Place:Poynings, Sussex, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Poynings is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England.

The village is located on the north side of the South Downs near Devil's Dyke, five miles (8 km) northwest of Brighton. The civil parish covers an area of 665.5 hectares (1,644 acres) and has a population of 287 (2001 UK census). In the census of 2011 the neighbouring parish of Newtimber, having reduced in population to less than 100 people, was included in the count for Poynings bringing the population figure quoted to 432.

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).

"POYNINGS, a village, a parish, and a hundred in Sussex. The village stands at the foot of the Devil's Dyke, 5 miles S W of Hassocks-Gate [railway] station, and 6 N W of Brighton; and has a post-office under Hurstperpoint. The parish comprises 1,643 acres, and is in Steyning [registration] district. Real property, £1,633. Population: 261. Houses: 55. The manor and nearly all the land belong to the Crown. The Devil's Dyke is a great chasm in the Downs, flanked by ground 685 feet high, and commanding magnificent views; [the village] has a tavern, called the Dyke House; and is a favourite resort of pleasure parties.

"The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chichester. Value: £347. Patron: the Lord Chancellor. The church is of the 14th century, and cruciform; and has a massive tower. There are a Baptist chapel, and a village school."

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 Poynings