Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for HERSTMONCEAUX, or HURSTMONCEANX

HERSTMONCEAUX, or HURSTMONCEANX, a village and a parish in Hailsham district, Sussex. The village stands 3½ miles NE of Hailsham r. station, 5¼ N by W of Pevensey bay, and 8 WSW of Battle; is commonly called Gardiner-Street; and has a post office, ‡ of that name, under Hurst-Green. The parish comprises 5, 039 acres. Real property, £7, 983. Pop., 1, 287. Houses, 229. The manor belonged anciently to a family who came from Monceaux in France; passed to the De Fiennes, one of whom was at Agincourt; descended from them to the Lords Dacre, who held it till 1708; and has passed, since that time, through many hands, chiefly the allied families of Hare and Naylor. Herstmonceaux Place, a modern mansion, is the seat of H. M. Curteis, Esq. Herstmonceaux Castle was built, in the time of Henry VI., by Sir Roger de Fiennes; is a brick edifice, the largest and oldest baronial mansion of that material in England; became much decayed about 1777, and was then gutted to supply materials for Herstmonceaux Place; is still, in its mere shell, a very interesting specimen of the fortified mansion of the later feudal times; retains flanking towers, 84 feet high, capped by watch turrets; measures 206 feet along the grand front, and 214 feet along the sides; comprises one large court and two small courts; and was surrounded by a moat, which expanded on one side into a large pond. A row of very ancient Spanish chestnuts is beyond the moat, and possibly shadowed the walls of a manor house which preceded the castle. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £1, 054. * Patron, the Rev. J. Wild. The church is mainly early English; stands on high ground, commanding a distant view of Beachy Head; and contains a splendid monument of the Dacres, two recumbent figures under a richly worked canopy, a fine brass of 1405, and a monument to the mother and family of Archdeacon Hare. A great yewtree, with a cluster of tomb crosses under it, is in the churchyard. Archdeacon Hare, who died in 1855, was rector; and John Sterling, biographies of whom were written by him and by Carlyle, was his first curate. The church of the chapelry of St. John stands in Bodlestreet; is a fine modern edifice, in the pointed style; and consists of nave and chancel. That chapelry includes part of Herstmonceaux parish, but consists mainly of parts of Warbleton and Wartling; and was constituted in 1855. Pop., 763. Houses, 144. Pop. of the Warbleton portion, 473; of the Wartling portion, 181. Houses, 87 and 42. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £140.* Patrons, the Rector of Herstmonceaux, one turn, and the Rector of Warbleton, two turn s. There are an Independent chapel at Lime Cross, a Calvinistic chapel at Bodle street, and national schools at Gardiner street and in St. John.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Herstmonceux AP/CP       Hailsham RegD/PLU       Sussex AncC
Place names: HERSTMONCEAUX     |     HERSTMONCEAUX OR HURSTMONCEANX     |     HURSTMONCEANX
Place: Herstmonceux

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