Place:Rackham, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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).

"RACKHAM, a hamlet in Amberley parish, Sussex; near the river Arun, 5 miles N E by N of Arundel. Acres: 960. Population: 194. Houses: 40. There is a national school; and fairs are held on 20 May and 13 Oct."

As described above, Rackham was a hamlet in the parish of Amberley in the middle of the 19th century. A Vision of Britain Through Time goes on to say it was made a civil parish in 1866 and was part of Thakeham Rural District until 1933 when it was abolished as a parish and absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Parham. The area is now part of the Arun District of West Sussex, England.

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 Rackham
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex does not cover the West Easwrith Hundred.
• Maps of the local area are to be found on the page for Arundel Rape and on that for Thakeham Rural District.