SOUTHWICK

The parish of Southwick, from 1899 to 1974 an urban district, (fn. 78) lies on the coast in the extreme south-east corner of Bramber rape and of West Sussex. It is 2 miles east of Shoreham and 4 miles west of Brighton, its coastal strip containing the busiest part, industrially and commercially, of Shoreham harbour and the flat land of the plain to the north providing the site for a leafy suburb centred on a large village green, long regarded as attractive. (fn. 79) Beyond, the land rises, with housing estates built since the 1930s on the lower slopes of the chalk downland, which reaches nearly 400 ft. within the parish. (fn. 80) The land on the plain is alluvium and brickearth, which has been exploited commercially. (fn. 81)

The parish formed an elongated triangle, and from the apex on the downs the boundary with Lewes rape and East Sussex ran south-east in a straight line. The western boundary followed field boundaries at the northern end and the straight line of Kingston Lane for two-thirds of its length. (fn. 82) That boundary was not established until 1848. Previously an area of 580 a. stretching from Stoney Lane in Kingston on the west to Southwick Green had contained intermixed lands of each parish, of which 236 a. paid tithes to Kingston and c. 340 a. to Southwick in the early 17th century. (fn. 83) Because the tithes of the two parishes were held and leased together in the late 17th century there was uncertainty about the proper division, (fn. 84) and in the early 19th century the land was regarded as undivided, tithing one-quarter to Kingston and three-quarters to Southwick. An award of 1848 allotted the 437 a. lying east of Kingston Lane to Southwick. (fn. 85) Until the civil parish and urban district were dissolved in 1974, (fn. 86) the boundaries were altered only by the transfer to Southwick c. 1900 of the shingle bank lying south of the harbour, which had formerly been part of Lancing parish. The minor changes in area, put at 1,041 a. in 1873, 1,006 a. in 1896, 1,103 a. in 1909, and 1,127 a. in 1937, followed modifications in the coastline. (fn. 87)

Until the 16th century the shoreline at Southwick seems to have formed a lagoon lying behind a shingle bank. (fn. 88) As the river Adur changed the shape of its mouth and pushed its course eastward, parallel to the seashore, it ate into the edge of Southwick (fn. 89) and allowed a dry shingle bank to form on its southern side. By the late 17th century the opening to the sea was east of Southwick's eastern boundary. The evolution of Shoreham harbour is described above. (fn. 90) The locks at the entrance to the eastern arm link the beach to the rest of the parish; a footbridge was built by subscription in 1887, but was demolished as part of harbour improvements in the 1920s. (fn. 91)

The main lines of communication through the parish run east and west, with local roads running north and south. There was a road between Brighton and Shoreham close to the coast in the Middle Ages, but by the later 17th century the route went across the middle of the parish, close under the downs, by what was later called Old Shoreham Road. That was the main London-Brighton road in the 18th century. The new coast road built in the 1780s (fn. 92) took a course under the low cliff in places until after it had been turnpiked in 1822. (fn. 93) Parallel to the road a railway was built across the parish in 1840; a station was opened for Southwick in 1840 and a halt at Fishersgate, on the eastern boundary, in 1905. (fn. 94) In the 18th century and early 19th three roads ran inland from the coast, Kingston Lane on the west, which crossed Old Shoreham Road and led on to the downs, Southwick Street along the axis of the parish as far as Old Shoreham Road, and between the two a lane which skirted the west side of the Green and then veered north-east to join Southwick Street and continue beyond Old Shoreham Road as Mileoak Road. (fn. 95) That pattern of roads was the frame within which the network of suburban roads was built in the late 19th century and the 20th.

On the east side of Southwick Street, 400 yd. south of Old Shoreham Road, a large Roman villa was in use from the late 1st century to the mid 4th. (fn. 96) Possibly the villa was the centre of an estate which survived in the 11th century as Kingston, (fn. 97) but there is no clear relationship between the site of the villa and later settlement in Southwick. In the 11th and 12th centuries, when Southwick already had a church, the western part of the parish appears to have been more closely linked with Kingston than with the eastern part of the parish, as shown by the intermingling of lands already referred to and the use of the name Kingston for the main estate in Southwick in 1086 and for Southwick church, which stands in the western part of the parish, in 1205 and 1206. (fn. 98) The eastern part appears to have been drawn into the parish, while continuing to tithe separately, during the 12th century. It evidently included downlad settlements in the northern end at Brambleden and Hazelholt in the 13th century, which may have been deserted in the 14th. (fn. 99) Another settlement was evidently at 'Brook', which was mentioned in the 12th century as an area paying tithes and gave rise to a surname used in the early 14th; (fn. 1) it probably refers to the stream which in the mid 19th century flowed down the middle of the Green. (fn. 2)

The name Southwick, recorded in 1073, may describe the place in relation to a more northerly farm which was also part of the Kingston estate. (fn. 3) The area referred to as Southwick in grants of tithes in the 12th century cannot be precisely identified; by the late 13th century it was applied to the whole area served by the church, and perhaps more particularly to the scattered settlement on the east and west sides of the Green, near the church between the Green and Kingston Lane, and on each side of Southwick Street. (fn. 4) That was the disposition of houses in the inland part of the parish in 1753. By then too there were small groups of buildings at the Rock House where Southwick Street reached the river and at Fishersgate, (fn. 5) so named in 1587 (fn. 6) but called Copperas Gap in 1753.

