Cocking is a village,

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Chichester district Chichester is a local government district in West Sussex, England. It is named after the city of Chichester, which is its largest settlement and where the council is based. The district includes the towns of Midhurst, Petworth and Selsey and s ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, England. The village is about three miles (5 km) south of

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester District in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother (Western), River Rother, inland from the English Channel and north of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first reco ...

on the main

A286 road The A286 is an A class road in the south of England, from its northernmost point in Milford, Surrey, to Birdham, West Sussex. It passes through the market towns of Haslemere and Midhurst, and the cathedral city of Chichester. The road is m ...

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

. In the 2001 census there were 190 households in the civil parish with a total population of 459 of whom 223 were economically active. In 2011, the population was 420.

History and notable buildings

Cocking (''Cochinges'') was listed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

(1086) in the ancient

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

Easebourne Easebourne () is a village, Anglican parish and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is half a mile (0.8 km) north of Midhurst, across the River Rother on the A272 and A286 roads. The parish includes the h ...

as having 32 households: 18 cottagers, eight smallholders and six slaves; with ploughing land, five mills and a church, it had a value to the lord of the manor of £15. The 11th century

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

had no known dedication until 2007 when it was dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena. There was a Congregational Chapel in Crypt Lane, founded in 1806 and rebuilt in 1907, which is now a private house. In the centre of the village, on the corner of Mill Lane, stands the old school, now a private residence. This was built in 1870 to the designs of architects

Richard Carpenter Richard Carpenter may refer to: * Richard Carpenter (theologian) (1575–1627), English clergyman and theological writer * Richard Carpenter (ca. 1700–1750), original owner of the Belvale property in Virginia * Richard Cromwell Carpenter (1812� ...

and William Slater. The school has Gothic-style windows and door arches, is faced in flint, and has a red-tiled roof and decorative barge-boards to the gables. The former schoolmaster's house has a distinctive chimney-stack with four outlets. To the south of the village are the remains of

Cocking Lime Works Cocking Lime Works and its associated chalk quarry are abandoned industrial sites in the South Downs of England. They are to the south of the village of Cocking, West Sussex, close to the South Downs Way. The works are on land owned by the Cowd ...

, abandoned in 1999, and the associated chalk pit. To the north are a few traces of the Chorley Iron Foundry, which cast the waterwheels now at the

Weald and Downland Open Air Museum The Weald and Downland Living Museum (known as the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum until January 2017) is an open-air museum in Singleton, West Sussex, Singleton, West Sussex. The museum is a Charitable organization, registered charity. The ...

and at the Coultershaw Beam Pump. There still remain in the village some houses of 17th-century origin. In 1931 the population of the village was 431. There was a ''Richard Cobden'' pub in Cocking which closed and became a private residence in the 20th century.

Richard Cobden Richard Cobden (3 June 1804 – 2 April 1865) was an English Radicals (UK), Radical and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician, manufacturing, manufacturer, and a campaigner for free trade and peace. He was associated with the Anti–Corn Law L ...

lived in nearby

Heyshott Heyshott is a village, Anglican parish and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is approximately three miles south of Midhurst and lies within the South Downs National Park. Like many villages it has lost its shop ...

. There are 28

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

s in the civil parish.

Transport

A railway once used to serve the area at Cocking Station, on the Chichester to Midhurst line opened in 1881, but was completely closed from 1953. The line passed through Cocking Causeway. The village is on the Stagecoach South No.60 bus route which runs from Midhurst to Chichester on the

Today

A number of buildings in the village belong to the

Cowdray Estate The park lies near Easebourne, West Sussex, in the South Downs National Park. The estate belongs to Viscount Cowdray, whose family have owned it since 1909. It has a golf course, and it offers clay pigeon shooting and corporate activity days, as ...

, distinguished by their external woodwork painted yellow. The remaining village pub, formerly ''The Blue Bell'', became a restaurant with accommodation called ''The Bluebell Inn'', and stands on the corner of Bell Lane. The restaurant subsequently closed, but then reopened in 2025 after villagers raised £30,000 to re-establish it as ''The Blue Bell''. Cocking is on the

South Downs Way The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath and bridleway running along the South Downs in southern England. It is one of 16 National Trails in England and Wales. The trail runs for from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in East Susse ...

long-distance footpath.

References

External links

Village website

Further historical information and sources on GENUKI

Detailed history and sources at British History Online
{{authority control Villages in West Sussex Chichester District