Storrington

Storrington may technically be a village, but it feels like a small town with plenty of shops and a busy high street.

The village is good base from which to walk on the South Downs Way. The Downs rise spectacularly above Storrington and the views across the Arun Valley and the Weald to the west and north are truly spectacular, especially in winter when much of the valley is flooded.

Storrington attractions

The big local attraction in the Storrington area is the beautiful house at Parham and its attractive gardens and parkland.

Storrington also has a good museum, which is looking for funding and assistance of all sorts at the moment.

Storrington is only a few miles away from the lovely village of Amberley and the Amberley Wild Brooks, which is an important habitat for birds.

Just to the west of Storrington is the home of Southdowns Gliding Club, whose gliders can be spotted wheeling away from the downs above the village.

Sullington Warren, to the north west of Storrington is a chunk of heathland and woodland managed in part by the National Trust. The warren contains nine prehistoric long barrows which are Scheduled Ancient Monuments.

Storrington - a higher class of celebrity

Storrington has had several culturally famous residents.

Novelist AJ Cronin moved here and wrote The Crusaders, supposedly after being impressed by an effigy of a medieval knight in Sullington Church.

Ireland-loving composer and poet Sir Arnold Bax lived in the White Horse Hotel in Storrington in the 1940s. Perhaps an hotel with a well-stocked bar wasn’t the wisest choice for a man who, at this time in his life, complained of feeling washed up and was starting a battle with alcoholism. Despite this, Sir Arnold managed to keep up two love affairs during this time at Storrington.

Opium-addicted poet Francis Thompson lived in poverty at the Norbetine Monastery in Storrington. Here he wrote his most famous poem, The Hound of Heaven. Thompson kept the poems flowing while in Storrington despite stumbling from one mental safari to another and died of tuberculosis aged just 48.

Cicely Mary Baker (1895-1973), the writer and drawer of the Flower Faeries books for children lived in Storrington too.