Kirdford 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. 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. Its nearest town is

Petworth Petworth is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Chichester (district), Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 road, A272 east–west road from Heathfield, East Sussex, Heat ...

, located southwest of the village. The parish has an area of . In the 2001 census 912 people lived in 373 households, of whom 448 were economically active. At the 2011 census the population was 1,063. The village has an

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 ...

church dedicated to St John the Baptist plus an Evangelical non-denominational chapel "Kirdford chapel" and two pubs, ''The Foresters Arms'' and the ''Half Moon''. Other amenities include a shop and the village hall which was enlarged in 1977. In the Middle Ages iron production using

ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be c ...

and charcoal, and

forest glass Forest glass (''Waldglas'' in German) is a type of medieval glass produced in northwestern and central Europe from approximately 1000–1700 AD using wood ash and sand as the main raw materials and made in factories known as glasshouses in fo ...

making were important industries. In the twentieth century apple growing was established through a cooperative venture, Kirdford Growers, based at the western end of the village. This has now ended and the warehouse site is being used for house building. In 2011, Kirdford Village Stores won 'Best Corner Shop' in the Telegraph's Best Small Shops in Britain Awards.

The parish church

There is no reference to a church 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 ...

of 1086. The Grade I listed church of St. John the Baptist is built of local sandstone and roofed with Horsham stone slabs. Herringbone masonry and the style of column capitals indicate that the nave is early twelfth century. The north aisle is thirteenth century and the tower fifteenth. The tower carries a peel of six bells and a clock. There are four stained glass windows by

Charles Eamer Kempe Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lychg ...

.A church near you
/ref> Near the road junction to the west of the church an inscribed stone set into the old rectory wall warns against drunkenness in no uncertain terms.

References

External links

Kirdford Village Website
{{authority control Villages in West Sussex