Nutbourne is a small hamlet running North to South situated 1.5 miles east of Pulborough in the Sussex Weald. The favourable topographical features of the locality comprise of gently sloping terrain of the Hythe Beds with a southerly aspect and a soil of loam on greensand readily suitable for cultivation. This together with a constant supply of water induced the establishment of a farming settlement, probably by the Saxons. At the time of the Doomsday Survey, the Manor of Nordborne was rated at six hides and contained two mills. However, during succeeding centuries it developed only very gradually.
Today it still remains a small farming village. It has lost most of its soft fruit growing but has a thriving vineyard with public wine-tasting in an old windmill from May to September. The Rising Sun public house is very popular and is the centre of life for the community. The shops have gone but a garage remains doing mechanical and body repairs. Behind and within the walls of houses small businesses operate doing all kinds of work such as meat sales, travel agency, internet search engine management, car windscreen repair factory control and International legislation compliance certification for leading motor manufacturers. A lot goes on for a very small place and there is more work in the community than would first appear!
The village street inclines northwards, and although developed on both sides the general impression is of stone buildings and walls built up to the road frontage on the west, and grassed banks and hedges on the east, with The Street itself criss-crossed by overhead lines. The stone walls lining the street and houses are listed of townscape value.
Represented in the village are various periods and styles of architecture, ranging from timber-framed cottages to modern red brick houses. However, all the buildings are of a simple domestic scale and it is this uniformity of scale together with the variety of their massing, design, detailing, texture and irregular positioning and spacing along the road frontage which gives the village its basic physical character. Stone is the predominant building material being used extensively for boundary walls as well as buildings, and so it is a unifying element of the street scene. The rural nature of The Street itself results from the presence of grassed verges and banks instead of separate pavements for pedestrians, together with the abundance of planting along the frontages of properties. This character however has been lost in places by the formation of lay-bys to serve new development. These incursions into The Street frontage, with their use of concrete and the rigidity of their design, are in harsh contrast to the mellow and irregular lines of the rest of The Street.
At its northern end The Street divides into two, with the highway bending west and then northwards through a cutting towards Gay Street and North Heath, whilst the other part bends east past the former school to become a non-metalled bridle road. This narrow track becomes a dark, damp passage being bordered by banks and overhung by trees, but in a short distance it suddenly emerges into a small valley containing a mill pond surrounded by high wire fencing that detracts from otherwise unspoilt beauty of the area. There are stone former mill buildings to the south followed by a series of ponds. In the east there is a vineyard and to the North the valley is contained by a steep tree covered slopes with more ponds created by dams across a small brook. To the west are more gentle slopes with field boundaries defined by trees and bushes. The views outwards are restricted by the topography and as a result this valley is a distinctive environmental area, virtually isolated from the village, but retaining clear evidence of its historical associations with the settlement. Generally there is an air of tranquility, which is in pleasing contrast to the more active atmosphere of The Street. and it is popular with walkers and ramblers from far afield. Recently a Conservation and History Group has been formed with the aim of Preserving and enhancing the area.