Bridleway closure [again]

Bridleway 5/3F closure
The bridleway connecting the Poynings Road (The Deans) to Clappers Lane (Preston Nomads) is closed for yet more surfacing work between 13th June and 4th July.

[This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the persons addressed. If it has come to you in error please reply to advise us but you should not read it, copy it, show it to anyone else nor make any other use of its content.]

Correction 10th June: it turns out that the reason WSCC is so keen that you not read, copy, or display the public notices that they distribute to parish councils is that some of them are complete tosh. As this one is. Ignore it.

Footpaths needing attention

B73BY
The Parish Council has been advised that our local Access Ranger will be arranging Public Rights of Ways inspections next month. Following these inspections, routine maintenance work will be organised.

If anyone is aware of any issues or work that needs doing, please contact West Sussex Public Rights of Way by the end of March via the following email address: prow@westsussex.gov.uk. Please copy in the Parish Council for our records (parishclerk@fulking.net).

Path numbers can be found on the iMap on the West Sussex website and you may find it useful to refer to the ‘how to use the iMap’ for this. Both the map and the guide can be found via the following link: www.westsussex.gov.uk/imap.

Kate Watson

Footpaths needing attention

B73BY
WSCC have changed the way that the Public Rights of Way are managed and maintained. They will now be inspected once every fifteen months as opposed to once every nine months. At the same time, WSCC are looking at the summer clearance programme for footpaths. This programme clears surface vegetation on approximately 10% of the network.

If you know of any footpaths/rights of way that need attention please can you inform me before the 8th January 2015 or in person at the PC meeting on that day. The PC will then advise WSCC.

Andrea Dickson
Clerk to the Parish Council
01444 451 060/andreadicksonfpc@gmail.com

Southview Cottages

The garden of 1 Southview Cottages, Fulking
Southview Cottages (although officially part of The Street) are situated at the western end of Fulking bridleway 6c (the Backway) and as their names suggest they face south with uninterrupted views of the Downs. They were built in the 16th century and at one time owned by G.S.C. Cuttress who included them in the sale of his property in 1914. At that time they were described [in the auctioneer’s catalogue] as: “A double tenement cottage with garden and frontage to an accommodation road. Each tenement contains two bedrooms, a living room, washroom with copper and a lean-to wood shed. [There was] A privy in the garden common to the two tenements.” At the time of the sale. the two tenements were let as one to James Steel at 3 shillings and 4 pence per week, the landlord paying rates and taxes. It is of note that a condition of the 1914 sale was that the purchaser of Southview Cottages had no third party right of access to The Street, over the land associated with Septima Cottages and the purchaser of Septima 1 and 2 had the right to deny any such access.

At some time between 1920 and 1930, Amy Harris bought the cottages and they were let to labourers working at Perching Manor Farm. Following the Second World War they were no longer required for farm employees and were let out to non-farm workers. Number 1 remained in the ownership of the Harris family until 2006.

Southview Cottages Fulking

Tony Brooks

[Copyright © 2014, Anthony R. Brooks. Adapted from Anthony R. Brooks (2008) The Changing Times of Fulking & Edburton. Chichester: RPM Print & Design, page 178.]

Cross the A283 and live! [update 3]

Bridleway crosses A283
The Shoreham Herald reports that work is about to begin on the new bridleway that will allow users of the Downs Link to avoid having to cross the A283.

David Barling, county councillor for Bramber Castle, said ..

The underpass scheme is intended to provide a much better and safer route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders by removing the need to cross the open A283 bypass, which is extremely dangerous, you usually take your life in your hands crossing at this point.

Edburton Contractors, working for West Sussex County Council, is programmed to begin initial clearance works [today]. Mr Barling explained:

This means having a look at the site and clearing scrub and trees or tree roots that may need removal along the highway verge. This initial phase will take a couple of weeks and then proper construction works will start on Monday, August 18, and it is hoped that these will last no more than four weeks to complete. The finished pathways will then be left to settle down for a couple of weeks more and then [be] fully open to pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.