VCH Sussex Publications

Edited by William Page, this volume was published in 1905.

The volume contains entries on the following subjects:

• Natural History
• Early Man
• Anglo-Saxon Remains
• Introduction to the Sussex Domesday
• Translation of the Sussex Domesday
• Ancient Earthworks
• Political History
• Index to the Sussex Domesday

The full text is available via the Internet Archive.

Edited by William Page this volume was published in 1907.

The volume contains entries on the following subjects:

• Ecclesiastical History
• Religious Houses
• Maritime, History
• Social and Economic History
• Industries
• Agriculture
• Endowed Schools
• Sport Ancient and Modern

The entries on medieval religious houses are on British History Online.

The full text is available via the Internet Archive.

Edited by L.F. Salzman, this volume was published in 1935.

The volume includes accounts of Romano-British Sussex and the city of Chichester with the parish of Kingsham.

The part of the volume concerning Chichester is on British History Online.

Edited by L.F. Salzman, this volume was published in 1953.

The volume covers the area surrounding Chichester, from Selsey on the south coast to Midhurst to the north, and from Bognor Regis in the east to the county border with Hampshire in the west. This includes the hundreds of Dumpford; Easebourne;  Westbourne and Singleton; Box and Stockbridge; Bosham; Manhood, and Aldwick.

The city of Chichester itself is covered in volume III.

This volume is on British History Online.

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Edited by T P Hudson with contributions from A.P. Baggs and H.M. Warne, this volume was published in 1977.

This volume describes the history of the borough of Arundel, with its noted castle, religious houses, and Roman Catholic cathedral, and 11 rural and suburban parishes in the adjoining coastal region of Sussex, including Felpham and Middleton.

This volume is on British History Online.

Edited by Christopher Lewis, this volume was published in 2009.

This volume covers the parishes of Angmering, Burpham, Ferring, Goring, Kingston, Littlehampton, Lyminster, Poling, East Preston, Rustington, North Stoke and Warningcamp, assessing their history from the earliest times to the present day. There is a particular emphasis on seaside coastal development from the eighteenth century onwards.

This volume is not available online.

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Edited by T.P. Hudson with contributions from A.P. Baggs, C.R.J. Currie, C.R. Elrington, S.M. Keeling and A.M. Rowland, this volume was published in 1980.

This volume describes the southern part of Bramber rape, the easternmost of the three rapes of West Sussex. It tells the history of 19 parishes lying along the coastal strip and over the South Downs. The rape takes its name from the castle at Bramber, which was the centre of the feudal honour and in whose shadow the de Braoses, the lords of the rape, planted a new town. Neighbouring Steyning, once one of the chief towns of the county, was a Saxon foundation with a college of secular canons and a port on the river Adur. The port gradually silted up and was replaced by that at New Shoreham, another Norman town planted in a corner of Old Shoreham parish. New Shoreham, once a major channel port and a centre for shipbuilding, has been much affected by changes in the coastline; the modern harbour lies in Kingston Bowsey and Southwick. The silting and reclamation of the Adur estuary has also changed the face of Lancing, where the college and chapel overlook the new ground. Sompting near by has one of the several noteworthy Romanesque churches is the area. The growth of Worthing was impeded in the 19th century by sanitary problems, but the town is now the second largest in Sussex. It was also formerly renowned for its glasshouse produce. It has swallowed its parent parish of Broadwater and the parishes of Durrington, Heene, and West Tarring, the last named including two fine medieval secular buildings. The urban sprawl takes in part of Findon, scene of the annual sheep fair, which like Clapham and Patching to the west retains extensive downland. Washington, north of the downs is noted for market gardening and sand quarrying, while at Wiston was one of the most important country houses in Sussex. The tally of parishes is completed by the deserted villages of Botolphs and Coombes.

This volume is on British History Online.

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Edited by T.P. Hudson, with contributions from A.P. Baggs, C.R.J. Currie, C.R. Elrington, S.M. Keeling and A.M. Rowland, this volume was published in 1986.

The volume gives the history of the ten parishes that form the north-western part of Bramber rape, from Sullington in the south to Warnharn in the north, lying mostly in the Weald. Horsham is the focus of the area, and its history occupies more than a third of the volume. It was a borough by 1235 and developed later as one of the chief towns of the county, hav-ing the county gaol from the 16th to the 19th century and being from 1889 to 1916 joint county town of West Sussex with Chichester. Horsham parish also contained an extensive rural area, and West Grin-stead and Shipley were other unusually large parishes. The land was heavily wooded in the Middle Ages and settlement was scattered; many settlements originated as outlying holdings of manors centred in the south end of the rape. Later, some settlements grew as ribbons along main roads, others around the edges of commons. From the mid 19th century there was an influx of wealthy residents: among the new- comers was Hilaire Belloc, and the large houses built or rebuilt included Warnham Court, seat of the Lucases, and Little Thakeham, designed by Lutyens. Humbler houses in considerable numbers were built at Ashington, Barns Green, Partridge Green, Sullington, and Thakeham, and Horsham more than trebled in size between 1891 and 1971. Agriculture was limited by the extensive woodland; open fields were few and small, and there were many parks and commons. To provide for London and the coastal towns stock raising and dairying came to predominate over arable from c.1850, and was accompanied by poultry farming and market gardening. The main industrial activities have been ironworking and brickmaking.

