Welcome to the new website of Stedham with Iping Parish Council. It’s still a “work in progress” but the plan is to modernise our website, make it more user friendly and more informative with the aim of making the website a preferred source for the latest information on Parish matters and events. We need your help – so please let us know what you think of it so far and what other information would you like to see included.
Contact: clerk@stedhamwithiping-pc.gov.uk
What is a Parish Council?
A Parish Council is a community-level, ie local council and is the first tier of local government. A local council is a corporate body: a legal entity separate from its members, its decisions are the responsibility of the whole of the council. All the councillors have equal rights and responsibilities. This means that councillors do not have any authority as individuals, a councillor cannot act without first being formally granted the authority to do so by that council.
Parish Councils have been granted powers by Parliament to both raise money through taxation, ie the precept which appears on your annual Council Tax Bill, and spend public money.
Parish Councillors serve a four year term starting in May and then cease to be members until after the next election, when they may be re-elected to serve another term.
Stedham with Iping Parish Council covers an area of approximately 6 square miles in West Sussex, a couple of miles west of Midhurst, in the heart of the South Downs National Park. The parish runs from Ingrams Green and Minsted in the south to Stubbs Hill and Tote Hill in the north. The River Rother runs west to east right through the parish. In the south there is farmland and the common land, most of which forms the Iping and Stedham Commons Local Nature Reserve. North of the river is heavily wooded with deep sunken lakes.
A brief history
Stedham and Iping were separate parishes until the boundary changes of 1972. They were both long thin parishes. Iping ran from Ingrams Green in the south to the Wheatsheaf Enclosure on the county boundary in the north. Stedham likewise ran alongside Iping from just south of the Midhurst Petersfield railway line up to Wheatsheaf common on the county boundary just south of Liphook.
Stedham
Stedham Parish Council held its first meeting in the Stedham Board School on 4 December 1894 where the main business was the election of 9 parish councillors. 10/3½d (52 p) was spent on minute books and stationery. The first Chairman of Stedham Parish Council was Colonel W H Watson who lived at Minsted House.
Elections of councillors at the Annual Parish Meeting appear to have occurred in 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1899, 1901, 1904 and every 3 years thereafter until 1937.
The original Annual Parish Meeting minute book was completed on 13 April 1994. All the minutes of Stedham Parish Council annual meetings were hand-written until 1977, although the parish council meeting minutes were first typed in 1967.
The minutes of Stedham Parish Council from 1894 to November 1960 are in the West Sussex County Archives. The minutes from December 1960 are held by the Clerk.
Iping
Iping parish included Milland but in 1972 Milland Parish Council was formed from the northern parts of Chithurst, Iping and Stedham.
Iping Parish Council held its first meeting on Friday 20 April 1900. All meetings were held either at Iping or Hollycombe schools. The first Chairman of Iping Parish Council was Fraser Piggott who lived at Fitzhall.
All records of Iping Parish Council are held by Milland Parish Council.
Stedham with Iping Parish Council
The remaining parts of Iping and Stedham were amalgamated to form Stedham with Iping Parish Council. Its first meeting was held on 20 November 1972 under the chairmanship of Mr H W Jeans.