Shoreham

The history of Shoreham starts with a mention in the doomsday book of 1086 the old village of Shoreham had a church and a manor house this would have been at the start of the 10th century when the church of St Nicholas was built, Shoreham was the place where after the romans had left that the Saxon chieftain aella landed, The other part of Shoreham known as new Shoreham was formed when the movement of shingle moved across the mouth of the river adur.

The church of St Mary's dates from the 11th century more was added to the church in the 12th century, The church then remained close to a ruin that was until the 19th century when it was restored, If you stand at the doorway of the church of St Mary' s you will see that if you have been about in the 12th century you would be standing in the middle of the church !, For if you look in the churchyard behind you, You can see foundation stones of what the church used to look like, In the graveyard of St Mary's there is a box tomb to one of the man that sailed with captain James cook the man who discovered Australia.

In the year of 1248 the village of Shoreham extended further south than the high street where the river adur is today, In 1401 part of village of Shoreham disappeared due to navel action by the French !, It was in the 13th century that Shoreham was one of the largest harbour' s in the southern half of England later in the 14th century Shoreham was the place where 26 ships were built greater than the numbers that were turned out by shipyards of London and Dover for the invasion of France in 1346 by Edward the third, The harbour remained that way until the late 14th and early 15th century when the mouth of the harbour silted up, The harbour was thought to have been in the north west corner of Shoreham, So that by the 16th century all shipping had moved east so the village of Shoreham had fallen into obscurity as a port, But then in 1818 with the successful fixing of the mouth of the river adur near Kingston that Shoreham became one of the most successful small English ports.

In 1199 king john landed at Shoreham after the death of Richard the first ( Richard the lion heart ) but a few week later king john was to set sail to France from Shoreham to defend his French possessions in which he failed miserably, It was then in 1651 that king Charles the second set sail from Shoreham via the village of southwick after the defeat of his forces at the battle of Worcester, It was then in 1660 Charles the second returned to England via Shoreham after the death of oliver cromwell to regain the throne, Standing in the Shoreham high street is a house called marlipins built in the 12th century for William de braose as a storage house for wine and other goods, These goods were taken as toll' s from ship' s as they entered the port of Shoreham, Marlipin's was altered in the 14th century today the house is a museum, Just above Shoreham stand's lancing collage that was built in the 19th century.

About five miles away from Shoreham if you head north you will come to the village of bramber with its castle built in the11th century by William de braose after the battle of Hastings in 1066, The castle replaced a Saxon one from about a 100 years earlier, It remained one of many fine English castle's in the southern part of the country that was until 1641 when the castle was wrecked by the parliamentarians during the civil war, After that a lot of stone that made up the castle was removed to restore other castle' s !.

The church of bramber was built in 1075 by the de braose family, During the civil war part of the church was destroyed and then in the late 17th and early 18th century due to the lack of money and neglect suffered more damage, The church was then restored many times during late 18th century with the final restoration in the 1930' s.

The stone bridge in bramber was built in the early 13th century at the time of henry the third, That at one time had a chapel on one side but the bridge and the chapel both of these fell into disrepair in the early 14th century, It was not until some time later that both the bridge and the chapel were rebuilt by William waynflete the bishop of Worcester, The bridge and chapel both fell into ruin in the late 15th century when the river adur silted up and changed course part of the bridge was there in 1651 when Charles the second passed that way after the battle of Worcester, It was said that Charles the second spent the night in bramber before heading to France in the morning, It would seem that this story is not quite true, You see a colonel gounter who was helping the king said that when they got to the village of bramber it was full of parliamentarian troops so rather than spent the night in bramber they headed for Brighton and spent the night there ? so the story goes.

In the village of bramber stand's St Mary' s house that was built in the 15th century it was said that Charles the second spent the night in St Mary' s but like so many things was it stories put about by people saying that someone famous had been there ?, St Mary's fell into disrepair just after the second world war and then sometime later was restored, In the village of bramber stand's lavender cottage it was said that a `love` tunnel was dug between the cottage and the castle by an amorous young knight who was in love with the wife of the squire of the cottage who was a land owner, Every morning the young knight and the wife who was maud of ditchling would meet in the garden of the cottage and exchange braces, This went on for quite a bit every morning the knight would come through the tunnel from bramber castle to the garden of the cottage to the waiting arms of the land owners wife, That was until the squire caught them so one night he decided to lay a trap for the young knight, And as the young knight came crawling through he tunnel unaware of the squire, he bricked up the tunnel's end in the garden of the cottage as well as the other end so that the knight died a long and lingering death, It was said that the squire would not let his wife near the tunnel where she could hear the young knight' s scream's for food !, It was said that when the knight died maud killed herself so that she could be close to the young knight after that the squire went mad and hung himself in the cottage, There is said to be the ghosts of the two young lover' s in the garden of the cottage and that the squire haunts lavender cottage !.

There is said that bramber castle is haunted by a white horse that gallop' s round the dried up moat, Along with this there is said that there are ghost' s of four children that go begging round the castle keep looking for food, It was said that there was a feud between the de braose family and king john so that the four children of the de braose family were incarcerated in the castle' s dungeon' s and then died some time later.

The start of any village is its church, Its past prosperity and the piety of the parishioners who would have used the church for mass, The monuments and the brasses of the church may record some of the important and not some important people of the village or town going back some 500 to 600 years or more, Also the gravestones in the churchyard might tell of generations of village folk that at one time lived in and around the village, Also if the graveyard is elevated a few feet above its surroundings so that you have to step down to get\par inside the church, A good example of this is the church at pyecombe, You see as the people died and were buried the dirt that was taken out to make room for the coffin was spread out round the churchyard so that as the centuries went on the graveyard would raise in height !.

The church was once built of wood then later replaced with stone and was the one place that villagers lavished time and money on, During Anglo Saxon times the church was built near the manor house of a local lord, And the lord would then appoint the priest and gave him a glebe (some land) some lords built church's as private chapels next to the manor house, As in some cases the church was built some distance from the manor house this would account for some villages being split in half (like the village of pyecombe), Church expenses as well as the priest were paid for by tithes a system where the villager was compelled to contribute money or any other belongings this would be one tenth, So it was one pig out of ten one bundle of corn out of ten and so on, As well as using the church to prey in they also used the nave of the church as a communal village hall to watch plays and the odd miracle ! or participate in `church ales` these were revelries held on holy days (holidays) where no one worked and it was obligatory to attend mass, It seems that the church ales were nothing more than over indulging in drink this being followed by the odd dance or two ?, The ale was probably brewed in a brew house that was attached to the church the ale was then sold in the church as well as the churchyard and the money that was raised from the sale of the ale went towards something special like a bell for the church tower, Church ales were common throughout the 15th century as the drinking often led to over indulging they were discouraged by the more sensitive priest or priests so that this event slowly but gradually fell into decline and by the 17th century had completely disappeared.