Bodiam, Sussex

BODIAM is a parish, on the high road to Hastings. 8 miles south from Cranbrook, in the Eastern division of the county, Staple hundred, Tunbridge Wells county court district, Ticehurst union, Hastings rape, diocese of Chichester, archdeaconry of Lewes, and rural deanery of Dallington. Here is a fair annually on the 6th of June. The register dates from the year 1557. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £280, with residence, in the gift of the trustees of the late Thomas Cubitt, Esq., and held by the Rev. Charles Parker, M.A., of Caius College, Cambridge. Bodiam Castle, now the property of George Cubitt, Esq., M.P., who is also lord or the manor, was built by Sir Edward Dalyngrudge in 1386: the site forms a parallelogram with four round towers at the angles, and four square ones between them: the great gateway is flanked by two square towers, and the entrance defended by a portcullis and machicolation: there is a broad moat round it: it was taken by Waller in 1643. Here is a National school. The parish comprises 1,596 acres. The population in 1861 was 303.

[Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]