Sunday 21 September 2008

New project.





The Dovecote at Parham is an interesting building, dating to the early 18th century, but it is thought that there was a much early dovecote on the site. The research and recording program will it is hoped review its long history.
Photo shows inside the dovecote, which shows the nesting boxes, at present the roof is being held up , over the next year a grant will be applied for to fully restore the building.

Sunday 24 August 2008

Progress.

The next planned work at Parham will start in early October, there is alto of planned winter work, including the recording of the Dove cote.
Other work will include further excavation work around the area of the Ha Ha, this work will be undertaken over the early Autumn and weather permitting throughout the winter months.

The other work that needs to be undertaken is further research work, this needs to be undertaken at the records office and other places where records may be kept, .

So plenty of work.

The research work needs to be coordinated, so will be getting a team together to undertake this work .

Tuesday 27 May 2008

New name.

You may notice that i have changed the name of this group, the reason being that it has become very evident that Parham estate is a multi period site, covering all the periods of archeology.

To understand the history of the estate investigation must cover all areas, in very recent trail excavation trenches, around the church area, pottery has turned up from Iron Age to Roman, Medieval, Tudor and later.

More results and an interim report will appear within a short period of time, and will be published on line at our journal online, web site, http://arch-news.blogspot.com, meanwhile later excavation progress reports will appear at p://w-a-s-excavation-diary.blogspot.com. More history of the estate will be added here as and when any new information is available.

Friday 2 May 2008

Update



Geophysics results to date, more information will be posted soon.

Double click on photo to enlarge,interpretation of images will be
posted very soon.

Thursday 1 May 2008

Excavation at Parham.

There will be an excavation at Parham over the weekend of 24th/26th May, trail trenches will be put across interesting features which the geophysics have shown up.

Full information will be posted here over the next few days, do have a look at the new photos and drawings of the estate over the years, link at the side.

Monday 17 March 2008

Village around a church.


This is an example of a medieval village around a church, .

Monday 3 March 2008

Geophysics survey.

We are about to start the geophysics survey of the area around the church, this area is the most promising location for the village. The results of the survey may not be conclusive due to the geology of the area, being sandstone, renowned for giving mixed results.
The survey will be undertaken over the next six weeks.

Thursday 28 February 2008

Parham excavaion and research weekend.

Over the next few weeks resistivity survey of the most likely site of the medieval village will be undertaken, based on the results of the survey and desk top research, over the weekend of 24th, 25th and 26th of May trenches will be put across features.

The site will be open to view by visitors to Parham estate on theses days .

Members who would like to be involved over the three days please let me know.

Monday 4 February 2008

New drawing of the house.



Found this slightly different drawing of the house in a early newspaper !Topographer 1791.

Monday 28 January 2008

Dove-cote.


Found this old drawing in Worthing library archives, period 1920s.

Friday 18 January 2008

History of the estate of Parham, Being added to all the time.


Domesday Book describes two estates, one of seven hides held by Westminster Abbey and one of three hides held by a freeman. The three-hide state, which passed to Robert Fitz Tetbald must have been in the south, since it contained a Water mill.

There are three charters dating from before the Norman Conquest purporting to grant the seven –hide estate to Westminster Abbey, one of St. Dustan and two of Edward the Confessor, but all are forgeries. However, because Domesday Book states that the grant to Westminster took place before the Conquest it is quite likely to have been made by King Edward, since Westminster Abbey and its rebuilding was particularly important to him.

A 10-hide estate-one of middling size of Sussex and comprising the later medieval parish-is therefore likely to have existed before king Edwards accession in 1042.The estate and parish boundaries were probably coincident, so that parts of the present park boundaries probably date from this period, although the boundaries in the north and south may have remained undefined until much later. the relatively high proportion of cottarii (“ cottages” ) to villains in Domesday Book may indicate that some tenants derived most of their living from the common, although there was land for eight ploughs and nine acres of meadow.

The Norman Conquest to the Reformation 1086-1540.

Fitz estate had passed to the Tregoz family by the thirteenth century and remained with them until the sixteenth century, although in the fifteenth century it appears to have been crown land for a short time.

Little is known about this period, but in 1257 the family was granted a free warren of their estates, which was confirmed in 1324-5. (Free warren was right to hunt all game)

The importance of the area of hunting is further illustrated by the existence of a park on the Westminster Abbey land.

