Sidlesham is a small

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

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 ...

, on the

Manhood Peninsula The Manhood Peninsula is the southwest of West Sussex in England. It has the English Channel to its south and Chichester to the north. It is bordered to its west by Chichester Harbour and to its east by Pagham Harbour, its southern headland be ...

, five kilometres (3 miles) south of

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...

in 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. It has a small primary school. The area has had a prebendary since medieval times. The 13th-century church of St Mary Our Lady is built of stone rubble, not the usual flint of the area. The parish has a land area of 1753 hectares (4330 acres). In the 2001 census 1139 people lived in 448 households, of whom 579 were economically active. At the 2011 Census the population had increased to 1,171. The parish has fertile soils on the flat Chichester plain and there are many glasshouses around the village.

Governance

electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

in the same name exists. This ward stretches North to Hunston with a total ward population at the 2011 Census of 2,428.

History

The village has had a long history of farming and was made up of a group of farms including: Bakers, Chalder, Church, Easton, Ferry, Fletchers, Great Ham, Greenwood, Haise, Halsey, Ham, Highleigh, Jury, Keynor, Marblestone, Marsh, Oakhurst, Porthole, Redgate, Rookery, Shotfold and Street End. In 1935 the Sidlesham LSA was set up and "settlers" from the north east of England and South wales stayed in Keynor hut while their houses were built and they received training. The Sidlesham LSA continued

smallholding A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

until its privatisation in 1983.

Sport and leisure

The first definite mention of

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

in Sussex relates to ecclesiastical court records in 1611 which state that two parishioners of Sidlesham failed to attend church on Easter Sunday because they were playing cricket. They were fined 12 d each and made to do penance. Sidlesham has a

Non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is s ...

club Sidlesham F.C. who play at The Memorial Recreation Ground.

Landmarks

The

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

known as

Pagham Harbour Pagham Harbour is a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the western outskirts of Bognor Regis in West Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site, a Nature Conservation Review site, a Ramsar site, a Special ...

falls partly within the parish. The harbour and surrounding land is of national importance for both flora and fauna. The shingle spit is also of geological interest.

References

External links

Cricket in Sussex English cricket in the 14th to 17th centuries Villages in West Sussex {{WestSussex-geo-stub