Loxwood | |
---|---|
Loxwood Street | |
Location within West Sussex | |
Area | 18.24 km2 (7.04 sq mi) [1] |
Population | 1,480 (2011 Census) [2] |
• Density | 74/km2 (190/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | TQ038314 |
• London | 34 miles (55 km) NNE |
Civil parish |
|
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | BILLINGSHURST |
Postcode district | RH14 |
Dialling code | 01403 |
Police | Sussex |
Fire | West Sussex |
Ambulance | South East Coast |
UK Parliament | |
Website | http://www.loxwood.org/ |
Loxwood is a small village and civil parish with several outlying settlements, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, within the Low Weald. The Wey and Arun Canal passes to the East and South of the village. This Civil Parish is at the centre of an excellent network of bridleways and footpaths crossing the Low Weald and joining with those in adjacent Counties.
The 2001 census recorded a population of 1341 people living in 660 households. 536 people were economically active. Between that census and 2011 approximately 55 more dwellings have been built, probably adding net more than 100 people. At March 1, 2011 the electoral register showed 1200 electors. The 2011 Census gave a population of 1,480.
A considerable number of the economically active residents of Loxwood are self-employed. Most people who commute regularly to a principal place of work do so to the Gatwick Diamond area (loosely an area between Redhill in the north and Crawley to the south), to Horsham, to Guildford or Woking, or to London, and tele-commuting is growing in popularity.
There is a primary school, village hall, a sports centre, an Anglican church, a chapel, two pubs The Onslow Arms and the Sir Roger Tichborne at Alfold Bars, a small number of shops, a sub-post office and a medical practice.
The village was once one of the settlements greatly influenced by a small Christian sect, the Society of Dependants, also known as Cokelers who left London in the mid-1800s. They built their first chapel in the village. The sect evolved to run a Combination Store in the village, the building for which houses villages shops today.
Lawrence Durrell, author of The Alexandria Quartet , lived here from 1933 to 1934, in a cottage called Chestnut Mead. [3] Durrell, along with his first wife Nancy and another young couple, George and Pam Wilkinson, left Fitzrovia to live in the English countryside. It was here that Durrell, then in his early twenties, wrote what became his first published novel, Pied Piper of Lovers . [4]
In 2019 the village attempted to declare independence from the UK due to believed political turmoil. [5]
As a result the village formed its own government, formed and then recruited its own military, has established its own currency, the Loxwood groat, and elected its own monarch, Queen of Loxwood Katheryn Adelina, who has stated that the village itself would be enforcing 15th-century law. [6]
Loxwood Primary School was reported to have 155 children on the school roll in 2001. [7] Typically 30% to 50% of these children are not from Loxwood itself, but from surrounding villages; this has been attributed to the closing of smaller adjacent, village schools.[ citation needed ] A "pre-school" is adjacent to the school, supported financially and in other ways by a Parents group who have run a Beer Festival for several years.
Loxwood has a Non-League football club Loxwood F.C. who play at the recreation ground on Plaistow Road, and have been playing since 1920. [8]
Purlieus of the village include Alfold Bars, Gunshot Common, Flitchfold, Roundstreet Common, Drungewick Lane and Manor, and Wephurst Park.
Alfold is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England on the West Sussex border. Alfold is a dispersed or polyfocal village in the Green Belt, which is buffered from all other settlements. The Greensand Way runs north of the village along the Greensand Ridge and two named localities exist to the north and south of the historic village centre which features pubs, a set of stocks and a whipping post.
Turners Hill is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. The civil parish covers an area of 1,390 hectares, and has a population of 1,849 increasing to 1,919 at the 2011 Census.
Hurst Green is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England, and is located south of the East Sussex / Kent border at Flimwell.
Ninfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is quite linear and centred 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Bexhill-on-Sea where two roads cross: the A269 from Bexhill to Battle and the A271 to Hailsham. The parish covers 2,500 acres (1,010 ha); approximately the northern half of which is in the High Weald AONB.
Ashurst Wood is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England. It is 1 mile (2 km) to the southeast of East Grinstead, just off the A22 arterial road. In 2001, the population was 1,771, increasing to 1,833 at the 2011 Census. Ashurst Wood is within the High Weald Area of Natural Beauty and has an SSSI inside its boundaries. The village has a history of agriculture and farming, and contains a church, village hall, primary school, two public houses, a general shop, post office and several small business premises. There is an independent school on the boundary of the village, called Brambletye School, and a former one, Stoke Brunswick School, which closed in 2009. Bus routes run through the village with destinations of East Grinstead, Crawley, Haywards Heath, Tunbridge Wells and Brighton.
Ashurst is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England, about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Henfield, and 11 miles (18 km) south of Horsham on the B2135 road. The village is about 0.6 miles (0.97 km) west of the River Adur. There is a 12th-century parish church dedicated to St James, where local resident Laurence Olivier's funeral was held, as well as a Church of England primary school and a pub, the Fountain Inn.
Billingshurst is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village lies on the A29 road at its crossroads with the A272, 6 miles (10 km) south-west of Horsham and 5.5 miles (9 km) north-east of Pulborough.
Rotherfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. It is one of the largest parishes in East Sussex. There are three villages in the parish: Rotherfield, Mark Cross and Eridge. The River Rother, which drains much of the county and discharges at Rye Harbour, has its source on the south side of the hill on which Rotherfield village is built.
Framfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is located two miles (3 km) east of Uckfield; the settlements of Blackboys, Palehouse and Halland form part of the parish area of 6,700 acres (2,706 ha).
Twineham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located eight kilometres to the west of Burgess Hill. The civil parish covers an area of 784 hectares In the 2001 census 271 people lived in 100 households, of whom 139 were economically active. The 2011 Census population was 306.
Milland is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is situated north of the A272 road on the border with Hampshire.
Cocking is a village, parish and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The village is about three miles (5 km) south of Midhurst on the main A286 road to Chichester.
Plaistow is a village and civil parish in the north of the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. There is a village green, a recreation ground, a children's playground, a village pond, a shop, a pub and the Anglican Church.
The Society of Dependants were a Christian sect founded by John Sirgood in the mid-nineteenth century. Their stronghold was in West Sussex and Surrey where they formed co-operatives in some villages. They were widely known as "Cokelers", a nickname of uncertain derivation but which was used from an early date.
Warnham is a village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. The village is centred 2 miles (3.2 km) north-northwest of Horsham, 31 miles (50 km) from London, to the west of the A24 road. Other named settlements within the parish include the hamlets of Goosegreen, Kingsfold and Winterfold as well as parts of Strood Green and Rowhook. The area is in the northwest of the Weald, a gently sloped remnant forest in southeast England and largely a plain by erosion.
Northchapel is a village and civil parish in Chichester District in West Sussex, England. It stands on the A283 road just south of the Surrey border, around 9 km north of Petworth.
Wisborough Green is a village and civil parish in the north of the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Billingshurst on the A272 road.
Southbourne is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies to the east of the Hampshire County Border at Emsworth, the west of Chidham and south-east of Westbourne. Southbourne parish comprises Lumley, Hermitage, Thornham, Prinsted and part of Nutbourne.
John Sirgood (1821–1885) was a Christian fundamentalist lay preacher, shoemaker and draper.
Sidlesham is a small village and civil parish, on the Manhood Peninsula, five kilometres (3 miles) south of Chichester in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It has a small primary school. The area has had a prebendary since medieval times. The 13th-century church of St Mary Our Lady is built of stone rubble, not the usual flint of the area.