ASHINGTON
Ashington c.1875
Ashington (fn. 1) lies 2 miles (3.2 km.) north of the
north face of the South Downs, and 10 miles (16
km.) south of Horsham. The ancient parish comprised a main part of 554 a. and four detached parts
totalling 734 a. (fn. 2) Two of those detached parts, lying
at the foot of the South Downs, were small; the
other two included the medieval parish of Buncton,
united with Ashington in the 15th century. (fn. 3) The
main part of Ashington parish until c. 1190 formed
part of Washington. (fn. 4)
Between 1882 and 1891 the two small detached
portions, comprising 21 a., were added to Washington, and the more southerly of the other two detached
portions, of 255 a. and containing Buncton chapel,
was added to Wiston parish, by which it was surrounded. In 1891 Ashington contained 1,012 a. (fn. 5) In
1933 the remaining detached part was split between
Wiston (315 a.) and Washington (142 a.), but at the
same time Ashington was enlarged by the addition
of the whole of Warminghurst parish to the west
(1,105 a.) and three detached parts of Thakeham to
west and north (104 a.), so that in 1951 it contained
1,764 a. (fn. 6) In 1960 the parish was further enlarged by
the addition of 50 a. from Wiston and 500 a. from
Washington; (fn. 7) the latter area, which contained most
of the modern settlement of Ashington, (fn. 8) had been
part of the parish for ecclesiastical purposes since
1872. (fn. 9) In 1971 Ashington parish contained 936 ha.
(2,313 a.). (fn. 10) The present article deals with the history
of the ancient parish until 1816, the date of the inclosure of Ashington common, which straddled the
boundary between the main part of the parish and
Washington. Thereafter it deals not only with the
ancient parish, but also with the development of the
modern settlement in the northern part of Washington. The history of the detached parts of Ashington
is treated up to the time of their transfer to other
parishes.
The southern boundary of the main part of Ashington parish follows the line of the Roman Greensand Way; (fn. 11) the eastern boundary was apparently
undefined before the inclosure of 1816, though the
boundary on the common between Ashington
manor and Chancton manor in Washington had been
marked in 1786 by an oak tree. (fn. 12) The eastern boundary as fixed at inclosure apparently divided the land
allotted to tenants of Ashington manor from that
allotted to tenants of Chancton. (fn. 13) The western
boundary in 1848 passed through the brewhouse of
West Wolves Farm. (fn. 14) Parts of the boundary of the
more northerly of the two larger detached parts are
marked by a bank and ditch, (fn. 15) and another part by
a stream, while the northern and western boundaries
of the detached part containing Buncton chapel
follow old roads.
Most of the area of the ancient parish lies on
Weald clay, though there is sandstone in the southwest corner of the main part, and also in the former
detached part which contains Buncton chapel. (fn. 16) The
southern ends of the former detached parts contain
the highest land in the parish. East Wolves Farm in
the more northerly of the two larger detached parts
occupies a prominent knoll. The main part of the
ancient parish is generally low-lying, but there is
higher land on the sandstone outcrop in the southwest and at Spear Hill in the north. Ashington
church and its environs to west and north-west,
which remained rural in 1983, are overlooked by the
hill on which Warminghurst stands; southwards the
main part of the parish is dominated by Chanctonbury Ring. Ashington common, on the Weald clay,
besides being a venue for musters in the 17th century, (fn. 17) also served as the site of a fair in 1672 and
later. (fn. 18) The main part of the ancient parish and its
former detached parts are all drained by streams
flowing north, north-east, and east to the river Adur.
One stream, possibly the Yokebourne (geoc burna)
of the mid 10th century, (fn. 19) provided the power for
Ashington water mill; (fn. 20) another flows to join it
through a wooded ravine west of Buncton chapel.
