About the town » Cocking, West Sussex, England, Great Britain

Cocking is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The village is about three miles (5 km) south of Midhurst on the main road to Chichester. In the 2001 census there were 190 households with a total population of 459 of whom 223 were economically active. The 11th century Anglican parish church had no known dedication until 2007 when it was dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena. A railway once used to serve the area at Cocking Station, on the Chichester to Midhurst line opened in 1880, but was completely closed from 1953. In the centre of the village, on the corner of Mill Lane stands the old school, which is now a private residence. This was built in 1870 to the designs of architects Richard Carpenter and William Slater. The school has Gothic-style windows and door arches, is faced in flint with a red tiled roof and decorative barge-boards to the gables. The former schoolmaster's house has a distinctive chimney-stack with four outlets.