HEYSHOTT
This small parish, of 2,184 acres with a population
of 385 in 1931, lies south of Midhurst, the village
being 1½ miles east of Cocking Station. Its western
boundary is formed by a stream running north-east
from Cocking mill-pond, and the southern by the
ridgeway on the crest of Heyshott Down, where are
a remarkable series of 'covered ways' and other earthworks. (fn. 1) From here, where a height of 760 ft. is
reached, the ground drops sharply in less than a mile
to about 180 ft. in the village. The northern part of
the parish, with Heyshott Common and The Roughs,
is mostly woodland and scrub, and there is a large block
of woodland, Hoe Copse, west of the village.
The village contains little of architectural interest;
a house south of the church has walls of 17th-century
timbering and a central chimney-stack of that period.
In the hamlet, and former tithing, of Hoyle, northeast of the village, are some stone houses, not apparently
of great age. On the exact boundary of this parish and
South Ambersham is Hoyle Manor (fn. 2) or, more correctly,
Farm, a 16th-century house built of squared stone
rubble with free-stone dressings. The entrance, in the
east front, is four-centred, and the windows are
mullioned and have moulded labels. The principal
living-room has an open-timbered ceiling with boldly
chamfered beams, and a brick fire-place with fourcentred head, over which is a fine carved mantel of six
arched panels separated by strips of fluting and crowned
by an ornate carved frieze. A contemporary staircase
leads to bedrooms which have Jacobean and later
panelling; and in a partition wall is exposed part of the
original wattle-and-daub filling.
Dunford House was bought about 1845 for his
residence by Richard Cobden, M.P., the warm
advocate of Free Trade and opponent of the Corn
Laws, who was born in the parish on 3 June 1804; it
has been given by Mr. and Mrs. T. Fisher Unwin to
the Cobden Memorial Association. Conferences and
meetings are held there. The Cobden Club and a
small library and reading-room were opened there by
Mrs. Fisher Unwin, who was formerly a Miss Cobden.
In 1933 the school house was enlarged and a large
room there is used as the village hall.
MANOR
Heyshott does not appear in the Domesday survey, but in the reign of Henry I
Jocelin, brother of Queen Adeliz, granted
part of HEYSHOTT with Hambledon to his elder
daughter Eleanor and the remainder of the parish to
his younger daughter Alice. (fn. 3) It was a member of the
honor of Petworth and the overlordship was held by
the Percy family. In 1231 William de Percy, the
grandson of Jocelin, gave the manor of Heyshott to
his younger brother Henry and the heirs of his body,
with the right to alienate lands of the manor to the
value of £20. (fn. 4) The manor was to be held by the render
of a pair of gilt spurs or 12d. at Easter; and William
also gave him the woods of Leweredescumb, Loppescumb, and Pachescumb, reserving hunting rights
therein. Eight years later Sir William took these woods
back, giving his brother in exchange a rent of 20s.
payable by John, son and heir of William de Percy of
La Cradele, (fn. 5) from 1 virgate which Isabel le Assefalde
once held. (fn. 6) Henry died in 1245, when 2/3 of his lands,
held in socage, in Heyshott and Sutton were granted to
his widow Isabel to hold until his heir came of age. (fn. 7)
That heir was presumably John de Percy, who had a
charter of free warren for Heyshott in 1252. (fn. 8) He is
mentioned in 1276 as lord of Heyshott (fn. 9) and in 1278
as having rights of warren in Heyshott. (fn. 10) By 1288 he
was dead and these rights were exercised jointly by his
heirs Lambertle Taylur, Richard
de Beselyngford (sic), and Philip
de Tyford. (fn. 11) A lawsuit of 1297
shows that Agnes de Percy,
Richard de Boselinthorpe and
Isabel his wife, and Philip de
Thetford and Alice his wife held
jointly ⅓ of the manor of Heyshott, by descent from John de
Percy, brother of Agnes and
uncle of Isabel and Alice. (fn. 12)
Agnes de Percy, as 'sister and heir' of John, gave
the woods of Leverchecomb and Loppescoumb to
Sir Henry, son of Sir Henry de Percy, in exchange
for land elsewhere. (fn. 13) She may have been married
to the Lambert le Taylur mentioned above and
subsequently to Robert Bon Johan, (fn. 14) who in 1304
granted his manor of Heyshott to Sir Henry de Percy