By 1846 there had not been much further building since 1753 except on the Brighton road alongside the harbour in what was to become Albion Street. The buildings at Fishersgate were still limited to an inn, a blockade station, and industrial buildings. (fn. 7) In the next 25 years four streets of small houses at Fishersgate and five between Albion Street and the railway were built; by the end of the century the pattern of small streets in each area had fully evolved, and in the 1920s the two were linked by the building of houses in the longer streets called the Gardens and Gardner Road. (fn. 8) Until the 1950s Albion Street served as Southwick's main shopping street, (fn. 9) but thereafter most shops moved to a new centre near the Green, most of the small houses off Albion Street and in Fishersgate were rebuilt as small blocks of flats and maisonettes, and the Brighton road came to be dominated by buildings connected with the harbour.

North of the railway line the amount of new building by 1896 was slight. Some fairly large houses had been built on the east side of the Green and along Southdown Road, but while three new roads had been laid out north of the Green only five houses had been built along them. Those roads were partly built up before the First World War, when new houses were also built on each side of the Green and along Church Lane, and the process was largely completed in the twenties. In the thirties new houses, many of them built by the urban district council, formed a belt on the north side of Old Shoreham Road and filled the area south of that road and east of Southwick Street. Meanwhile a large tract of land east of Southwick Street and immediately north of the railway had been taken by 1909 as a track for trotting races. (fn. 10) In 1930 it was acquired by the urban district council as a recreation ground of 22 a., (fn. 11) and at its eastern end a sports centre was opened in 1974. (fn. 12)

After the Second World War most of the new houses built, apart from those in the redevelopment of Fishersgate and the Albion Street area, were in thirty roads and closes of small, mostly detached houses north of Old Shoreham Road. (fn. 13) There was also some rebuilding and infilling in the area near the Green, and notably the building of a shopping centre, officially opened in 1962, (fn. 14) on the east side. That, together with the siting of administrative, religious, and social buildings on or near Southwick Street, instead of in the area of Albion Street where they had been placed in response to the evolution of settlement in the 19th century, (fn. 15) has moved the community's centre back to the area round the Green. In the 18th century the village pump stood on the Green, (fn. 16) which in more recent times has been the site of stocks and maypole. A scheme regulating the 10 a. of the Green was made by the urban district council in 1902. (fn. 17) The built-up part of Southwick is divided sharply into three: the busy area south of the railway along the Brighton road, with the harbour on the south and some modern housing on the north; a spread of small modern houses north of Old Shoreham Road and on both sides of it in the eastern part; and between the two with their arterial roads, an area of older houses and of rather larger houses built since the 1890s, including also the Green, Southwick Street, and the church and other public buildings. By 1976 the built-up area, including public open spaces, occupied two-thirds of the area of the former parish.

Between 1296 and 1332 Southwick had from 24 to 27 taxpayers, (fn. 18) and in 1334 its assessment for tax was one of the highest in Bramber rape. (fn. 19) Twentyeight people were assessed for poll tax in 1378, (fn. 20) perhaps representing a decline in total population and the abandonment of the downland settlements. In 1642 there were 35 adult males to make the protestation, (fn. 21) and in 1670 the number of households listed was 26, of which exactly half were discharged from paying hearth tax. (fn. 22) Six years later 64 adults were returned. (fn. 23) From 271, comprising 67 families living in 34 houses, in 1801 the population grew slowly until the twenties and then increased sharply to 1,190 in 1851 and 2,339 in 1871; in that year the increase was attributed to the large number of houses built at Southwick and Fishersgate and inhabited by oyster-dredgers and seafarers. In the mid 19th century over 100 people might be living aboard ship in the parish at any time. The population had again nearly doubled, to 4,314, by 1911, and it more than doubled between 1921 and 1951, when it was 10,731. After a peak of 11,929 in 1961 there was a slight fall. (fn. 24)

That Southwick was a desirable place in which to live is shown in 1705 by the high number of ten county voters then resident there. (fn. 25) In the 18th century the inhabitants included gentlemen, merchants, and manufacturers, notably brewers, who carried on their trade partly in the village. (fn. 26) The seafaring element in the population was probably confined to the waterside. In 1791 there was an inn or tavern called the Blue Anchor on the shore at a place called Bopeep, (fn. 27) which was marked on a mid-18th-century map as at Fishersgate, (fn. 28) where the Sussex Arms, recorded in 1845 (fn. 29) and extant in 1976, may have been its successor. There were said to have been only two public houses in the early 19th century, both with maritime names, the Schooner, which remained in Albion Street in 1976, and the Victory. (fn. 30) The Sea House inn in Albion Street, recorded in 1852, (fn. 31) may have been what was later the Albion, taking its name, as did the street, from the hulk Albion which had been converted into a house and oyster shop. (fn. 32) By 1867 there were nine public houses, including the Cricketer's Arms at the south-east corner of the Green and the Windmill (rebuilt on a new site in 1934) on Upper Shoreham Road, and by the 1880s the number had risen to sixteen. (fn. 33)

Southwick, which has a much smaller number than its neighbours of inhabitants travelling daily to London, (fn. 34) possesses a strong sense of community, (fn. 35) and has supported many sports clubs and social institutions. Traditional games for Good Friday, long-rope skipping, marbles, and kiss-inthe-ring, were recorded in the 19th century. (fn. 36) The Green has long been well known for village cricket. (fn. 37) Before the First World War there were village cricket, football, and bowling clubs, and Southwick was already also the home of the Sussex Croquet Club. (fn. 38) In 1974 there were also hockey and rifle clubs. A community centre was opened in converted buildings in Southwick Street in 1946, providing for various craft activities and having a theatre; there are two dramatic societies, of which the Southwick Players existed in the twenties, and an operatic society. A separate community hall for Fishersgate had been opened by 1947. (fn. 39)

The tradition that Charles II took refuge at Southwick during his escape from England, giving rise to the name of King Charles's Cottage, appears to have no foundation in fact. The residential attractions of the place in more recent years have drawn some well known people to live there, including the writer S. P. B. Mais (fn. 40) and the broadcaster Lord Reith, (fn. 41) while Clara Butt, the singer, was born there as the daughter of a merchant captain, (fn. 42) and the writer John Cowper Powys lodged there in the 1890s. (fn. 43)

MANORS.

