Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/316

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
258
NOTES TO SUSSEX.

within these few years. As the adjoining farm is called Mountfield Park it is probable there was once a park belonging to this mansion. The space above described is completely surrounded by a moat, now nearly dry. It is remarkable, that the site above mentioned, with about ten or twelve acres of land, is in the parish of Etchingham, though at a considerable distance from it, and completely surrounded by Mountfield." (Ut sup. I, 563.)

177. Mundham, North.—The font is "a very large and plain cylinder of black marble." (Dallaway.)—In (Val. Eccl.) we read of "Halnacre cum Mundham," the latter place having been separately named as a vicarage, of which the rectory belonged to Boxgrove Priory.—The chantry of St. Mary Magdalen, Halnaker, "founded by one of the St. Johns before 1348, was at the end of the north aisle" of Mundham church. (Horsfield, in his Sussex, from Dallaway.)—To this chantry the above citation from (Val. Eccl.) must apply. I find no record of any church or chapel at Halnaker (though there was very probably a private chapel in old Halnaker House) but even the statement from Dallaway does not, I conceive, militate against the existence of such an edifice previous to A.D. 1348. See the Note on Poynings. The name " Helnache" occurs more than once in (D.B.), and the estate must have been of considerable importance in early times.—Of Runcton, lying eastward of Mundham, it is stated, that, on the dissolution of the monastic establishments, the manor was charged with " a pension to the chapel of Runcton, now demolished." (Horsfield's Suss. II, 46.) No other account of this chapel has been met with.—South Mundham is within the parish of Pagham. (Ut sup. II, 65.)

178. Newhaven.—In (Val. Eccl.), and still in official documents called " alias Meeching." Though the place is generally known only as "Newhaven," part of the town, namely, that from the high street by the side of the river to the mouth of the harbour, is said to be yet named Meeching. I cannot recognise this place among those mentioned in (D.B.), yet that it was an ancient settlement is evident from the church, of which the original portion, comprising central tower and chancel, is Norm., and probably early. The nave is very modern. The east end is circular, not constructed with straight sides, and the connecting wall rounded; but the plan of the apse commences from the tower, though not from thence forming a complete semicircle; consequently the chancel is small. The three original windows