Thakeham

For the Ham class minesweeper, see HMS Thakeham. For the country house, see Little Thakeham.

Thakeham
Church of St Mary
Thakeham Location within West Sussex
Area	11.71 km2 (4.52 sq mi)  [1]
Population	1,794  [1] 2001 Census 1,816 (Census 2011) [2]
•  Density	153/km2 (400/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TQ109172
•  London	41 miles (66 km) NNE
Civil parish	Thakeham
District	Horsham
Shire county	West Sussex
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	PULBOROUGH
Postcode district	RH20
Dialling code	01798
Police	Sussex
Fire	West Sussex
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Arundel and South Downs
Website	http://www.thakehamparish.gov.uk/
List of places UK England West Sussex 50°56′38″N0°25′20″W / 50.94394°N 0.42214°W / 50.94394; -0.42214

Thakeham is a village and civil parish located north of the South Downs in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village is situated approximately 12 miles south-west of Horsham and 11 miles north of the sea-side town of Worthing. Its nearest large village is Storrington (3 miles). The parish includes the hamlets of Abingworth and Goose Green and has a land area of 1170.6 hectares (2891 acres).

History

The village is mentioned in Domesday Book,(as Taceham) ^[3] but human occupation goes back to Neolithic times. The name Thakeham means “thatched homestead ^[4] ” and the original village had just one main street (“The Street”) which is home to the village's only pub, The White Lion, and St Mary's church (12th century) and is now a designated conservation area. Recent examination of timber beams shows that a hall was constructed on The Street towards the end of Henry VIII's reign (1540s) although the beams themselves may have been felled for another structure in the 1300s.

Towards the end of World War 1, from February 1917 until February 1918, there was a Royal Flying Corps Home Defence day and night landing ground ^[5] in the north of Thakeham Parish abutting Shipley Parish south/east of Sincox Lane and east of Ingrams Furze. Initially used by BE2c and BE12 aeroplanes operated by the Hove-based 78 Squadron until a tactical rearrangement in September 1917 saw 39 Squadron take over with Bristol F2b Fighters. Both squadrons were tasked with defending south coast targets from attacks by German Gotha bombers. The same location was used post-war for an unknown period by the Royal Air Force as a temporary flying ground and, according to the Worthing Herald of 8 September 1928, large crowds used to spend hours watching the flying and local dances were planned for RAF personnel stationed there. From 1933 to 1935, 'Thakeham Old Aerodrome' was the venue for annual air displays by Alan Cobham's Flying Circus. Local newspapers also promoted further air displays by C W A Scott and Tom Campbell Black in April and June 1936 but these may well have been cancelled as neither event was reported afterwards.

Land use in the parish is predominantly agricultural, dominated by farming and wooded areas (with outstanding bluebell displays in the spring). As well as the original centre in The Street, the parish includes the hamlets of Abingworth and Goose Green.

The parish's main population now groups south of The Street in the Abingworth area, and further south in a section of the north-eastern suburb of Storrington within the Thakeham boundary. In the 2011 census 1816 people lived in 707 households.

View from the churchyard

Mushroom industry

The mushroom factory originally existed on two sites - the main remaining site sits between the original village and the edge of Abingworth. A secondary location further south was sold for housing in the early noughties. From the profits of the sale, Sussex Mushrooms modernised and consolidated the going concern at the remaining site. In April 2011 after much delay, Horsham District Council announced they had approved the plans for 150 new homes. By 2018, houses had been built around a cricket pitch. In addition, the developers built a village hall, a veterinary surgery and shop/café.

Landmarks

Heritage assets in the parish include the 13th century Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Warminghurst, and Little Thakeham, ^[6] a Grade I listed country house on Merrywood Lane, designed by the architect Edwin Lutyens in 1902. Further south are two schools Thakeham Primary and Steyning Grammar Rock Road and Thakeham Tiles, the other industry in the village, all situated on Rock Road.

Sport

A village cricket team representing Linfield Mushrooms (as they were then called) folded in the 1970s but a club was revived following a merger with neighbours, West Chiltington, at the end of the 20th century to form West Chiltington & Thakeham Cricket Club. As part of the developer's proposals at Abingworth, a new cricket pitch and pavilion was created as well as football pitches for the currently dormant Thakeham Village FC. The cricket club host their Men's 3rd and 4th XI's plus Women's and some colts games there.

Notable people

• Sir Archibald James, MC (1893 – 1980) was a British Conservative Party politician and Royal Air Force pioneer. He lived at Champions Farm in Thakeham from 1955 to 1980. ^[7]
• Anna Massey, who played Miss Prism alongside Colin Firth and Rupert Everett in the 2002 film version of The Importance of Being Earnest , was born in the village in 1937. She died in 2011. ^{[8] [9]}

References

1. "2001 Census: West Sussex – Population by Parish" (PDF). West Sussex County Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
2. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
3. "The Domesday Book Online - Sussex Q-Z". www.domesdaybook.co.uk.
4. Mills, Anthony David (1991). A Dictionary of English Place Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 324. ISBN   0198691564.
5. Chorlton, Martyn (2014) 'Forgotten Aerodromes of World War 1 (Crecy Publishing Ltd, Manchester, ISBN 9780859 791816)
6. Historic England. "Little Thakeham (1001214)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 11 December 2015.
7. "Champions" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2022.
8. Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah, eds. (1999). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 1. London: Yorkin. p. 225. ISBN   0787640808.
9. "Anna Massey dies at 73". The Guardian . 4 July 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2018.

External links

• Media related to Thakeham at Wikimedia Commons