Edburton residents may be interested in these two new weekly bus services that will stop at Burrells. SH1 runs on Wednesdays between Partridge Green and Chichester, starting 4th September, and SH2 runs on Fridays between Crawley and Henfield, starting 6th September.
You can always check the public transport page for these and other current local bus services.
If you wander around the churchyard at St. Andrew’s peering at graves, you will soon get the impression that certain families persisted in the parish over several generations. But many of the older graves are hard to read and some are missing altogether. To get a more accurate sense of how many residents had parents who also lived in the parish, we need to turn to the nineteenth century census returns. The first ‘modern’ census, in 1841, only asked respondents if they had been born in the county in which they were then living. But the 1851 and subsequent censuses asked for both the county and the parish of birth. These later censuses thus permit a rather fine-grained analysis of the relation between where people were living and where they were born.
| Year | EdFulk | AdjPar | ElsSus | OutSus | Total |
| 1851 | 57% | 14% | 26% | 3% | 288 |
| 1861 | 41% | 18% | 34% | 6% | 299 |
| 1871 | 41% | 11% | 38% | 10% | 300 |
| 1881 | 41% | 11% | 39% | 8% | 340 |
| 1891 | 39% | 9% | 38% | 14% | 358 |
Where were the residents of the parish born?
The first row is perhaps the most striking. In 1851, over 70% of the residents of the parish were living within easy walking distance of where they were born (i.e., in Edburton or Fulking or one of the immediately adjacent parishes) and only 3% had been born outside Sussex. By the last decade of the century, the corresponding figures were 48% and 14%, respectively, and the size of the local population had increased by nearly 25%.
The remaining four rows are notable more for their similarity each with the next than for any radical changes. As the total population increases, the proportion of residents born in the parish remains more or less constant, as does the proportion born in Sussex but outside the immediate area (ElsSus). The proportion born in the immediately adjacent parishes halves over the 1861-1891 period whilst the proportion born outside Sussex more than doubles.
The first table provides a good sense of where the population had come from in any given census year but it does not give us a sense of the family structure of the parish. To get that, we need to look at the way the main resident families[2] persisted over time:
| Family | 1841 | 1851 | 1861 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 |
| Barber | 22 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 3 | 0 |
| Baird/Beard | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 15 |
| Burtenshaw | 15 | 5 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 6 |
| Cousins/Cozens | 4 | 2 | 10 | 11 | 3 | 1 |
| Jackson | 5 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| Lelliot/Lelliott | 10 | 12 | 20 | 4 | 10 | 0 |
| Madgwick | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Marchant | 10 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Morley | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 16 | 9 |
| Page | 1 | 1 | 7 | 18 | 10 | 9 |
| Paine/Payne | 40 | 40 | 27 | 10 | 6 | 10 |
| Pollard | 5 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
| Sayers | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 15 |
| Steel/Steele | 16 | 29 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 13 |
| Stevens | 7 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 7 |
| Stoveld/Stovell | 5 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Strevens/Strivens | 12 | 14 | 13 | 8 | 11 | 14 |
| Willet/Willett | 10 | 7 | 8 | 13 | 5 | 5 |
Families resident in the parish for five contiguous censuses
Footnotes
[1] A couple of rows sum to 99% rather than 100% as a consequence of rounding.
[2] Family members are defined here by surname, not genetics. If Jane Paine marries Bert Burtenshaw and remains in the parish then she will be counted as a Burtenshaw, not as a Paine, in the following census. Where the census takers used alternant spellings for a surname, both are listed in the table.
References
Open gardens, July 21st 1:00-6:00, adult £3.50, kids free, park at The Towers.
The Old Bakehouse viewed from the north, around 1900: the white rendered building with the sign above the door is the bake house, corn store, shop, and post office. It was demolished in the mid twentieth century. The flint-faced building to its immediate right is the cottage that one sees today. The Shepherd and Dog public house can be seen behind the horses and the Downs loom beyond that.