Southwick, which formed part of the large estate centred on Kingston, was not mentioned by name in the Domesday survey but has been credibly identified with the part of Kingston which before the Conquest Gunnild held of Harold and in 1086 William son of Rannulf held of William de Braose. (fn. 44) The overlordship held by William de Braose's successors was recorded until 1607, (fn. 45) and the duke of Norfolk had an estate there c. 1800. (fn. 46) In 1361 five distinct estates in or extending into Southwick were listed as part of the barony of Bramber. (fn. 47) Much later a considerable part of Southwick belonged to the owners of Kingston Bowsey manor, (fn. 48) and apparently had long done so: the two parishes shared open-field land. (fn. 49) In the late 18th century it was said that there was no principal manor in Southwick, various parcels of land being held of manors elsewhere. (fn. 50)

The successor to the Domesday tenant William son of Rannulf appears to have been Simon le Count who gave Southwick church to the Templars between 1173 and 1189. In 1205 and 1206 the estate was evidently held by Simon's grandson John le Count, (fn. 51) possibly the same John le Count who had apparently the largest estate in Southwick in 1242, with 4 knights' fees in Morley (in Shermanbury), Southwick, and Woodmancote. (fn. 52) It had passed by 1258 to William Hastentoft and his wife Isabel, (fn. 53) and was later held by Thomas of Hautington. (fn. 54) The Southwick part was described as the manor of SOUTHWICK in 1309, when John of Hartridge died holding it in right of his wife Nichole. Nichole, under her alternative surname Hautington, was in 1361 recorded retrospectively as holding Southwick, and their daughter Elizabeth and her husband John Percy had a house and 100 a. in Southwick at John's death in 1339. (fn. 55) Elizabeth had by 1341 married William Burton; in 1354 the manor was settled on John Farnborough and his wife Elizabeth, presumably the same Elizabeth, for life, and on John Percy's son William and his wife Mary. (fn. 56) It later passed to Robert Poynings, Lord Poynings, whose father and grandfather appear to have had an estate in Kingston, and on his death in 1446 to his granddaughter Eleanor and her husband Henry Percy, later earl of Northumberland (d. 1461). (fn. 57) Eleanor died holding land in Southwick in 1484, when her heir was her son Henry, earl of Northumberland (d. 1489). (fn. 58) It was presumably sold by Henry, earl of Northumberland (d. 1537), in 1531 to Sir Thomas Neville, (fn. 59) who in the same year conveyed Southwick manor, including land in Kingston, to Richard Bellingham. (fn. 60) Another Richard Bellingham died in 1592 holding lands that included an estate called Southwick and leaving a wife Mary and a son Richard. (fn. 61) The later descent has not been traced; the estate may be the one which c. 1800 was said to be held of an unspecified manor of the duke of Norfolk. (fn. 62)

In the early 13th century and perhaps in the late 12th Odo son of William de Dammartin had a considerable estate in Southwick. By 1222 he had been succeeded by his son Odo, (fn. 63) and in 1225 John of Wauton and his wife Alice, as sister and heir of the younger Odo, claimed a plough-land there. (fn. 64) Part of the Dammartin estate may have been what was granted to Reigate priory, for although the priory's founder, William de Warenne, earl of Surrey (d. 1240), is assumed to have given it its land in Southwick both William and Odo were benefactors of other houses of Austin canons in Surrey; (fn. 65) in 1258, when the prior of Reigate called Henry of Winchester to warrant him against Beatrice de Valle concerning 189 a. in Southwick, another John of Wauton and Thomas son of John of Warbleton or Warblington, who held land of Alice de Dammartin in Surrey, put in claims. (fn. 66)

The prior had the highest assessment for tax in Southwick in 1296 and 1332, (fn. 67) held 9 yardlands in the barony of Bramber in 1361, (fn. 68) and in 1535 was lord of the manor of EASTBROOK in Southwick, then in the tenure of Anne Burrell, widow. (fn. 69) In 1541 the Crown granted what were described as Eastbrook and Southwick manors to William Howard, (fn. 70) later Lord Howard of Effingham (d. 1573), and his wife Margaret (d. 1581). (fn. 71) Their son Charles, created earl of Nottingham (d. 1624), in 1595 sold more than 100 a. in Southwick to Henry Smith, alderman of London, who used it to endow his extensive charity. (fn. 72) Either part of the estate reverted or Lord Howard did not sell all his Southwick land, for his son's daughter Elizabeth, countess of Peterborough (d. 1671), (fn. 73) retained an interest and probably the lordship of the manor, (fn. 74) and although Eastbrook manor was the name used for Smith's charity estate it was said that the trustees had never been possessed of a manor. The trustees held 107 a. in 1674. (fn. 75) In 1902 they began to sell parts of the estate, which by 1956 yielded in rents only 4 per cent of the total income from the Eastbrook endowment. (fn. 76)

A farm-house or cottage belonging to the estate was recorded in the late 18th century, (fn. 77) its site presumably marked by Eastbrook Barn, ½ mile east of Southwick Street, which survived until the early 20th century. The house called Eastbrook, built north of Old Shoreham Road in the late 19th century, (fn. 78) appears not to have been part of the estate.

