Sullington

Sullington is one of many small Sussex villages built along the spring line at the northern edge of the South Downs.

A tiny place, Sullington has a long history and seems evocative of a quieter time.

For people who like the idea of getting to the top of the South Downs by car, the parish of Sullington contains one of the handful of places you can do this. There's a narrow road that takes you to the top of Chantry Hill. Once at the top, there's a small car park and terrific views of Harrow Hill, one of the most distinctive shaped hills in Sussex and thousands of years ago the site of furious flint mining activity.

Looking back towards Sullington from the Downs reveals the huge orange chunks bitten out of the parish by the giant sand pits in the village. Sullington lies on the band of Lower Greensand which runs all along the edge of the Downs, underneath the chalk, but above the clay of the Weald.

Despite the sand quarrying however, the greensand has brought some benefits to Sullington.

Sullington Warren

Sullington Warren is one of the most important heathland habitats in West Sussex. The National Trust owns around 60 acres of sandy habitat at Sullington and the area is home to rare and interesting birdlife such as woodpeckers, yellowhammers and pipits.

It is also the only place in the country that you will find a sepcies of crane fly called, appropriately, Nephrotoma sullingtonensis.

Sullington Warren also contains several prehistoric barrows built by the Beaker People and the stump of Sullington Windmill - aka the White Windmill - which was destroyed by fire in 1911.

The area is looked after by the Sandgate Conservation Society who have fought off plans to develop housing in the area and who have greatly enhanced the state and understanding of this ecological treasure.

Sullington Church

St Mary's Church, Sullington contains traces of Saxon Work although most of the fine church you can see today dates from the early 13th century.

The church contains a well worn stone effigy of a crusader which is thought to have inspired the writer AJ Cronin to write his novel A Thing of Beauty (1956), a book which had the alternate tile Crusader's Tomb. Cronin lived at the Old Rectory in Sullington before the Second World War.

You can see more information about the history of the church by looking at the manuscript showing the key dates in the history of St Mary's, Sullington.

The church is in a splendid location, seemingly forming part of the Manor Farm farmyard, at the end of a longish climb up a lane which has seen better days.

Manor Farm, by the way, contains a large tithe barn which is at least three hundred years old - and probably much older than that.

Map of the Sullington and Storrington area

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