Milland is not so much a village but more of a movable feast. While other communities have fought to retain their village services and focal points, it is fair to say Milland has been struggling to find one. And ironically, as others around them face a losing battle, Milland seems finally to have found a centre and a way to meet the challenges of rural life in the 21st century.

Val Porter has lived there for nearly 30 years. From her delightful cottage tucked away in one of Milland's many nooks and crannies, she has researched every aspect of Milland and written its definitive work: Milland: The Book.

She is at the very heart of village life and has taken the place to her own heart. So she is more qualified to say: "It's a hotchpotch really. It's nine square miles, but it's not what you think of as a village with a pretty church and shop and school all in a cluster – they are spread out.

"Originally it was an empty area with farms and estates, but no centre, and even to this day it isn't really a village."

The parish of Milland was officially formed only in 1972, but it can trace its origins back to Saxon times.

Over the years its community centre has shifted around until today when it seems to have settled at the crossroads alongside the pub, the village hall and Vale's garage.

In the midsts of time the settlement was based around Milland Place, the grand Elizabethan estate half-way up the hill. In the 19th century it was superceded by Hollycombe House to the west which owned much of the land that is now in Milland parish.

Hollycombe School was built by the owners of the Hollycombe estate in mid-Victorian times and a community began to evolve around it in an area known as Wardley, where there were several shops.

The last of these was the village stores and post office run by Kath Flarry (a member of Milland's Vale family) and her husband Neville, until the mid-1980s.

"We have tried to get another shop going, so many times in the past few years," said Val. "But we don't have a suitable building. At one time there was talk of putting one between the pub and the village hall, but it didn't happen."

In the 1930s, what should have been one of the focal points of village life, the Rising Sun pub, was knocked down during speculation the new A3 would go through Milland.

The new Rising Sun was rebuilt as a roadhouse to attract A3 passing trade.

Eventually the A3 took a vastly different road. Although the new Rising Sun did not become a roadhouse it does find itself very much the focal point of Milland, sitting as it does at what is today the closest Milland has come to finding a centre of village life.

Housing has grown up around it. Next door is the hugely-busy village hall and stretching out beside that is the recreation field.

Milland, unlike many other villages in West Sussex, has fought tooth and nail for housing to keep the place alive. In the 1940s Cartersland Corner grew up at the crossroads..

"It's almost as though some planner in his office thought 'this is a very nothing area, it ought to have a middle'," said Val.

And so he planned a new housing estate, opposite the pub. A couple of decades later more housing followed, in Millvale Meadows, West Meade, in Drakeley's Field and Pennells Close.

"Suddenly we were beginning to look like a village," said Val.

By this stage Val was clerk to the parish council which was chaired by Darcy Burdett.

"There was nowhere for the younger generation to live and there were older people living in big council houses who wanted to move but stay in Milland.

"After a hell of a battle we persuaded Chichester District Council it was important to have affordable housing."

And in a pioneering project driven by Milland parish councillors and built by Chichester Diocesan Housing Association, Strettons Copse was born, bringing 11 new bungalows to Milland for those most in need.

There is a special sense of community in 'the valley'. "There's a real gung-ho feel of enthusiasm here," said Val, "and a sense of making things happen."

There was the case of the tennis courts, for instance. A group of people decided they wanted to play tennis on the recreation field. The MATCH campaign was born (Make a Tennis Court Happen) and after countless fundraising events the tennis court did happen.

Then there was the stone wall at the much-loved Iping Marsh Church. The church was allowed to fall into disrepair and was demolished in the l980s.

The wall surrounding the remaining graveyard began to crumble and church authoirities were going to replace it with a barbed wire fence. Millanders decided that wasn't good enough.

They formed a working party, learned how to rebuild the wall under the expert guidance of Isabella Morton-Smith and completed the task in 1997.

And with the graveyard at Linch church now full, the much loved Iping Marsh graveyard is still the final resting place for many villagers in its remote and tranquil corner of the parish.

The Milland Valley News was born in 1996 to keep villagers up to speed with all Milland happenings.

After making it happen, villagers had to find a way of keeping it happening. So it was that Milland Rural Fair was born.

Today the fair raises enough money not only to finance the news magazine, but also to help other village organisations.

In the 1970s a committee was formed to build a new village hall next to the Rising Sun and in Milland fashion the fundraisers went into overdrive and made it happen.

Just eight years ago Milland's millennium project gave the hall a facelift and today it thrives as a centre of community life and home to many village activities.

Milland Sports Club began life as a rifle range set up during the Boer wars by the Hollycombe House estate.

It was later converted into a working men's club and eventually became home to the Sports Club as it is today. The club has flourishing cricket and football teams.

ALL ABOUT MILLAND

Parish: Milland
Population: 1,000
Parish precept: £20,000
Parish council chairman: Andy Coe
School: Hollycombe Primary
Headteacher: Stephanie Fiske
Pubs: The Rising Sun, The Black Fox
Churches: St Luke's Church, Linch, St Luke's Church Milland, Milland Evangelical Church, Iping Marsh
Facilities: Milland Valley Memorial Hall and recreation ground, Borden Village Hall, Milland sports club

Hitting the headlines...
April 2008: Parish clerk gets parish award for really making a difference
Oct 2007: Protest at overhead powerline plan
Feb 1999: Sudden storm stuns amazed witnesses
June 1987: Earl of March opens Strettons Copse pioneer housing development