Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for STEYNING

STEYNING, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred, in Sussex. The town stands on Stone-street, at the foot of a hill, near the Shoreham and Horsham railway, 1 mile W of the river Adur, and 4½ NNW of Shoreham; figures in Alfred's will as Stenyng; is said to have been the burial-place of Alfred's father and of St. Cuthman; had a Benedictine priory, founded by the Confessor, made a cell to Fecamp abbey in Normandy, and given by Edward to Sion abbey; sent two members to parliament from the time of Edward I. till disfranchised by the reform act of 1832; is a seat of petty sessions; consists chiefly of two spacious streets, much improved in their edifices; and has a post-office‡ under Hurstperpoint, a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, a good inn, a police station, a Norman church large and once cruciform, a Wesleyan chapel, an endowed grammar-school with £92 a year, charities £40, two breweries, an extensive parchment manufactory, a-fortnightly market on Monday, and a fair on 11 Oct. The parish comprises 3,383 acres. Real property, £7,717. Pop. in 1851, 1,464; in 1861, 1,620. Houses, 323. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £400.* Patron, the Duke of Norfolk.—The sub-district contains 9 parishes. Acres, 23,371. Pop., 5,684. Houses, 1,110.—The district includes also Shoreham sub-district, and comprises 44,344 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £9,418. Pop. in 1851, 16,867; in 1861, 24,053. Houses, 3,778. Marriages in 1863, 145; births, 735,-of which 42 were illegitimate; deaths, 477,-of which 193 were at ages under 5 years, and 5 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,513; births, 6,012; deaths, 3,268. The places of worship, in 1851, were 27 of the Church of England, with 7,849 sittings; 5 of Independents, with 425 s.; 1 of Baptists, with 20 s.; 3 of Wesleyans, with 528 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 95 s.; 2 undefined, with 500 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 50 s. The schools were 21 public day schools, with 1,715 scholars; 58 private day schools, with 968 s.; 24 Sunday schools, with 1,658 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 12 s. The workhouse is in New Shoreham.-The hundred contains 6 parishes, and is in Bramber rape. Acres, 12,466. Pop. in 1851, 2,906. Houses, 550.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Steyning CP/AP       Steyning Hundred       Steyning SubD       Steyning RegD/PLU       Sussex AncC
Place: Steyning

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