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Washington Village like so many other Sussex villages and hamlets has a very ancient history dating back to around 946 when the manor of Washington (the bounds of which estate was later to form much of the present parish) was granted to Ethelwold by King Edred. The name Washington is Anglo-Saxon and is understood to have meant ‘Wassa’s people’s farmstead’. In 1066 King Harold gave the manor to his brother Gurth. Signifying Washington’s importance in those days, the Bramber honor court was once held here. One of the more readily seen signs of Washington’s ancient history is Chanctonbury Ring, an oval Iron Age hill fort on Chanctonbury Hill. It is one of the highest hills of the South Downs standing approximately 782ft. and is a landmark for miles around. The summit was used as a beacon station, in 1805 to give celebration to Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar and before that for the Spanish Armada. In 1866 3000 Saxon pennies were found at a farm near Chanctonbury Hill, they dated from the reigns of Edward the Confessor and King Harold and were buried just before the Battle of Hastings. Some of them were minted at Steyning.
Buildings
There are some 40 buildings listed at Grade 11 in the parish, including the parish church. The buildings are of various brick, flint and sandstone materials, several are from the 18th century or earlier. These include Weaver’s Cottage, Rose Cottage and the Old Cottage. The centre of the village includes most of The Street and all of School Lane. The present day building known as Church House is probably on the site of an earlier manor recorded first in 1326 then again in 1368 and again in 1724. A house at Rowdell was mention around 1225 and again in the 16th century, being rebuilt again in the 17th century. This was demolished sometime before 1814 and was replaced by a plain stuccoed building which in turn was demolished in 1952. The area is designated as a Conservation Area. There was a mill at Washington in 1326 but its location is unknown, however a windmill was built on Rock common around 1835, but ceased to be used sometime between 1896 and 1909 and it was converted into a house c1936.
Industry
A lime pit is shown on the records of 1449 and the remains of a much later sign of the lime burning industry can be found in the ruined lime-burning complex by the track just above The Bostal. Trade flourished in Washington, records show that two potters and a smith were recorded in the late 13th and early 14th century and a cooper and a carpenter were mentioned in the parish in 1450. The large number of people who paid taxes in 1378 and 1524 at the higher rates shows Washington to have been a wealthy community. Reports seem to suggest that between the 16th and early 19th centuries there was a blacksmith, and a carpenter or wheelwright, and a tailor or weaver. In the 18th century there was usually a butcher and a maltster. Three bakers were recorded in 1801. Other trades that were occasionally recorded in Washington during this period were those of mason, thatcher, cooper and shoemaker. In the first three decades of the 19th century one in five or six families in the parish in employment was supported mainly by trade or manufacture. Between the mid 19th and early 20thcenturies there were always one or two grocers and drapers, a wheelwright, and until 1909 one or two blacksmiths. In 1855 there was a beer retailer, in 1887 three shoemakers, and in 1913 a butcher. In 1927 there was a confectioner, and in 1938 a firm of builders’ merchants. Before the bus service started there was a carrier’s cart from Storrington to Worthing. It came along sounding a horn and would pick up passengers or take orders for shopping etc. to be done. The increase in motoring and tourism during the 20th century brought new trades into Washington, two garages and three tea-rooms and by 1938 a hotel and country club in the north-west part of the parish. By 1977 the number of tradesmen in the parish had greatly declined and there were only two general stores and a newsagent in the village. Sadly today there is only the village pub, the Frankland Arms left.
Agriculture
Agriculture has always played an important part in the life of Washington, there were many small farms supplying diary produce, eggs, poultry and pork as well as arable farms supplying wheat, barley etc. and as the population expanded around Worthing and Brighton Washington was able to develop a flourishing market gardening industry because of its ideal sandy soil. Also large quantities of fruit, mainly apples, were grown and sent to markets all around. In 1866 one market gardener was recorded, but by 1905 thirteen were recorded. Two families were prominent in market-gardening, the Goatchers and the Charmans. In 1949 market gardening was still very important, many big growers had their nurseries in Washington and raised tomatoes, peas, French beans, melons, grapes and peaches. Dairy farms and pig farms were also popular, in 1975 North Farm was one of the largest producers of turkeys in the South of England.
Church
Philip de Braose came over to England with William the Conqueror. He lived at Bramber Castle and he liked building churches. He built many and among them was Washington in about 1070. He granted Washington church to Sele priory c 1096 in exchange for Shipley church and it stayed in the hands of the French Abbot until 1459 when the living became part of the endowment of Magdalene College, Oxford where it remained until around 1953 when it was handed over to the bishop of Chichester. The date of the first Rector of Washington is given as 1174, his name was Bovo. The Registers are not complete but start from the year 1556. The first volume contains 160 parchment pages and includes a list of Churchwardens from 1580 to 1720. The original church has been rebuilt and restored many times throughout the ages. The second church to stand on the site was built by the Knights Templar. The new building consisted of a nave, north aisle, chancel and tower. This tower was built against the west end of the north aisle and was left as a “lean-to” when the Bell Tower was built sometime during the reign of Henry VII. The last restoration came in 1866 when the church was closed for a year and the whole of the church, with the exception of the Tudor tower and north arcade, was pulled down to the ground and then rebuilt from the foundations. The north wall was pushed out two feet to extend the width of the nave, the gallery was removed, and a new chancel and south aisle were added. The Templar’s Tower was shortened, but still left as a “lean-to”. St. Mary’s has some fine old memorials, one of alabaster in the bell tower which shows John Byne of Rowdell House with five sons, behind him and facing him, his wife and two daughters - all kneeling in prayer. Another is to John Fortrie, who with his father held the living from 1671 - 1752. There is also one to Sir Harry Goring, elder brother of Charles Goring, who planted the beech trees on Chanctonbury Hill. There is a peal of six bells, including one dated 1614.
