Findon, Sussex

FINDON (or FINDEN) is a pleasant village, 53 miles south-south-west from London, 4½ south-west from Steyning, and 5 north from Worthing, in a valley of the Downs, in the Western division of the county, Brightford hundred, Worthing county court district, rape of Bramber, Thakeham union, diocese and archdeaconry of Chichester, and rural deanery of Storrington. The church is of a date prior to the Conquest, and was subsequently dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The earliest register dates from January l0th, 1556, old style. The living is a vicarage, in the gift of Magdalen College, Oxford (who grant a lease of their rectorial house, glebe and tithes to the vicar), of the gross annual value of £750, net value £500; the Rev. Robert Cholmeley, D.D., of Magdalen College, Oxford, is the vicar. The principal houses are Muntham Court, the seat and property of the Dowager Marchioness of Bath; Findon Place, the property of Richard Spencer Hall, Esq.; and Cissbury, the property and residence of H. Wyatt, Esq. J.P. Cissbury Hill, the site of an ancient encampment, both Celtic and Saxon, as well as Roman, is in this parish. A fair for sheep, &c., is held on the 14th September, and a lamb fair on the 12th July. Here is a Parochial school. Area of the parish, 4,336 acres; the population in 1861 was 655.
NORTH END, one mile north, is a hamlet of this parish.

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