and 1,564 in 1971. In 1981
2,225 were usually resident. (fn. 80)
Leather Bottle Cottage served at some date before
1812 as the Duke's Head inn. (fn. 81) Either before that or
in the earlier 19th century it was apparently the
Leather Bottle inn, (fn. 82) but no inn was recorded after
1855. (fn. 83)
The Gibson family of Sandgate established benefit
clubs in Sullington: a Sullington clothing club and a
Sullington and Sandgate provident club in 1865 and
a children's clothing club in 1874. (fn. 84) The rector
played in a village cricket team in 1873, (fn. 85) and a
cricket match was held on ice on Chantry mill pond
in 1890. (fn. 86) After the school had been closed it was
used from 1917 as a parish room, (fn. 87) and was the venue
for plays and choral evenings put on by Sullington
Merrymakers between 1927 and 1930. (fn. 88) A village
hall was built in the 1950s and replaced by a new hall
on an adjoining site in 1984. (fn. 89) Clubs in the early
1980s included youth clubs and the Vipers football
club. (fn. 90)
The Sussex Road Car Co.'s steam bus service
between Pulborough and Worthing served Sullington from 1905; (fn. 91) a carrier passed through the village
until 1930. (fn. 92) A community minibus served the
village from 1979. (fn. 93) Electricity for nearby houses
was generated at Chantry mill from 1921 to 1928 or
later. (fn. 94) Mains electricity was brought to the Heath
common area in 1937, and mains water in 1938. (fn. 95)