and in 1306 with his wife Agnes sold to Henry, son of
Henry de Percy, a messuage, 3 carucates of land, and 60
acres of wood in Heyshott (probably identical with the
'manor'), with warranty against the heirs of Agnes. (fn. 15)
If so, her descendants took her name, as in 1347 Henry,
son of William de Percy, son of Agnes de Percy, remitted
to Sir Henry de Percy of Petworth all claims to the
manor derived from his said grandmother. (fn. 16) While
part of the manor had thus passed to the senior Percy
line, Philip de Theford and Alice in 1299 granted ¼ of
the manor to Stephen le Chaumberlyn and Lora his
wife for their lives, with reversion to the heirs of Alice. (fn. 17)
Stephen must have died not long after this, as in 1302
his son, William le Chaumberlyn, held a moiety of the
manor of Heyshott by the yearly render of a pair of
gilt spurs. (fn. 18) At the same time Lora is entered as holding
½ fee in 'Hallingelond'. (fn. 19) She is presumably the widow
of Stephen and identical with Lora de la Bysse who in
1306 sued William de St. George for seizing her
swine at le Mershe in Heyshott. (fn. 20) In 1313 Lora de la
Bysse was sued by Richard de Moselingthorpe and
Isabel for committing waste in Isabel's lands in Heyshott
which she held only for life; (fn. 21) but next year Lora held
Heyshott of Henry de Percy as ½ knight's fee, (fn. 22) and
in 1324 she bought ¼ of the manor from John de
Moselingthorpe, (fn. 23) son and heir of Isabel. (fn. 24) William le
Chaumberleyn in 1340 settled the moiety of the manor
on himself and his wife Joan for life, with remainder
to his son William and the heirs male of his body, and
contingent remainders to his younger sons Thomas and
John. (fn. 25) William was dead by 1347, when his widow
Joan is mentioned, (fn. 26) and his son William dying without
issue, the property passed to Thomas, from whom it was
acquired in 1391 by Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, (fn. 27) who thus held both moieties of the manor. His
estates were forfeited for rebellion (fn. 28) and in 1412
Heyshott, valued at £20, was in the hands of John
Norbury; (fn. 29) four years later the 2nd earl (son of 'Harry
Hotspur') recovered his estates, (fn. 30) and in 1428 Thomas
Percy was returned as holding a knight's fee in
Heyshott, formerly of Henry Percy and John (sic)
Chambyrleyn. (fn. 31) Throughout the 15th century the
manor of Heyshott remained in the Percy family and
in 1534 the Earl of Northumberland sold it to Sir
Anthony Browne, apparently for his half-brother
William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, (fn. 32) as at his
death the earl was seised of the manor of Heyshott,
which he settled, with one water-mill there, upon his
illegitimate son, Thomas Fitzwilliam, otherwise Fisher,
with reversion to Sir Anthony Browne. (fn. 33) Further
additions were made to the earl's Heyshott lands, by
the grant (fn. 34) in 1537 of the land there originally granted
to Durford Abbey by Jocelin, the brother of Queen
Adeliz, in the 12th century; (fn. 35) and in 1541 of lands
there late of the priory or hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem in England, (fn. 36) which lay about Hoyle Farm. (fn. 37)
Sir Anthony Browne died seised of the manor in 1548. (fn. 38)
It has been alleged that the Earl of Southampton gave
the manor of Heyshott to William Gray 'a Northern
gentleman who had command in the warres under
him'. (fn. 39) If so, this would appear to be a lease of the
demesnes. In 1577 Viscount Montague conveyed the
manor to Francis, Earl of Bedford, (fn. 40) who two years
later sold all the land, common, and waste of the manor
in Heyshott to John Lloyd, Edmund Gray, and John
Feilder. (fn. 41) In 1615 William Gray released his rights
to George Cocquerell and Agnes Feilder, widow. (fn. 42)
Cockrell's Pond Copse perhaps commemorates the
Cocquerell tenancy of Heyshott. George Coquerell in
1669 conveyed the manor to his son George on his
marriage with Margaret Yalden; in 1710 the younger
George's sister and heir Martha married the Rev.
Charles Randall Covert and they sold the manor to
Richard Goodwin who devised it at his death in 1756
to his sister Mrs. Jane Roundean. (fn. 43) She married William
Vigor of Taplow, Bucks. A few years later (1761) the
manor of Heyshott was sold to Lord Egremont, (fn. 44)
from whom it has descended to Lord Leconfield.
Percy. Or a lion azure.
