Place:Iford, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Iford is a village and civil parish now in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is located two miles (3.2 km) south of the town of Lewes. The parish lies on slopes of the South Downs in the valley of the River Ouse.

The parish covers an area of 9.7 km2 (3.7 sq mi) and had a population of 209 in the UK census of 2011. The civil parish was part of the Newhaven Rural District from 1894 until 1934 and then part of the Chailey Rural District until 1974. The parish was part of the Swanborough hundred until the abolition of hundreds in the 19th century.

The Greenwich meridian runs through the village and the precise location is marked by a sundial, provided for by a Millennium Commission Lottery Fund grant.

The Church of England parish church is dedicated to St. Nicholas and dates from the 12th century, though much restored in the 19th century. It has an unusual arrangement of nave and chancel separated by the tower, possibly formerly at the crossing, though transepts and a north aisle have been demolished. It is listed Grade I.

Swanborough Manor is also listed Grade I and incorporates fabric of about 1200 from the Grange of St Pancras, a dependency of St Pancras Priory, Lewes, as well as much later fabric of interest.

Iford Manor, a neo-gothic house of 1830 and Sutton House of circa 1800 are also listed at Grade II are among the eighteen listed structures in Iford.

Research Tips

• The East Sussex Record Office, The Keep, Woollards Way, Brighton, BN1 9BP, United Kingdom (email thekeep@eastsussex.gov.uk) holds material for the Archdeaconry of Lewes, present-day East Sussex, and therefore generally holds historical material for East Sussex parishes only. An on-line catalogue for some of the collections held by the East Sussex Record Office (ESRO) is available under the Access to Archives (A2A) project (a nationwide facility housed at The National Archives, Kew).
• 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.
• Further resources may be found on GENUKI's main page on Sussex.
• 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 Iford
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7, Lewes Hundred, section on Iford
• Maps of the local area are to be found on the WeRelate page for Lewes Rape and on that for Newhaven Rural District.