Upper Beeding is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the northern end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, north of Shoreham-by-Sea and has a land area of . The site is a bridging point over the river: on the opposite bank are Bramber and Steyning, making the whole area somewhat built-up. The civil parish also includes the smaller village of Small Dole to the north (nearer to Henfield), and the village of Edburton to the northeast.
Upper Beeding is on the northern edge of the South Downs National Park which was created in 2010. The South Downs Way and Monarch's Way long-distance footpaths run through the parish; the area is popular with walkers, cyclists and equestrians. It is also at the western end of the Beeding Hill to Newtimber Hill Site of Special Scientific Interest.
History
The community was originally (and for the majority of its history) called Beeding, with the civil parish changing to Upper Beeding in modern times (date unknown). As is common in such cases, the ecclesiastical parish retains the original name (hence it is the parish of Beeding, and the parish church is Beeding Church). In the early 13th Century the monks of Sele Priory (St Peter's Church, Beeding) began a mission to the area of St Leonard's Forest near Horsham, and established a small mission base, naming it Lower Beeding. Despite being about away, Lower Beeding remained a part of (Upper) Beeding parish until Victorian times. The existence of Lower Beeding led to differentiation in the name of the original Beeding in some medieval sources, but always as River Beeding. For this reason the prefix Upper is still ignored by many local people today, who refer to their community by the original (and current ecclesiastical) title of Beeding.
In Saxon times Beeding had a near neighbour, the hamlet of Sele. Today's village of Upper Beeding incorporates both communities, with the village centre located between the sites of the two original Saxon settlements. Saxon Beeding was closer to the Dacre Gardens area of modern Beeding, whilst Saxon Sele was nearer to the parish church (Sele Priory Church of St Peter) in modern Beeding.
In 1927 and 1929, land along the High Street was acquired for the building of a village hall to serve the community. Subsequently, funds were donated or raised for the building of the hall, which was completed in 1930. The hall contains meeting rooms where various organizations hold meetings and a number of different kinds of events. The Upper Beeding Parish Council meets monthly in the hall).
Demographics In 2001 census the parish of Upper Beeding had a population of 3,798 living in 1545 households, of whom 2001 were economically active. The population at the 2011 Census was 3,763.
Notable buildings and areas
The parish of Upper Beeding includes three villages: Upper Beeding itself, Edburton and Small Dole. It includes a number of different soil types from Chalk downland, rich Lower Greensand to sticky Gault Clay. The parish covers areas with hills/downs, valleys/bottoms, brooks and woods.
Upper Beeding
Upper Beeding is a village on the eastern bank of the River Adur, opposite Bramber. It is just within the South Downs National Park boundary. There are two pubs in the village, the King's Head and the Rising Sun. The King's Head goes back to at least 1788 when Burbeach Hundred Court met there. There is a modern nunnery that it is not open to visitors. The southeast of the village is known as Castle Town.
The village has a rich history. In AD 858 it is thought that Aethelwulf, father of Alfred the Great, died here and was buried across the River Adur in Steyning. There was a priory in Upper Beeding during the 11th century, but no trace of it now remains. After the Norman Conquest, the manor was granted by William the Conqueror to William de Braose. De Braose rebuilt the Saxon church in 1073, giving us the present St Peter's church.
During the medieval period, a busy toll road ran through Upper Beeding, and the toll house was one of the last such houses to be in service in the country. It was later dismantled and re-erected as part of the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum.
At nearby Saltings Field is a scheduled monument where you can see remains of salt-making industry begun in the 13th century.
Beeding and Horton brooks
Beeding brooks () and Horton brooks () are ancient waterside landscapes in the northwest of the parish. They surround the River Adur and have preserved the ancient indentations of the salting channels. In winter, the fossil salt marsh channels are flooded and this is when nature is at its best here. Many birds from Siberia pass the colder months here (which are less cold than Siberia!). The area can support owls, snipe, winter thrushes and winter ducks. The best brook channels still host some important marsh species including ivy-leaved duckweed, water horsetai, water crowfoot and brooklime. There are also many species of water snail including moss bladder snail and great ramshorn snail. To the east of Horton is Horton Clay Pit, an important archeological site with many fossils in the Gault Clay.
The brooks are beautiful but many areas are in need of management. Horse paddocks and sprawling buildings encroach the area. Some of the ditches are choked with rotting reeds and algae and many are shallowing and even disappearing. More heavy grazing of the whole area is needed.
Located behind Horton Clay Pit, about 40% of Horton Wood () still survives. It is a maple, oak and hazel woodland with crab apple, midland thorn, hawthorn, bluebells, goldilocks buttercup, anemones, early purple orchids.
Beeding Hill
The Hill used to be called Beeding Tenantry Down and was common land until after the Second World War. There was a cricket ground in the Prince Regent's time on the southern side of the Monarch's Way () as it tracks east from the Beeding Hill car park.
