A BRIEF HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
Washington, W Sussex, is an ancient place of importance. It stands at
the N. end of a ‘wind-gap’ giving a passage through the South Downs to
the coastal plain around present-day Worthing, where it crosses the
age-old E.– W. routes that ran first along the crest of the Downs,
subsequently a short way inland. Its name – first recorded in 947 AD –
means, in Old English, ‘Homestead of Wassa’s people’; there is of course
another Washington in N.-E. England, whence George Washington’s name,
and that of the capital of the USA, comes (though Kipling, in his story
‘They’, wrongly attributes these to Sussex!). There are many prehistoric
monuments on the Downs and at their foot, of which a Bronze Age burial
mound finely, perhaps significantly, located on the brow of a hill in
direct alignment with the village street deserves particular mention.
Most striking, of course, is Chanctonbury Ring: a four-acre Iron Age
fort at the top of the highest hill for miles, within which the Romans
built two temples. The higher of these, painted bright red, was visible
from afar; an old trackway leads down from it towards the E.-W. Roman
‘Greensand Way’ that still partly marks the parish boundary. If there
was a significant Roman farm or villa at Washington, however, it has
eluded discovery so far.
Washington was a major Anglo-Saxon estate. Most unusually, there are two
surviving charters (recording change of ownership) from only 16 years
apart – 947 and 963 AD, each of which independently gives a list of
boundary points: over 20 in all. Two of these are verifiable from modern
place-names, giving us a fix on the others, most of whose locations can
be reasonably guessed. There is little doubt that the Saxon estate
largely corresponds with the historic parish – a conclusion strengthened
when the present author discovered traces of a massive bank coinciding
with much of the historic parish boundary. Who had it put there?
Probably Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, who acquired the estate in
963. Why? We can only guess – maybe to assert his authority. A famous
hoard of late Saxon silver coins was found near Lower Chancton in 1866.
Early Washington (like many Downland or coastal manors) had outlying
territories, at first swine-pastures, in the wooded areas to the north:
Horsham is first mentioned as such in the early charters. Domesday Book
(1086) attributes to Washington an improbably large area and population:
this must reflect these territories and their growing population.
Meanwhile, after the Conquest (1066), ownership of its manor passed from
King Harold’s slain brother to the powerful de Broase family of nearby
Bramber. With the formation of the parish system in late Anglo-Saxon
England, there must have been a church; but it has left no trace. Part
of the fabric of a 12th century rebuilding does, however, seem to have
survived in the N.-W. corner of the present building. The main manor
house must have stood nearby. Other now-lost manors were those of
Chancton; Rowdell (where a great house with park survived till
demolition in 1952); and Highden to the S., whose large house of c.1700
was remodelled when it became, as it remains, Windlesham School. A
curiosity at Windlesham is its chapel - in fact, the demolished church
of St Martin at Carfax, Oxford, bought and re-erected (at first in
Brighton!) by the then headmaster. Washington had other outlying
hamlets: Rock (‘At the Oak’); Clayton to the W.; Ashington (which became
a separate parish after the Conquest, though its main road stayed in
Washington till 1960). Only in the 20th c., however, did the Heath
Common area (on sandy soils N. of the present A283 – previously home to a
rabbit warren) become settled and populous enough to outstrip the
historic village.
Medieval Washington, an apparently quite prosperous agricultural
village, was associated with Bramber till the 16th c., after which other
owners (notably the Gorings of Wiston) acquired more and more land.
Nine villagers – a large number – were pardoned after the Cade rebellion
(1450). In 1760 Charles Goring planted the cap of beech trees that made
Chanctonbury Hill into one of the most famous Sussex landmarks (they
were much damaged in 1987 – after which proper excavation of the Ring
took place). Considerable changes reached the village with the 19th
century. The E.-W. and N.-S. roads were modernized as turnpikes, leading
to more traffic and (e.g.) the building of the Frankland Arms inn.
Roads led to tourism by the second half of the century: eventually
hundreds of visitors would make organized excursions from Worthing to
Chanctonbury, particularly to view the sunrise. Market gardening became
an important resource; there was a brickworks on the Gault Clay under
the modern roundabout, and lime-kilns on the chalk of the Bostal. A tall
smock mill (still surviving, despite encroaching sand quarries) was
placed on the hilltop at Rock – in the mid-20th c. it was the last,
cherished home of John Ireland, composer of several works on Sussex
themes. In 1865 a new and energetic vicar, Rev. J.W.Knight, adherent of
the High Church ‘Oxford Movement’, came to Washington from Magdalen
College and set about reconstructing St Mary’s Church, which was
evidently too small and decrepit for a growing population. Knight and
his architect G.M.Hills retained some of the early fabric (notably the
late-medieval W. tower), while their Victorian rebuilding was skilfully
handled, with good fittings and a remarkable painted decor (mostly
obliterated in 1962).
Proposed railways never came to Washington, so it did not grow as an
industrial or commuter centre, like Horsham or even Pulborough. But an
unusual settlement was significant in its 20th c. history, and led to
some dubious fame. This was The Sanctuary, an idealistic community
founded after the First World War by a young woman, Vera Pragnell, who
had come into money and bought 50 acres in the Heath Common area,
offering half-acre plots to impoverished Christians, Communists and
other communitarians. Vera married and eventually moved away; the
residents got sensationally lurid treatment in the popular press; yet
elements of The Sanctuary lingered on, even if the wooden shacks nearly
all vanished, like Vera’s huge Calvary on the local hill-top, now
smothered in rhododendron scrub. The historic parish, little changed for
1000 years, lost its northern part to Ashington in 1960; later in that
decade the A24 became a modern highway, bypassing the nucleus of the old
village – which, with over 40 listed buildings, remains picturesque
without being showy. In 2009 all the parish S. of the A283, with part of
Washington Common, was designated to be within the new South Downs
National Park.
Robin Milner-Gulland F.B.A., F.S.A., 2013
Two local Washington history books on sale
A
Washington Scrapbook - The Last 100 Years, and Washington Scrapbook -
Going Back. Both can be purchased from Gina Wilmshurst, Sandhill
Farmhouse, Washington RH20 4TD at £10 each. For local history enquiries
please contact Gina on 01903 892210
Email: gina.sandhills@gmail.com