Place:Funtington, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Funtington is a village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2146 road 4.5 miles (7.2 km) west of Chichester. The parish also contains the villages of East Ashling and West Ashling. West Stoke, a separate civil parish until 1933, is also now within Funtington.

The parish covers an area of 20.02 km2 (7.73 sq mi) and its population at the 2011 UK census was 1,549.

St. Mary’s Anglican church, dating from the 12th century, is the principal church in the parish. St. Andrew's church at West Stoke is of Saxon origin. The chapel of St. Mary’s at Sennicotts, another hamlet in the parish, lies about two miles (3 km) to the east, off the Chichester road.

The old Congregational Chapel is situated on the road between East Ashling and Funtington, opposite the turning to West Ashling. The foundation stone was laid in 1863. Most of the building material used was various stones, recovered from the fallen tower of Chichester Cathedral which collapsed during a storm in 1861. The Chapel closed, as place of worship, between 1934 and 1938. The building still stands and is a private museum.

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 Funtington
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4, the Rape of Chichester, section on Funtington
• Maps of the local area are to be found on pages for Bosham Hundred and Chichester Rape.
• A further map taken from the Ordnance Survey England & Wales One-Inch to the Mile series of 1892-1908 provided online by the National Library of Scotland. This is very clear and shows many large buildings and estates existant at the turn of the 20th century. The link given centres in on Westhampnett, but it can be moved to fit many places in the immediate area.