Fulking – Good Shepherd

The village of Fulking is something of an anomaly, for although it has been a separate civil parish since 1894, it has always belonged to the ecclesiastical parish of Edburton (VCH 7 p202), of which it is the largest settlement.  It is in the Rape of Lewes and thus became part of the county of East Sussex when that was established.  Edburton was in the Rape of Bramber and so was assigned to West Sussex (since the alteration of the county boundary in 1974, both are in West Sussex).  It is thus an exception to the general principle in Sussex that ecclesiastical parish boundaries followed those of the rapes (here the boundary was also that between the mediaeval archdeaconries).

A mission house, as it was then called, was established at Fulking around 1890, which was paid for by William Moon (1818-94).  Moon, blind from the age of 22, devised an embossed alphabet for the blind.  He lived most of the time in Brighton, but had a summer residence at Fulking.  The VCH gives the date of 1925 for the mission church and it is possible that Moon’s building was remodelled or rebuilt at this time, which is probably when it acquired the dedication to the Good Shepherd.  No architect is recorded at either date, but since the present chapel is hardly to be distinguished from a cottage, even to the diamond-pained windows set in small gables, it is quite possible that none was employed.  It has not been used for worship since the 1970s, though it remains on the diocesan list, and now serves community purposes.

Source

1.   http://fulking.net/dr-moon-at-the-croft

My thanks to Gerald Gazdar for drawing the above website to my attention and for providing a number of corrections. 

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