Heyshott Parish Church
Probably the earliest reference to Heyshott mill is
that contained in an undated grant, (fn. 45) made perhaps
between 1240 and 1245, by William Percy to Henry
de Barton, of 20s. of rent given him by his brother
Henry Percy in the manor of Heyshott, of which 10s.
came from a mill and the other 10s. from land which
Beatrice, widow of John Colman, once held of Henry
Percy. This rent was the subject of several transactions between 1307 and 1342, (fn. 46) when Walter Crochon,
desiring to disinherit his son, granted the rent to two
chaplains, who regranted it to Henry Percy. The
whole land from which the rent came was known as
Colman's Land, a name which survived into the 17th
century. In 1594 Thomas Aylewyn died seised of
Colman's Lands in Heyshott, (fn. 47) and in 1677 a messuage
and lands called Colemans or Hollands, Charles Closes,
Redmans, and Mountfield in Heyshott, purchased of
Richard Aylwin, were settled with two trustees for his
son Richard by John Farrington the elder of Chichester. (fn. 48)
William Aylinge, yeoman, at the time of his death
in 1583 held extensively at Heyshott, including 2
acres of meadow called Harpe Mead lying under the
castle wall of Arundel but within the manor of
Heyshott. (fn. 49)
In 1629 Sir Richard Grobham died seised of a
tenement called Heyshott Farm otherwise Upper
Court. (fn. 50) He died without issue and the property
appears to have come into the possession of Sir William
Thomas of Folkington, (fn. 51) who in 1676 mortgaged to
William Dyke of Frant ⅓ of a messuage or farm called
Heyshott Farm and ⅓ of a water-mill called Costers
Mill and lands belonging thereto in Heyshott, Woolavington, and Easebourne.
CHURCH
The church of ST. JAMES
(fn. 52) consists
of chancel with north vestry, nave with
western bell-cote, north aisle, and south
porch; it is built of flint rubble with ashlar dressings,
and is roofed with tile.
In the early 13th century it consisted of chancel,
nave, and narrow north aisle; in the 19th century
the chancel was rebuilt, the aisle widened, and the vestry and porch added.
The chancel (apparently a modern reproduction of
its predecessor (fn. 53) ) has diagonal eastern buttresses in two
stages with offsets; in the east wall is a window with
three trefoiled lights under a common arch, in the
south is a three-light window with segmental arched
head and Perpendicular tracery, in the north is a single
lancet, now covered externally by the vestry, and a
plain pointed doorway leading to the latter; the roof
has a single truss with principals, collar, king-post, and
diagonal struts. The chancel arch, also modern, is of
two orders, pointed, with square responds and corbels
to carry the inner order, in the Early English style.
The nave has one buttress at the south-east corner,
an intermediate one on the south side, a pair at the
south-west corner and a single one at the north-west;
these are all of two stages with sloping offsets and appear
to be 13th-century. In the south wall is a window of
two trefoil-headed lights with semi-Perpendicular
tracery, perhaps late-14th-century, but much restored;
the south doorway is a plain pointed arch of one order,
with segmental rear-arch, perhaps 13th-century. The
north arcade, of three bays, has pointed arches of two
orders resting on two cylindrical piers with moulded
capitals and bases; the latter are partly covered by the
present floor, the former have abaci of Romanesque
rather than Gothic profile, but are probably of the
13th century; the east respond is in the form of a halfpier, the west is square, the arch dying away into it.
The west window resembles the south. There are four
ancient roof trusses; the two eastern tie-beams each
have braced king-posts supporting a collar purlin, the
two western carry lengthwise timbers supporting the
bell-cote; the underside of the rafters is ceiled with
plaster; the sides of the bell-cote are boarded, and the
pyramidal roof shingled.
The north aisle is modern; the east and west windows
are copies of the west window of the nave, in the north
wall are three lancets. In the midmost of these are four
scraps of ancient stained glass, white with yellow stain,
perhaps 15th-century. The uppermost is a mitred head
with long hair, the next the upper part of an angel
blowing a wind instrument, the next the upper part of
an angel playing on cymbals, the lowest an angel playing
on a crowd. The span roof is in three bays with
trusses like those of the chancel.
The south porch (modern) is a plain building of
stone.
The font is a single block, its upper part is tubshaped, its lower fashioned into four capitals, perhaps
originally 12th-century, later adapted to be set on five
shafts, but now resting directly on a plain base. The
cover is oak, of the 17th century. The other fittings
are modern.
Over the south door is the Royal Arms as borne
1714–1800.
Of the three bells (fn. 54) the oldest may be ascribed to
William Founder (c. 1400), (fn. 55) another to Anthony
Wakefield (d. 1605), (fn. 56) and the third is by William
Eldridge, 1671.
The registers begin in 1690.
On the south side of the churchyard are three yew
trees, of no great size.
ADVOWSON
The church of Heyshott was presumably founded as a chapel to that
of Stedham; it was so styled in 1291 (fn. 57)
and it continued attached to Stedham (fn. 58) (q.v.) until
1882, when it was constituted an independent rectory
in the gift of the bishop of Chichester.