Place:East Marden, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

East Marden is a village and former parish on the spur of the South Downs in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. Originally the parish was made up of detached parts, as was the neighbouring parish of Stoughton. Under the Divided Parishes Act of 1876, detached parts of East Marden and Stoughton were added to the parish of Compton in 1880. In 1933 the parish of Up Marden was also added to Compton by the West Sussex Review Order. (Source: British History Online)

Also in 1933 the remainder of East Marden was united with North Marden to become Marden. (Source: British History Online)

History

The parish was first mentioned in the Domesday Book as "Meredone" and was given in 1086 to Roger, Earl of Montgomery. The church, St Peter's, dates from the 12th century and is still used for worship every other Sunday. Its oldest house today dates back to 1728. The village, some 100 metres above sea level, is in an area of unusually high rainfall. Its most famous landmark is the thatched well on the village green. The population has remained static for over a century.

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.

• Marden GENUKI on East Marden
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4, the Rape of Chichester, section on East Marden
• Maps of the local area are to be found on pages for Westbourne and Singleton Hundred and Chichester Rape.