North Stoke is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Amberley, in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is just over 2 miles (3 km) north of Arundel and 0.7 miles (1 km) south of Amberley railway station, and is at the end of a no through road from the station. In 1931 the parish had a population of 70.[1] On 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Amberley.[2]
| North Stoke | |
|---|---|
 North Stoke Farmhouse | |
  North Stoke Location within West Sussex | |
| OS grid reference | TQ019107 |
| Civil parish | |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Arundel |
| Postcode district | BN18 |
| Dialling code | 01798 |
| Police | Sussex |
| Fire | West Sussex |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| UK Parliament | |
Geography
editThe village is on a spur of slightly higher ground on the east bank of a loop of the River Arun, surrounded by water meadows. It is in the middle of the gap eroded through the South Downs by the River Arun. Another small settlement on the west bank, South Stoke is about 0.5 miles (1 km) to the south east and can be reached by a footpath and a footbridge over the river. A suspension bridge on the path was rebuilt by British Army Gurkhas in 2009 after being damaged by a falling tree.[3]
Manor
editNorth Stoke is a medieval village, recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. It has lost most of its population, possibly due to Black Death in the Middle Ages or because the landowner preferred to enclose the land for sheep pasture. This has left a notable example of a Norman and Early English Gothic church, which is Listed Grade I.[4]
Parish church
edit
The Church of England parish church of the Virgin Mary is now redundant and maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust.[5] It is a Grade I listed building.[6] The church's dedication had been long forgotten but in 2007 it was rediscovered from a scrap of a vellum letter dated 1275 from Stephen Bersted, Bishop of Chichester to Edward I. The church was accordingly rededicated to the Virgin Mary in December 2007.[7]
References
edit- ^ "Population statistics North Stoke AP/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
- ^ "Relationships and changes North Stoke AP/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
- ^ "Historic suspension footbridge to be restored by Gurkhas". West Sussex County Council. 23 April 2009. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
- ^ "Heritage Gateway Listed Buildings Online — North Stoke Church, North Stoke, Amberley, Horsham, West Sussex". Heritage Gateway website. Heritage Gateway (English Heritage, Institute of Historic Building Conservation and ALGAO:England). 2006. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
- ^ Watney, Simon (2007). 20 Sussex Churches. Alfriston: Snake River Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-906022-00-6.
- ^ Historic England (2011). "North Stoke Church, North Stoke, Amberley, Horsham (1286953)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
- ^ Caroline Lewis (11 December 2007). "Mystery of Sussex church solved by archaeology students". Culture24. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
Further reading
edit- Nairn, Ian; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1965). Sussex. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 283–284. ISBN 0-14-071028-0.