For most of the nineteenth century the building provided both a home and a workplace for members of the Willett family. Edward (born in Ditchling, c1796) and his wife Elizabeth (born in Hurstpierpoint, c1796) had moved to Fulking from Beeding some time between 1824 and 1831. They were living in the house in 1841 with their seven children and a male relative of Edward’s, probably his twin brother. Edward worked as a shoemaker with the assistance of his eldest son, also called Edward. By 1851, Edward Snr. had added grocery to his shoemaking business and now had the assistance of three of his sons. One of his daughters, Margaret, had become a school mistress at the local school, and his youngest daughter, Sarah, had gone to work as a servant for the Blaker family in Perching Manor. At some point Edward Snr. excavated the rock face on the west side of the house and built a wood fired oven, which became the basis of the bakery. Dough was prepared with yeast obtained from the brewery in Poynings and mixed with water that potatoes had been cooked in.
In 1853, Edward Jnr. married Ann Burtenshaw, a shoe binder from Edburton. They were to have four children. By 1861, they had moved out of the Old Bakehouse and were living elsewhere in the village. But both Edward and Ann continued to work in the family shoemaking business, as did Edward’s younger brother Joseph who was still living with his parents. The shop now included a corn store and the local post office franchise. Edward Snr. died in 1863 and his widow took over the shop. Joseph got married in 1866 and moved to another house in the village with his wife before moving to Poynings. Edward Jnr. had added market gardening to his portfolio of activities by 1866, perhaps to supply the family grocery.
The Old Bakehouse in a photograph that was probably taken by an itinerant commercial photographer in the mid 1860s[1]: the sign above the shop reads “O.Lucas & E.Willett Bake house & Corn Store [illegible] POST OFFICE”. Standing in the centre, immediately behind the wall, is Edward Willett with his wife Ann. Below them is his recently widowed mother, Elizabeth, with her five grandchildren Edward, Percy, Rhoda, Abby, and Fanny. The woman standing behind Edward and Ann Willett may be Edward’s sister Sarah, the mother of Percy.
Some time after the death of his father and prior to 1871, Edward and his family moved back into the Old Bakehouse. His mother had moved to Cuckfield and died there in 1873. In 1871 Edward’s son was working as an agricultural labourer whilst his eldest daughter, following the precedent set by her aunt Margaret, had become a school teacher. By 1881, the household had shrunk to four with Fanny and Rhoda still living with their parents. The census lists Edward as a shoemaker and general dealer, his wife Ann as a baker, Fanny as a dressmaker and Rhoda as shopwoman. With the exception of the addition of a young female servant, the household was just the same a decade later. The 1891 census now lists Edward as a baker and grocer, Rhoda as a bakery and grocery assistant, and Fanny as a dressmaker. The Kelly’s Directory for 1891 continues to list shoe making as one of Edward’s activities. Rhoda married Obadiah Lucas Jnr. in December that year and left Fulking for some years.
At some point between 1891 and 1899, Edward took over the other shop in the village and moved his business there. The Old Bakehouse was sold with a covenant that prevented it being reopened as a shop. Edward died in 1905, the year after his wife. His new shop passed into the hands of Rhoda and Obadiah.
Early C19. Two storeys. Two windows. Faced with flints, now painted. Slate roof. Casement windows. Trellised wooden porch with pediment.
Footnote
[1] Photography was a complicated and labour-intensive activity in the 1860s. Commercial photographers toured rural areas with large plate cameras and mobile darkrooms. Sunday was a favoured day since potential customers were already dressed for church. Note how the youngest boy (Percy) moved his head during the long exposure.
[Copyright © 2013, Anthony R. Brooks. Adapted and revised from Anthony R. Brooks (2008) The Changing Times of Fulking & Edburton. Chichester: RPM Print & Design, pages 175-177, 249-250.]
Currently popular local history posts:
Fulking Post Office as it was around 1900 soon after the proprietor, Edward Willett, had moved the franchise there from its previous location adjacent to the Shepherd & Dog. The sign above the door describes the shop as a “family grocer, draper and baker”. Note the Nestle’s Milk hoarding to the left of the door and the brick pillar Post Office letter box to the immediate right. The building to the right is the Old Farmhouse.
