TREYFORD
Treyford is a long, narrow parish, 3¼ miles from north
to south with an average width of 2/3 mile, containing
1,273 acres. The south part, called Phillis Wood and
Phillis Down on the South Downs, is woodland and
heath. From a row of tumuli called the Devil's Jumps (fn. 1)
on Phillis Down, the land falls abruptly from over
700 ft. to the small village, which is about 200 ft.
above sea-level. The old church, now in ruins, is near
the manor farm; the new church which replaced it was
itself demolished in 1951; it stood about ¼ mile north
towards Elsted; the church at Elsted now serves the
united parishes. By West Sussex Review Order (1933)
the parish of Didling was added to Treyford.
There was a mill at Treyford in 1086 and tithes of
the mill are mentioned in 1341 (fn. 2) and a water-mill in
1517. (fn. 3) This mill probably stood upon a small stream
which passes through the parish, and forms the northern
boundary.
The Manor House, next to the ruined church, is a
building of striking and unusual appearance for rural
Sussex. The main block, facing north-west, consists of
two tall stories and attics and dates from 1660–80, or
was so much altered at that period as to have lost its
identity as an early Jacobean house. A low wing or
outbuilding adjoining the north-east end of it has an
external stone inscribed 1621 W.A. (William Aylwin)
and the main block, which bears no inscription, has
been attributed by some authorities to the same date.
The front wall is of coursed ashlar stonework with
angles of 17th-century bricks. The plinth, which has
a moulded top course of brick, is of flint rubble and
may be a survival of the earlier period. The elevation
is very symmetrical, with a middle entrance and window over and two windows on each side of it. The
dressings to these are of very fine-jointed rubbed brickwork. The doorway is flanked by pilasters, with
moulded bases and caps, carried up high enough to
allow a head light above the door; they carry a moulded
curved pediment. The window above it has a moulded
eared architrave flanked by voluted consoles. The
other windows, tall and narrow, are more simply
treated; each is flanked by flat pilasters, with beaded
internal edges, that rise from the plinth to the eaves
course. The openings have flat gauged arches and
moulded drip-courses and the upper lights have
moulded sills between the pilasters. All have sash
frames. The eaves has a moulded brick course and
plastered coving. The roof is tiled and has two gabled
dormers. The ends are gabled and have plain chimneystacks. The north-east wall is of similar material and
has blocked windows to the first floor and open plain
windows to the second. The lower story of the south-west end is cemented and the upper tile-hung. The
back wall is of squared stone rubble with 17th-century
brick angles.
The plan has a central and staircase hall with rooms
on either side of it. The staircase, reaching to the
second floor, is of the late 17th century; it has thin
turned balusters alternating with twisted balusters, and
moulded hand-rails: the ends of the steps have shaped
brackets. The north-east front room is lined with
bolection-moulded panelling.
An earlier dove-cot, south of the house, is built of
stone rubble with ashlar angles. It has two gables and
a tiled roof. The doorway has a four-centred head.
A thatched cottage a little way to the east-south-east
is built of squared stone rubble on flint foundations and
has 17th-century and later brick angles and other
dressings. A stone above the doorway is inscribed A/RM;
1638. The two lower windows of the front have dripstones above them. The western, of three lights, preserves its mullions, but the mullion of the eastern, of
two lights, has been removed. The upper windows are
modern. Above the south-west gable-head is a plain
chimney-stack.
Another smaller thatched cottage, north-east of it, is
of ashlar stonework with early-18th-century brick angles
and segmental-headed windows. A central chimneystack may be earlier.
