Place:Didling, Sussex, England

Watchers
NameDidling
TypeParish
Coordinates50.961°N 0.811°W
Located inSussex, England
Also located inWest Sussex, England     (1865 - )
See alsoChichester Rape, Sussex, Englandrape in which it was located
Dumpford Hundred, Sussex, Englandhundred in which it was located
Midhurst Rural, Sussex, Englandrural district 1894-1933
Chichester District, West Sussex, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Family History Library Catalog
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Didling is a tiny village within an equally small parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the Treyford to Bepton road 3.5 miles (5.7 km) southwest of Midhurst. Since the local administration reorganization of 1974 it is within the civil parish of Elsted and Treyford.

The 13th century church of St. Andrew, known as "The Shepherds' Church", sits a little to the south of the village on the northern slope of Didling Hill. The nave and chancel are of plastered rubble with ashlar dressings. The wooden porch is modern. The church has a single bell dated 1587. The church is known for its simplicity and the fact that it has survived the intervening centuries with very little restoration. Without an electricity supply the church is lit by candles.

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).

"DIDLING, a parish in Midhurst [registration] district, Sussex; 3¾ miles SW of Midhurst [railway] station, and 4¾ SE of Petersfield [Hampshire]. Post town, Midhurst. Acres: 814. Real property: £731. Population: 85. Houses: 20. The living is a rectory, annexed to the rectory of Elsted, in the diocese of Chichester. The church is early English."

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.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Didling. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.