Place:Barcombe, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Barcombe is an East Sussex village about 4–5 miles (6.4 km) north of Lewes. It is, more broadly, a civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex. It covers an area of 17.8 km2 (6.9 sq mi) and had a population of 1,473 in the UK census of 2011.

Barcombe itself is the oldest of three settlements in the parish; Barcombe Cross is much more populous (741 in the 2011 UK census) and the main hub with present-day amenities and services, to where the villagers of Barcombe evacuated during medieval plague (the Black Death). Other settlements in the parish are Barcombe Mills on the River Ouse, Spithurst in the northeast and Town Littleworth in the north west.

Barcombe Cross is known as Barcombe in the local area and is signposted as such, being the only government-defined "built-up area". Only on maps is it shown under its full name.

History

Barcombe Mills is the part of the parish most noted to Sussex residents and tourists. The old water-mill complex on the River Ouse at the base of the hill/plateau on which Barcombe Cross sits was a favourite Sunday outing for townsfolk from Lewes and Brighton before the Second World War. The mills burnt down in 1939, but the riverside area still has tourist attractions.

South of the Barcombe village itself, close to the river, remains have been found of a Roman settlement. An earlier Iron Age roundhouse was found on the same site. Barcombe parish church is dedicated to St Mary, and is in the older village.

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 Barcombe
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7, Lewes Hundred, section on Barcombe
• Maps of the local area are to be found on the page for Lewes Rape and on that for Chailey Rural District.