The woodland yielding 10 swine at Buncton manor
in 1086 (fn. 21) presumably lay near the house called
Brownhill in the more northerly of the two larger
detached parts, since that area was later within
Buncton manor. (fn. 22) It remained the most wooded
part of the ancient parish between the later 18th
century and the later 20th; (fn. 23) in 1782 a Findon timber
merchant bought 153 oaks growing on East Wolves
farm in one transaction. (fn. 24) In the main part of the
parish Ashington manor was said to be very well
wooded in 1632. (fn. 25)
The road from Washington to Horsham through
the main part of the parish was apparently a medieval
drove road; a road from Ashington to Horsham was
mentioned in 1663. (fn. 26) The road from Ashington common towards Shipley village, also evidently a drove
road, existed in 1464. (fn. 27) A road from Ashington to
Handcross in Slaugham was mentioned in 1648. (fn. 28) By
the earlier 18th century the common was the meeting
place additionally of roads from Billingshurst and
from Steyning via Buncton. In the absence of any
better east-west route a road from Fittleworth to
Cuckfield was indicated through the parish in 1724. (fn. 29)
The road from Steyning and Buncton continued
across the common and past Ashington church towards Warminghurst, (fn. 30) but the section through the
main part of the parish was closed in 1816. (fn. 31) Another
north-south road, which like those mentioned earlier
served as a medieval drove road, ran along the
western boundary of the detached part containing
Buncton chapel, partly as a hollow-way, and traversed
the detached part further north past the site of the
modern Brownhill house. The detached part containing Buncton chapel was crossed from east to west by
the Roman Greensand Way (fn. 32) and later by successive
alignments of the Steyning-Washington road. (fn. 33)
The Horsham-Washington road south of Ashington village originally passed west of Malthouse Farm;
the bypass road east of it was made between 1795 and
1813. (fn. 34) Between 1802 and 1878 the HorshamWashington road was a turnpike; (fn. 35) its straight
course across Ashington common was fixed at inclosure in 1816, when branches running west to the
church, to the water mill, and to Warminghurst were
also fixed in straight courses. (fn. 36) The SteyningWashington road through Buncton was a turnpike
between 1810 and 1877. (fn. 37) After the Second World
War the Horsham-Washington road became a dual
carriageway south of Ashington village; the village,
however, suffered greatly in 1983 from continuous
through traffic. (fn. 38)
A substantial Roman building existed on the sandstone outcrop south-west of Ashington church, and
another south of the Steyning–Washington road near
Buncton Manor. (fn. 39)
No medieval buildings except Church Farm
House, the former manor house, are known near
Ashington church, but a group of old houses stood
in Mill Lane 1/8 mile (200 metres) south of the church
in 1875. Manor Cottage, which survived in 1983, is
a timber-framed building of 17th-century date; The
Old Shop, which stood beside it, (fn. 40) was demolished c.
1935. (fn. 41) Cradle Bridge, south of Manor Cottage, is
also timber-framed. The houses that grew up within
and around the edges of Ashington common, on
which encroachments and the building of cottages
were presented at the manor court in the 17th and
18th centuries, (fn. 42) lay chiefly in Washington parish,
for instance Broadbridge Farm and Well House on
the east, the latter dated 1743, the Red Lion inn on
the west, and a group of houses at Spear Hill on the
north, including the former Holmbush Farm. Westlands Old Farmhouse, formerly Sticker's Farm,
north of Holmbush Farm in Ashington parish, has a
timber-framed range at the rear and a probably 19thcentury front range. Other 17th-century or earlier
buildings, in the south end of the main part of
Ashington parish, are Malthouse Farm, timberframed with a painted brick front, the nearby Mitchbourne Farm, also timber-framed, and Normans
Cottages, a basically 17th-century building of
sandstone with brick dressings. The Mill House in
Mill Lane is an 18th-century two-celled cottage
extended at the east end.
Between the inclosure of 1816 and c. 1840 many
houses which survived in 1983 were built along both
sides of the newly laid out high road, (fn. 43) which thus
became the centre of Ashington's population,
though it remained within Washington parish until
1960. (fn. 44) Some two- and three-storeyed stuccoed
villas from that period also survived in 1983 in
Rectory Lane, together with houses there and in
Church Lane faced with beach flints. Holmbush
House, a larger stuccoed villa with its own small park,
was built between c. 1840 and 1875 in the angle of
Billingshurst and London roads; (fn. 45) both house and
park survived in 1983. There was further building
in Rectory Lane c. 1900, (fn. 46) but the greatest increases
in the number of houses in the parish took place in
the 1920s and 30s and after the Second World War.
By 1939 much of the high road was flanked by buildings, while others had been put up in Rectory Lane,
and a close of council houses built further west.
Another road of council houses had been laid out
west of the high road by 1957, besides further privately built houses and bungalows in the same area.
