Project area parishes

The Parish of NORTHCHAPEL – An Ancient Chapelry by Pam Bruce

The parish of Northchapel is situated in the north-western corner of Sussex, one mile to the south of the Surrey-Sussex border. Northchapel, as its name suggests, was once a chapelry in the north of Petworth parish and it was not until the end of the 17th century that it became a parish in its own right.

The parish is a gently rolling landscape of rural farmland with abundant woodland and covers around 3,500 acres (1,400 hectares) in area. It lies mainly on the clays of the Low Weald, with the land rising over lower greensand ridges to the north of the village and along the parish/county boundary. To the west the distinctive shape of Blackdown frames the horizon, and at 280m it is the highest point in Sussex. The entire parish now lies within the recently designated boundary of the South Downs National Park.

The parish landscape reflects many aspects of its development over the centuries. Typical of parishes in the Weald, early settlers created the pattern of small fields, copses and wooded ‘shaws’ still evident today. A 1610 map of Petworth Manor (which covered much of Northchapel) shows that many field and woodland boundaries are still unchanged, for example Frith Wood which covered 160 acres of ‘most fair beech and some fair young timber oaks’ and continues to be managed by Petworth’s estate today.

Historically small, mixed farming has been the basis of the local economy, but in recent years dairying has disappeared with the land now mainly arable with a small amount of pasture on the heavier ground for sheep, beef cattle and horses. The number of people involved in farming the land has inevitably declined, and today much agricultural work is done contractually. Pheasant rearing and shooting provide a significant additional source of revenue.

In the past, working the heavy clays offered relatively small returns but the natural resources have supported a variety of rural trades and woodland industries over the centuries, including forest glass making, ironworking, quarrying and brick making. Perhaps the most notable was ironworking, which undoubtedly had the most dramatic impact on the contemporary landscape. The industry expanded locally in the late 16th century, owing to an ample supply of timber for charcoal fuel, plentiful deposits of iron ore and numerous small, fast-flowing streams, which could be harnessed to drive the furnace wheel and forge hammer. The faint outline of hammer ponds and ‘bays’ can still be seen at Mitchell Park farm and to the north of Frith wood, while shallow depressions where iron was ‘myned’ are visible in parts of the local woodland. The site of the long-gone Frith furnace is now covered by a spectacular show of snow drops in the early spring!

The early village settlement of Northchapel evolved around the village common or ‘green’ and the parish church, and developed in a linear fashion along the road (the present A283) which divides the village. There are several listed buildings, many of which are vernacular timber-framed houses, some clad with the traditional brick and tile familiar to this part of Sussex. The Georgian brick Toll House is a notable landmark, while the parish church of St Michael’s, re-built in the 19th century, lies tucked behind houses on the east side of the village.

Northchapel remains an essentially rural parish despite a certain amount of in-fill building and an inevitable increase in traffic in the village over the past few years. The West Sussex Parish Maps Project confirmed that the natural beauty of the landscape is highly valued by local people. The Northchapel parish map, produced over six months by interested local residents in 2003 and now displayed in the village hall, features illustrations of many species of local interest. These include wild camomile, that thrives on the village green, the white admiral butterfly and wild service tree which inhabit ancient woodland and old hedgerows, buzzards (increasing in numbers), lapwing and nightingale (apparently declining) and woodland flowers such as cowslips, bluebells and the early purple orchid.