Upwaltham

Compass Bus route 99 between Petworth and Chichester serves Upwaltham six days a week, from Monday to Saturday. There is no service in the evening, or on Sunday or public holidays.{{cite web |url= https://www.compass-travel.co.uk/download/west-sussex-bus-services/099.pdf |title=Flexible Route 99 |publisher=Compass Bus |access-date=21 June 2021}}

Prehistoric remains in the parish include a set of Bronze Age round barrows on Waltham Down in the north of the parish.{{NHLE |num=1008762 |desc=Bell barrow south-west of Heath Hanger: part of Waltham Down round barrow cemetery |access-date=21 June 2021}}{{NHLE |num=1009913 |desc=Bowl barrow on Waltham Down, 320 ESE of crossroads: part of Waltham Down round barrow cemetery |access-date=21 June 2021}}{{NHLE |num=1009914 |desc=Bowl barrow on Waltham Down, 200m east of cross roads: part of Waltham Down round barrow cemetery |access-date=21 June 2021}}{{NHLE |num=1009911 |desc=Two bowl barrows on Waltham Down, 115m east of crossroads: part of Waltham Down round barrow cemetery |access-date=21 June 2021}} Also Middle Bronze Age are the cross dykes on Upwaltham Hill.{{NHLE |num=1018061 |desc=Double cross dyke on Upwaltham Hill |access-date=21 June 2021}}{{NHLE |num=1018060 |desc=Cross dyke on Upwaltham Hill, 500m and 620m south east of Upwaltham Farm |access-date=21 June 2021}}

"Waltham" is a common English place-name, derived from the Old English weald, meaning wood, and hām, meaning meadow or enclosure. The prefix "Up" indicates that it is higher than a neighbouring settlement.{{harvnb|Ekwall|1960|loc=Waltham St. Lawrence}}

From the Middle Ages onward, Upwaltham was in the hundred of Boxgrove in the Rape of Chichester. The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as having 11 households including one slave; resources included woodland, and land for ploughing and for pigs.{{cite web |work=Open Domesday |title=(Up)Waltham |url= https://opendomesday.org/place/SU9413/up-waltham/ |access-date=16 June 2019}} There were two manors: one of six hides and the other of four.{{sfn|Salzman|1953|pp=174–175}}

File:Interior of Tithe barn at Upwaltham - geograph.org.uk - 1602007.jpg

At Church Farm, just west of the parish church, is a 17th-century barn. It has a timber queen post frame, weatherboarded walls and tiled roof. It is a Grade II* listed building.{{NHLE |num=1026166 |desc=Barn at Church Farm to the north of the farmhouse |grade=II* |access-date=21 June 2021}}

The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin is now part of a combined Benefice with All Hallows, Tillington.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

The church building is 12th-century Norman. It is built of stone and flint, with walls {{convert|3|ft|1}} thick.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} The font and piscina are Norman. The font is plain, but the piscina seems to be made from a reused Norman column capital.{{sfn|Nairn|Pevsner|1965|p=361}} The chancel is an apse, linked to the nave by a 13th-century pointed arch. Some of the windows{{sfn|Nairn|Pevsner|1965|p=361}} and the arch for the south door are 14th-century. The porch and floor tiles are 19th-century.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} The church is a Grade I listed building.{{NHLE |num=1026165 |desc=The parish church of St Mary the Virgin |grade=I |access-date=21 June 2021}}

Parish records of births and deaths from 1592 are held by the West Sussex Records Office.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

There have been at least two notable air crashes in the parish. In 1944 an RAF Avro Lancaster crashed on Waltham Down. In 1945 a USAAF Douglas C-47 Skytrain crashed into Upwaltham Hill. In 1949 two RAF Gloster Meteors crashed in the area, one of them possibly in Upwaltham parish.File:War memorial plaque, Upwaltham church - geograph.org.uk - 2157334.jpg

The Lancaster was from 617 Squadron at RAF Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire.{{cite web |url= https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/199340 |title=ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 199340 |work=Aviation Safety Network |publisher=Flight Safety Foundation |access-date=21 June 2021}} On 12 February 1944 it had landed at RNAS Ford on the way back from a mission, and on the morning of 13 February it took off to return to Woodhall Spa. There was low cloud and visibility was poor. The Lancaster hit trees on Waltham Down, broke up and caught fire.{{cite web |url= http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Sussex/UpwalthamFourNations.html |last=Venables |first=Dione |title=Upwaltham Four Nations War Memorial |work=Roll of Honour |date=13 August 2009 |access-date=21 June 2021}}

Of the eight airmen aboard, seven were killed on impact. Local farmworkers rescued the pilot from the cockpit, but he was badly burned and died two days later in St Richard's Hospital in Chichester. The pilot and two other crewmen were from the Royal Canadian Air Force. Two other members of the crew were from the Royal Australian Air Force.

The Skytrain was from the 27th Transport Group. On 11 February 1945 it was on a flight from Paris–Le Bourget Airport to RAF Grove in Berkshire.{{cite web |url= https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19450211-1 |title=ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 19450211-1 |work=Aviation Safety Network |publisher=Flight Safety Foundation |access-date=21 June 2021}} It crossed the Sussex coast about 1125 hrs at an altitude of only {{convert|300|to|400|ft}}. The weather was worsening, visibility had decreased to {{convert|25|yard}}, and the crew may not have realised they were no longer over the sea. The aircraft's port wing hit trees on Upwaltham Hill and was torn off. The aircraft seems to have cartwheeled before breaking up. All seven men aboard were killed.

File:Upwaltham Lancaster.jpgOn 25 November 1949 two Gloster Meteor Mk IV aircraft of 43 Squadron at RAF Tangmere crashed on the South Downs, killing their pilots. Some reports suggest that one of the aircraft crashed in Upwaltham parish.{{cite web |url= https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/233025 |title=ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 233025 |work=Aviation Safety Network |publisher=Flight Safety Foundation |access-date=21 June 2021}}

In 2003, a local resident, Dione Venables, started work on creating a permanent memorial to commemorate the 15 airmen killed in the Lancaster and Skytrain crashes, and in 2009 an engraved stone plaque was unveiled in St Mary the Virgin parish church including a rare flypast of a World War Two Lancaster Bomber.{{cite news |last1=Anon |title=Sussex village pays tribute to airmen |url=https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4560420.sussex-village-pays-tribute-to-airmen/ |access-date=25 March 2024 |agency=The Argus |publisher=The Argus |date=22 August 2009}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Ekwall |first=Eilert |author-link=Eilert Ekwall |orig-date=1936 |year=1960 |title=Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names |edition=4th |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0198691033 |at=Duncton}}
• {{cite book |last=Godwin |first=Jeremy |year=1991 |title=The Church in the Field, A Guide to the Church |place= |publisher=}} (Available at the church)
• {{cite book |last1=Nairn |first1=Ian |author1-link=Ian Nairn |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author2-link=Nikolaus Pevsner |year=1965 |title=Sussex |series=The Buildings of England |place=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-071028-0 |pages=213–214}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Salzman |editor-first=LF |editor-link=Louis Francis Salzman |year=1953 |chapter=Up Waltham |title=A History of the County of Sussex |volume=4: The Rape of Chichester |series=Victoria County History |place= |publisher=Oxford University Press for the Institute of Historical Research |isbn=978-0712905886 |url= https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol4/pp174-175}}

{{Commons category}}

{{Chichester}}

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Category:Civil parishes in West Sussex

Category:Hamlets in West Sussex

Category:Aviation accidents and incidents locations in England