Part at least of the Dammartin estate, perhaps the plough-land claimed by John of Wauton and Alice in 1225, was held in 1232, as one of four fees tithable to Southwick church, by Roger de Clare, (fn. 79) Alice's second husband. Since an estate of Alice's in Surrey was later held by members of the Malmeyns family and after 1481 by Richard Culpeper, (fn. 80) her Southwick property is likely to have been the later CULPEPERS and to have passed to Ralph Malmeyns, one of three Southwick taxpayers in 1296 assessed at nearly equal amounts a little lower than the prior of Reigate. John Malmeyns was assessed in Southwick at a comparable amount in 1327 but not in 1332. (fn. 81) In the early 15th century the prior of Reigate, John Dot, and John Gainsford were said to hold ½ fee in Southwick, perhaps the Dammartins' estate, in equal shares. (fn. 82) Gainsford's estate can be identified later, (fn. 83) so that Dot possibly had the Malmeyns land. It apparently became attached to the Maybanks' manor of Horton, in Upper Beeding, which with Southwick and another estate was held of Bramber barony as 1¼ knight's fee in 1361. (fn. 84) When Joan Everard in 1540 acquired Horton manor, after transactions involving Thomas Cromwell and Richard Bellingham, (fn. 85) and also at her death in 1550, the manor included lands in Southwick; her heir was Edward Bannister, (fn. 86) of whom John Culpeper (d. 1565) held 120 a. in Southwick and his son Thomas (d. 1571) held 6 yardlands. Thomas's son and heir Edward, then aged 9, (fn. 87) may have retained the estate until shortly before 1612, when John Stapley (d. 1639) settled the estate in Southwick called Culpepers on himself and his wife Mary, who survived him with their son Anthony. (fn. 88) Land in Southwick amounting to 190 a. and formerly John Stapley's had been acquired by 1671 by Thomas Newington, who sold it in that year to Goddard Newington. (fn. 89) By his will proved 1698 Goddard Newington left it to his nieces Elizabeth, Mary, and Anne Stedwell. (fn. 90) It seems afterwards to have been acquired by the Hall family: in 1825 Nathaniel Hall held freehold land in Southwick from the lords of Horton manor which had passed from the Bannisters through the Arnolds to the Bridgers. The lords of Horton exercised right of wreck in Southwick in the late 18th century. (fn. 91)

A second fee recorded in 1232 as tithable to Southwick church was that of Richard de Covert, also noted in 1222. (fn. 92) It does not seem to be represented among the fees held of Bramber barony in 1361, (fn. 93) but in 1502 John Covert died holding a house and c. 70 a. in Southwick as of the honor of Bramber, (fn. 94) and in 1579 Richard Covert died holding land elsewhere as of the earl of Arundel's manor of Southwick by service of collecting rents in Southwick. (fn. 95) From the Coverts' fee, therefore, are likely to have descended the estates in Southwick described in 1800 as held from Mr. Sergison's manor of Slaugham and Mr. Shelley's of Sullington, (fn. 96) both of which had been held by the Coverts. (fn. 97)

Of the two other fees tithable to Southwick in 1232 that of Julian de Celario has not been otherwise traced unless it was the Hazelholt estate mentioned below, while that of Maud de Cowdray, evidently held by Robert de Cowdray in 1222, (fn. 98) was described in the later 13th century as Southwick and BRAMBLEDEN, when the same or another Maud de Cowdray granted it to her daughter Catherine. In the 1290s parts of Brambleden may have been held by John Browning of Brambleden under Richard of Ashby (fn. 99) and by Reynold Annington. (fn. 1) John Browning was relatively highly assessed for tax in Southwick in 1296, as were William Browning and Reynold Annington in 1327. (fn. 2) The overlordship of Brambleden was recorded in 1316 and 1324, when it was held in dower by Mary, widow of William de Braose (d. 1290), (fn. 3) and in 1361 when John of Wrenby held 6 yardlands in Southwick and Brambleden of the honor of Bramber. (fn. 4) The estate has not been traced later; in the 15th century small freeholds in Brambleden belonged to Broadwater manor. (fn. 5)

HAZELHOLT, which with Brambleden was part of the barony of Bramber c. 1230, (fn. 6) included an estate of 1 yardland which Ralph le Dred and Alice of Iford remitted to Ralph of Perching in 1248 (fn. 7) and one of a house and 40 a., partly in Sele (Upper Beeding), which William de Braose had subinfeudated to Simon, son of Walter of Hazelholt, (fn. 8) in the later 13th century. Three successive men called Simon of Hazelholt held the estate up to 1344, the third though dead by 1346 (fn. 9) being perhaps the one recorded in 1361 as holding 2 yardlands called Hazelholt of the honor of Bramber. (fn. 10) In 1432 John Culpeper held 1/10 knight's fee in Hazelholt of the same honor. (fn. 11) Culpeper's estate may have been that held of the honor by John Culpeper (d. 1565), whose son and heir Thomas held 6 yardlands of the honor in Brambleden rather than Hazelholt, in addition to the Culpepers estate in Southwick held of Horton manor. (fn. 12) In 1540, however, Hazelholt was part of John Bellingham's estate, along with Erringham Walkstead in Old Shoreham. (fn. 13) It may have been attached to the Wiston estate, Charles Goring claiming to be lord in 1820. (fn. 14) Either the Brambleden or the Hazelholt estate is likely to be represented by the land in Southwick which William Monke of Buckinghams (fn. 15) in Old Shoreham held. Jane, the elder of his two daughters and heirs, took the Southwick land to her husband Thomas Broadnax whom she married in 1729. Broadnax changed his name to May and later to Knight, and Edward Knight the elder and the younger were dealing with the estate in 1818; one of those Edwards held it c. 1830, having changed his surname from Austen. (fn. 16) By 1842 it appears to have passed to W. P. Gorringe of Kingston, who then had 435 a. in Southwick. (fn. 17)

