Place:Pagham, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Pagham is a semi-rural, and also semi-urban coastal village between Bognor Regis and Selsey. It is a civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. The parish covers an area of 9.88 km2 (3.81 sq mi) and its population in the UK census of 2011 was 5,941. The village can be divided into three contiguous neighbourhoods which merge seamlessly into one clustered village:

• Pagham Beach, coastal area, developed in the early 20th Century,
• Pagham, the original 13th Century village
• Nyetimber, originally a separate village which has now been subsumed as part of a local authority rationalisation (occurring in either 1933 or 1974) and the growth of the area.

Many of the original Pagham Beach dwellings were bungalows constructed from old railway carriages. Most of these have been rebuilt using sturdier construction methods.

The Church of St. Thomas a'Becket stands by itself to the northeast of Pagham Harbour. It was originally built in the 13th century and was restored and in part rebuilt in the 19th century. (Source:British History Online, section on Pagham, full reference details below.)

Nyetimber Mill is a grade II listed tower windmill which has been converted to residential use. It was built in the early 1840s and was working until damaged by a storm in 1915. The sails were on the mill until struck by lightning in 1927. The mill became derelict and was burnt out in 1962, leaving the windshaft perched above the ivy covered tower. The mill was converted to a house by 2005.

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).

"PAGHAM, a village and a parish in Westhampnett district, Sussex. The village stands on the coast 3½ miles W S W of Bognor r. station, and 4¾ S S E of Chichester; is a small place; and has a post-office under Chichester. The parish contains also the hamlets of Lagness and Rosegreen; and includes the tythings of Aldwick, South Mundham, and Nytimber. Acres: 4,376; of which 280 are water. Real property: £8,859. Population: 988. Houses: 202. The property is subdivided. Aldwick Place is the seat of B. B. Cabbell, Esq.; and the Pavilion, of Lieut Col. H. Austen.

"Pagham harbour penetrates between Pagham and Selsey parishes; was formed by irruption of the sea, in the beginning of the 14th century; has a narrow crooked entrance; expands to a maximum breadth of 1 1/3 mile, and a maximum length of fully 1½ mile; accommodates vessels of 40 tons and under, chiefly bearing coals or manure; and includes a space of about 130 feet by 30, called the Hushing well, where the water looks as if in a state of ebullition, from the rushing of vast volumes of air to the surface.

"The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chichester. Value: £300. Patron: the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is early English; comprises nave and chancel, with tower and spire; and contains a slab with Longobardic characters. An archi-episcopal palace stood a little S E of the church, and has left some indistinct remains. There are a national school and a coast-guard station."

Note: South Mundham was transferred to North Mundham in 1897. Aldwick and Rosegreen are treated under Aldwick although the area may not have become a separate parish until late in the 20th 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.

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