Edburton Tithe Map

This website frequently makes use of clips from the Edburton Tithe Map of 1842 to illustrate posts. Not a lot has changed hereabouts in the last 180 years so the map is still both useful and attractive. If you have ever wondered how such a map came to be, then the West Sussex County Record Office has an interesting recent post by Abigail Hartley, their Searchroom Archivist. She uses Edburton as an example of a tithe map that is still in superb condition. The map shows the ecclesiastical parish of Edburton, the area served by St. Andrew’s, and thus shows all of Fulking, together with Edburton proper.

The map is still available from the Record Office (details via the link above). Local walkers are probably best advised to order the JPEG version and copy it to a tablet or mobile phone for consultation in situ. Unlike a large scale OS map, the tithe map does not mark the status of routes as ‘bridleways’, ‘public footpaths’, etc. If you are relatively new to the area, and plan to use the map for walking, then you may want to use an image editor like Photoshop to copy those indications over from OS Explorer 122.

A tithe map, like the Domesday Book, is ultimately about taxation. To that end the Edburton map uses colour to distinguish between the buildings then used for human habitation (red) and all the others (grey), typically agricultural buildings for animal accommodation or feed storage. That distinction alone tells us quite a lot about mid-C19 activity in the central section of The Street (between the pub and the building now known as Yew Tree Cottage).

Another feature of the tithe map, not shared with any of the various iterations of OS maps, is that it records the names of (all!) the fields. These names are often full of information, thus ‘Fulking Mills’ is located just where two of the local spring streams merge, an ideal location for fulling mills; ‘Coneybeare’ and ‘Upper Coney Burrow’ were probably both once sources of rabbit meat, the latter conveniently placed for the Perching Manor dinner table; ‘The Rookery’ and ‘Hog Pasture’ need no translation; and nor does ‘Boggy Lagg’ if you make the mistake of traversing it in mid-February with the wrong shoes on.

HDC Open Spaces Survey 2020

Field Paths and Green Lanes
The parish of Fulking falls within Mid Sussex District — but only just. The local territory to our West is all part of Horsham District. Even Edburton falls within Horsham District. Fulking residents know that useful parking discs (i.e., Henfield, Steyning) have to be purchased from HDC, not MSDC. But HDC’s relevant responsibilities extend beyond village car parks. They also look after public open spaces (Henfield Common, for example) and rural trails (a large section of the Downslink, for example) that Fulking residents are as likely to make use of as those living in Edburton. So you may feel inclined to complete their current survey.

Perching Wood restoration

Perching Hovel Wood
Perching Wood* (also known as Hovel Wood and as Perching Hovel Wood) is afflicted by ash dieback. The infected trees need to be felled and a replanting scheme initiated (click the map above for details). Work is to start in September and October and the farm will manage the movement of timber lorries as sensitively as they can.

*If you have ever walked from Clappers Lane or the North Town Field to Edburton along the public footpaths then you will have passed the wood to your immediate left

Ordinary Meeting of Fulking Parish Council 11th July 2019

You are cordially invited to an Ordinary Meeting of Fulking Parish Council, at the Village Hall on Thursday 11th July 2019 at 7.30pm, the meeting will consider the items set out below. 

Following the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, and regarding regulations on Access to Local Government Meetings, members of the public are advised that they have a right to film/record the meetings of Fulking Parish Council. Members of the public are also advised that by attending a meeting of Fulking Parish Council, they give their consent to being filmed/recorded by other members of the public, if such activity is taking place. 

Trevor Parsons – Parish Clerk 

AGENDA 

Public Participation: There will be a period of 15 minutes set aside at the beginning of the meeting for the public to ask questions or make comments on items on the Agenda. Comments on items not appearing on the agenda can be made at the chairman’s discretion.  

  1. Apologies for Absence. 
  2. Declaration of Members’ Interests. 
  3. Approve the Minutes* of the Extraordinary Council Planning Meeting of 23rd April 2019 and 25th June 2019:  The minutes, subject to any amendments, to be approved and signed as a true record of the meeting. 
  4. Planning Applications Update. 
  5. Reports from District and County Councillors.   
  6. Matters Arising & Outstanding Actions:  To clarify and report on actions brought forward from the last meeting.  
  7. Broadband issues at Perching Sands. Update from Simon Hughes, MSDC’s Head of Digital and Customer Service, 
  8. Fulking to Henfield Bridle path 
  9. Mayfield Development Update 
  10. Winter Plan Update 
  11. Operation Watershed Update 
  12. Village Hall Lease Update 
  13. Adoption of Updated Procedures and Equal Opportunities Policy 
  14. Village signs 
  15. Reports from Outside Bodies 
  16. Information Items.  To receive information and items for the agenda at future meetings. 
  17. 2019 – 2020 Precept 
  18. Correspondence.  To discuss correspondence and respond to correspondence received. 
  19. Financial Matters: To receive the report on the Council’s income and to approve future expenditure. 

Date of the next Ordinary Meeting: Thursday 10th October 2019 to be held at Fulking Village Hall at 7.30pm. 

Tiger Feet

Mud
It seems that UK Power have chewed up the footpath next to Lee Holden’s field (roughly by the 8-1F on the map above), while maintaining their installation. Walkers are warned to wear their boots or wellies for a while. Lee advises that while UK Power apologised, they also said that they wouldn’t be able to sort it out until the ground is a bit drier.

Miles Firth