In 1851 and 1861, the shop was run as a grocers by the Welling family (William Welling was also a builder). By 1871 the shop had passed into the hands of Charles and Orpha Mitchell, a young couple who ran it as a grocers and drapers with the aid of an assistant. Throughout this entire period, the Old Farmhouse had been in the hands of the Stevens family. In 1881, Emily Graimes (née Stevens), a widow, and her sister Susannah Stevens, were running a grocery, bakery and drapers shop in the adjacent building. By 1891, the shop had passed into the hands of young siblings Joseph and Elizabeth Newman. During all of this period since 1851, there had been two shops in Fulking, the other one being the Bake House, Corn Store & Post Office owned by Edward Willett and located next to the Shepherd and Dog in a house that is now called the Old Bakehouse. Some time after 1891, Edward Willett closed his own premises and took over his competitor’s. The new Willett enterprise combined the roles of grocer, draper, baker and post office in a single shop.
A postcard showing Fulking Post Office in the very early years of the twentieth century. Note the addition of the bay display window. It is likely that Obadiah and Rhoda Lucas are the couple in the photograph, together with their son James who was born in 1892. James was to die in France in 1916 and his name is recorded on the war memorial in the church in Edburton.
A Lucas Stores, Fulking & Beeding delivery van from the early 1900s, probably an Albion. Albion vans were built in Scotland and had a reputation for reliability. Harrods ran a fleet of them.
A Lucas Stores, Grocer & Baker Model T Ford delivery van c1920, outside the Fulking shop. The man on the right is Obadiah’s younger son, Percy.
In their heyday, probably during the 1930s, the Fulking and Small Dole shops employed nine men full-time and sold almost everything that local people needed. During the Second World War, business was sustained by the government rationing programme. Because there were relatively few cars and petrol was strictly rationed, people shopped locally and village shops thrived.
In addition to being a shrewd businessman, Percy was popular and well respected and those who knew him spoke highly of him. Whenever possible he was prepared to help his customers by allowing them credit until pay-day, cooking special cakes (including Christmas cakes) in the bread oven when it was not in use, and even cooking turkeys and puddings for customers at Christmas.
A crude but informative drawing by George Ridge showing the interior of the shop in the Percy Lucas era
Ownership then passed through several hands until Robin and Marlene Howarth purchased the premises in 1972. They made some major changes, including demolishing a flint stable in the back garden and replacing it with a tearoom. However they were refused planning permission for a two-storey guest accommodation extension. Nevertheless, the tearoom was a great success. The profits were augmented by a modest income from the shop and post office and the business as a whole provided seasonal employment for several people from the village. In the 1980s the shop passed into the hands of Ted Croxton and his wife but business had started to decline and the property was once again put on the market.
In 1985 Gill and Stuart Milner purchased the shop. The tearoom was closed and the shop concentrated on running the small post office and selling mainly local Sussex produce including fresh baked bread, honey, vegetables, free range eggs and Horton’s ice cream as well as sweets, groceries and frozen food. Later a range of art, crafts, aerial photographs taken by a local pilot, clocks repaired by a local resident, small antiques and antique books was added to the stock, along with a selection of maps and postcards. Also on sale, of special interest for visitors to the village, was a small guide, entitled A Walk Down The Street, written and published by Stuart Milner.
Fulking Post Office Stores as it was in the early 1990s shortly before it closed and returned to being a private house after well over a century as a shop. It looks very little different today but a red Post Office letter box outside on the garden wall by the road serves as a reminder of the role that it once played in village life.
Tony Brooks
The Post Office Stores and house attached to the east. One building. Early Clg. Two storeys. Three windows. Faced with cobbles on first brick dressings, quoins and stringcourse. Slate roof. Glazing bars intact on first floor. Projecting shop window on west half of ground floor.
[Copyright © 2013, Anthony R. Brooks. Adapted from Anthony R. Brooks (2008) The Changing Times of Fulking & Edburton. Chichester: RPM Print & Design, pages 38-46, 159-159, 420.]
Updated with corrections in June 2015.
Currently popular local history posts:
Natural England, the responsible body for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), reports that “the site has been blighted by off-road motorcyclists who have been using it as a track. Damage to the site is worsening over time, with offenders bringing equipment with them to dig tracks and make alterations to suit their sport. .. the area is now being monitored by local police officers in a bid to stop the damage. .. A 23-year-old man from Hove has recently been issued with a warning under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, after being arrested causing damage at the site”.
The oldest surviving spellings all suggest that Paythorne is named from a thorn-tree (hawthorn) associated with a Saxon man named Paga. This should have come to be pronounced “Pawthorn”, and documentary records right through to the 19th century prove that that is what happened. The alternative and current name is suggested by the Peathorne found in 1830, if the ea is as in steak, and it has not been explained. It may have been due to someone’s knowledge of the place called Paythorne on the Yorkshire-Lancashire boundary near Gisburn.
