Place:Ambersham, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).

"AMBERSHAM (North and South), two tythings in Midhurst [registration]] district, Sussex; on the river Rother, 2½ miles ESE of Midhurst. They belong to Steep parish, but lie detached from the rest of it; and, prior to 1844, they were in Hampshire. Acres of [North Ambersham]: 1,112. Population: 111. Houses: 19. Acres of [South Ambersham]: 1,506. Population: 143. Houses: 28.

There is no additional information in Wikipedia. Steep parish is in Hampshire, just northwest of Petersfield. GENUKI states the tythings have links to Midhurst (courts and poor law union).

North and South Ambersham together was a long narrow strip, 8 miles from north to south with an average width of ½ mile or less, constituting a detached portion of the parish of Steep in Hampshire. The two formed part of Hampshire until the 19th century, when the Ambershams were united to Fernhurst (North) and Selham (South). (Source: British History Online)

Research Tips

• The West Sussex Record Office is located in Chichester. Because it holds the records of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, which covers the whole of Sussex, it has church records relating to both parts of Sussex.
• An on-line catalogue for some of the collections held by the West Sussex Record Office is available under the Access to Archives (A2A) project (a nationwide facility housed at The National Archives, Kew).
• West Sussex Past - database of 2 million records from West Sussex heritage organizations.
• The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies' Sussex Collection (PDF). This is a 9-page PDF naming the files relating to Sussex in their collection-a possible first step in a course of research.
• The National Library of Scotland has a website which provides maps taken from the Ordnance Survey England & Wales One-Inch to the Mile series of 1892-1908 as well as equivalent maps for Scotland itself. The immediate presentation is a "help" screen and a place selection screen prompting the entry of a location down to town, village or parish level. These screens can be removed by a click of the "X". The map is very clear and shows parish and county boundaries and many large buildings and estates that existed at the turn of the 20th century. Magnification can be adjusted and an "overlay feature" allows inspection of the area today along with that of 1900. The specific map from the series can be viewed as a whole ("View this map") and this allows the inspection of the map legend (found in the left hand bottom corner. Becoming familiar with the various facilities of these maps is well worth the trouble.

• GENUKI on Ambersham (short mention only)
• A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4, the Rape of Chichester, section on Fernhurst
• Maps of the local area are to be found on the page for Chichester Rape and on that for Midhurst Rural District, and also that for Easebourne Hundred.