Place:Lavant, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Lavant is a civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England, 2.2 miles (3.5 km) north of Chichester. It includes three villages: Mid Lavant and East Lavant and the much smaller West Lavant. Mid Lavant and East Lavant were separate civil parishes until 1872 when they joined to form Lavant. West Lavant was in East Lavant parish. Mid Lavant and East Lavant continue to be ecclesiastical parishes to this day. Looking at the area on Google Earth shows that the two churches are very close together.

The parish and the villages take thier name from the River Lavant which flows from southwest from Eastdean to Chichester. The A286 road between Chichester and Midhurst runs through the parish. The villages were served by a station in Mid Lavant, on the railway line that ran between Chichester and Midhurst, but this closed in stages between 1931 and 1991.

The area of the present parish is 16.53 km2 (6.38 sq mi) and its population in the UK census of 2011 was 1,656.

East Lavant

East Lavant was listed in the Domesday Book. It was part of Aldwick Hundred.

In 1861, the population of the parish (including West Lavant) was 421, and the area was 2,884 acres (1,167 hectares). The parish church is dedicated to St. Mary.

Mid Lavant

Mid Lavant (as "Loventone") was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 in the ancient hundred of Singleton as having 20 households: 10 villagers and 10 smallholders; with ploughing land and a mill; it had a value to the lords of the manor, Guy of Lavant and Ivo of Grandmesnil, of £9.

In 1861, the area of the small parish was 350 acres (140 hectares), and described in Kelly's Directory of 1867 as "principally arable". The population in 1861 was 257, and The Duke of Richmond was the sole landowner. The parish church is dedicated to St. Nicholas.

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 Lavant
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4, the Rape of Chichester, section on Lavant
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4, the Rape of Chichester, section on East Lavant
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4, the Rape of Chichester, section on Mid Lavant
• Maps of the local area are to be found on pages for Westbourne and Singleton Hundred and Chichester Rape.