Loxwood

The 2001 census recorded a population of 1341 people living in 660 households. 536 people were economically active. Between that census and 2011 approximately 55 more dwellings have been built, probably adding net more than 100 people. At March 1, 2011 the electoral register showed 1200 electors. The 2011 Census gave a population of 1,480.

A considerable number of the economically active residents of Loxwood are self-employed. Most people who commute regularly to a principal place of work do so to the Gatwick Diamond area (loosely an area between Redhill in the north and Crawley to the south), to Horsham, to Guildford or Woking, or to London, and tele-commuting is growing in popularity.

There is a primary school, village hall, with outdoor children's playing facilities, a sports centre, an Anglican church, a Chapel, two pubs The Onslow Arms and the "Sir Roger Tichborne" at Alfold Bars, a small number of shops with a sub-Post Office in the Loxwood Village Stores, John Murray and Son's, an award-winning butcher, game dealer and supplier of cheeses, cooked meats and other delicacies about a butcher's cold and cutting room supplying local pubs and restaurants and clubs, Forget-Me-Not - a florist and gift shop, Just Hair - a hairdressing business, Kennard's garage in Loxwood village, and a small car showroom and workshop at Alfold Bars.

Additionally Loxwood has an NHS medical practice with some 4 GPs, several practice Nurses, a Dispensary (rural practices), and a visiting Physiotherapist all supported by an active "Friends of Loxwood Medical Practice". Two further physiotherapist services are available in Loxwood, one based at the Loxwood Sports Association, the other on private premises.

The village was once one of the settlements greatly influenced by a small Christian sect, the Society of Dependants, also known as Cokelers who left London in the mid-1800s. They built their first chapel in the village. The sect evolved to run a Combination Store in the village, the building for which houses villages shops today.

Lawrence Durrell, author of The Alexandria Quartet, lived here from 1933 to 1934, in a cottage called Chestnut Mead.[3] Durrell, along with his first wife Nancy and another young couple, George and Pam Wilkinson, left Fitzrovia to live in the English countryside. It was here that Durrell, then in his early twenties, wrote what became his first published novel, Pied Piper of Lovers.[4]

Loxwood Primary School was reported to have 155 children on the school roll in 2001.[5] Typically 30% to 50% of these children are not from Loxwood itself, but from surrounding villages; this has been attributed to the closing of smaller adjacent, village schools. A "pre-School" is adjacent to the school, supported financially and in other ways by a Parents group who have run a Beer Festival for several years.

Loxwood has a Non-League football club Loxwood F.C. who play at the recreation ground on Plaistow Road, and have been playing since 1920.[6]

Purlieus of the village include Alfold Bars, Gunshot Common, Flitchfold, Roundstreet Common, Drungewick Lane and Manor, and Wephurst Park.

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• Loxwood Village