T.P. Hudson – författare

This volume describes the southern part of Bramber rape, the easternmost of the three rapes of West Sussex. It tells the history of 19 parishes lying along the coastal strip and over the South Downs. The rape takes its name from the castle at Bramber, which was the centre of the feudal honour and in whose shadow the de Braoses, the lords of the rape, planted a new town. Neighbouring Steyning, once one of the chief towns of the county, was a Saxon foundation with a college of secular canons and a port on the river Adur. The port gradually silted up and was replaced by that at New Shoreham, another Norman town planted in a corner of Old Shoreham parish. New Shoreham, once a major channel port and a centre for shipbuilding, has been much affected by changes in the coastline; the modern harbour lies in Kingston Bowsey and Southwick. The silting and reclamation of the Adur estuary has also changed the face of Lancing, where the college and chapel overlook the new ground. Sompting near by has one of the several noteworthy Romanesque churches is the area. The growth of Worthing was impeded in the 19th century by sanitary problems, but thetown is now the second largest in Sussex. It was also formerly renowned for its glasshouse produce. It has swallowed its parent parish of Broadwater and the parishes of Durrington, Heene, and West Tarring, the last named including two fine medieval secular buildings. The urban sprawl takes in part of Findon, scene of the annual sheep fair, which like Clapham and Patching to the west retains extensive downland. Washington, north of the downs is noted for market gardening and sand quarrying, while at Wiston was one of the most important country houses in Sussex. The tally of parishes is completed by the deserted villages of Botolphs and Coombes.

The volume gives the history of the ten parishes that form the north-western part of Bramber rape, from Sullington in the south to Warnharn in the north, lying mostly in the Weald. Horsham is the focus of the area, and its historyoccupies more than a third of the volume. It was a borough by 1235 and developed later as one of the chief towns of the county, hav-ing the county gaol from the 16th to the 19th century and being from 1889 to 1916 joint county town of West Sussex with Chichester. Horsham parish also contained an extensive rural area, and West Grin-stead and Shipley were other unusually large parishes. The land was heavily wooded in the Middle Ages and settlement was scattered; many settlements originated as outlying holdings of manors centred in the south end of the rape. Later, some settlements grew as ribbons along main roads, others around the edges of commons. From the mid 19th century there was an influx of wealthy residents: among the new- comers was Hilaire Belloc, and the large houses built or rebuilt included Warnham Court, seat of the Lucases, and Little Thakeham, designed by Lutyens. Humbler houses in considerable numbers were built at Ashington, Barns Green, Partridge Green, Sullington, and Thakeham, and Horsham more than trebled in size between 1891 and 1971. Agriculture was limited by the extensive woodland; open fields were few and small, and there were many parks and commons. To provide for London and the coastal towns stock raising and dairying came to predominate over arable from c.1850, and was accompanied by poultry farming and market gardening. The mainindustrial activities have been ironworking and brickmaking.