Pauethornam (Latin) in late 11th cent., Pagethorne in 1288, Pawthorne in 1633
Fulking
Fulking is an Anglo-Saxon name in –ingas, like Hastings, originally a name for a group of people but applied to a place (rather like Sussex ‘the South Saxons’). At Fulking, they were people associated with a man named Folc or Folca whose name meant ‘folk, people’, who is unknown to history. This name is not recorded by itself, but it occurs as the first element of names like Folcbeorht and Folcwine, and in Norman names like Fulk(e) which spring from the continental relative of the same element. In Hastings, the –s of –ingas has been retained, but in Fulking it has disappeared, and that is in fact what usually happens. Historians used to talk about the men whose names appear in place-names like this as tribal leaders or founding fathers of families, but we actually have no idea what relation the person bore to the group: father, godfather, hereditary or chosen leader on the basis of military or agricultural prowess, entrepreneur, slave-owner, or whatever: hence the vague “associated with”.
Fochinges in 1086, Folkinges in about 1091 and in 1260, Folkyngge in 1244, Fulkyng in 1327
Perching
Perching is a very difficult name whose origin is not known for certain. It seems to be an –ingas name like Fulking, but there is no known Anglo-Saxon personal name to suit the first part. If one were really clutching at straws, one might see a survival of the Roman name Poricus seen in that of the statesman Marcus Poricus Cato and members of his clan, which would reach the required form through known sound-changes in British Celtic and Old English. It may be an unrecorded Old English *perec (pronounced “PERRetch”) which could be an ancient English borrowing of Latin parochia ‘parish’, though there is no obvious reason for that. It might represent a variant *perric of the word pearroc, the source of park and paddock (and possibly itself derived from parochia), though what ‘people of the paddock’ might imply is equally obscure. It might not be an –ingas name at all, but a plural of a derivative of this word, *perricingas ‘the railed or fenced areas’. In this respect, it is interesting but probably misleading that in medieval times land was held of Perching manor for the service of fencing Earl Warenne’s deerpark in Ditchling.
Berchinges, Pʼcinges in 1086, Percinges generally in early Middle Ages, Perchinges in 1327
Truleigh was until recently pronounced “true lie”, with the stress on the second syllable, a curiosity of Sussex, mainly Wealden, names containing Old English lēah ‘wood, clearing’ which dates back some 500 years. It has been claimed that the first element is trēo(w) ‘tree’, the whole meaning ‘clearing marked by a tree or trees left standing’. That is not linguistically impossible, but it seems much more likely to contain Old English trēow or trūwa, meaning ‘truce’, with reference to unknown historical events. Its position less than a mile from the boundary separating historic West and East Sussex (Bramber and Lewes rapes) may be relevant.
Truleg’ in the 13th cent., Treweli in 1261, Treule in 1281 (Trailgi in 1086 is misleading)
Edburton is the farm or village of a woman named Ēadburg ‘wealth fortress’, whose identity is unknown. She is more likely to have been an overlord than an actual farming tenant or free peasant, but we cannot be sure. There were many prominent Anglo-Saxon women with this name. Since at least the 13th century the village was known as Abberton, and this pronunciation is retained in the name of Aburton Farm, the manor farmhouse.
Eadburgeton in the 12th cent., Adburghton in 1261, Ebberton in 1357, Abberton in 1377, Aberton alias Edberton in 1584
Tottington
Names formed with Old English -ingtūn are usually interpreted as ‘farm or village associated with a person called X’, and they are believed to date from a later period in settlement history than the –ingas type. X in this case is generally thought to be Totta, not a recorded Anglo-Saxon male name but occurring in enough Sussex place-names to make it a reasonable supposition. On the other hand, Tottington is sited just under a spur of the South Downs from which there is a spectacularly wide view over the Weald, Bramber and the opening of the Adur valley, which leads to the suspicion, supported by early spellings, that it is really Tōting-tūn ‘farm at the toot or lookout point’.
Totintune in 1086, Totington in 1291, Totyngton in 1294
References
Copyright © Richard Coates, 2012
