Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BIGNOR

BIGNOR, a parish in Chichester district, Sussex; 4½ miles SW of Pulborough r. station, and 4½ S by E of Petworth. It includes the detached hamlet of Buddington, surrounded by the parish of Easebourne; and its Post Town is Bury, under Petworth. Acres, 1,145. Real property, £1,458. Pop., 167. Houses, 33. The property is divided among a few. Bignor Park is the seat of JH. Hawkins, Esq.; contains some interesting antiquities and works of art; and commands striking views of the Weald and the South Downs. It was long annexed to Arundel Castle, and once the property of Nicholas Turner, Esq.; and, in the latter connection, was the residence of Mrs. Charlotte Smith, author of the "Old Manor-House," and Mrs. Dorset, author of the "Peacock at Home." Three very fine tesselated pavements, believed to have belonged to three apartments of a Roman villa, were discovered, in 1811, in Oldbury hill; and the villa is thought to have stood at the "Addecimum," or station of the tenth milestone on the Roman road from Chichester. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £143. Patron, Lord Leconfield. The church is early English; and has long lancet windows and chancel.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Bignor AP/CP       Sussex AncC
Place: Bignor

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