THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE  

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

When the conquering Saxons arrived they were unlike any earlier inhabitants of the Findon area.  They did not regard the chalky Downs as a desirable spot to settle down. 

The conquerors were generally from farming stock and were valley dwellers.  They possessed a great aversion to utilising the existing habitats and preferred to clear the woodland for themselves in new locations.  They would then establish their own farmsteads and way of life.  As the Saxons set to work and cleared the forest to build settlements they gradually discarded their swords and cast down their flaming torches in exchange for the plough and the woodman’s axe.  They became the farmers of what was to become the Findon area. 

Therefore, the wide open spaces of the Findon downland was left as pasture or sheep walk.  To the invaders, the hillsides were places of the dead to be avoided at all costs.  They saw them as littered with burials and they were cautious as they considered them cursed by ghostly spirits of the long departed.   They also avoided the downland because they disliked the climate.  Lastly, they feared the “fairies” or “little people”.   I understand that these were small groups of native inhabitants who probably still survived on the bleak and otherwise unlived on uplands and eked out an meagre existence. 

There is a theory I have heard, and it is only a theory that is lost in folklore, that when the Saxons arrived, the “little people” could have been surviving on the edge of Findon in an area that in later years would be known as Findon Park in the east of the parish.  

If a sprinkling remnant of the original Neolithic population survived on the downland, they were those not exterminated by the invading Celts.  They had in all probability intermingled and interbred with them.  Together they lived in fear of the Saxons.  These few could have remained aloof, living out a fugitive existence in the back of beyond as at the sheltered valley we know as Findon Park farm.

Therefore, these small lost tribes became known by the Saxons as the “little people” or “fairies”, living in the middle of nowhere.  They were cut off from their earlier settlements and probably only just surviving on the bleak and otherwise uninhabited fringe areas.  In all probability they managed to live not unlike that of the Aborigines today, on the sparsely inhabited edges of downland. 

Their ultimate extinction was only a matter of time and they were destined to live on only in folk memory before disappearing into oblivion.   It maybe quite possible that a handful of the descendants of the old Neolithic and Celtic survivors lingered on in the area for much longer than we imagine.  It has been suggested that people in the early Middle Ages may even have seen or have met someone who had seen the “little people”.

By 1219, parkland had grown up where the "little people" had lived.   This is known because it was belonging to Findon manor when the abbot of Fēcamp unsuccessfully claimed the right to hunt there.  The mediaeval park at Findon, in legal terms of the time, had to possess a licence, an enclosure, pasture and venison.   The wooded valleys, slopes and hollows isolated it from the village and sheltered it from the north and east winds and would have provided an ideal situation for such a park.

Findon Park is mentioned again in a deed dated 1269.

In 1279 William de Braose the Lord of the Manor of Findon, claimed the immemorial right of free warren in Findon, and was confirmed in it in 1281.  Tenants of the Bramber barony had the legal right to hunt in the park on Shrove Tuesday. 

Parkers were recorded in the parish in 1285-6 and again in the 15th century. 

By 1326 when the park comprised 160 acres, there was also a rabbit warren, and the tithe of rabbits and game and of pasture in the park were mentioned once more in 1341.

William de Braose VI spoke of his park of Findon as "Nostro parco de Findon".

Years later, Thomas Mowbray (died 22nd September 1400) the sixth successive member of that illustrious family to be Lord of the Manor of Findon, wrote of the area as “noster parco de Findon”.  All game belonged to the King and was licensed by him at this time.   The park at Findon provided pasture and shelter for deer (these were raised for sport and to augment the meat supply of the manor). 

A lodge (perhaps the forerunner of Findon Park farmhouse) was recorded in the deer park area in 1581. 

The park was still being managed as a park in 1631, when it was let on a twenty year lease.   Following this it was turned to agricultural land.

In 1875, Mr. C. F. Trower wrote claiming to have found traces of the enclosing park wall.  His father had leased the mansion at Muntham Court and Trower Junior had spent his many of his early years in Findon.  

The Sussex Archaeological Collections dated 1877 states of Findon Park.....

"The wall, though broken down, can still be traced, which enclosed its entire area.    The hautboys (great trees of the wood, including the ash and the holly) and the special vert are still there, while the deep dells of Chanctonbury, in which it is situate, exactly afford that leeward retreat which deer would require.   In old maps there is still the "warrender's cottage" as it is called  (behind the present farm-house), which I should, perhaps, dignify with the name of "lodge" for so it is described as far back as 1551"

Today the park's roughly oval boundary can be followed by bridle paths.  Much of the containing bank survives, especially on the north-west side.   The original boundaries can be traced to a great extent by following the ditch and bank, which in the days of the parkland would have housed a fence of stakes on its ridge.   This would have run in more or less of an oval shape from the west to east and touching the track leading from Cissbury Ring to Chanctonbury Ring.

Deer still abound in the Findon area.  A Findon gentleman was awakened around 2 p.m. one October night in 2003 by a persistent knocking at his door.    Knock, knock, scrape, scrape .... thump  there it was again.    He thought he would have to get up to investigate. 

Going to his front door.... (but not opening it for fear of being coshed on the doorstep), he cautiously peered  through the glazed portion of the door.    He could just make out a roe deer nosing in his petunia filled tubs and hanging baskets! 

The night prowler proceeded to trot along the side of the house and looked in his lounge window where the curtain was drawn back.   In all, this took some ten minutes, during which time my friend switched on the light in the lounge.   This did not deter the visitor who eventually wandered away and stood at a little distance trying to decide where to go next before proceeding in the direction of the downland!  

Continue if you would like to read about Findon's Pest House.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.