Place:Denton, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Denton is a small village now inside the town boundary of Newhaven, East Sussex, England. It adjoins the suburbs of South Heighton and Mount Pleasant and backs onto the South Downs northeast of the town.

The Manor of Denton was held in Saxon times by Earl Godwin, father of King Harold II Godwinson who lost his kingdom to William the Conqueror. It seems likely that Denton was destroyed during the Saxon rebellion of 1068. It does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name Denton comes from Old English and means "farmstead or village in a valley".

Denton's church, St. Leonard's, was first built around 1288, later extended and carefully restored during the Decorated Period. The walls are of flint and stone and the vestry was added during the 20th Century. The remains of what is thought to have been a Priest's House in the west end of the churchyard, dating from about 1280, have recently been partly restored.

end of Wikipedia contribution

A Vision of Britain through Time explains that between 1894 and 1934, Denton was made up of two parishes: Denton and Denton Urban. Denton Urban was within the Urban District of Newhaven. When Newhaven Rural District was abolished in 1934 the two parts of Denton were merged within Newhaven Urban District. Immediately before the split Denton covered 810 acres and had a population of 568. During its existence, Denton Urban had an acreage of 208 and a population of around 400. Denton's population dropped to 101 immediately after the split, but increased back to 568 by the time the two parts were merged in 1934.

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).

"DENTON, a parish in Lewes [registration] district, Sussex; on the river Ouse and the Newhaven railway, 1¼ mile N of Newhaven [railway] station, and 5 SSE of Lewes. Post town: Newhaven, under Lewes. Acres: 1,008. Real property: £1,187. Population: 206. Houses; 35. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to the duchy of Lancaster. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chichester. Value: £240. Patron: Miss E. W. Catt."

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 Denton
• Maps of the local area are to be found on the WeRelate page for Lewes Rape and on that for Newhaven Rural District.
• A History of the County of Sussex provided by British History Online does not include articles on parishes that were part of Pevensey Rape.