Place:Greatham, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Greatham is a small village and former civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the Coldwaltham to Storrington road about 2 miles (3 km) south of Pulborough.

In 1933 the parish of Greatham was abolished and its 770 acres of land and population of 55 was absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Place:Parham, Sussex, England. The parish of Wiggonholt was absorbed into Parham at the same time.

History

The Domesday Book of 1086 records the place village as "Gretham". The first element in the name means "gravel"; the second is uncertain, and could mean either "village, estate, manor, homestead", "meadow, especially a flat, low-lying meadow on a stream", or "an enclosed plot, a close".

Greatham Bridge was built for Sir Henry Tregoz in the early 14th century. The iron section was built after floods had damaged the bridge in 1838. A skirmish took place near the bridge during the English Civil War.

Early in the First World War Greatham inspired John Drinkwater's poem "Of Greatham" (to those who live there), which was published in his anthology Swords and Plough-shares.

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).

"GREATHAM, a parish in Chichester [registration] district, Sussex: on the [east side of the] river Arun, 2 miles S of Pulborough [railway] station, and 6 NNE of Arundel. Post town, Pulborough, under Petworth. Acres: 769. Real property: £781. Population: 51. Houses: 12. The living is a rectory, annexed to rectory of Wingonholt [Wiggonholt], in the diocese of Chichester. The church is early English."

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