On a grassy verge beside the A29, flowers and cards with messages of sympathy from around the country have been placed.
In the 11 days since the body of Sarah Payne was discovered in a field on the other side of the hedge the silent tributes have grown. Flowers cover the grass and every message conveys the grief of a nation at the killing of an innocent little girl.
Families, parents and individuals have made the journey to Pulborough, West Sussex, often just to place a flower and offer a silent prayer.
For Sarah's family, lost in private grief, this shrine to their daughter with its physical evidence of a nation's wish to share in their sorrow is an offer of comfort as they try to come to terms with her murder.
The outpouring of emotion over the death of this little girl has drawn the public closer to the Payne family. It is true that most people cannot imagine what they are going through, but it is almost as if by making the trip to Pulborough, or telephoning the police to offer condolences, a sense of connection is made between them and the Paynes.
It is also true that the continuous media coverage of the search for Sarah, with almost every detail of the investigation made available to the public, made people feel closer to Sarah and her family. Every day of the search Sussex police officers appealed for help to locate her, or for a snippet of information that might lead them to where she was being held. Emotional appeals by her parents helped keep the case in everyone's mind. Their belief that Sarah might be found alive struck a chord with all mothers and with every parent.
But it was not to be. A young man walking in fields near Pulborough found Sarah's body and all hope was gone.
At that moment, the grief of a family and a nation was released. It has already been suggested in the British media that the depth of emotion expressed over Sarah's death will not be repeated for those who perished in the Concorde crash in Paris on Tuesday. That may be true because in the case of Sarah Payne it is easier for people to focus on the individual rather than the large numbers who died on Concorde.
Since the death of Princess Diana, national grief springs forth more readily than before. Some believe it is the erosion of community in Britain that has enabled the British to come together to grieve in a collective way that was unheard of ten years ago. Recently, Susie Orbach, who was once Princess Diana's psychotherapist, suggested her death created a new form of national mourning. "It's an attempt to form a civil society, since so many of us feel we don't have one anymore," she said.
But the nation's grief can be a hit-and-miss affair. While one little girl was mourned in West Sussex, the disappearance and tragic death of Andrea Auriglietti, a five-year-old boy from London whose body was found on the same day as Sarah's, was almost forgotten.
Alongside the grief for Sarah Payne the feeling that something must be done grew, taking on different forms as it gripped the public and the media. It prompted the News of the World last week to publish the names and photographs of about 50 paedophiles living in Britain. But while the newspaper felt it was the right thing to do - and it is preparing to publish more details about paedophiles this weekend - the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO) condemned the move as irresponsible, saying it would drive paedophiles underground.
And in the wake of a man being wrongly targeted by people who believed his name was on the News of the World list, the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, the Conservatives and senior police officers also criticised the newspaper saying it should have acted on the advice of the police.
In the heat of fears over vigilantes searching for paedophiles, the enduring image of the Sarah Payne case will undoubtedly be the sight of her parents and brothers and sister visiting the floral shrine to their little girl. Their hurt was joined, even for a brief time, with a collective hurt. And as one letter placed by the roadside said: "Not since Diana are a nation's hurt so true, the feelings of why? For this beautiful little princess."