Plaistow ( ) is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the north of the

Chichester District Chichester is a local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in the city of Chichester and the district also covers a large rural area to the north. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Go ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

, England. There is a village green, a recreation ground, a children's playground, a village pond, a shop, a pub (''The Sun Inn'') and the Anglican Church. There are over thirty Grade II listed buildings in the village. The Sun Inn was purchased by the Pullen family in 1807. Holy Trinity Church (a Chapel of Ease) was once a wooden structure which was destroyed by fire. The church was rebuilt in 1859. Plaistow and Kirdford Primary School was built in 1869. A plaque on the front of the school's original Victorian building acknowledges the significant funding from John Napper, Esquire of Ifold House, who then owned much of the land in the civil parish. The Parish lies on the northern boundary of West Sussex, and is made up of four settlements: Plaistow village and the hamlets of Ifold, Durfold Wood and Shillinglee. Ifold is the largest of the settlements and has the largest population in the Parish. It has a land area of 2102 hectares (5192 acres). In the 2001 census 1856 people lived in 701 households, of whom 910 were economically active. Plaistow village has its own football club, Plaistow FC, which formed in 1931 and was admitted to the Horsham and District League. They now play in the

West Sussex Football League The West Sussex Football League is a football competition in England. It was formed in 1896. The League has eight divisions of which the highest, the Premier Division, sits at level 12 of the English football league system. It is a feeder to th ...

. The home ground is 'Foxfields'.

Landmarks

Chiddingfold Forest is a Site of Special Scientific Interest partly within the parish. This is an important

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

egg-laying area. There are also rare

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

s in this locality including: the argent and sable, common fan-foot, white-line snout, waved carpet and drab looper. Chiddingfold Forest is home to the

Bechstein's bat Bechstein's bat (''Myotis bechsteinii'') is a species of vesper bat found in Europe and western Asia, living in extensive areas of woodland. Description Bechstein's bat is a medium-sized and relatively long-eared bat. The adult has a long, fluf ...

. Three maternity colonies have been identified which have at least eighty breeding females.

Governance

The electoral ward was Plaistow, encompassing the Parishes of Plaistow, Loxwood, Lurgashall and Northchapel but in 2019, following a district boundary review, it was split between the

Fernhurst Fernhurst is a village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England, on the A286 Milford, Surrey, to Chichester road, south of Haslemere. The parish includes the settlements of Henley Common, Kingsley Green and Bell Vale ...

and

Loxwood Loxwood is a small village and civil parish with several outlying settlements, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, within the Low Weald. The Wey and Arun Canal passes to the East and South of the village. This Civil Parish is at t ...

wards. At the 2011 Census Plaistow Ward had a total ward population of 4,784.

References

External links

Plaistow and Ifold Parish Website
{{authority control Villages in West Sussex Civil parishes in West Sussex Chichester District