Pagham (St. Thomas à Becket)
PAGHAM (St. Thomas à Becket), a parish, in the union of West Hampnett, hundred of Aldwick, rape of Chichester, W. division of Sussex, 6 miles (S. S. E.) from Chichester; containing, with the tythings of Aldwick, South Mundham, and Nytimber, and the hamlets of Lagness and Rosegreen, 1047 inhabitants. The manor belonged in the time of the Conqueror to the see of Canterbury, the archbishops of which occasionally lived here till the reign of Henry VIII., when it was granted to the king by Cranmer. Anselm was consecrated at Pagham in 1106; and Thomas à Becket was a frequent resident, with a large retinue. The foundations and moat of the palace may still be seen, at a short distance from the church, to the south-east. The parish is bounded on the south by the English Channel, and on the west by Pagham harbour, which is an estuary about a mile wide, formed by an irruption of the sea in the beginning of the fourteenth century. The hamlet of Aldwick, and the adjoining coast, are adorned with several beautiful villas, with well laid-out grounds, commanding extensive views. A fair, originally granted by King John, in 1204, is held on Easter-Tuesday. The living is a vicarage, in the patronage of the Archbishop, valued in the king's books at £9. 18. 9.; net income, £211; impropriator, J. B. Fletcher, Esq. The church, which was to a great extent rebuilt in 1837, is a cruciform structure in the early English style, of considerable beauty, with a tower at the north end of the west front, surmounted by a shingled spire.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.