Loxwood

Loxwood
Loxwood Street
Loxwood  Loxwood shown within West Sussex
Area	18.24 km2 (7.04 sq mi) [1]
Population	1,480 (2011 Census)[2]
– density	74/km2 (190/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TQ038314
– London	34 miles (55 km) NNE
Civil parish	Loxwood
District	Chichester
Shire county	West Sussex
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BILLINGSHURST
Postcode district	RH14
Dialling code	01403
Police	Sussex
Fire	West Sussex
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Chichester
Website	http://www.loxwood.org/
List of places UK England West Sussex

Coordinates: 51°04′24″N 0°31′10″W / 51.07336°N 0.51933°W / 51.07336; -0.51933

Loxwood is a small village and civil parish with several outlying settlements, including those at Alfold Bars, Gunshot Common, Flitchfold, Roundstreet Common, Drungewick Lane and Manor, and Wephurst Park, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, within the Low Weald. The Wey and Arun Canal passes to the East and South of the village. This Civil Parish is at the centre of an excellent network of bridleways and footpaths crossing the Low Weald and joining with those in adjacent Counties. Walking to the coast and into London is entirely feasible, essentially on footpaths or bridleways.

Overview

The 2001 census recorded a population of 1341 people living in 660 households. 536 people were economically active. Between that census and 2011 approximately 55 more dwellings have been built, probably adding net more than 100 people. At March 1, 2011 the electoral register showed 1200 electors. The 2011 Census gave a population of 1,480.

A considerable number of the economically active residents of Loxwood are self-employed. Most people who commute regularly to a principal place of work do so to the Gatwick Diamond area (loosely an area between Redhill in the north and Crawley to the south), to Horsham, to Guildford or Woking, or to London, and tele-commuting is growing in popularity.

There is a primary school, village hall, with outdoor children's playing facilities, a sports centre, an Anglican church, a Chapel, two pubs The Onslow Arms and the "Sir Roger Tichborne" at Alfold Bars, a small number of shops with a sub-Post Office in the Loxwood Village Stores, John Murray and Son's, an award winning butcher, game dealer and supplier of cheeses, cooked meats and other delicacies about a butcher's cold and cutting room supplying local pubs and restaurants and clubs, Forget-Me-Not - a florist and gift shop, Just Hair - a hairdressing business, Kennard's garage in Loxwood village, and a small car showroom and workshop at Alfold Bars.

Additionally Loxwood has an NHS medical practice with some 4 GPs, several practice Nurses, a Dispensary (rural practices), and a visiting Physiotherapist all supported by an active "Friends of Loxwood Medical Practice". Two further physiotherapist services are available in Loxwood, one based at the Loxwood Sports Association, the other on private premises.

The village was once one of the settlements greatly influenced by a small Christian sect, the Society of Dependants, also known as Cokelers who left London in the mid-1800s. They built their first chapel in the village. The sect evolved to run a Combination Store in the village, the building for which houses villages shops today.

Lawrence Durrell, the renowned author of The Alexandria Quartet, a series of interrelated novels that take as their subject matter the psychology of love and the shifting façades that human beings present to one another, lived here from 1933 to 1934, in a cottage called Chestnut Mead.^[3] Durrell, along with his first wife Nancy and another young couple, George and Pam Wilkinson, left Fitzrovia to live in the English countryside. It was here that Durrell, then in his early twenties, wrote what became his first published novel, Pied Piper of Lovers.^[4]

Several people of note in the public eye and ear during the later part of the 20th century and more recently live in or adjacent to Loxwood - many have sent their children to the Loxwood Primary School, and are otherwise engaged in active fundraising for important Loxwood institutions.

Schools

Loxwood Primary School was reported to have 155 children on the school roll in 2001.^[5] However many - typically 30% to 50% of these children are not from Loxwood itself, but from surrounding villages; this has been attributed to the closing of smaller adjacent, village schools. The result is that Loxwood Primary School has thrived with a strong and active group of parents assisting the Teaching Staff in areas such as fund raising. A "pre-School" is adjacent to the school, very strongly supported financially and in other ways by an active Parents group who among other efforts have run a very successful Beer Festival for several years.

Sport and leisure

Loxwood has a Non-League football club Loxwood F.C. who play at the recreation ground on Plaistow Road, and have been playing since 1920.^[6]

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Loxwood.

• Loxwood Village

References