Petworth is a small town and civil parish 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 is located at the junction of the A272

A272 road

The A272 is a road in South-East England. It follows an approximate East-West route from near Heathfield, East Sussex to the city of Winchester, Hampshire. It has achieved somewhat unlikely fame in recent years by being the subject of a book by the Dutch author, Pieter Boogaart...

 east-west road from Heathfield

Heathfield, East Sussex

Heathfield is a small market town, and the principal settlement in the civil parish of Heathfield and Waldron in the Wealden District of East Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, England.-Location:...

 to Winchester

Winchester

Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...

 and the A283 Milford

Milford, Surrey

Milford is a large village, situated south west of Godalming in Surrey, England. Nearby villages include Witley, Elstead and Eashing, and the hamlets of Enton and Hydestile. It is situated in the Borough of Waverley.-Transportation:...

 to Shoreham-by-Sea

Shoreham-by-Sea

Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...

 road. Some twelve miles (21 km) to the south west of Petworth along the A285 road lies 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...

 and the south-coast. The parish includes the settlements of Byworth

Byworth

Byworth is a small linear village near Petworth in West Sussex, England.The village lies south of the A 283 road along the steep sided Shimmings valley, through which the Haslingbourne Stream flows. There is one pub, the Black Horse....

 and Hampers Green and covers an area of 2690 hectares (6644 acres). In 2001 the population of the parish was 2,775 persons living in 1,200 households of whom 1326 were economically active.

History

The town is mentioned in Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

. It is best known as the location of the stately home

Stately home

A stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...

 Petworth House

Petworth House

Petworth House in Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century mansion, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin...

, the grounds of which (known as Petworth Park) are the work of Capability Brown

Capability Brown

Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...

. The House and its grounds are now owned and maintained by the National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

.

In the early seventeenth century, the question of Petworth's status as an Honour or a town came up when the Attorney General

Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 charged William Levett

Levett

Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...

 of Petworth, Gent., son of Anthony Levett, with "having unlawfully usurped divers privileges within the town of Petworth, which was parcel of the Honour of Arundel." William Levett's son Nicholas became rector of Westbourne, West Sussex

Westbourne, West Sussex

Westbourne is a village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located half a mile north east of Emsworth. The parish includes the hamlets of Woodmancote and Aldsworth, and once included the settlements of Southbourne and Prinsted to the south. The village...

.

Another historic attraction in the town, Petworth Cottage Museum

Petworth Cottage Museum

right|thumbright|thumbPetworth Cottage Museum, at 346 High Street, Petworth, West Sussex is a Leconfield Estate worker's cottage. It has been restored and furnished as it might have been in about 1910 when the occupier was a Mrs. Mary Cummings...

 in the High Street, is a museum of domestic life for poor estate workers in the town in about 1910. At that time the cottage was the home of Mrs. Cummings, a seamstress, whose drunken husband had been a farrier

Farrier

A farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of horses' hooves and the placing of shoes on their hooves...

 in the Royal Irish Hussars

8th King's Royal Irish Hussars

The 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1693. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated into The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars in 1958....

 and on the Petworth estate.

The railway line between Pulborough

Pulborough

Pulborough is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, with some 5,000 inhabitants. It is located almost centrally within West Sussex and is south west of London. It is at the junction of the north-south A29 and the east-west roads.The village is near the...

 and Midhurst

Midhurst

Midhurst is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, with a population of 4,889 in 2001. The town is situated on the River Rother and is home to the ruin of the Tudor Cowdray House and the stately Victorian Cowdray Park...

 once had a station

Petworth railway station

Petworth railway station was a railway station nearly two miles from the town of Petworth in West Sussex, England.It was located on the former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway single track Pulborough to Midhurst branch line...

 at Petworth, but the line was closed to passenger use in 1955, and finally to freight in 1966, though the station building survives as a bed and breakfast establishment.

Petworth fell victim to bombing in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 on the 29 September 1942, when a lone German Heinkel 111, approaching from the south over Hoes Farm, aimed three bombs at Petworth House, which missed the house, but one of which bounced off a tree and landed on the Petworth Boys School in North Street. 28 boys lost their lives along with the headmaster Charles Stevenson and assistant teacher Charlotte Marshall.

Education

Petworth Primary School is the only school in the town. The school is at the south of the Town and takes pupils up until Year 6. Until 2008 the Herbert Shiner School took students in years 6, 7 and 8 before they moved on to Midhurst Grammar School but this was closed down when the new Midhurst Rother Academy was opened.

Culture

The town's amateur dramatics group is known as the Petworth Players, and their past productions have included 'Allo 'Allo, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, and The Sleeping Beauty.

Petworth has also been the home to the Petworth Town Band for over 100 years. A group of nearly 40 amateur Brass and Woodwind players, the band rehearses weekly and is often seen around the local area playing at local events.

Petworth fair

On 20 November (St. Edmunds day) each year, the market square is closed off to traffic so that a fun fair can be held. This is the modern survival of an ancient custom. In earlier centuries the fair lasted several days and may have been wholly or partly held on a field on the south side of the town called fairfield. The London Gazette of November 1666 announced that a fair would not be held that year because of plague still infesting the county, and shows that the fair was then a nine day event.

Local tradition tells of a lost charter for the fair, but this is myth because it was determined by travelling justices of King Edward I

Edward I of England

Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

 in 1275 that the fair, then lasting eight days, had already been in existence since time immemorial and no royal charter was needed. At that time tolls on stalls for the sale of cattle provided an income for the lord of the manor. The traders of Arundel claimed a right to sell their wares at the fair as Petworth was in the Honour of Arundel. In the 20th century the fair field was used for allotment

Allotment (gardening)

An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-professional gardening. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families...

s, and is now housing and the Fairfield Medical Centre.