This volume is on British History Online.

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Edited by T.P. Hudson, with contributions from A.P. Baggs, C.R.J. Currie, C.R. Elrington, S.M. Keeling and A.M. Rowland, this volume was published in 1987.

The volume gives the history of the eleven parishes that form the north-eastern part of Bramber rape, from Upper Beeding in the south to Ifield in the north, together with that of Crawley new town, founded in 1947. The area lies mostly on Wealden sands and clays, where settlement was chiefly scattered. Many settlements originated as outlying holdings of manors centred in the south end of the rape; the parish of Beeding lay in two parts, Upper Beeding astride the scarp of the South Downs, and Lower Beeding eleven miles to the north. St. Leonard's Forest in Lower Beeding was roughly divided in the Middle Ages between woodland and heath; its present appearance is the result of 19th- and 20th -century afforestation and reclamation for agriculture, and settlement was later there than elsewhere. The 19th century saw a great influx of wealthy new residents, some of whom built large houses or laid out parks or gardens like those at Sedgewick Park or Leonardslee. In the mid 20th century the villages or hamlets of Upper Beeding, Hen-field, and Mannings Heath in Nuthurst have been much expanded. Crawley, part of whose built-up area lay in Ifield parish, was already a town by the later 19th century; of other places, only Henfield was larger than the average, offering some urban functions. There is little evidence of open-field agriculture except in the south; St. Leonard's Forest was largely used as rabbit warrens in the 17th and 18th centuries; and market gardening and fruit and flower growing were prominent, for instance around Albourne, in the 20th. Industrial activities before the foundation of Crawley new town included medieval saltworking in the Adur valley, ironworking, quarrying, and fishing, together with varied woodland industries, and cement manufacture at Upper Beeding.

This volume is on British History Online.

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Edited by L.F. Salzman, this volume was published in 1940.

The volume covers the rape and honour of Lewes, in the east of the county. It includes an extensive account of the borough of Lewes itself, as well as detailing the parishes from the old parish of Crawley and the county border in the north, to coastal areas in the south, including Brighton to the west and Newhaven in the east.

The entries include the parishes in the following boroughs and hundreds:

• The Borough of Lewes
• The Hundred of Southover
• The Hundred of Swanborough
• The Hundred of Holmestrow
• The Hundred of Barcombe
• The Hundred of Streat
• The Hundred of Buttinghill
• The Hundred of Poynings
• The Hundred of Dean
• The Hundred of Younsmere
• The Hundred of Whalesbone
• The Hundred of Preston
• The Half-Hundred of Fishersgate

This volume is on British History Online.

Edited by L.F. Salzman, this volume was published in 1937.

This volume includes accounts of the borough of Hastings with St Leonards, The Cinque Ports, the Borough of Rye and Winchelsea and the following hundreds.

• The Hundred of Baldslow
• The Hundred of Battle
• The Hundred of Bexhill
• The Hundred of Foxearle
• The Hundred of Goldspur
• The Hundred of Gostrow
• The Hundred of Guestling
• The Hundred of Hawksborough
• The Hundred of Henhurst
• The Hundred of Netherfield
• The Hundred of Ninfield
• The Hundred of Shoyswell
• The Hundred of Staple

This volume is not available online.

Edited by Susan M. Keeling and Christopher Lewis, this index volume was published in 1984.

Six volumes of the Victoria County History of Sussex were published between 1905 and 1953 .These volumes were published without an index, apart from the Domesday index included in Volume I. The volume is designed to make their contents far more readily accessible, directing the reader to the pages on which places, persons, and the principal subjects are mentioned. An essential key is thus provided to the general chapters in Volumes I and II, to the accounts of Romano-British Sussex and of the City of Chichester in Volume III, and to the histories of the towns and villages in the rapes of Chichester (Volume IV), Lewes (Volume VII), and Hastings (Volume IX). Each future volume will, like that on the southern part of Bramber rape (Volume VI, part 1) published in 1980, contain its own index.

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This book was written by Jayne Kirk and was published in 2009.

Parham House lies tranquilly at the foot of the South Downs, an Elizabethan house with weathered stone walls, glittering leaded windows and a gabled silhouette. In its ancient park, deer roam beneath spreading oaks and 18th-century lawns spread out towards the church, all that remains of Parham village. Rescued from decay and lovingly restored by Clive and Alicia Pearson and their architect Victor Heal, the house was opened to the public in 1948. This book tells the story of the house, and of the three families - the Palmers, the Bisshopps and the Pearsons - who owned it for more than 400 years. Parham: A Sussex House and its restoration, brings to life the way its restorers dealt with the practical and aesthetic problems they encountered. A precious archive of drawings, letters and other papers has revealed much new evidence about changes to the fabric. Professional and volunteer archaeologists have searched the park for traces of the monastic grange and village that once stood somewhere within it, while personal recollections have added yet another perspective. All the findings have been masterfully pieced together by Jayne Kirk, who has thrown a brilliant light onto the hidden history of this intriguing country house.