DONNINGTON
The parish, containing 1,039 acres of good agricultural land, is 2½ miles in length from north to south
with an average breadth of about half a mile. A winding
road from Chichester runs southwards down the centre
of the parish to Sidlesham. To the west of this road
lie the church and the manor-house, just south of which
the disused Arundel-Chichester canal crosses the parish.
Some 65 acres of Donnington Common were inclosed by private agreement in 1791–3. (fn. 1) In 1895
Kingsham, (fn. 2) an outlying portion of the parish of St.
Pancras in Chichester, was added to Donnington, but
in 1933 this was included within the enlarged bounds
of the City of Chichester.
The Manor House, a short distance south of the
church and west of the Sidlesham-Chichester road, is
dated 1677: the walls are of red brick on stone foundations. The east front has a nearly central entrance with
side pilasters, flat arch, moulded and dentilled cornice,
and a curved pediment on which is carved the date, all
of brickwork. On either side in the main wall are two
original windows with flat arches. Each of the windows
is flanked by a pair of narrow strip-pilasters which rise
to the eaves, inclosing similar upper windows. At the
first-floor level is a moulded brick string-course with
dentils. In the tiled roof are three gabled dormers.
A plain chimney-stack, apparently later, rises above the
south gable; another of rebated type, on the north half
at the back, is original. Except for a few chamfered
ceiling-beams the whole interior has been modernized.
The few buildings on the main road forming the
village include a thatched cottage showing some late17th-century timber-framing and a house of 18th-century brickwork with a 17th-century central
chimney-stack.
Rose Farm, (fn. 3) about a mile to the south-south-west, is
a modern house but has a large weather-boarded and
thatched barn of nine bays with an aisle. It appears to
be ancient but has tie-beams dated 1801.
Harding's Farm, to the east of it, on the west side
of the Sidlesham road is a brick house with a thatched
roof above which is a 17th-century central rebated
chimney-stack.
MANOR
The manor of DONNINGTON was
given to the abbey of St. Peter at Winchester, afterwards called Hyde, in 966 by
King Edgar. (fn. 4) It was then rated at 5 hides, as it was
at the time of the Domesday Survey, when there was
1 haw in Chichester attached to it. (fn. 5) It continued to be
held by the abbey, being valued at £22 19s. in 1291, (fn. 6)
and in 1388 it was alleged that it and the other two
Sussex manors of Southease and Telscombe which
formed part of Edgar's gift were held by the convent,
separately from the portion of the abbot, and were
therefore exempt from seizure by the royal officials
during the vacancy of the abbacy. (fn. 7)
After the Dissolution the manor was retained in the
king's hands and in 1540 was annexed to the honor of
Petworth, (fn. 8) under which it appears in 1556, being then
leased to William Beverishe. (fn. 9) In July 1558 it was
granted to Sir Thomas Palmer, (fn. 10) who died at Parham
in 1582, leaving this and other manors to his son
William. (fn. 11) He died in 1586, (fn. 12) and in 1654 Donnington was settled on his grandson Peregrine Palmer and
Anne Stephens on their marriage. (fn. 13) Peregrine settled
the manor on his son Nathaniel at the time of his
marriage to Frances daughter of Sir William Wyndham
in 1682. (fn. 14) In 1723 Nathaniel's son Thomas, with the
assent of his brother Peregrine and his five sisters,
sold the manor to James Colebrooke, (fn. 15) who in 1726
conveyed the manor of Donnington Palmer to John
Page, (fn. 16) whose family had lived in Donnington for
several generations. Page died in 1779, at the age of
82; (fn. 17) his daughter Frances married George White,
M.P. for Chichester, who took the name of Thomas
in 1779, (fn. 18) and their daughter Frances married MajorGen. John Gustavus Crosbie and their son Charles
Crosbie owned the manor in 1876, (fn. 19) as did his widow
in 1882. (fn. 20) The manor was bought in 1895 by George
Alexander Gale, who settled it on his daughter Mrs.
Arthur C. Harris, the present lady of the manor. (fn. 21)
Hyde Abbey. Argent a lion and a chief sable with a pair of keys argent on the chief.
Palmer. Argent two bars sable each with three trefoils or in chief a greyhound sable.
CHURCH
The church of ST. GEORGE
(fn. 22) stands
solitary on the west of the ChichesterSelsey road, and consists of chancel, north
flanking chapel, nave with aisles, tower occupying the
west bay of the south aisle, and porch; it is built of
rubble with ashlar dressings and is roofed with tile.
The chancel, nave, and aisles were rebuilt (fn. 23) in the 13th
century, the north chapel added at some unknown date,
but completely rebuilt in the 19th; the tower was
added in the 16th, the porch is modern. In 1939 a fire
seriously damaged the nave and aisles.