The estate called GAINSFORD presumably derived from John Gainsford's share of ½ fee recorded in 1428. (fn. 18) About a century later Richard Gainsford of Cowden (Kent) complained that Edward Lewknor of Kingston occupied his lands in Southwick and Kingston though under notice to quit and paying too little rent. (fn. 19) Sir Edward Lewknor at his death in 1605 held a messuage or farm called Gainsford and lands belonging to it in Southwick. (fn. 20)

Land in Southwick belonged to the chantries in Edburton and Crawley churches. (fn. 21)

Notwithstanding the complexity of the manorial division of Southwick, by the early 17th century the greater part of the land belonged either to the lords of Kingston manor (fn. 22) or to members of the Hall family. Henry Hall died at Southwick in 1607 holding a chief messuage there with lands in Southwick, Kingston Bowsey, and Shoreham, as of Bramber honor. His son and heir, also Henry, (fn. 23) was recorded in 1615 as occupying land in Kingston but had been replaced by John Hall by 1636. (fn. 24) Another Henry Hall had the largest house in Southwick in 1670, as also apparently in 1665. (fn. 25) Successive owners appear to have been Nathaniel Hall in 1705, (fn. 26) another Henry Hall in 1735, (fn. 27) and three or more in succession called Nathaniel: (fn. 28) one died in 1748, another in 1799, (fn. 29) and the last held more than 300 a. in Southwick in 1845. (fn. 30) His estate was held by Mrs. Esther Hall (fn. 31) in the sixties and seventies, by Mrs. Hester Hall and I. E. Hall in 1887, by John H. Hall in 1905 and 1930, by Arthur Wilby Hall in 1938, (fn. 32) and by Roger Wilby Hall in 1950. (fn. 33)

Henry Hall's house c. 1620 appears to have been west of Kingston Lane. (fn. 34) Later the Halls lived in the house known as the Manor House, on the east side of Southwick Street, built in the earlier 17th century and refronted in the late 18th. In 1960 part, and in 1966 the rest, of the offices of Southwick urban district council moved into the house, from 1974 the offices of Adur district council. (fn. 35) A small house immediately north of it, which retains evidence of a hall open to the roof, seems to have been its medieval precursor.

ECONOMIC HISTORY.

In 1086 the estate that is assumed to have been Southwick had as many plough-teams as there was land for, two on the demesne and one shared among 4 villani and 8 bordars. The estate had fully recovered its value of 1066, though in the interval it had fallen to less than half. (fn. 36) The large demesne was presumably broken up and mostly put in tenants' hands as the land of the parish was divided between various manors. In the 13th century the arable land was used to grow wheat, barley, and fodder crops, and large numbers of pigs were pannaged. (fn. 37) In 1506 one medium-sized estate included considerably more pasture and heath than arable, (fn. 38) and in 1538 the tenants agreed to a stint of 50 sheep, 6 cows, and a horse for each yardland. (fn. 39) Later in the century there seems to have been a shortage of meadow for growing hay, because the inhabitants annually used part of the arable to grow tares to feed their farm horses. (fn. 40)

In the western part of the parish, where the lands of Southwick and Kingston lay intermixed in 20 furlongs, the arable fields extended over at least part of the downland north of the upper Brighton road by the early 17th century, (fn. 41) and in the eastern part there was open arable north of the road by 1671. (fn. 42) It seems unlikely that the two parts of the parish were cultivated separately. Although some landowners in the early 17th century had land in only one part, the two rectors for example having all their glebe in the intermixed lands, several had land in both. In both parts the arable was divided into variable but relatively small furlongs, within which the land was held in parcels described by the number of palls, or eighths of an acre, never fewer than two and often as many as six; the largest estate, that of the Halls, had probably undergone some consolidation, since it contained several parcels of 24 palls or more. The intermixed lands were divided among twelve landholders, of whom four had more than 70 a. and three less than 10 a. (fn. 43) The Smith charity estate, 108 a. all in the eastern part, lay two-thirds in open fields and one-third in inclosures in 1674, and had common of pasture for 180 sheep on the down and for as many cattle, horses, and pigs in the stubble as the inclosed land would keep during the rest of the year. In the earlier 18th century much of the sheep down was ploughed up, and there was some piecemeal inclosure in the eastern part of the parish, a process carried further by small-scale exchanges in 1782. Sheep remained important and there were said to be 740 in the parish c. 1800. (fn. 44) The main crops in 1801 were wheat, barley, and turnips or rape. (fn. 45) The gradual consolidation and inclosure of the arable fields appears to have been complete by 1842, (fn. 46) but the 129 a. of the surviving eastern sheep down was not inclosed until 1856. (fn. 47)

In the late 19th century market-gardening became increasingly important, and in 1914 garden produce was said to be the chief cultivation. (fn. 48) Two marketgardeners were listed in 1887 in Southwick, seven in 1905, and thirteen market-gardeners, nurserymen, and fruit-growers in 1922. (fn. 49) Between the wars much of the market-gardens was used for houses, and the agricultural land was reduced by 1976 to less than a third of its former extent; of that remaining more than half was rough grazing, a large part belonging to the National Trust. (fn. 50)

The windmill that stood beside Old Shoreham Road in the early 17th century (fn. 51) was presumably John Pride's mill from which goods were stolen in 1588. (fn. 52) Millers were recorded in the 18th century; (fn. 53) the windmill survived in 1845 but was probably demolished or allowed to collapse soon after, its location being recorded in the name of the Windmill inn. At Fishersgate there was a windmill by 1753 which was later a cement mill and was demolished after 1873, (fn. 54) having given the name to Mill Road.

