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Burpham is a Downland parish in the Arun Valley a couple of miles to the north of Arundel. It is bounded by the old and new courses of the River Arun to the west; North Stoke to the north west; Rackham and Parham to the north; Sullington to the north east; Angmering to the east and Warningcamp to the south. A detached portion of Angmering, formerly part of the medieval parish of Barpham, was transferred to the parish in 1933. The majority of the parish is open Downland though there are extensive woods bordering Angmering Park to the east and water meadows in the flood plain of the River Arun.

The name of the parish derives from the Saxon Burh that was set up by King Alfred to protect the southern coasts from the marauding Vikings. The fort was possibly built on an Iron Age headland though most indicators point to it of being Saxon origin as it is mentioned in the Burghal Hidage of 919. Unlike other Sussex Burhs set up at the time, namely Lewes and Hastings, Burpham never developed and had been superseded by Arundel possibly prior to the Norman invasion but definitely afterwards.

The parish is made up of three tithings of Burpham, Wepham and Peppering. Burpham originally grew up within the Saxon fort but shifted itself to the northern entrance by the late Saxon /early Norman period where the 11th century church was constructed. Across a narrow valley to the south east lies the hamlet of Wepham which is probably equal in size to its neighbour, whilst to the north was another hamlet, Peppering, which has now been reduced to a couple of farms. Outside these three settlements there was little habitation with the remote Coombe Log Farm being the only exception until the Second World War.

For many centuries the River Arun provided communication for the village but with the construction of a new channel built by the railway company in the 1860s to add navigation, the Burpham Loop as it became known became a backwater with the village wharf closing in 1887. The parish currently contains no major roads with all the current ones utilised to serve the parish with no access to anywhere north of Peppering High Barn. Of these roads Burpham Road is the main and only lane in and out. When it reaches Wepham it forms a junction with a narrow lane called The Splash giving alternative routes to The Street, Burphams main village street. Peppering Lane heads north to Peppering High Barn as well as west to Peppering Farm, whilst Peppering Farm Road heads north from the church to the same destination. A couple of the numerous bridleways and footpaths were also once main routes; the old Arundel-Steyning east-west highway runs through the south east corner of the parish having skirted the northern end of Angmering Park. Another old route known locally as the Leper's Way or Leper's Path was a medieval track that linked the church, where a leper's window still exists, with the old leper colony based around Lee Farm. The part of this track from its junction with The Street is currently known as Coombe Lane.

The current parish is largely in the hands of the Norfolk Estate who acquired much of it during the late 18th and early 19th century. The unspoilt nature of the settlements of Burpham and Wepham have attracted their fair share of writers and artists the most well known being John Cooper Powys, Mervyn Peake and Tickner Edwardes.

Bibliography
"Burpham" in Victoria County History: a History of Sussex Vol V part 2 (2009)
John Vigar - Deserted Villages of Sussex (Dovecote, 1994)
Peter Brandon - The South Downs (Phillimore 2002)
John Cowper Powys in Sussex

Maps Used
Burpham Tithe Map (1840) IR 30/35/48 - For field names
Burpham Parish Map (2000) in Kim Leslie (ed) - A Sense of Place (WSCC 2006) - For updated field names
Burpham & Warningcamp 20mph speed limit - West Sussex County Council (2011) - For local road names
Yeakell & Gardner - Map of Sussex (1778-83)
Chichester & South Downs (Cassini Maps) - 1813 one inch map
Old Maps (Link - 1:2500 (1875,1897,1911,1973) and 1:10000 (1879,1899,1913-14,1962-74,1976-77)
Ordnance Survey 1:25000, Pathfinder Series 1 TQ00 (1937-59) Series 2 TQ 01/11 (1979)
A to Z West Sussex (2012)

Created: Fri, 2 Aug 2013, Updated: Fri, 10 Feb 2017