In the mid-fourteenth century there was expenditure on “carrying corn to the park” and in 1356-7 customary works included “enclosing garden, farm, and park

There are references to a (rabbit) warren that present as late as 1463 when a tenant was fined for taking rabbits. Photo of medieval rabbit Warren.

The Westminster lands were let to farm from 1357-8 until the abbey was dissolved in 1540.

There is no further mention of a park until after the reformation but it would be unlikely to be mentioned in the farmers accounts and the nature of the abbeys park needs to be understood. The vast commons and sheepwalks on the downs were the areas for the chase on horseback.

The park would have been a small deer park (hence, perhaps, the reference to carrying corn). It is quite possible that a small deer park was present throughout the Middle Ages before the establishment of a large park in the seventeenth century.

The history of Parham landscape during the later Middle Ages, is very sketchy, there seems to be little in the written resources to consult at the present time.

The principle buildings where at this time the two house of the Westminster and the Tregoz estates, they were thought to be on more than about 200 meters apart., and centred on the present-day church and manor house. In 1365-7 the Westminster Abbey buildings were said to comprise a thatched hall, with a chamber and kitchens: it is possible that these were the present east wing of the present Parham house, but a resent survey of this part of the building may conclude that is not the case, further work has yet to be undertaken.

The SMR records record the site of a deserted settlement immediately south east of the church, is stated that there were buildings there as late as 1778-9, and earthworks were present in 1873.

A geophysical survey undertaken in 1969 identified possible structures, a pit was dug, and thirteenth century pottery/fourteenth was excavated.

As in most locations early manor houses were usually very near churches, and often abandoned or converted to other uses as the owner ship of the estates changed hands.

It is very possible that the platform was the site of the Tregoz manorial centre and that the deserted settlement was a collection of later cottages.

There would have been other buildings associated with both the Westminster grange, and the Tregoz estate, the location of theses is not known.

The evidence for the removal of the village because hygiene (stated in documents of the period) is not convincing, the removal of the inhabitants’ to Rackam less so, as there is no evidence to date that a village was established there, except that a mill has stood in Rackham for a great many years (Rackham mill).There was a chapel there, but according to maps of the period, this was a ruin by 1724.

It is certain that the village was removed so that the estate could be imparked, the same applied at the estate at Wiston.

At this point in the history of the estate and the village, it worth looking at the state of villages before enclosure, and after enclosure, and what it meant for the families living in the village, and there employment and livelihood.

Hearth Tax may some bearing on Parham village.



The hearth tax was levied between 1662 and 1689 on each householder according to the number of hearths in his/her occupation. The administrators were required to compile lists of householders with the number of their hearths according to county.

Early demographers and political arithmeticians, such as Gregory King (d. 1712), recognized that returns to the hearth tax were a rich store of data, but it was not until the late 1960s that modern historians really focused on the value of the hearth tax for a range of enquiries. Historians have continued to draw upon it to assess distributions of population and the divisions between rich and poor in national and local contexts, and in association with other sources it can also be used to assess vernacular architecture, life cycles, population movements, patterns of employment, kinship and the family, and early modern local government jurisdictions.

Parham House Chapel



Parham house chapel, and Parham house priest hole.

Monday 14 January 2008

Parham Map. 1742.





From Richard Budgen's map of Sussex, 1724 The reference to the chapel seems to be referring to something just east of Rackham village itself. Overton's map of Sussex 1740 also shows the chapel, but clearly derives its information from Budgen. Could the buildings shown to the east of the big house at Parham be intended to represent Parham Street, ie. the main street of the village? They are shown separate to the House.
On further examination of the map, it is now thought that the possible three house shown next to the house, is in fact the church, although shown on the wrong side of the house.

Sunday 13 January 2008

Parham research update.

There are many build types of cottages around in the period of the village at Parham, it is difficult to decide what type where at Parham. Various types are shown here.

Tuesday 1 January 2008

James Bell, Oxford Univerisity

Parham, extract from a book published in 1835, by James Bell, book in Oxford University. Below the quote as published in the book. Note population.

Parham a parish in west Easwrith hundred, rape of Arundel, co of Sussex, 6m.N,E, by N from Arundel. living, a discharged rectory in the archd, and dio, of Chichester, rated at £10, returned at £90. Patroness, 1829, Baroness Zouch. Church ded, to St.Peter-contains a leaden font of great antiquity.

Pop., in 1801, 51; in 1831, 46.A.P; £890.

Parham looking North taken from top of Downs.

Click any photo to enlarge.