Westham (St. Mary)

WESTHAM (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Eastbourne, lowey and rape of Pevensey, E. division of Sussex, 6 miles (N. E.) from Eastbourne; containing 770 inhabitants. This parish is bounded on the south by the English Channel, and comprises by measurement 4478 acres, of which 1376 are arable, 3050 meadow and pasture, and 52 woodland. On the shore are several martello towers, and a coast-guard station; the village is on the road to Battle and Hastings, and here is a station of the Brighton and Hastings railway. In the vicinity are the ruins of Pevensey Castle. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £21. 10. 10., and in the gift of the Earl of Burlington: the great tithes have been commuted for £302. 15., and the vicarial for £570; the glebe comprises 1½ acre. The church is partly in the later English style, and partly of earlier date, with a square embattled tower. A national school has been established; and an almshouse containing four tenements, called the hospital of St. John, is endowed with 30 acres of land, given, it is supposed, by one of the religious houses of Layney and Priest Hawes, the remains of which have been converted into farmbuildings. A girls' school was erected in 1813, for the support of which £20 per annum have been granted from the revenue of the hospital.