Yapton Parish Council

Yapton is known as the village that "never closes its doors" - thought to refer to the days when smugglers making their way with their contraband from the beaches of nearby Clymping found plenty of open doors in Yaptonto help them escape the pursuing excise men!

The name Yapton is thought to derive from "Eppa's ton" - Eppa being one of two priests who were left in Sussex about AD681 by Bishop St Wilfrid who bought Christianity to Sussex to continue the work of converting and baptising local people.

Nowadays Yapton is a thriving rural village. Over the last 30 years it has grown rapidly but is still an interesting and self-contained community with two Conservation Areas, which include a number of listed buildings. It is centred around the King George V Playing Field and this, viewed from the main road, shows up the historic village church, set against the backdrop of the South Downs with Arundel in the distance.

Yapton is well supplied with village services including two churches: St Mary's CE, and a non-denominational chapel, a primary school, four public houses, a fine village hall now featuring a Millennium clock tower, and a variety of shops.

The Parish Council has been in existence since 1894. With relatively modest resources (the current precept is £40,000) its members strive to provide an efficient, cost-effective and valuable service for the people of Yapton to make the village a really pleasant place to live.