MANOR
TREYFORD was held in the time of
Edward the Confessor by Ælard of Earl
Godwin. In 1086 Robert, son of Tetbald of
Petworth, Sheriff of the Rape of Arundel, held it of
Earl Roger. It was assessed for 11 hides. The abbey
of St. Peter of Winchester, or Hyde, (fn. 4) claimed the
manor, and the hundred court testified that he who
held it of the abbot, held it only for his life. Two hides
in the manor belonged to a prebend of the church of
Chichester. Offa had held these two hides of the bishop
in the time of King Edward, and in 1086 Robert (fn. 5) held
them of the bishop. (fn. 6)
Treyford did not become, with Robert's other lands,
part of the honor of Petworth. It passed to the family
of Vilers, who held it of the Earl of Arundel. Pain de
Vilers, the first holder of the manor, probably the Pain
who was living at the date of the Lindsey Survey
(1115–18), (fn. 7) gave it to his son Alan. (fn. 8) About 1150
Alan gave to the monks of Lewes 5s. from Treyford. (fn. 9)
In 1166 one fee in Treyford was held of the honor of
Arundel; (fn. 10) the tenant's name is not given. Robert de
Vilers made an agreement with the Bishop of Chichester
in 1194 whereby Robert gave to the church of Holy
Trinity, Chichester, 5 acres of land in Treyford. (fn. 11)
Robert, who was seneschal of the Earl of Arundel, was
in the king's service in Sussex in 1208 (fn. 12) and in 1212
he was owner of Treyford manor. (fn. 13) He died about
1223. (fn. 14) It was probably his son Robert who was slain
by two thieves near Hastings in 1237. (fn. 15) His land at
Treyford was mortgaged for payment of a debt to the
Jews in 1235 (fn. 16) and it was probably on this account that
Treyford was held in 1242–3 by Master Alexander le
Seculer. (fn. 17) Robert son of Robert de Vilers held two fees
in Cudlow and Treyford which were assigned as part
of John Fitz Alan's share of the honor of Arundel in
1244, (fn. 18) and in 1256 Robert obtained a grant of free
warren at Treyford. (fn. 19) He was accused of appropriating a new warren at Treyford in 1274. (fn. 20) Four years
later Robert settled the manor upon himself for life
with remainder to his son Nicholas de Vilers, with
contingent remainders to John, William, and Richard,
brothers of Nicholas, in tail. Robert son of Robert de
Vilers opposed his claim. (fn. 21) Nicholas settled the manor
in 1315 upon his son Nicholas and Joan his wife. (fn. 22)
Nicholas the son was probably in possession of the
manor in 1327, (fn. 23) and he obtained in 1336 a confirmation of the grant of free warren made to Robert de
Vilers. (fn. 24) In 1344 Nicholas complained that Sir
Thomas Camoys and others broke into his park at
Treyford. (fn. 25) He probably died soon after, for in 1347
his sons Robert and William conveyed the manor for
100 marks to Richard, Earl of Arundel. (fn. 26) Their sister
Joan also released her claim in the manor to the earl.
This conveyance was made ignoring the entail set up
in 1278, and in 1385 John de Berwick son of Joan
successfully claimed the manor against the Earl of
Arundel. The jury awarded the manor to John for his
life, with reversion, if he died without heirs, to the earl. (fn. 27)
John died before 1417 and in that year his widow
Maud who had married Philip de Egerton claimed a
third of the manor against Hugh Punchardon, who had
somehow acquired a life interest in the manor. (fn. 28) Hugh
was still holding the manor in 1423, when the trustees
of Thomas, late Earl of Arundel, obtained licence from
the king to grant the reversion after Hugh's death to the
hospital at Arundel which they had been charged by the
earl to found. (fn. 29) The hospital was in possession of the
manor by 1428, (fn. 30) and it remained in possession until
the Dissolution.
The manor was granted by Henry VIII in 1546 to
Sir Richard Lee. (fn. 31) He obtained licence in February
1547 to grant the manor to Richard Chatfyld, (fn. 32) but
apparently did not do so, as in August of the same year
he obtained another licence to sell it to Henry, Earl of
Arundel, (fn. 33) the conveyance being made in Michaelmas
term of that year. (fn. 34) The earl and John, Lord Lumley,
who had married his daughter Joan, (fn. 35) sold the manor
in 1571 to William Aylwin (fn. 36) second son of John
Aylwin of Canons in West Dean. (fn. 37) In 1584 the manor
was settled on Katherine wife of William Aylwin, and
upon his sons John, William, or Robert in tail male.
William, the son, died in 1585 and John in 1588 both
without male issue, and on the death of William Aylwin
the father in 1592, Treyford manor passed to Robert. (fn. 38)
Robert died seised of the manor in 1607, his son
William being then 13 years of age. (fn. 39) William obtained livery of the manor in 1619. (fn. 40)
Robert son of William Aylwin succeeded before
1678 and settled the manor in 1688 upon himself for
life with remainder to trustees to raise £200 for
William Aylwin of Woolbeding,
his nephew. (fn. 41) Robert apparently
died before 1689 for in October
of that year William made an
agreement with another uncle,
Richard Aylwin of Iping, by
which William was to hold the
manor in fee tail, paying annuities from it to Richard and his
wife Magdalen. (fn. 42) William and
his wife Joan cut the entail in
1706. (fn. 43) William was still lord
of the manor in 1711, (fn. 44) but had
been succeeded before 1724 by
Robert Aylwin, who died in 1736
and left Treyford manor to his eldest son William, who
died in the following year, when the manor passed to
Robert, second son of Robert. This Robert died in
1740 having two sisters Mary and Elizabeth. (fn. 45) Mary
married Charles Talbot, and Elizabeth married Sir
William Mannock, bart., and each had half the manor.
