Tarring, West, (St. Andrew,)

TARRING, WEST, (St. Andrew,) a parish, in the hundred of Tarring, rape of Bramber, W. division of Sussex, 1½ mile (N. W.) from Worthing; containing, with the hamlet of Salvington, 567 inhabitants. This was anciently a place of much importance, and in the time of Offa, King of Mercia, appears to have had a church or monastery, in honour of St. Andrew, some remains of which might be traced in a free chapel that continued here till the reign of Edward III. Henry VI. granted the inhabitants a market, long since discontinued. The living consists of a sinecure rectory valued in the king's books at £22. 13. 4., and a vicarage consolidated with the rectory of Patching, valued at £8. 13. 4., and in the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The rectorial tithes have been commuted for £445 and the vicarial for £110. 15.; the rectorial glebe consists of 1¼ acre, and the vicarial of nearly an acre. The church is in the early English style, with later additions, and consists of a nave, aisles, and chancel, with a lofty tower surmounted by a handsome octagonal spire. The ancient parsonage-house was formerly of much greater size, and is thought to have been a manor-house or palace occasionally inhabited by Thomas a Becket, who is said to have brought from Italy the fig-tree from which the whole parish has been abundantly stocked.