Charlton

The bakehouse inn and its kitchen

The Fox Goes Free keeps a bread oven in what was once its bakehouse, from the years when the pub also served as Charlton's bakery and shop. It is a Grade II-listed building, mainly seventeenth-century with possible sixteenth-century origins, built of flint, brick and timber, with chamfered beams and an inglenook fireplace, and it has been the Pig and Whistle, then the Fox, and a free house since 1985. The garden at the back looks straight up at Levin Down, with heated patios and secluded corners for fine weather.

The kitchen runs a Fox fish pie of cod, salmon, king prawn and boiled egg, a chicken-and-leek pie, fish and chips in Arundel lager batter, and crispy lamb belly with peas, broad beans and wild-garlic aioli. There is a vegetable kedgeree arancini and a Stilton-glazed sweet-potato nut roast for anyone skipping the meat. Dogs are welcome, and arrive to a bowl of water and a treat.

Village edges and routes into the Downs

Charlton is a single line of flint-and-brick houses along the Lavant Valley, on the edge of the Goodwood Estate, with Levin Down rising immediately to the north-west. It has no church of its own, and no independent shop. For the latter you drive south to Goodwood Farm Shop at Home Farm, which sells organic meat and dairy, sourdough baked from the estate's own heritage flour, raw milk from a vending machine, kefir, kimchi, and a mature cheese named after the village.

Good walking begins nearby, in Singleton. A moderate circuit of 4.75 miles starts and finishes there, climbing to Hat Hill before continuing through beech woodland onto the chalk grassland of Levin Down, where juniper scatters the slopes and the views run back across the valley; expect stiles, narrow paths and livestock. A shorter 2.75-mile loop from Singleton detours to the pub if you want it. For something flat, the Centurion Way follows the old Chichester–Midhurst railway for nearly seven miles from Chichester through Lavant and West Dean; the line carried passengers from 1881 until 1991 and now carries walkers and cyclists.

When Charlton led the hunt

The history here is mostly about hunting. From the 1670s to around 1750 Charlton was the headquarters of one of the most fashionable hunts in England, founded by the Duke of Monmouth and Lord Grey and later revived under Squire Roper. The 1st Duke of Richmond bought Goodwood in 1697 largely so he could hunt here. Fox Hall, built in 1730 for the 2nd Duke, hides a grand Palladian room behind a plain front, with gilded panelling, a bed recess and a wind indicator set over the fireplace so the hunt master could read how the scent might lie. The Landmark Trust calls it "Britain's premier bedsitter."

The first WI meeting in England

The other thing that happened here was quieter. On 9 November 1915, in the back room now called the Hat Rack Bar, the Singleton and East Dean Women's Institute held the first WI meeting in England, two months after the movement's first UK meeting at Llanfairpwll in Wales; the newly built village hall at Singleton was open to men only, so the women met at the pub. Mrs Laishley, the innkeeper, was a founder member.

Arriving and the last shopfront

Chichester station is about five and three-quarter miles south, and Charlton Road runs west to Singleton and the A286, east towards East Dean. The old flint post office still stands along the street, shutters and all, no longer selling anything.