Discover Ditchling

If you are a visitor to Ditchling you will find a lot to enjoy and an ancient settlement to explore. If you are a resident, you will already know much about our history, but there is a wealth of detailed information available to satisfy even the most curious. Read on to discover what Ditchling of the present and the past has to offer.

Ditchling today

Ditchling today is a thriving village. It is large enough to support a wide range of societies and amenities while retaining its distinct personality. Its Arts & Crafts heritage is on display in its splendid museum and  throughout the village you will find the work of many crafts people carrying on the traditions today. The Ditchling Society aims to protect the special character of Ditchling today while ensuring the community has the resources to flourish in the twenty-first century.  

The past - an overview

The shape of the parish of Ditchling reflects the needs of its Anglo-Saxon inhabitants over a millennium ago. To the north are the common lands of the Weald, offering fertile summer grazing for livestock. The village itself is set on a narrow band of sandstone that runs from east to west and from where, to the south, rise the chalk Downs, the source of fresh water springs and dry upland grazing. The parish today is still over six times as long (10km) as it is wide (1.6km).

Earlier examples of human occupation include the prehistoric hill fort atop Ditchling Beacon, the Bronze Age barrow on Lodge Hill adjacent to the village, and the major Roman road that ran east-west along the sandstone ridge through the village.

For those wishing to explore widely, the Ordnance Survey’s Explorer OS11 map provides everything you need for a pleasant day’s walking. If you would like a more detailed understanding of the village of Ditchling, then the Ditchling History Project’s Walk Around Ditchling Village booklet (60pp, £5 plus p&p) covers the centre of the village and gives an excellent overview of it cultural and architectural history. You can buy it online from the Project or buy a copy from the village post office.

Delving more deeply

At the heart of the village is a conservation area containing many listed buildings. A detailed character appraisal of the Ditchling conservation area was published in 2007 and there are links below to the sections of the appraisal, together with a series of maps showing the location of Ditchling’s listed buildings. An updated appraisal is scheduled and the Ditchling Society is liaising with the South Downs National Park Authority on this update.

There are over eighty listed buildings in Ditchling, of which two are listed Grade 1 and one Grade 2*. Only 2.5% of listed buildings nationally are Grade 1, being considered of exceptional national architectural or historic importance, while 5.5% are Grade II* of particular importance with architectural or historical interest. 

As part of a millennium project the Ditchling Society, jointly with the Ditchling History Project, produced “Ditchling Preserved” (45pp, £10 plus p&p),  a photographic record of 45 of Ditchling’s finest houses at the end of the twentieth century with additional research on the history of the buildings and some of their inhabitants.

 

 

DITCHLING CONSERVATION AREA

Ditchling Conservation Area Character Appraisal:
Ditchling Conservation Area Appraisal Maps: