Manhood Peninsula
Encyclopedia
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It has the English channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
to its south and Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
to the north.
The peninsula is bordered to its west by Chichester Harbour
Chichester Harbour
Chichester Harbour is a large natural harbour to the south west of the city of Chichester on the Solent. It straddles the boundary of West Sussex and Hampshire. Geographically it is a ria. It is one of four natural harbours in that area of the coastline, the others being Portsmouth Harbour,...
and to its east by Pagham Harbour
Pagham Harbour
Pagham Harbour is a natural harbour on England's south coast. It is south of the city of Chichester and near the towns of Pagham and Selsey.Geographically it is the smallest and most easterly of the harbours of the Solent....
, its southern headland being Selsey Bill
Selsey Bill
Selsey Bill is a headland into the English Channel on the south coast of England in the county of West Sussex.The southern most town in Sussex is Selsey which is at the end of the Selsey Peninsula and Selsey Bill is situated on the towns southerncoastline...
.
Name
The name Manhood has had various spellings over the years including Manweb on the ArmadaSpanish Armada
This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...
map of 1587, Manhode on a map of 1663 and Manhope on Mordens map of 1695.
The name is probably derived from the Old English maene-wudu meaning "men's wood" or "common wood", in other words common land
Common land
Common land is land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel...
. This woodland would have remained in common until 1793 when 693 acres (2.8 km²) were enclosed by Acts of Parliament.
History
The Manhood Peninsula was formerly known as the Hundred of Manhood, in the Rape of Chichester. The Rape was a county sub-division peculiar to Sussex.In AD681 St Wilfrid
Wilfrid
Wilfrid was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Gaul, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon...
landed in the land of the South Saxons and spent five years there evangilising them. The Manhood was founded when the local Saxon King Cædwalla granted Wilfrid 87 hides
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
of land in AD683, to build a monastery
Selsey Abbey
Selsey Abbey was almost certainly built at Church Norton, Selsey, Sussex, England. It was founded in 683AD, and became the seat of the Sussex bishopric, until it was moved in 1075AD to Chichester.-Historical Context :...
.
After the Norman Conquest the area became a barony, by which tenure
Land tenure
Land tenure is the name given, particularly in common law systems, to the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to "hold" the land . The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants...
the Bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
sat as a peer in parliament.
The Hundred
Hundred (division)
A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the United States, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions...
was an ancient unit of local administration. At the time of the Domesday Survey
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
, Sussex contained fifty nine hundreds
Hundred (division)
A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the United States, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions...
. The area of each hundred in Sussex would have been approximately 25 square miles (64.7 km²), quite small in comparison to other counties where the hundred could be as much as 200 square miles (518 km²) in area. During Norman times the hundred would pay geld (a form of land tax) based on the number of hides. To assess how much everyone had to pay, a clerk and a knight were sent by the king to each county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
, they sat with the sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
of the county and a select group of local knights.
There would be two knights from each hundred. After it was determined what geld had to be paid, then the knights of the hundred and the bailiff of the hundred were responsible for getting the money to the sheriff, and the sheriff to the Exchequer
Exchequer
The Exchequer is a government department of the United Kingdom responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. The historical Exchequer developed judicial roles...
.
From the 10th century on the Manhood had its own court of justice and it also dealt with matters that a local authority of today would deal with, such as policing and highways. At the time of the Domesday Survey
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
the Hundred was known as the Hundred of Westeringes and Somerley with an Earl Roger Montgomery
Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury
Roger de Montgomerie , also known as Roger the Great de Montgomery, was the first Earl of Shrewsbury. His father was also Roger de Montgomerie, and was a relative, probably a grandnephew, of the Duchess Gunnor, wife of Duke Richard I of Normandy...
holding the Hundred of 'Westeringes' ( Wittering), containing Birdham (3½ hides), Itchenor (1 hide), Somerley in East Wittering (1 hide) and East Wittering (1 hide). Roger Montgomery was one of the kingdoms most powerful lords, at the time, with extensive landholdings around the country including nearly all of what is now West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
. The Bishop of Chichester (formerly of Selsey) held the Hundred of Somerley with 10 hides in Selsey, 12 in Sidlesham, and 14 in West Wittering.
By the 12th century the two Hundreds became united in the one Hundred of Manhood and was a liberty
Liberty (division)
Originating in the Middle Ages, a liberty was traditionally defined as an area in which regalian rights were revoked and where land was held by a mesne lord...
of the Bishop of Chichester, consisting of the land originally given to St Wilfrid by Cædwalla. The manor house for the Hundred of Manhood was situated just north of Sidlesham church.
In the year 1525, a claim was made for part of the Manhood by William, Earl of Arundel
William FitzAlan, 18th Earl of Arundel
William FitzAlan, 18th Earl of Arundel, 8th Baron Maltravers was an English peer, styled as Lord Maltravers from 1487 to 1524....
, based on his ownership of the manor of Almodington. To settle the dispute a meeting was held at the Hundred court-house between Robert Sherborne
Robert Sherborne
Robert Sherborne was bishop of Chichester, from 1508 to 1536.Sherborne was Dean of St. Paul's, from 1499 to 1505. From 1505 to 1508 he was bishop of St Davids....
, Bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
and John Stilman, the Earl's counsel. The court found in the Bishops favour and Henry VIII's charter confirmed the boundary of the land, which coincided with those in St. Wilfrid's original charter.
As lord of the hundred the Bishop of Chichester was expected to hold a court-leet annually, that all residents were bound to attend. This continued till about 1835, and would have been held at the hundred-moot which is believed to have been at Hundredsteddle Farm, Somerley near Birdham. According to The Placenames of Sussex, Somerley is the Old English for a clearing used in summer and an earlier version of steddle was probably staddle
Staddle stones
Staddle stones were originally used as supporting bases for granaries, hayricks, game larders, etc. The staddle stones lifted the granaries above the ground thereby protecting the stored grain from vermin and water seepage...
, the name Hundredsteddle would be a reference to the floor on which the Hundred court would have sat.
In 1561 Elizabeth I passed an act that removed some of the Manhood parishes from the See of Chichester. These parishes were eventually sold to lay proprietors and included Selsey, that a Sir William Morley purchased from the crown for £4100 in 1635.
List of parishes in the Hundred of Manhood
- BirdhamBirdhamBirdham is a village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located on the Manhood Peninsula, about three miles south west of the city of Chichester...
- EarnleyEarnleyEarnley is a civil and ecclesiastical parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located four miles south-west of Chichester, and lies on the south coast of England...
- East WitteringEast WitteringEast Wittering is a coastal village in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The eastern half of the village lies within the civil parish of East Wittering and Bracklesham, while the western half lies within the boundary of West Wittering civil parish...
- SelseySelseySelsey is a seaside town and civil parish, about seven miles south of Chichester, in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. Selsey lies at the southernmost point of the Manhood Peninsula, almost cut off from mainland Sussex by the sea...
- SidleshamSidleshamSidlesham is a small village and civil parish, on the Manhood Peninsula, five kilometres south of Chichester in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It has a small primary school. The area has had a Prebendary since medieval times...
- West ItchenorWest ItchenorWest Itchenor is a village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It lies north of the B2179 Chichester to West Wittering road 4.5 miles southwest of Chichester. The village lies on the shores of Chichester Harbour.The parish covers an area of 413 hectares...
- West WitteringWest WitteringWest Wittering is a small village and civil parish, on the Manhood Peninsula, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies near the mouth of Chichester Harbour on the B2179 road 6.5 miles southwest of Chichester and has a sandy beach with what has been described as excellent...
In addition to the seven parishes listed above, the Hundred originally contained three others: East Itchenor, annexed to Birdham in 1441; Almodington, annexed to Earnley in 1526; and Bracklesham, largely washed away by the sea and finally united to East Wittering in 1518. For purposes of taxation the hundred was divided into four vill
Vill
Vill is a term used in English history to describe a land unit which might otherwise be described as a parish, manor or tithing.The term is used in the period immediately after the Norman conquest and into the late medieval. Land units in Domesday are frequently referred to as vills, although the...
—Sidlesham, Selsey, Wittering, and Birdham.
The Manhood today
The Hundred as a judicial and administrative unit was diminished by various acts of parliament in the 19th century. The Manhood Peninsula still exists geographically and is administered by Chichester District CouncilChichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
with the villages and town on the peninsula also having their own local councils.
Many organisations both commercial and non-commercial, that are based on the Manhood Peninsula have the name Manhood in their title. Some organisations exist to deal with common issues and problems encountered by all on the Manhood, for example the Manhood Peninsula Partnership, which is a resident-inspired partnership of local communities, local and national government agencies, and other bodies involved in the Manhood thats purpose is to create a wider understanding of the issues facing the area and has forged a new way of working together for the benefit of the peninsula and its people. Thus although the Manhood is not a political entity as in the days of the Hundred, todays parishes that make up the Manhood Peninsula still have a lot of common issues that bind them together.
See also
- Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway
- Manhood Community College
- List of hundreds of England and Wales