Up Marden
| Up Marden | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 Church of St. Michael | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU796141 |
| Location: | 50°55’16"N, -0°52’6"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Chichester |
| Postcode: | PO18 |
| Dialling code: | 023 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Chichester |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Chichester |
Up Marden is a small village in Sussex, in the parish of Compton in the west of the county. It is on the South Downs seven miles north-west of Chichester, close to East Marden and North Marden.
There are Neolithic and Roman sites in the area. Recorded history of the settlement though starts in the 10th century and a church was in existence by 1121. The present church building is of Norman style construction and the church has remained almost unchanged. It has been described as having one of the loveliest interiors in the land.
History
A Neolithic long barrow is found on Fernbeds Down at the north of Up Marden, named Baverse's Thumb or alternatively Solomon's Thumb. The name may be a mediæval means of Christianising a pagan Neolithic monument.[1] Remains of Roman villas at Pitlands Farm in Up Marden and at Watergate Hanger in nearby West Marden indicate that there were Roman estates in the area.[2][3]
Before the Norman Conquest, a thegn called Goda is recorded as giving four cassati of land to his son-in-law Wiohstan. Wiohstan bought a further manentern near "the pool called Blackmere" from Ealfred and his wife Ealsware, then sold five hides to Bishop Wulfhun of Selsey for 2,000 silver pennies and a horse in around 935. Wiohstan, with his wife and son, was going to Rome.[4][5] During the reign of Edward the Confessor the Mardens were owned by Gytha, wife of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and held by Lefsi. By 1086 the Domesday Book shows four undifferentiated entries for the Mardens which were held by Engeler de Bohun from Roger de Montgomery.[5]
The prefix Up in Up Marden does not occur before 1227 except in a 14th-century copy of a Saxon charter where it may have been added retrospectively. In that year Reginald Aguillon was given the manor by his mother Mary who had inherited it from her father Eustace de Valle Pironis. By 1240 this land had been divided between Aguillon's four daughters, Mary, Cicely, Godehuda and Alice. It seems that Cicely gave her part to the Knights Hospitaller; the Prior of St John of Jerusalem held a quarter share in the manor in 1428 and continuing until the Dissolution of the monasteries. The rest of the land eventually came to Alice who remarried to Robert Hacket and in 1357 the Hacket family sold their land to Richard, Earl of Arundel. This three-quarter share of Up Marden remained with the Earldom of Arundel until 1581 when it was sold to William Paye, with a windmill included. The windmill was sold to Thomas Marten and the rest became divided up. That part belonging to the Hospitallers became known as Up Marden Saint John. it was granted in 1544 to Henry Audeley and John Cordall who at once passed it on to John Sone. It was later bought by Anne Peckham in 1713, was connected with Thomas Peckham Phipps in 1793 and held by Vice Admiral Sir G. T. Phipps Hornby in 1879.[5]
Church
No church is mentioned at Marden in the Domesday Survey; only those at Compton and Stoughton. Before 1121 however Up Marden church had been given, along with Stoughton church, to Lewes Priory by Savaric fitz-Cane.[6]
St Michael's Church stands 500 feet above sea level on a ridge where it is approached along a farm track. Described by Ian Nairn as having one of the loveliest interiors in the land, the church is all of 13th century construction. The triangular chancel arch between chancel and unaisled nave is a 16th-century repair to the original 13th-century arch. The walls and wagon roofs are plastered and the floors of brick. The windows are large simple lancets, with the east window consisting of three together under a rere-arch. The tower has a weatherboarded bell chamber. The chancel contains a trefoil headed piscina. A more recent feature for such an ancient church is the Victorian stone pulpit with ogee-panelled sides which, in Nairn's opinion, fits in perfectly.[7]
In 1628 a bell was cast for the church by bell founders Thomas Wakefield and Bryan Eldridge.[8] There were also two other bells, one dated 1620 and one unmarked, but all three have been taken down because of weakness in the bell tower.[5]
Captain Herbert Westmacott, MC (1952–1980), a British Army officer who became the first person to be awarded a posthumous Military Cross, is buried in the churchyard.
In a topographical dictionary of 1833 the living at Up Marden church is shown as a curacy subordinate to the vicarage of Compton.[9]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Up Marden) |
References
- ↑ Grinsell, L V (1936). The Ancient Burial-mounds of England. Methuen. pp. 14, 80. https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.39162.
- ↑ Romano-British Villa: Heritage Gateway
- ↑ Site of a Roman corridor villa: Heritage Gateway
- ↑ Kelly, S E (1998). "Anglo-Saxon Charters 6". Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 65–66. http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/rjr20/details/Pelteret/Sels/Sels%2016.htm.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 A History of the County of Sussex - Volume 4 pp 110-113: The Rape of Chichester (Victoria County History)
- ↑ Down, Alec; Welch, Martin (1990). Chichester excavations 7. Phillimore. pp. 2. ISBN 0-85017-002-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=QppnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Up+Marden%22.
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Sussex, 1965 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09677-4pages 269, 270
- ↑ Tyssen, Amherst Daniel (1864). The church bells of Sussex. Lewes: G P Bacon. pp. 25. https://books.google.com/books?id=yK8HAAAAQAAJ&q=Sussex+%22Up+Marden%22&pg=PA25. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
- ↑ Gorton, John G; Wright (1833). A topographical dictionary of Britain and Ireland. 2. George Newenham. London: Chapman and Hall. pp. 765. https://books.google.com/books?id=5QoHAAAAQAAJ&q=Up+Marden+Sussex&pg=PA763. Retrieved 27 December 2012.