All along the crest of Beeding Hill, just south of the road up to the Truleigh Hill Youth Hostel, was an important cluster of Bronze Age burial mounds. After the war the Hill was both leased out to tenant farmers on 999 year leases and given to the National Trust for token ownership. It was a mixture of generosity and foolishness. Over the next few years these farmers bulldozed and ploughed all of these ancient pastures and their archaeology and wildlife were lost. After decades of intensive farming the land was returned to permanent pasture in the 1990s but no freedom to roam was given on these wide acres. Tiny fragments of Down pasture exist on the eastern slope of Beeding Hill and there are still harebells, common blue butterflies and some bits of gorse and this area now forms part of the Beeding Hill to Newtimber Hill SSSI.
There are several trails leading up too Beeding Hill. There is a carpark at its top, though it is only accessible from Shoreham. There is a track from Castle Town, Upper Beeding called The Bostal which now forms part of the long distance Monarchs Way. There is another track that comes from Golding Barn which leaves Room Bottom to the right. This path has overhanging wayfaring tree and old man's beard (wild clematis). The bostal sides retain a good chalk grassland flora, with horseshoe vetch, orchids and harebell. The track passes the Beeding Hill Combe disused quarry/chalkpit () with species-rich scrub, short and long grass and bare ground (at the quarry). The ‘hills and holes’ of the grassed over quarry spoil tips are rich in flowers and insects. The slopes have abundant yellow cowslips in spring. In the autumn it is possible to find the waxcap. There are many butterflies, moths, mosses and lichen and the tony moss snail and scree snail.
Between the two tracks, north of the Beeding Hill car park, is Reservoir Corner, or Lynchet Triangle (), which marks the ‘cultivation terraces’ attempts by medieval peasants to win further arable strips from increasingly unsuited ground, The whole of the valley floor between here and Castle Town, as well as Windmill Hill, was organised in the medieval strip cultivated open fields until the middle of the 19th century. Now this slope is winter grazed, so the grass is tall in summer. It can look unkempt around the entrance by Beeding Hill car park, but do not be deceived, it is a rich area and is part of the Beeding Hill SSSI. There is lots of yellow rattle and three orchid species, common heath and latticed heath moths and grizzled skipper butterfly as well as glowworms. The area downslope and to the west end of the site is poorer.
The Warren to the east of the Hill () was given its name in the early 1900s when the squire of Buckingham Place, Shoreham, attempted to turn the old Beeding Tenantry Down sheep common into a commercial rabbit warren. The attempt failed, but the place grew even more bramble, thorn and gorse thickets than it had before. Nightingales were also prevalent.
Anchor Bottom
Anchor Bottom () runs down from the south of Beeding Hill carpark to the Dacre Gardens and River Adur. The valley was an early desmesne pasture of the lord of Beeding manor (based at Beeding Court Farm, which was called ‘Court’ Farm because the manorial court, or assembly, met there). For centuries it lay next to the Beeding Tenantry Down, from which it had been cut out. David Bangs, a local field naturalist, describe this valley as one of the best sites on the whole of the Brighton Downs. It is part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is well maintained by Old Erringham Farm. The soft valley sides are contoured with the terracettes made by the regular meanderings of the resident herd of cattle. In summer the slopes are colourful with scabious, knapweed, red clover, betony, Sussex rampion, Restharrow, pyramidal orchid, eggs and bacon, viper's bugloss and ox-eye daisy. The stripe-winged grasshopper is here, emergences of adonis blue are common on the steepest, shortest turf near the valley bottom and in autumn the autumn ladies tresses can be found here in numbers.
Shoreham Cement Works
Situated within the Beeding Chalk Pit, production at Shoreham Cement Works began more than 135 years ago in 1883. It was a major employer for the local area, providing hundreds of jobs to the residents of Shoreham and Upper Beeding until in 1991 the site shut its doors for the last time. The site has now been acquired by Dudman, an aggregates company and there is now regular activity onsite, but the building itself has been left unused ever since. The abandoned buildings remain there because the original owners had no obligation to demolish the buildings or return the landscape to its initial state.
Edburton
Edburton is a small historical village to the west of the parish between Upper Beeding and Fulking. Its medieval church () is dedicated to St Andrew. To its south is a downland scarp that runs up to Edburton Hill. To its north is Edburton Sands.
Edburton Hill
Part of the Beeding Hill to Newtimber Hill SSSI, Edburton Hill () still has evidence of the banks of a Motte and Bailey castle, built by the Norman overlord soon after the Conquest, probably on the site of much older earthworks. The castle cannot have been occupied for long and was of timber construction only. It's scarcely bigger than a farmyard. Later, in 1260, the Lord of Perching got a licence to build a fortified manor house down under the Hill, and you can still see crop marks where it used to stand. The banks of the Motte and Bailey have field fleawort, and one may find some patches of chalk milkwort which is much more sky-blue than common milkwort, and almost unknown to the west of Brighton.