Place:West Chiltington, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

West Chiltington is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located 2.6 miles (4.2 km) north of Storrington.

The parish covers an area of 1,733 hectares (4,279 acres or 6.69 sq mi). In the 2001 UK census 3,315 people lived in 1,476 households. At the 2011 UK Census the population totalled 3,375 which included the neighbouring parish of Nutbourne which had less than 100 inhabitants.

St. Mary's Church is the grade I listed Anglican parish church. Balls Green and Broadford Bridge are hamlets within the parish.

West Chiltington is unusual in the south of England in that within its parish boundaries it has three established vineyards. Viticulture has only been part of the agricultural scene in England since the 1970s. The Nyetimber vineyard in West Chiltington has an international reputation for quality. Nyetimber is based on an old manor which reputedly was part of the dowry of Anne of Cleves when she married Henry VIII.

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