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South Harting is a village within Harting civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It lies on the B2146 road, southeast of Petersfield in Hampshire.
South Harting has two churches, one Anglican and one Congregational, plus a school and a pub. Recorded history dates from Norman times.
The National Trust property Uppark sits high on the South Downs, south of the village on the B2146.
Apart from three generations of the Earls Montgomery the manor was in the possession of the Crown until 1610, when it was granted to the Caryll family. During the First English Civil War in 1643, there were two engagements fought in the village including the Battle of South Harting fought on the night of 23–24 November 1643, and on 24 November the parish register records that 3 soldiers were buried in the churchyard. South Harting suffered greatly during the English Civil War and was ransacked multiple times by both sides. A Cavalier garrison was present in the village from early December 1643 centred around Harting Place, the house of Sir John Caryll who was an ardent Royalist, to protect the lines of communication between Winchester and Oxford, and the newly captured Arundel. A second engagement was fought in South Harting in December 1643.
In 1746 the manor was purchased by the Featherstonhaugh ( ) family, in whose possession it remains.
In 1861 the parish covered and had a population of 1,247.
South Harting was the subject of the 1956 documentary An English Village, as a quintessential English village nestled at the base of the South Downs, embodying the traditional, rural aspects of English life. Commissioned by the Colonial Office and produced by Anvil Films, the film showcases the village's economy centred around the land and brickworks, highlighting a self-sufficient and neighbourly community. The documentary illustrates how the church, parish council, local school, village shops, and community activities like the Women's Institute contribute to the cohesiveness and smooth running of village life. This portrayal serves not only as a record of the village in the mid-1950s but also as an archival treasure reflecting the timeless values of English village life before modern changes took effect.
In the churchyard is the tall South Harting War Memorial Cross, (1920),Collins, Judith, ‘'Eric Gill: The Sculpture'’, the Overlook Press, Woodstock N.Y., 1998 pp. 115-16 a World War I memorial by Eric Gill with the bas relief of St Patrick attributed to Gill being by Hilary Stratton.Public Sculpture of Sussex (Public Sculpture of Britain series), Jill Seddon, Peter Seddon, Anthony McIntosh, Liverpool University Press (30 November 2014) The memorial is a Grade II* listed structure.
South Harting has a Congregational Church.
Harting Cricket Club serves all the Hartings. Harting have a football club playing in the West Sussex Football League.
Admiral Sir Horace Law lived in South Harting and was a lay preacher at the parish church, where a room is named after him. Television presenter and producer Cliff Michelmore (1919–2016) was a local resident and was buried in the graveyard of the parish church in 2016 next to his wife Jean Metcalfe who died in 2000.
Peggy Guggenheim lived in the village during the 1930s.
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