Fulking

Fulking Parish Council has five parish councillors.[5] The Parish Council holds an annual meeting (usually in May) and at least three other ordinary meetings a year; additional meetings may be called to discuss planning applications.[6] Meetings are held at Fulking Village Hall.[7]

Fulking civil parish is in Hurstpierpoint and Downs Ward of the non-metropolitan district of Mid Sussex;[8] the ward returns three councillors to Mid Sussex District Council.[9]

The responsibilities of district councils usually include local planning, housing, local highways, building, environmental health, and refuse collection.[10] However, the parish lies wholly with the South Downs National Park. The planning authority for Fulking is therefore the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA), the statutory planning authority for the National Park area.[11]

Fulking civil parish is in the Hurstpierpoint and Bolney electoral division of the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex.[8] The division returns one councillor to West Sussex County Council.[12]

The functions of county councils include education, transport, strategic planning, fire services, consumer protection, refuse disposal, social services and libraries.[10]

Fulking civil parish is in the Arundel and South Downs constituency.[8]

Fulking civil parish contains 22 listed buildings. Of these, one is Grade II* and the remaining 21 are Grade II.

The Grade II* listed building is:

• Perching Manor Farmhouse (List Entry Number 1354845), an L-shaped 18th century house.[13]

The parish contains four scheduled monuments.

• Motte-and-bailey castle on Edburton Hill (List Entry Number 1012171), the earthworks and interior area of a castle believed to date from the immediate post-Conquest period, soon after October 1066.[14][15]
• Bowl barrow on Scabes Castle (List Entry Number 1014950), lying on the parish boundary between Fulking and Poynings, an originally circular funerary monument, now a roughly oval mound, having been levelled by modern ploughing on its eastern side.[16]
• Bowl barrow on Fulking Hill (List Entry Number 1014951), a circular mound which shows signs of part-excavation in the past.[17]
• Deserted medieval settlement and associated cultivation terraces on Perching Hill (List Entry Number 1015125). Downland was rarely inhabited during the medieval period; the establishment of the settlement is probably due to the presence of an underground water course in the coombe, indicated by a well about 60 m to the west of the monument.[18]

A distinctive feature of Fulking is the remains of a late Nineteenth Century water supply system. A hydraulic ram, housed in small building near the Shepherd and Dog public house, pumped water from a stream up hill to a reservoir at the western end of the village street, where a drinking fountain and water trough were provided. The water was then fed by gravity to two further reservoirs, supplying two hand pumps along the street.[19]

The building housing the hydraulic ram bears the inscription, on ceramic tiles, ‘He sendeth springs into the valleys which run among the hills | Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness’ (Psalm 104, verse 10 and Psalm 107, verse 8). It is a Grade II listed building (List Entry Number 1354830).[20] The drinking fountain bears the inscription, on ceramic tiles, ‘To the glory of God | And in honour of John Ruskin | Psalm LXXVIII | That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God | But keep his commandments | Who brought streams also out of the rock’ (Psalm 58, verses 7 and 16). The drinking fountain is also listed (List Entry Number 1334374),[21] as are the two associated hand pumps in the village (List Entry Number 1096867 and List Entry Number 1285792).[22][23]

The system was installed in 1886. Henry Willett, a wealthy brewer from Brighton, and John Ruskin are usually credited with devising and instigating the water supply scheme.[19] However, contemporary newspaper accounts give credit for the scheme to Rev. F. Gell, rector to Edburton, with generous support from Henry Willet.[24][25] Ruskin himself, in a letter to Willet dated Brantwood, 16 June 1887, said ‘I was grieved by your inscription on the fountain, for it made my name far too conspicuous, nor did I feel that the slightest honour was owing to me in the matter’.[26]