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Slindon Village History Slindon, an ancient settlement, once stood on the edge of the sea, with traceable beach lines running through Slindon Park, when the sea level was 100-130 ft. higher than today. There is evidence of continuous occupation by man – Palaeolithic, Bronze, Mesolithic, Neolithic- Iron Age Fort, barrows, pottery, flints, massive network of field systems. There followed intensive occupation by the Romans with many farmsteads on the downland slopes and an important Villa, yet to be investigated, in Slindon Park. The famous Stane Street – London Bridge to Chichester - over the Downs lies at the highest point of the village. There are many signs of roman roads, possible amphitheatres, and evidence suggests the area was also well used for military training, with a substantial camp. Saxons settled here and King Caedwalla, King of the West Saxons, in 686 gave the estate to the See of Canterbury, in whose hands it remained, apart from a brief interlude, until the Reformation. The Archbishops often stayed here, (there was good hunting in its extensive woods, with a deer impalement) building an extensive summer residence where Slindon House now stands. There remains a St. Thomas à Becket’s Walk and Cardinal and Archbishop Stephen Langton, appointed in the reign of King John, died here in 1228. At the reformation, King Henry VIII expressed an interest in the estate and Archbishop Cranmer wisely exchanged it for other possessions. The estate was then briefly held by the St. Leger family, one of them being remembered by a very rare wooden effigy in St. Mary’s Church. Queen Mary and Philip of Spain then gave the estate to the catholic Kempe family and it remained, through the Earls of Newburgh, descendants of Charles II, and the Leslies in continuous family ownership until bankruptcy forced the sale of the estate before World War I. As such it was a catholic enclave with a secret Chapel in the roof of Slindon House until the building of St. Richards Church in 1865. The layout of the village as seen today was largely established in mediaeval times, with more substantial drover’s roads over the downs and southwards, which now survive as bridle ways and footpaths. The turnpike road, the A29, was created for the growth of stagecoach traffic in the 18th Century. In the 17th and 18th centuries many mainly wood dwellings were replaced with more substantial flint though, with a few exceptions, the thatch roofs are now tiled or slated. Scattered buildings, interspersed with fields are a surviving feature of the village giving distant views to the sea. Apart from 2 small council estates, now principally in private ownership, there has been little development in recent years, though the National Trust helps cater for tourist needs with its caravan park in the former grounds of Slindon House and the Gumber Bothy close to the summit of the Downs. Famous features include the Folly, on Nore Hill built for Anne, Countess of Newburgh after the Napoleonic Wars to provide local employment, the thatched and ‘ listed’ Railway Carriage placed in the grounds of Church House in 1906, opposite St. Mary’s Church; and for more than 35 years Ralph Upton’s spectacular displays of pumpkins, squashes and gourds every Autumn at ‘ Pumpkin’ cottage in Top Road. Slindon Common was contentiously enclosed in the 1870s and part is now occupied by mostly attractive modern dwellings. However its gardens, woods and fields remain rich in wildlife and flora with 42 species of bird being identified in 2001. For this reason they have been mostly included in the proposed South Downs National Park with the rest of the village. Like many Downland villages smuggling was rife and the headquarters of the Smugglers Ring was the old Dog and Partridge beside the former Slindon Common and the Gibbet stood nearby until early in the last century. This like other inns and alehouses in the village no longer exist, the most recent loss of the Newburgh Arms having been hotly contested by the villagers. Happily the popular Spur, prominently situated on the A29, survives as does the picturesque thatched post office, though the last village shop closed in 2005. The 18th century saw the development of cricket and the pre-eminence of the Slindon Cricket Team under the enthusiastic patronage of successive Dukes of Richmond. As best described by John Marshall in Sussex Cricket “ at Slindon lived and died Richard Newland, the man who may be truly described as ‘the father of cricket’ – the greatest all-rounder of his day, the cricketer who taught his nephew Richard Nyren – ‘ the general’ of Hambledon – a skill and knowledge of the game never before imparted. A member of the present team, John North Junior, once played for the England Junior Team, before later playing for Sussex. He like many other old village families can trace their lineage in the village for many centuries. The estate of some 4,000 acres was purchased in 1908 by Frederick Wooton Isaccson whose family had made a fortune as ‘ Madame Elise’, Queen Victoria’s dressmaker and he lived here with his sister, Violet, Lady Beaumont, until bequeathing the estate to the National Trust in 1949. He carried out a very extensive restoration of Slindon House in 1914-1917 after which it was used as an officers hospital until the end of the war. In the World War II it was mainly occupied by Canadian Forces. A dummy ‘ decoy’ airfield was created on the Downs at Gumber. Today the
Estate is rightly loved for its superb patchwork of woods and landscape
with plentiful footpaths and bridleways through Slindon Common, The Park,
the woods having largely recovered from The Great Storm of 1987 which
wrought havoc on its famous beechwoods, and especially over the Downs
to the high summit above Bignor. The village remains an enchanting Sussex oasis. Philip Berry for the Slindon History Group
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