Trotton with Chithurst is a

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 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 ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Trotton is on the A272 road west 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 ...

. Chithurst is about northeast of Trotton. The parish also contains the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Dumpford. In the 2001

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

the parish covered and had 129 households with a total population of 328. 160 residents were economically active. At the 2011 Census the population had only increased marginally to 329.

Trotton

The village of Trotton is an Anglican parish on the A272, which passes over the River Rother near the church. Traffic over the sandstone bridge, which is Grade I listed and dates to about 1600, is controlled by traffic lights because it is too narrow for two vehicles to pass.

Parish church

St George's Church dates to around 1230, and was rebuilt in about 1400. The church is used by the

British Orthodox Church The British Orthodox Church (BOC), formerly the Orthodox Church of the British Isles, is an independent church, having its roots in Oriental Orthodoxy. The British Orthodox Church has not been in communion with any of the Oriental Orthodox ch ...

once a month.

History

Trotton (''Traitone'' or ''Trattone'') 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 ...

of Dumpford as having 14 households comprising four villagers and ten smallholders; with ploughing land, woodland, meadows, a mill and a church, it had a value to the lord of the manor of £5. In 1861, the population of the Anglican

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 ...

was 452, and its area was .

Notable people

According to

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

, the author

Thomas Otway Thomas Otway (3 March 165214 April 1685) was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for '' Venice Preserv'd'', or ''A Plot Discover'd'' (1682). Life Otway was born at Trotton near Midhurst, the parish of which his father ...

was born in Trotton (Johnson calls it "Trottin") in 1652. Otway's father, Humphrey, was curate of the parish.

Chithurst

The village of Chithurst contains St Mary's Church and Cittaviveka, the

Chithurst Buddhist Monastery ''Cittaviveka'' (Pali: ' discerning mind'), commonly known as Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, is an English Theravada Buddhist monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition. It is situated in West Sussex, England in the hamlet of Chithurst between ...

, which is a Buddhist monastery located in Chithurst, which was founded by

Ajahn Chah Ajahn Chah (17 June 191816 January 1992) was a Thai Buddhist monk. He was an influential teacher of the ''Buddhadhamma'' and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition. Respected and loved in his own country as a man of g ...

and

Ajahn Sumedho Ajahn Sumedho (born Robert Karr Jackman on July 27, 1934) is an American Buddhist monk. He was ordained in 1967, and was instrumental in establishing Wat Pa Nanachat in Thailand and the Cittaviveka and Amaravati monasteries in England. One of ...

. The church dates to the 11th century. It is one of the smallest recorded in Taylor & Taylor’s ''Anglo-Saxon Architecture'', and exhibits Saxon features in the proportions, the thinness of the walls, a splayed window in the south chancel wall, long-and-short work quoins with large shaped stones, and some herringbone work in the stone rubble masonry of the walls. It consists of a nave and chancel which show these signs of construction in the Anglo-Saxon era, with a later west porch and bell turret. Chithurst (''Titcherste'') was listed in the

(1086) in the ancient

of Dumpford as having 14 households comprising six villagers, five smallholders and three slaves; with ploughing land, woodland, meadows, a mill and a church, it had a value to the lord of the manor of £3. In 1861, Chithurst had a population of 213 and an area of of which, according to Kelly's 1867 Directory "about 360 are waste and wood land".

Dumpford

Dumpford is a

located on a minor road between Trotton and

Elsted railway station Elsted railway station served the village of Elsted in the county of West Sussex in England. The village itself was away to the south-west. The station was on the line between Petersfield and Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town and civ ...

, and also the name of an historic

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 ...

, which encompassed 277 households in the settlements of South Harting, East Harting and West Harting,

Elsted Elsted is a village, Anglican parish and former civil parish, now in the civil parish of Elsted and Treyford, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The village is on the Midhurst to South Harting Road 4.5 miles (7.2 km) ...

, Treyford, Chithurst and Trotton. Dumpford has an hotel, ''Southdowns Country Hotel'', a

sewage works Sewage treatment is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water p ...

and Terwick watermill.

References

External links

St George's Church, TrottonSt Mary's Church, Chithurst
{{Chichester Chichester District Civil parishes in West Sussex