There was considerable building further south in the
1970s, mostly of cheaper and smaller private houses; (fn. 47)
east of the high road, however, there had been no
such large-scale building before 1983. By 1973 Ashington was principally a dormitory village, (fn. 48) and in
1981 most of the population was said either to be
retired or to work elsewhere. (fn. 49)
At Buncton there may have been a nucleated
settlement in 1086, when Buncton manor had more
tenants than Ashington manor. (fn. 50) Several paths converged in the later 19th century on Waterlane Barn
north-east of Buncton chapel. Earthworks apparently representing house sites were visible in 1983
north-west of the chapel and west of the north-south
road which bounds the former detached part on the
west. (fn. 51) The settlement was later aligned along that
road and the road leading from it to Ashurst, and in
1983 was known as Wiston village. (fn. 52) It had evidently
already declined greatly by 1622, when only eight
freeholds of Buncton manor remained, mostly outside the parish. (fn. 53) In 1891 only eight houses existed
in the former detached part after its incorporation in
Wiston; (fn. 54) besides Buncton Manor and Upper
Buncton Farm, they included some model cottages
south of the Steyning–Washington road, built between c. 1847 and 1875. (fn. 55) In the more northerly of
the two larger detached parts settlements was in
individual farms: Blackland, later Brownhill (mentioned from 1402), (fn. 56) and East Wolves (from 1608). (fn. 57)
The house which existed at Brownhill in 1985 was
late 18th- or 19th-century.
Eight people were enumerated at Ashington in
1086, and 26 at Buncton. (fn. 58) No later medieval population figures are available, inhabitants of Ashington
being listed under Thakeham or Apsley in Thakeham, (fn. 59) and inhabitants of Buncton under Wiston. (fn. 60)
The protestation of 1642 was signed by 37 adult
males, (fn. 61) and 73 adult inhabitants were listed in
1676. (fn. 62) There were said to be 20 families in 1724. (fn. 63)
From 173 in 1801 (fn. 64) the population rose to 285 in
1831, then fluctuated between 223 and 282 during
the next 50 years. In 1841 three quarters of the
parishioners lived in Ashington and a quarter in
Buncton. The northern part of Washington parish,
which included most of the then Ashington village,
had c. 280 inhabitants in 1872. (fn. 65) The parish as
reduced in area in the 1880s had a population of 219
in 1891; it fell to 179 in 1911, then rose to 229 in
1931. In the area of the parish as constituted in 1933
the population rose from 315 in 1931 to 612 in 1951,
and in the area as altered in 1960 it rose from 989 in
1951 to 1,470 in 1971. In 1981 there were 1,728
inhabitants. The youthfulness of the population,
unusual for the area, and a consequence of the type
of modern housing prevalent in the parish, was
remarked on in 1983. (fn. 66)
The field named Alehouse field recorded east of
Church Farm c. 1847 (fn. 67) may indicate the site of an
alehouse otherwise unknown. In the 19th century
two inns faced each other across the newly inclosed
Ashington common: the Red Lion and the Swan, of
which the former was still an inn in 1983. Both served
in the earlier 19th century as posting houses on the
London–Worthing road; an advertisement for post
horses survived in 1983 on the wall of a former outbuilding of the Swan. (fn. 68) The Red Lion had existed
by 1795 (fn. 69) and possibly in the earlier 18th century. (fn. 70)
The original inn was presumably the low brick and
tilehung building behind the modern inn. The latter
was evidently built before the inclosure of 1816 since
it lies back from the modern high road; it is apparently
of c. 1800, and has three storeys, also in brick and
hung tiles. In the earlier 19th century the Red Lion
was used for public meetings. (fn. 71) The Swan was built
after 1816, since it fronts the new high road, and
before 1839. (fn. 72) In 1867 the Ashington manor court
was held there, (fn. 73) and in the later 19th century or
early 20th the Swan was described both as a family
hotel and a temperance hotel. (fn. 74) It closed c. 1920. (fn. 75)
An Ashington cricket team was playing in 1878; (fn. 76)
there were both a cricket club and a football club in
1981. (fn. 77) A reading room existed on the west side of
the high road between 1909 and 1952. (fn. 78) Playing
fields north of Church Lane were sold to the parish
in 1948 by A. G. Linfield of Oast House; (fn. 79) a village
hall, incorporating an old barn, had been opened
there by 1973, (fn. 80) and in 1981 there were many clubs
and societies in the village. (fn. 81)
Water was supplied to the village in 1928 by shallow wells. (fn. 82) Main drainage was being considered in
1961. (fn. 83) There was still no gas supply in 1983. (fn. 84)
Seven parishioners, including two gentlemen,
were pardoned in 1450 for their part in Cade's rebellion. (fn. 85) There were apparently no gentry in the parish
in the mid 18th century. (fn. 86) The painter J. R. Reid
lived in Ashington in 1878 and depicted the village
in his work. (fn. 87) The composer John Ireland was
living there in 1922. (fn. 88)