Acknowledgement is made to the following works:
‘Washington’ A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 1
TP Hudson (Editor) AP Baggs, CRJ Currie, CR Elrington, SM Keeling, AM Rowland
Chris Hare
Storrington Museum
Washington during WWII - The Home Guard
The War and Washington by Edmund Snell - copied with kind permission from the records at Storrington Museum.
Now that two years have gone by, it is strange to look back upon a world of blackout and bombs, searchlights and enemy raiders, convoys and carriers, tanks and flamethrowers and all the ghastly paraphernalia of war; or of a period of six long years when those too old for battle-schools assiduously studied anti-gas precautions and ventured abroad in strange guises and kept “tin-hats” hanging from their hall stands: when the young of both sexes disappeared from the village scene only to reappear after a brief interval triumphant in khaki or one of two shades of blue. Yet Washington, with its vital gap in the South Downs through which the tanks of an invading army seemed destined to pour, had its share of all these things. Many months before Mr Neville Chamberlain made his memorable speech, villagers a bare seven miles inland from the potential invasion beach were enrolling in the ranks of the Red Cross, W.V.S., A.R.P., N.F.S and Special Constabulary. Others were concentrating on billeting, on organizing canteens, on preparing food and shelter for refugees from coastal areas. Presently, with the “phoney war” over and the epic of Dunkirk the main subject of conversation at the Frankland, the L.D.V. (Local Defence Volunteers, if you remember) later to be called the Home Guard, came into being.
There was a large, brick-built tank on the west wide of the Bostal, fitted with perforated pipes which were capable of spraying a large area of the roadway with neat petrol ignited by the throwing of a “Molotov Cocktail”. At a vantage point still further west, men equipped with old American rifles and a few rounds of dubious ammunition, shivered in their ill-fitting “denims” and awaited the coming of the spearhead of the expected Hun invasion…..
Regular troops poured into Washington. Anti-Aircraft Gunners were at Barns Farm; Anti-Tank Gunners came to Highden. To Sandhills and Sunny Nook came many regiments in succession - the 17/21st Lancers, the K.R.R.’s: Soldiers from Sputh Staffs and South Lancs; the 9th Royal Welch Fusiliers. Miss Barlow-Webb, Miss Plumb and countless volunteers established and maintained throughout the war a most efficient canteen. In 1942 the Vicarage became the Headquarters of the 53rd Coast Regiment (R.A.). In the same year the first Canadians - the Carlton Yorks Regt. - came to Washington, first to Sandhills and finally to Warren Hill Bungalow, where they were presently succeeded by various units of R. Canadian Artillery. In November, 1942, Sandhills became the headquarters of the newly-formed “G” Coy. 4th Bn. Sussex H.G.
Washington, in the meantime, had its exciting moments. During the Battle of Britain one of many German bombers forced down in the neighbourhood by our fighters buried itself in Tom Turner’s field. A munitions lorry burst into flames and exploded near Linfield’s Garage. There were many dog-fights overhead. Bombs, jettisoned by harried aerial invaders, destroyed two bungalows near Goatcher’s Nurseries. In February, 1943, while on Home Guard duty in Steyning, C.Q.M.S. L.W. Lee and Sergeant “Vic” Parsonson were seriously injured by a German bomb that fell outside Chantry House, C.Q.M.S. Lee succumbing to his injuries shortly afterwards.
From “D” Day onwards Higher Command, fearing reprisals in the form of enemy paratroops dropped over the Downs, enjoined even more vigilance. The Home Guard became, under the tireless training of a Welsh Guards Adjutant, something dimly resembling the Guards themselves. “Walkie-talkies” were added to their already extensive equipment; “Flame-fougasses” and Spigot Mortars covered road-junctions. Nightly, for some reason best known to those in authority, a patrol from Washington travelled by car to Middleton-on-Sea, Bognor Regis and almost to Pagham Beach, to visit regular and other coast-watching units and ensure that they were on the alert. But, with the combined allied successes in Normandy and the constant pressure by the Russians from the East, Hitler’s army found little time for reprisals. Let it be recorded however that Washington, our Washington, was ready for any unforeseen eventuality. Mr How had hidden stores of food; Church House was an emergency hospital in miniature; Mrs. Dunn’s nurses were amply trained and prepared: the A.R.P., Specials Constabulary and fire-fighting services knew where to go and what to do - so much so, indeed, that not a few, I fancy, were thoroughly disgusted when the enemy failed to show up!
And so on to V.E. and V.J. Days, to the renewed ringing of Church Bells, to thanksgiving services and parades and to the inevitable eventual disbandment.
Those were great days. In these times of austerity and depression let us not forget how great they were, how great we all were, collectively, in our united resolve - and how much more depressed we should have been in the once quite possible event of our slender defences cracking and Hitler and his satellites coming here to stay!
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