It has a successful shop and post office, a first class school, a well-supported village hall, sports facilities and church community.

And it has the most vital ingredient of all – a willing band of volunteers from all walks of life who are prepared to give up their time for the good of the community.

They come from the wealthiest and the most modest backgrounds and they pool their resources to ensure the future of a part of West Sussex many believe is another secret treasure hiding north of the Downs.

Every bend in the road seems to reveal yet another stunning wisteria-clad home and Fittleworth is home to household names including the legendary rock star Brian Ferry and award winning actress Maggie Smith.

The village has its fair share of folk who arrived to retire, but there are families and enough young people to warrant a parish council youth working party and to ensure a thriving Fittleworth Primary School under its headteacher Graham Bloomfield.

"The school places itself at the very heart of the village community and is working innovativily on ideas to provide extended services and a focus for village life," said Mr Bloomfield.

An estate of 12 houses emerged five years ago on a former scrapyard, but with prices of around £280,000 they were not designed to help younger villagers on more modest incomes.

But at Greatpin Croft around 55 of the 90 former Martlet Housing Association homes cater for those wanting to rent rather than buy.

In many ways Fittleworth hasn't changed for centuries, but in practice there is a well-organised group of villagers with their hands on the tiller.

Dr Anthony Poole, chairman of the parish council, is a relative newcomer after 11 years in Fittleworth. He joined the council and Fittleworth and District Association in l999.

The latter was a pressure group formed to fight a sand extraction plan and in l999 members did not see eye to eye with parish councillors. Over the years the disagreements have evaporated and now the two exist side by side.

"I imagine increasingly there are more retired people here, but we have a lot of families, too, because we have a very good school," said Dr Poole.

"We have very active sports clubs in terms of football, cricket and stoolball, we have the church, the shop and post office and these are the vital ingredients for survival."

Housing is one of the biggest issues facing villagers at present. "In producing our action plans we asked people what housing they thought we needed," said Dr Poole.

"We got a variety of views, but nobody really wants greenfield sites taken over for housing on the grounds the reason for coming to live in a place like this is then taken away."

Last year Chichester District Council proposed 70 new homes and it caused outrage. "For the first time the district council found out that Fittleworth existed in terms of the outcry," said Dr Poole.

It resulted in parish council elections for the first time in living memory as villagers stepped up to join the fight.

"The issue created a complete furore in Fittleworth and gave us new blood on the parish council," Dr Poole added.

The current consensus is for ten new homes, but villagers are well aware planners have their eye on field F111 – greenfield land behind Sorrels Farm which could accommodate more.

With the A283 cutting through the parish from east to west and the busy B2183 dissecting it from north to south, traffic is a problem.

Lorries are a growing nightmare, thundering through Fittleworth at 2.30am, rattling the foundations of ancient houses and causing cracks, waking villagers and having too many close shaves with boundary walls.

"It's such a problem we have a traffic sub-committee and we have had success mitigating the problem," said Dr Poole.

"We have signs and mobile speed cameras, but we would love to have the roads narrowed in the village centre to make it an obvious village atmosphere where villagers and horses take precedence."

The National Park is another vexing issue as Fittleworth falls outside the proposed boundary.

"From the word go we were convinced that a) we didn't want one at all and b) if there was going to be one, we had to be in it, not out. Otherwise we feared we could be subject to more housing."

Mike Elliott is secretary and treasurer of the village hall committee.

"We are ideally situated to be a hub of village life being next door to the school and often used by the children," said Mr Elliott.

"They come here for their Christmas productions and for sports activities."

Otherwise the doors are open to many groups including two fine arts groups, Young Crusaders, short mat bowls and Over-60s club.

"The annual fete is run by the Sports Association on the fields around us," said Mr Elliott.

"This year they are joining forces with the horticultural society, but the hall will be open for activities."

Wearing another hat, Mr Elliott, a retired finance executive, is chairman of the Fittleworth and District Association.

"Our aim is to preserve and protect the character of the village and the surrounding areas and we are a vehicle for making representations," he said.

Hesworth Common is a special feature of Fittleworth, owned by the parish council and maintained by the Hesworth Common sub committee. This has been headed for the past ten years by village stalwart Mike Allin, who has also been a parish councillors for 12 years.

"It's 135 acres of easily accessible walking country," said Mr Allin. "We have volunteers from the village to help with conservation and are helped by the Sussex Downs Conservation Board and the Worthing Conservation Volunteers."

Gardens are an important part of Fittleworth life and the garden trail is one of the biggest dates on the village calendar.

Villagers Bridget and David Connell and Fittleworth House head gardener Mark Saunders are the names behind the event.

The village horticultural society, chaired by Maj Gen Guy Watkins, is celebrating its centenary this year and has joined forces with Julie Hawkins and Carolann Townsend, two prime movers of the village fete, to organise the special village event on August 9, the day of the group's summer show.

There has been some role reversal at the rectory where the new priest in charge for Fittleworth and Stopham arrived two years ago.

The traditional role of making cups of tea for visitors and baking batches of cakes for local fetes has fallen to Stephen Waters, while his wife Carolyn prepares sermons and conducts services.

Ill health forced Mr Waters to retire three years ago from the priesthood.


ALL ABOUT FITTLEWORTH

Parish: Fittleworth, Coates, Little
Bognor, Bedham Population: 900
Parish precept: £15,500
Parish council chairman: Dr Anthony Poole
School: Fittleworth Primary School, head Graham Bloomfield
Pub and hotel: The Swan Inn
Church: St Mary the Virgin
Facilities: Fittleworth Village Hall, Pavilion and sports field, children's playground
Shop: Jonas's stores and post office


Hitting the headlines...
Sept 2004: Fittleworth wins West Sussex Village of the Year title
June 2000: Ancient archway restored as millennium project
March 1999: Scrapyard redeveloped into 12 house estate
March 1996: Treasure hunter strikes gold on his first day out






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