Fittleworth, W Sussex - Church - Friths series postcard 1909 pmk

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Fittleworth Church, West Sussex
• Publisher:  Friths Series
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  Edward VII half d. light green
• Postmark(s):  Pulborough Sep 7 1909 cds
• Sent to:  Miss Bridger, 19 Sloan Street, Knightsbrige, London
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Fittleworth is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located seven kilometres (3 miles) west from Pulborough on the A283 road and three miles (5 km) south east from Petworth. The village has an Anglican church, a primary school and one pub, the Swan. It is within the ancient divisions of the Bury Hundred and the Rape (county subdivision) of Arundel. The village is bounded south by the Rother Navigation .

In the 2001 census the parish covered 1,164  hectares (2,875 acres) and had 405 households with a total population of 931 people, of whom 434 were economically active.^[1]

Fittleworth is noted in 1167-8 as Fitelwurda, by 1279 Fyteleworth, 1438 Fetilworth and 1488 Fitelworthe. The Olde English FitelanweorJ translates as " the enclosure of Fitela."^[3] A Fitela happens to be mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf as nephew of mythological hero Sigmund.

The manor of Fittleworth, in the reign of Edward I, was held by William Dawtrey and subsequently by the Bishopric of Chichester ^[4]

The Lee and Stanley families were major landowners in Fittleworth through the centuries, as well as the Duke of Norfolk. Also among major property owners were the families of Levett and Edsaw.^[5][6]

From 1536 The Swan Inn was the coaching inn, and permitted a change of horses for the royal couriers of the King's Post en route from London to the coast, before the long climb up the South Downs at Bury Hill.^[7]

The village was served by Fittleworth railway station, on a branch line of the now-defunct Midhurst Railways, from 1889 to 1963.^[8]

There are two bridges at Fittleworth, both of stone; one of two arches, the Clappers Bridge, belongs only to the mill stream; the other, of three, spans the River Rother and is sixteenth century, though the piers may be older.^[9] The middle span was enlarged in the 1780s to take barge traffic through to Midhurst. When the road was widened in 1967 the Clappers Bridge was rebuilt in entirety. Fittleworth Bridge was partially rebuilt to take a 25' road about twice the previous width.^[10]

The Swan Inn on the north side of the Rother Navigation is a coaching inn with history possibly going as far back as the late 14th century. The Ancient Order of Froth Blowers (Motto: "Lubrication in Moderation") was founded here in 1924. The guild was created "to foster the noble Art and gentle and healthy Pastime of froth blowing amongst Gentlemen of-leisure and ex-Soldiers. It attracted an extraordinary half a million members in the 1920s and 1930s. Lager beer was ineligible, The Swan Inn rule book stating: "it is unseemly and should be avoided always excepting by Naval Officers visiting German Colonies.".^[11][12] Many Victorian Artists have left paintings on the panelling of the lounge,^[13] including George Cole, Rex Vicat Cole (who sub-let his nearby cottage Brinkwells to Edward Elgar in 1917), A.W. Weedon and Philip Stretton. One of the Visitors' Books contains music and words to 'A Song to the River' by composer Sir Hubert Parry^[14] visiting for a boating trip. E.V. Lucas, Lamb's biographer, thought it the most ingeniously-placed inn in the world. "It seems to be at the end of all things. The miles of road that one has travelled apparently have been leading nowhere but the Swan."^[15]

Coates Castle in the village of Coates, West Sussex is a Grade-II mansion about one and half miles south east from the southern boundary of Fittleworth. An area around Coates Castle has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest which contains the entire known remaining British population of the Field Cricket Gryllus campestris.^[16]