Less than half the population earned its livelihood from agriculture in the early 19th century, (fn. 55) and the proportion presumably fell sharply during the later 19th century. The rest looked to the harbour for its occupations. (fn. 56) The salterns recorded in 1086 (fn. 57) have not been found referred to later. A solitary mention of a weaver in 1729 (fn. 58) may suggest small-scale industry, represented in the 18th century by the more common village trades of shoemaker, carpenter, and blacksmith. In the late 18th century and early 19th there was much malting and brewing in Southwick, (fn. 59) presumably to supply the demands of Brighton where later the industry was concentrated. At Fishersgate in the 20th century a laundry and a dyeing and cleaning works continued to serve Brighton's needs, and from the 1920s light engineering works were established there. (fn. 60)

A fair for pedlary, belonging to the churchwardens and overseers, was held on the Green on 19 May. It had been established by 1784 and was abolished in 1872. (fn. 61)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Southwick appears to have had no manor court of its own. Agricultural orders for Southwick were made in the court of Fishersgate half-hundred in 1538. (fn. 62) In 1611 the churchwardens were using two tenements that had formed part of the endowment of a chantry as a church house, of which nothing has been discovered after 1652. (fn. 63) The constable of the half-hundred may have served a parochial function for Southwick and Kingston: Henry Hall signed the protestation return for Southwick in 1642 as constable of the hundred and overseer of the parish, (fn. 64) and the last constable (Richard Longhurst, d. 1865) had the office mentioned on his gravestone. (fn. 65) Expenditure on the poor rose fourfold between 1776 and 1803, when some of the poor were set to work, though there was no workhouse, and the level of the parish rate was relatively low. The cost of maintaining the poor, after rising to a peak in 1819, fell in the early twenties, (fn. 66) perhaps because of the improvements to Shoreham harbour. Southwick became part of the Steyning union on its formation in 1835. (fn. 67) In 1899 the parish became an urban district with twelve council members, and the district was divided into wards in the twenties. The district built a town hall in Albion Street in 1906, (fn. 68) of red brick with stone dressings, which by 1976 had become a warehouse following the move of the district council's offices to the Manor House in Southwick Street. The council was particularly active in providing recreational open space, buying Southwick Green in 1903 and 22 a. for the Southwick recreation ground in 1930, (fn. 69) and played a large part in the growth of housing in the area, having built 1,200 houses and flats by 1974. (fn. 70) In that year, having resisted being merged in an enlarged Shoreham in 1937, (fn. 71) Southwick became part of Adur district.

CHURCHES.

A church was recorded in 1086 on the estate which appears to have been Southwick, though called Kingston. (fn. 72) It was presumably a dependency of Kingston church, and in the late 11th or early 12th century a priest who is likely to have been the priest of Kingston failed in his claim against the monks of Sele to parochial rights in Southwick and Brambleden. (fn. 73) In the late 12th century, following a similar dispute, William the priest of Kingston acknowledged that the tithes and parochial rights of Southwick and Brambleden belonged to Sele priory and not to him or to Kingston church, and the priory granted the small tithes and all parochial rights to William for life. (fn. 74) The tithes and rights at issue are likely to have been of only part of what was later Southwick parish; although Sele priory retained tithes in Southwick, a separate rectory of Southwick, including tithes, was established. William, rector of Kingston, presumably the man who had reached agreement with Sele, agreed to the grant by his brother Simon le Count to their cousin Robert of a perpetual vicarage, including altarage, a third of the glebe, a third of the corn tithes of Southwick and of Kingston, Brambleden, and 'Brook', and all small tithes. Later apparently, between 1173 and 1189, Simon granted Southwick church, also called Kingston, in reversion on William's death to the Knights Templar. Simon's grandson John le Count in 1205 claimed the advowson, but confirmed the grant to the Templars in 1206. (fn. 75)

The Templars brought a suit against Sele priory in 1287 about the advowson of two-thirds of the church. (fn. 76) From them the whole advowson passed to the Hospitallers, who in 1338 were licensed to appropriate the church but did not do so, (fn. 77) continuing to present rectors. (fn. 78) At the Dissolution the patronage passed to the Crown, and it was exercised by the Lord Chancellor in the 20th century. (fn. 79)

In or before 1073 William de Braose gave tithes in Southwick to the church of St. Nicholas of Bramber, (fn. 80) the daughter house of St. Florent's abbey, Saumur (Maine-et-Loire), whose possessions passed to Sele priory. Fécamp abbey (Seine Maritime) also had tithes in Southwick, and notwithstanding a widespread exchange with St. Florent's c. 1086 (fn. 81) retained a tithe portion there in 1207 (fn. 82) and the 1280s, (fn. 83) valued at £1 a year in 1291. (fn. 84) Fécamp's tithes were held by Syon abbey in the late 15th century, (fn. 85) but have not been traced later.

