Iping

There is an Iron Age contour fort on the hill at Hammer Wood north of the village.

This rectangular earthwork with rounded corners lies astride the Roman road between two major British tribal centres at Noviomagus Regnorum (Chichester) and Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester), which runs north-south through Iping.[2] Measuring 86 by 112 metres (282 ft × 367 ft), the area enclosed by the turf defences was about 0.9 ha (2 ¹⁄₄ acres), and would have contained the official posting station or mansio and perhaps an iron-smithy. It is similar in size to the way stations at Hardham and Alfoldean on Stane Street.[3] The station is situated at National Grid Reference SU:844261 (51° 1'40.46"N - 0°47'51.16"W), just over two miles to the north of Iping village and little over half a mile from the crossroads in the centre of the village of Milland, just south-east of the point where the Roman road crossed the Hammer Stream. Although unexcavated, surface finds of Roman material have been found within the confines of the earthwork. It could easily be confused with the Hammer Wood Iron Age contour fort which lies much closer to modern Iping.

Iping was listed in the Domesday Book (1086) in the ancient hundred of Easebourne as having 15 households: eight villagers, two smallholders and five slaves; with woodland, ploughing land, meadows, a church and a mill, it had a value to the lord of the manor of £4.[4]

In 1861, the population of the parish was 404 and its area was 1,925 acres (779 ha).[1]

Iping is the setting for the classic H. G. Wells science fiction story (1897) The Invisible Man.

Iping Water Mill was producing paper until the 1920s when a fire ended 900 years of various types of milling.