East Lavant is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in the Chichester

Chichester (district)

Chichester is a largely rural local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in the city of Chichester.-History:The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the municipal borough of Chichester and the Rural Districts of...

 district of West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It lies just east of the A286 road 2.2 miles (3.5 km) north of Chichester

Chichester

Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...

.

St Mary's Church

St Mary’s Church was founded in the 12th century. The North aisle was added in the 13th century - one of the columns separating the nave from the north aisle remains, the others are 19th century. The lancet window is also original.

The 15th century appears to have brought the five stalls with their misericord

Misericord

A misericord is a small wooden shelf on the underside of a folding seat in a church, installed to provide a degree of comfort for a person who has to stand during long periods of prayer.-Origins:...

s.

The south tower was constructed in 1671 and the south west window nave window was inserted at the same date. Most of the north aisle, the arcade between the nave and the north aisle, much of the nave and chancel seems to have been rebuilt in 1863.

The Royal Oak

The village public house is called "The Royal Oak". It is believed to be haunted by a lady in white who appears in a front upper floor bedroom. In the 1940s it drew national attention due to the famous "Drinking Pig". A local farmer used to give one of his pigs, the runt of the litter, a drink of beer to build it up. A national paper heard the story and sent a reporter. Unfortunately the beer had worked and the pig had been slaughtered. The resourceful farmer merely found another pig and this appeared in the newspaper article. Thus a fine picture of the pig and the farmer appeared in the paper, with the landlord, James Pafford and his family standing proudly behind the bar.

External links

• St Mary's church site.