After Mary's death Charles and Elizabeth sold the
whole in 1766 to James Peachey. (fn. 46) From him it passed
by will to his nephew Sir James Peachey, bart., (fn. 47) who
was created Lord Selsey in 1794 and died in 1808. (fn. 48)
His grandson Henry John, third Lord Selsey, dying
without issue in 1838, the manor passed to his only
sister Mrs. H. Vernon Harcourt. (fn. 49) At her death in
1871 the manor passed to the Marquess of Clanricard. (fn. 50)
It was acquired by Frederick Bower, who was lord of
the manor between 1881 and 1891, as was William
Dodge James of West Dean in 1895. (fn. 51)
Aylwin. Argent a fesse nebuly gules between three lions sable.
CHURCHES
The modern church of ST. PETER,
demolished in 1951, consisted of chancel
(with a small heating chamber in the
form of a crypt under it) flanked by organ chamber and
vestry, clearstoried nave, north and south aisles, south
porch, and tower with stone broach spire west of the
north aisle; it was built of stone with tiled roofs and
dated from 1849; (fn. 52) the tower being apparently later. The
whole of the fittings, including the font, were modern.
The ruin of the former church of ST. MARY
(fn. 53)
stands on a mound south-west of the Manor House.
It consists of a chancel and nave of the 13th century;
to this a north transeptal chapel seems to have been
added in the 14th century, later destroyed. A north
porch is shown in the drawing (1805) in the Sharpe
collection, but has since disappeared. It is built of the
local malm rock with ashlar dressings; part of the external plaster survives; the 19th-century repairs are
partly in brick.
RUINS of the CHURCH of ST. MARY TREYFORD
In the east wall of the chancel are three lancet windows, of which the middle one is both higher and wider
than the others; all have exterior rebates and concentric
splays, remains exist on these of lozenge-patterned
painting in brown. The ancient altar slab, of Sussex
marble, is now broken. In the north wall is a wall
locker, with no rebate or trace of door; there is a similar
locker, with a damaged piscina just west of it, in the
south wall. On each side of the chancel are two 13th-century lancet windows similar to those in the east wall,
and on the south wall is a consecration cross in black;
a moulded string-course runs round all three sides.
There is the foundation of a solid screen wall between
the chancel and nave, but the chancel arch has completely disappeared.
The south wall of the nave was entirely rebuilt in
modern times; it had two windows with square jambs
in brick, the pointed arch of the western of these survives. In the north wall are the responds of an arch
formerly opening into the transeptal chapel; these are
semicircular on plan with moulded capitals of bell form
without separate abacus (the bases are invisible); the
spring of an arch of two chamfered orders also survives;
this work is of the 14th or 15th century. (fn. 54) The arch
was closed in about the 16th century by building a wall
outside it; in this wall are the jambs of a window of
perhaps two narrow lights. West of the arch there is
visible on the inside the blocked semicircular arch of a
12th-century doorway, the western jamb of which is
also visible outside. The north door has a round arch of
one chamfered order with no imposts to the jambs, it
is either 12th-century work re-used or early 13th. West
of this is a single 13th-century lancet window with
exterior rebates, the outer arch is pointed but the head
of the splay is round. In the west wall is a larger 13th-century lancet window, also with exterior rebates, with
concentric splay. On each side of it is a consecration
cross in red. Remains of a stone bench exist against the
ancient walls of chancel and nave. The roof, and all
fittings, have completely disappeared.
The existing registers of Treyford with Didling
begin in 1728; the bishop's transcripts of marriages
from 1630 to 1745 have been copied by W. H.
Challen.
ADVOWSON
The advowson descended with the
manor. The living was united with
Elsted in 1485, (fn. 55) the master of the
almshouse at Arundel to have every alternate presentation; but apparently this arrangement was dissolved in
1500 when a separate parson was admitted to Treyford, (fn. 56) and from that time till the Dissolution the master
of the almshouse presented regularly. (fn. 57) Before 1580
Treyford had become annexed to Didling (fn. 58) and this
arrangement apparently endured (fn. 59) until both were
annexed to Elsted, the three parishes being now a
rectory in the gift of the Bishop of Chichester.