Parham Research Group.: January 2008

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.