Upper Beeding

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St Peter's Church (the Parish and Sele Priory Church) in Beeding.

Beeding Bridge and the River Adur, with Beeding High Street behind.

Upper Beeding is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the northern end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs four miles (6.4km) north of Shoreham-by-Sea. The site is a bridging point over the river: on the opposite bank are Bramber and Steyning, making the whole area somewhat built-up.

Upper Beeding is on the northern edge of the proposed South Downs National Park. The South Downs Way long distance footpath runs through the parish; the area is popular with walkers, cyclists and equestrians. The village boasts three pubs: The Rising Sun, The Kings Head and The Bridge Inn.

The community was originally (and for the majority of its history) called Beeding, with the civil parish changing to Upper Beeding in modern times (date unknown). As is common in such cases, the ecclesiastical parish retains the original name (hence it is the parish of Beeding, and the parish church is Beeding Church). In the early 13th Century the monks of Sele Priory (St Peter's Church, Beeding) began a mission to the area of St Leonard's Forest near Horsham, and established a small mission base, naming it Lower Beeding. Despite being some 10 miles away, Lower Beeding remained a part of (Upper) Beeding parish until Victorian times. The existence of Lower Beeding led to differentiation in the name of the original Beeding in some medieval sources, but always as River Beeding. For this reason the prefix Upper is still ignored by many local people today, who refer to their community by the original (and current ecclesiastical) title of Beeding.

In Saxon times Beeding had a near neighbour, the hamlet of Sele. Today's village of Upper Beeding incorporates both communities, with the village centre located between the sites of the two original Saxon settlements. Saxon Beeding was closer to the Dacre Gardens area of modern Beeding, whilst Saxon Sele was nearer to the parish church (Sele Priory Church of St Peter) in modern Beeding.

The parish of Upper Beeding had a population of 3,798 in 2001.