Singleton

Where the Winterbourne Begins

The River Lavant does not always run through Singleton. It is a winterbourne, a chalk stream that stays dry through the summer and begins to flow here first, at the village, when the water table rises in late autumn; the springs farther up the valley follow later. Old sheep dips still survive along its banks, from the days when the water had a working purpose.

The village sits where two valleys meet in the chalk hills north of Chichester, one running east to west through West Dean, Charlton and East Dean, the other carrying the Midhurst road north. Walk in and you pass steep chalk grassland, beech and yew woods, and cottages of thatch or flint and brick. The A286 runs through on its way between Chichester and Midhurst, and the Stagecoach 60 stops here on the same route.

Firesides and a Historic First

The Partridge Inn is Singleton's village pub, Grade II listed and once called the Fox and Hounds. It has three fireplaces, serves wood-fired pizza and has a garden with a children's play area. Dogs are welcome, with treats and water bowls available; regular cask beers include Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter. The pub is also the starting point for the National Trust's Hat Hill to Levin Down circuit.

Half a mile east, at Charlton but still within the parish, is the Fox Goes Free. It has low beams, log fires and a garden looking towards Levin Down. The kitchen serves pub classics, while the bar lists Fox Goes Free Best Bitter and Sussex Gold from Arundel Brewery. In November 1915, when Singleton's new village hall was reserved for men, innkeeper Mrs Laishley helped provide a welcoming venue for England's first Women's Institute meeting in the pub's back room.

Buildings That Carry Time

At the edge of the village, the Weald & Downland Living Museum brings together more than fifty rescued historic buildings across 40 acres, with gardens, farm animals, a mill pond and a working watermill. The BBC's The Repair Shop is filmed at the museum. Dogs are welcome across most of the site on short leads, except in the watermill, bakehouse, dairy and Tudor kitchen, where food is prepared.

The parish church, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, is Grade I listed and older than it first looks. The lower tower holds early-eleventh-century fabric, laid in herringbone courses, from before the Conquest. Inside there is a fifteenth-century octagonal font, medieval bench ends, and graffiti that includes the ragged staff of the Earls of Warwick. In the nineteenth century the dedication was changed by mistake to St John; it was put back in 1979.

From Domesday to Downland Paths

The Domesday surveyors counted 167 households, three mills and a church, and valued the manor at £121, up from £89 twenty years earlier.

For walking, the 4.75-mile Hat Hill to Levin Down circuit passes through beech woods, chalk grassland and a juniper grotto, with views towards Singleton. A marker along the way records a fox hunt of 26 January 1738 that covered 57 miles, which the second Duke of Richmond called "the greatest chase that ever was." Centurion Way follows the old Chichester-to-Midhurst railway past the restored former Singleton Station. Join from Station Approach opposite West Dean Gardens, or on foot via Hat Hill Bridge Halt from Singleton village. The route terminates near Cucumber Farm, but there is no public access through the farm to the A286; construction north of Singleton Station brings access restrictions.

Cricket at Sheepwash Meadow

Singleton Cricket Club marked 75 years at Sheepwash Meadow in 2025. Its members have restored parts of the pavilion in recent years.