Thakeham

For the Ham class minesweeper, see HMS Thakeham. For the country house, see Little Thakeham.

Thakeham
Church of St Mary
Thakeham Location within West Sussex
Area	11.71 km^2 (4.52 sq mi) [1]
Population	1,794 [1] 2001 Census 1,816 (Census 2011)[2]
• Density	153/km^2 (400/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TQ109172
• London	41 miles (66 km) NNE
Civil parish	Thakeham
District	Horsham
Shire county	West Sussex
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	PULBOROUGH
Postcode district	RH20
Dialling code	01798
Police	Sussex
Fire	West Sussex
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Arundel and South Downs
Website	http://www.thakehamparish.co.uk/

Thakeham's History

Thakeham is a village and civil parish located north of the South Downs in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village is situated approximately 12 miles south-west of Horsham and 11 miles north of the sea-side town of Worthing. Its nearest large village is Storrington (3 miles). The parish includes the hamlets of Abingworth and Goose Green and has a land area of 1170.6 hectares (2891 acres)

The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book,(as Taceham)[3] but human occupation goes back to Neolithic times. The name Thakeham means “thatched homestead[4]” and the original village had just one main street (“The Street”) which is home to the village’s only pub, The White Lion, and St Mary’s church (12th century) and is now a designated conservation area.

Land use in the parish is predominantly agricultural, dominated by farming and wooded areas (with outstanding bluebell displays in the spring). As well as the original centre in The Street, the parish includes the hamlets of Abingworth and Goose Green.

The parish’s main population now groups south of The Street in the Abingworth area, and further south in a section of the north-eastern suburb of Storrington within the Thakeham boundary. In the 2011 census 1816 people lived in 707 households.

View from the churchyard

Mushroom industry

The mushroom factory originally existed on two sites - the main remaining site sits between the original village and the edge of Abingworth. A secondary location further south was sold for housing in the early noughties. From the profits from the sale, Sussex Mushrooms modernised and consolidated the going concern at the remaining site. In April 2011 after much delay, Horsham District Council announced they had approved the plans for 150 new homes. By 2018, some houses are now built around a new cricket pitch. In addition, the developers are building a new village hall, a building which is yet to undergo planning approval for a veterinary surgery and shop/café plus a cricket pavilion and changing rooms for two new football pitches near the Storrington Road.

Landmarks

Heritage assets in the parish include the 13th century Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Warminghurst, and Little Thakeham[5], a Grade I listed country house on Merrywood Lane, designed by the architect Edwin Lutyens in 1902. Further south are two schools (Thakeham Primary and Steyning Grammar Rock Road) and Thakeham Tiles, the other industry in the village, all situated on Rock Road.

Sport

A village cricket team representing Linfield Mushrooms (as they were then called) folded in the 1970s but a club was revived following a merger with neighbours, West Chiltington, at the end of the 20th century to form West Chiltington & Thakeham Cricket Club. As part of the developer's proposals, a new cricket pitch is now in situ with a new pavilion beyond where the new Thakeham Village FC football pitches have been sited. The cricket club now runs their Men's 3rd XI plus the Women’s T20 and some colts games there.

Notable people

Anna Massey, who played Miss Prism alongside Colin Firth and Rupert Everett in the 2002 film version of The Importance of Being Earnest, was born in the village in 1937. She died in 2011.[6][7]

References

1. "2001 Census: West Sussex – Population by Parish" (PDF). West Sussex County Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
2. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
3. "The Doomsday Book Online - Sussex Q-Z".
4. Mills, Anthony David (1991). A Dictionary of English Place Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 324. ISBN 0198691564.
5. Historic England. "Little Thakeham (1001214)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
6. Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah, eds. (1999). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 1. London: Yorkin. p. 225. ISBN 0787640808.
7. "Anna Massey dies at 73". The Guardian. 4 July 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2018.

External links

• Media related to Thakeham at Wikimedia Commons