In 1232 Sele priory agreed that it should pay the rector of Southwick a pension of £2 a year by reason of the tithes which it collected in the parish. They were assessed at 13 marks a year in 1255 but only 5 marks in 1291. (fn. 86) With other property of the priory they passed to Magdalen College, Oxford, which farmed them at £5 a year in 1535, besides 10s. for a tithe portion in Hazelholt. The college continued to pay £2 a year to the rector, and owned a barn called Monkenbarn, presumably for the storage of the tithes. (fn. 87) The estate was excepted from an Act of 1576 which required colleges to collect rents in kind. (fn. 88) In 1842 the college owned the tithes of grain from the eastern part of the parish, amounting to nearly half the total acreage, and was awarded a rent-charge of £107, rather more than half of that awarded to the rector. (fn. 89)

The rector's income was assessed at £10 a year in 1291 (fn. 90) and at £9 13s. 9½d. clear in 1535. (fn. 91) For the years 1829-31 it was said to average £207, gross and net; (fn. 92) the statement c. 1890 that it was only £100 net appears to be unreliable. (fn. 93) The rector enjoyed all tithes except those belonging to Magdalen College and, in early times, Fécamp or Syon abbey. The tithes of the intermixed lands between Southwick and Kingston, where in the early 17th century each parcel of land tithed either to Southwick or to Kingston, were disputed in the 1720s, after the two rectories had been held by the same incumbent and leased together, and were later apportioned three-quarters to Southwick. When the tithes were commuted in 1842 the rector of Southwick received a rent-charge of £179. The glebe then amounted to only 10½ a., (fn. 94) whereas it had been 30 a. in 1341 (fn. 95) and 31 a. in 1636; (fn. 96) it was further reduced to 7 a. before 1887. (fn. 97) The rectory house was mentioned in 1574 (fn. 98) and, as badly neglected, in 1677. (fn. 99) It was let as barracks c. 1800, described as unfit for residence in 1832, (fn. 1) and replaced by a new building in the 1840s.

The earliest recorded rector of Southwick was Alexander of Swerford, the king's clerk and friend of Matthew Paris, (fn. 2) who in 1232 as archdeacon of Shrewsbury and rector made the agreement with Sele priory about tithes. He was presumably nonresident, the cure being served by a chaplain. (fn. 3) His successors included John Kempe, rector 1407-17, later archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 4) In 1419 the parish had a chantry with an income of more than 7 marks a year, served by a chaplain, (fn. 5) and a chapel of St. Mary was recorded in 1497, (fn. 6) but by the mid 16th century there was an endowment of only 6s. 3d., providing an obit and a small charitable dole. (fn. 7) John Pell, often described as rector of Southwick but in fact probably curate, (fn. 8) was the father of John Pell the mathematician, who was born there in 1611, of Mrs. Bathsua Makin, tutor to Charles I's daughters, (fn. 9) and of the American settler Thomas Pell. From 1673 to 1700 two successive rectors held both Southwick and Kingston; (fn. 10) at Southwick John Gray was rector 1700-51, also serving Old Shoreham and, for a time, New Shoreham. (fn. 11) John Buckner, later bishop of Chichester, was rector 1766-74 but seems not to have been resident. (fn. 12) The rector c. 1800 lived at a distance, (fn. 13) and Edward Everard, rector from 1826, had a living in Hove; each served Southwick through a curate. (fn. 14) By 1845 there was a resident rector, (fn. 15) J. C. Young, 1844-58, son of the actor Charles M. Young (1777-1856), who was buried at Southwick. (fn. 16) The congregations in 1851 numbered 50 in the morning and 65 in the afternoon. (fn. 17) The hymn-writer Arthur T. Russell (1806-74) was rector for less than a year before his death. (fn. 18)

The parish church of ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS, (fn. 19) built of flint with stone dressings, has a chancel, south chapel, aisled nave, and west tower with a broach spire and flanking vestries. The tower, which has arcaded openings to the two upper stages, has been said to be Saxon, but most of its fabric is of the 12th century or early 13th. It was built against the older west end of the former nave, which was probably of the 11th century. (fn. 20) In 1941 the tower was taken down after bomb damage, but it was faithfully rebuilt in 1949, (fn. 21) and the flanking vestries were added. The short chancel contains 13th-century lancets. The chancel arch and nave were probably rebuilt in the 14th century, and a timber screen of that period survives. North of the chancel arch is what appears to be a transomed aumbry. (fn. 22)

A south chapel and south aisle to the nave had gone by the late 18th century (fn. 23) and presumably by 1607 when the south porch was already in place. (fn. 24) The nave was rebuilt with narrow lean-to aisles in 1834. (fn. 25) There were further restorations in 1878 and 1888, and a new south chapel was added in 1893. (fn. 26) Among the monuments are several to members of the Hall and Norton families. There were three bells in 1724 and the late 18th century, (fn. 27) but only one, of 1735, from the early 19th. (fn. 28) The plate includes a chalice and paten of 1632. The registers begin in 1654 and are virtually complete. (fn. 29)

An acre called Church field belonging to the churchwardens, (fn. 30) presumably the 1¼ a. whose rent they spent on wax in the earlier 16th century and the lamp acre for which they paid rent to the Crown in 1611, (fn. 31) was sold in 1876 and the income from the invested proceeds was used for church purposes. (fn. 32) The church had had 1 a. at 'Lurkings' and 1¼ a. in the easternmost down c. 1620. (fn. 33) A benefaction of 3 a. to repair the church, given by an unknown donor at an unknown date, was recorded in 1724. (fn. 34)

For the hamlet of Fishersgate a district church was said in 1870 to have been recently built (fn. 35) but the statement seems to have taken intention for fact. A mission chapel was licensed in 1881 in the building which also served as the National school, and funds to pay a curate had been raised by 1893. (fn. 36) It was called St. Peter's, had seats for 230, and was assigned a district in 1931. A new church nearby in Gardner Road, called St. Peter's And St. Mary's, a brick building in Romanesque style, was consecrated in 1938 to replace it. The vicarage was in the gift of the Crown and the bishop alternately. (fn. 37) North of Old Shoreham Road a mission room of the Church Army in Downsway was replaced in 1955 by a building which was used both as the church of All Souls, served from the parish church, and as a nursery school. (fn. 38)

ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

The ground floor of a house in Church Lane was used for worship for five years from 1950. The church of St. Theresa, of brick in a Romanesque style, was opened in Old Shoreham Road in 1955. (fn. 39)

PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY.

