Woodland, church and railway traces
Selham
A tiny, dispersed South Downs village where an old railway pub, an 11th-century church and paths through wet pasture, heath and woods shape the visit.
- Best for
- Long walks, early church architecture and a country pub
- Give it
- A half or full day, with boots in wet weather
- Don't miss
- The herringbone masonry at St James
The Fox verdict
A tiny village with walking at its heart
Selham rewards visitors who want a historic church, a traditional pub and direct access to heath, woodland, commons and the River Rother landscape.
The village is dispersed rather than built around a conventional centre. Its clearest pair of landmarks are the Grade I Church of St James and the Three Moles, built as the Railway Inn opposite a station that has since become a private home. Two substantial circuits turn Selham into a useful base for a longer day on foot, while Lodsworth, Petworth and Midhurst add provisions, family recreation and historic sites nearby.
Where to go
Places in Selham
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesThe Three Moles
A small traditional real-ale pub in a remote woodland setting, built in 1872 as the Railway Inn and renamed the Three Moles six months later.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Selham
- Access
- Under-12s are not admitted anywhere on the premises, including the garden.
Lodsworth Larder
A community-run village shop for provisions, takeaway hot drinks and selected Post Office services, with a range of locally produced food and drink.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Lodsworth
Petworth House and Park
A 17th-century house with works by Turner, Van Dyck and Gainsborough, an 18th-century Capability Brown pleasure garden and a 700-acre deer park.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 3 hours
- Locality
- Petworth
Walks & outdoors
1 placeCowdray and Midhurst River Rother Circular
A medium, largely flat circuit crossing the Cowdray Estate and golf course before returning beside the River Rother, with woodland and mostly country lanes around Selham.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 3 hours 45 minutes
- Locality
- Cowdray, Lodsworth, Selham and Ambersham
History & heritage
2 placesChurch of St James
An 11th-century nave and square chancel with herringbone masonry, a carved chancel arch ornamented with geometric patterns and beasts, and a probably late-11th-century tub font.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Selham
Cowdray Ruins
The shell of an important early Tudor house visited by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and largely destroyed by fire in 1793.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Midhurst
Things to do
1 placeLodsworth Parish Playground
A parish playground in nearby Lodsworth, providing a family recreation stop outside Selham.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Lodsworth
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Three ways to explore Selham
Signature outings
Study St James's ancient fabric
Look for herringbone masonry in the 11th-century nave and chancel, and the 19th-century bell-cote that replaced a vanished west tower.
Explore Petworth House and Park
Combine works by Turner, Van Dyck and Gainsborough with the Capability Brown pleasure garden and the 700-acre deer park.
Trace Cowdray's Tudor history
See the remains of an important early Tudor house associated with visits by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and a destructive fire in 1793.
The village story
Selham Village Guide
A pub born for a vanished railway, an 11th-century church and paths into wet pasture, heath and woods.
A Railway Pub in a Dispersed Village
Two of the three moles on the sign outside the Three Moles come from the Mitford family crest. The origin of the third is a mystery the pub has never resolved. William Townley Mitford built the place in 1872 as the Railway Inn, directly opposite the station, and renamed it six months later. The station is gone. The pub is still here, which is really the whole story of Selham told in one building.
You reach the village down a lane running south from the A272 between Petworth and Midhurst, and it does not so much begin as gradually happen: a scatter of houses along wet pasture near the River Rother, streams and pinewoods and heath pressing in from every side. There is no centre to speak of. What Selham has is a church, a pub, and a lot of walking.
The Village Living Room and Its Older Survivor
The Three Moles is a small country pub that describes itself as the village living room, and on a quiet weekday that is roughly the size of it. Tom and Ollie have run it since 2017. There are two regular cask beers, Skinner's Betty Stogs and St Austell Tribute, alongside changing guests that often include something from Langham up the road. The kitchen leans on Sunday roasts — venison and pork, spiced red cabbage, stuffing, Yorkshire pudding and cauliflower cheese — with roast ciabattas through the summer months and empanadas also on the menu. Dogs on leads are welcome. Children are not: the pub bans under-12s throughout, garden included, so plan around that if you are travelling with young ones. The side garden is large enough that the pub takes wedding receptions for up to 120.
The church is the older survivor. St James is Grade I listed, its nave and square chancel dating to the 11th century, with herringbone masonry in the walls and a carved chancel arch decorated with geometric ornament and small beasts. The font is a plain tub, probably late 11th century. The west tower had already vanished by 1791; the bell-cote you see now is Victorian. William de Braose handed the church to Rusper Nunnery some time before 1204, which is about as much drama as the place has seen.
Domesday Selham and the Paths Beyond
For a settlement this quiet, the Domesday entry is oddly precise. In 1086 Selham held six households — two villagers, two smallholders and two enslaved people — with seventeen acres of meadow, woodland for ten swine, and a mill worth ten shillings. The whole manor was valued at three pounds four shillings, down from four pounds twenty years earlier.
The walking is the main reason to base yourself here. A 7¼-mile circuit links Selham with Graffham and Lavington Common across heath and mixed woodland, briefly following the bed of the dismantled Pulborough–Midhurst railway. A longer route, nearly nine and a half miles, crosses the Cowdray Estate and its golf course by way of Lodsworth and Ambersham before returning beside the Rother. In winter the low ground near Selham floods, so bring boots.
Provisions, Ruins and the Vanished Line
Provisions mean a short drive to the Lodsworth Larder, a community-run shop stocking local asparagus, Goodwood Dairy, Young's butchery, Sødt bakery and, since 2026, fresh fish from Johnson's. Petworth House, with its Turner and Van Dyck canvases and Capability Brown deer park, sits under three miles away, and the fire-gutted Tudor shell of Cowdray is closer still.
The station building itself is now somebody's house. Passenger trains stopped in 1955; freight continued until 1963, and the pub built to greet them kept the lights on.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Church of St James — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- The Three Moles — thethreemoles.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Lodsworth Larder — lodsworthlarder.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Cowdray and Midhurst River Rother Circular — discoversussex.org operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Petworth House and Park — nationaltrust.org.uk national body or asset manager
- Cowdray Ruins — cowdray.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Lodsworth Parish Playground — lodsworth-pc.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation