Place:Kirdford, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Kirdford is a village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. Its nearest town is Petworth, located 6.5 miles (10.5 km) southwest of the village. The parish has an area of 4,964 acres (2009 hectares or 7.76 sq mi). In the 2001 UK census 912 people lived in 373 households. At the 2011 UK census the population was 1,063.

The village has an Anglican church dedicated to St. John the Baptist plus an Evangelical non-denominational chapel. The Grade I listed church of St. John the Baptist is built of local sandstone and roofed with Horsham stone slabs. Herringbone masonry and the style of column capitals indicate that the nave is early twelfth century. The north aisle is thirteenth century and the tower fifteenth.

In the Middle Ages ironstone was used for making iron, and forest glass was also produced. Locally obtainable charcoal was used in both processes. In the twentieth century apple growing was established for a time through a cooperative venture.

In 1951 the parish of Kirdford was reduced by an area equivalent to 58.5% of its previous size of 12,497 acres when a new civil parish named Plaistow was carved out of the northern section and named after a local village. This did not reduce the population by the same amount. In 1931 its population was 1,275; in 1951 it was 819. (There was no census in 1941.) The present-day statistics given above infer that the size of the parish diminished again between 1951 and the 21st century, but no further references have been found.

Ebernoe and Balls Cross are hamlets still existent within the parish of Kirdford.

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 Kirdford
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex does not cover the Rotherbridge Hundred.
• Maps of the local area ares to be found on the pages for Arundel Rape and Petworth Rural District.