The chancel has in the east wall a lancet triplet with
moulded splay jambs and hood-moulds, and in each
side wall three plain lancets, the westernmost on the
north side being blocked by the side chapel. In the
south wall is a trefoil-headed piscina with two drains;
a string-course runs round these three sides. The
chancel arch is of two chamfered orders springing from
square responds with corbels to carry the inner order;
all this work is of the 13th century. The roof, ancient
but of uncertain date, has two tie-beams and a collar
to each couple.
Parish Church of St George Donnington
The north chapel (fn. 24) opens out of the north aisle by
a half-arch of one plain order, replacing, after the fire,
a crude wooden lintel, and has a group of three lancets
under one rear-arch in the east wall, and, since the fire,
a small one-light window with square head in the west;
it was wholly rebuilt in the 19th century.
The nave of four bays has on each side an arcade of
four pointed arches of two chamfered orders; the piers,
alternately round and octagonal, have moulded caps
(circular even on the octagonal piers) and bases, and
were, before the fire, of the 13th century. The westernmost arch on the south side was blocked when the
tower was built. The responds are the faces of the east
and west walls with corbels to carry the inner order.
The west window is of two lights under Perpendicular
tracery, modern but perhaps a renewal of 15th-century
work. Before the fire the roof, of uncertain date, was
ceiled in wagon form in plaster.
The south aisle has a modern buttress of one stage
with sloping offset against its south wall, a one-light
window in the east, and another and a three-light one
in the south wall; these have uncusped heads with fourcentred arches and no tracery, modern in 16th-century
style. The south doorway has plain semicircular head
and jambs and segmental rear-arch, 13th-century but
partly renewed after the fire; east of it is a holy water
stoup with pointed head and mutilated basin, of uncertain date. In the west wall is the doorway opening
into the tower, having a four-centred arch and plain
jambs, originally 16th-century but renewed after the
fire.
The north aisle has one modern three-light window
matching that opposite, a buttress, also modern, and
a north doorway like that opening into the tower, of
the 16th century.
The tower was evidently built where it is and not
in the usual place west of the nave because the present
west wall is within a few feet of the churchyard
boundary. It has buttresses of two stages with sloping
offsets at its south-east and north-west corners and a
similar one, set diagonally, at the south-west. The
lowest stage, used as a vestry, has in its south wall a
single-light window whose head is an uncusped four-centred arch; the second stage has a similar window in
the south wall, and the uppermost similar windows on
all four sides; the tower is finished with a cornice of
slight projection and a battlement; all this is of the
16th century.
The porch is modern and now has a doorway in
16th-century style in the south wall and a small squareheaded window in the east.
The present font replaces that existing before the
fire which was of the usual 12th-century form with
square basin carried on four slender columns and one
thick one.
The church had three bells: (fn. 25) (1) inscribed SANCTE
GREGORI O N; (2) PRAIS THE LORD 1594 (by
Anthony Wakefield); (3) by John Warner & Sons,
1858.
The communion plate is remarkable for a preReformation paten (c. 1500) bearing the vernicle within a sexfoil depression. There is also a silver cup of
1709. (fn. 26)
The registers begin in 1559.
ADVOWSON
In December 1249 Bishop Richard
of Chichester allowed the Abbot and
Convent of Hyde to appropriate the
church of Donnington and ordained a vicarage, the
advowson of which he retained for himself and his successors. The vicar was to have a manse and the land
belonging to the church, the altar offerings, the small
tithes and tithes of hay, and half all the tithes of corn
and vegetables throughout the parish, including the
monks' demesne. (fn. 27) The rectory was valued in 1291 at
£13 6s. 8d. and the vicarage at £10; (fn. 28) and in 1340
there was one ploughland of rectorial glebe worth
£4 6s. 8d. and other glebe of which the rents amounted
to 40s. (fn. 29) The advowson remained in the hands of the
Bishop of Chichester until the 19th century, though it
was included (erroneously) in the grant of the rectory
by Queen Elizabeth in 1578 to Edward Downing, (fn. 30)
and in his transference of the property to Nicholas
Gilborne and James Tilden in 1588. (fn. 31) About 1858 the
patronage was acquired by Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop
of Oxford, (fn. 32) but after his death in 1873 it passed to the
Lord Chancellor, (fn. 33) in whose gift the living remains.
The rectory probably came into the hands of
Christopher Bettesworth, as his daughter and coheir
Anne with her husband Benjamin Burch held half of
it in 1708 and in 1739 sold this half, with half of the
other lands which Anne's great-grandfather John Newman bought of Sir Thomas Fludd, to Stephen Hervey
for the use of John Page, (fn. 34) who then held the manor,
with which it subsequently descended. (fn. 35)
Edward Lamball in 1538 left 2d. 'to every Brothered
in the churche of Doneton'. (fn. 36) The most important of
these was the Brotherhood of St. George, (fn. 37) which in
1548 owned a cottage and garden called 'the brotherhood house', (fn. 38) which in 1611 was in the hands of John
Newman. (fn. 39)