A dwelling house was registered for Methodist worship in 1807 and a meeting house in 1808. The Wesleyans registered a dwelling house in 1831, (fn. 40) the Baptists one in 1830, the Congregationalists one in 1841, (fn. 41) and unspecified groups registered houses in 1815, 1832, and 1839. (fn. 42) None of those meetings is known to have survived in 1851. (fn. 43) The Wesleyans, however, opened a chapel in 1876 in Albion Street. In 1901 it was served from Brighton and had seating for 240. It was replaced in 1955 by a new church hall in Southwick Street, to which a church was added in 1965. (fn. 44) A Primitive Methodist mission hall in Lock Road was registered in 1879 and closed in 1906. (fn. 45) The Baptists are said to have used c. 1880 a converted hulk, standing or lying conveniently close to the harbour for immersion. (fn. 46) A Congregational church was built in Southview Road in 1904, (fn. 47) a small stuccoed building which remained in use in 1976. An assembly room by the Green, registered by Brethern in 1899, was replaced in 1921 by a mission hall in Lock Road, which had gone out of use by 1964; (fn. 48) it may have been the gospel hall mentioned in 1922 and 1930. (fn. 49) Undenominational worship was provided for in the hall of the Seamen's Institute (registered 1903, cancelled 1957), a mission hall in Cross Road (registered 1932), and a room in Watling Road registered in 1963. (fn. 50)

In Fishersgate a Protestant chapel of unspecified denomination was registered in 1856 but had gone out of use by 1876. Perhaps it was a forerunner of the Particular Baptist chapel which was registered in 1868, stood opposite the east end of Chapel Road, and went out of use c. 1890. (fn. 51) On the north side of Chapel Road a non-sectarian iron mission hall, which later became Congregational, was registered in 1879 and was apparently moved to a site 200 yards further west, beyond West Road, c. 1910. It remained as a chapel in 1938, (fn. 52) but by 1947 the site had become that of the Fishersgate Hall. (fn. 53) Another iron mission hall, in St. Aubyn's Road, was registered in 1909 and again, as the Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church, in 1932; (fn. 54) it survived, as the Fishersgate Mission, in 1976.

EDUCATION.

In 1818 there were two dame schools teaching 35 children, and another 20 children were sent by subscription to the New Shoreham National school; a Sunday school had recently been discontinued. (fn. 55) The two dame schools, with 52 children, survived in 1833. (fn. 56) A Church school, for which a site was acquired in 1843, (fn. 57) received a building grant in 1844, (fn. 58) and by 1847, when it had separate schoolrooms and teachers' houses for boys and girls, it was united with the National Society. (fn. 59) In 1865 Southwick National school had an attendance of 95 in the day and 22 in the evening. (fn. 60) The school, standing at the SE. corner of the Green, (fn. 61) was overcrowded in 1871, when there were 109 children in accommodation that was adequate for 78, and was supplemented by four private schools with accommodation for 57 and an attendance of 111. (fn. 62) A school board for the parish was formed voluntarily in 1874, (fn. 63) and in 1876 it moved the former National school into new buildings also near the SE. corner of the Green, with three schoolrooms and three classrooms for an estimated attendance of 310. (fn. 64) In 1904 attendance was 414, in three departments, (fn. 65) and in 1938, immediately after reorganization for junior boys, junior girls, and infants, it was 450. (fn. 66) The school closed in 1960, the various departments being replaced by Southwick Manor Hall Junior (later Middle) school, opened in 1952, and Manor Hall Infant (later First) school, opened in 1963, both in Manor Hall Road, and Southwick Glebe County Junior (later Middle) school, opened in 1960 in the building formerly occupied by the Southwick and Shoreham Senior Girls school. (fn. 67)

The last-named school, opened in 1934 in Church Lane, with an attendance of 274 from Southwick, Kingston, and Shoreham, was replaced in 1959 by King's Manor Girls school in Kingston. The older boys attended the parallel boys' school in Kingston from 1937. (fn. 68)

Fishersgate National school in Laylands Road was opened in a new building with a certificated teacher in 1881 in response to a decision by the Education Department. In or before 1887 the Southwick school board took over the school, (fn. 69) which became an infant school, with an attendance of 82 in 1893 (fn. 70) and 99 in 1938. In 1936 the school moved to new buildings in Gardner Road near by, where as Fishersgate County First school it continued in 1976. (fn. 71)

Southwick had at least 1 private school in 1887, 4 in 1905 and 1922, and 2 in 1938. (fn. 72) One of those schools may have been or become the Froebel school for boys and girls which was in Roman Crescent in the 1950s. (fn. 73) It had moved or closed by 1976.

CHARITIES FOR THE POOR.

Apart from a yearly payment of 2s. from the income of the Southwick chantry in the earlier 16th century, (fn. 74) no endowed charity expressly for the poor of the parish is known.

Footnotes