Piddingworth Greg Benton |
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| 'Piddingworth...where St. George's Cross is not yet banned.' --Mark Steyn |
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| PIDDHISTORY |
| PIDDINGWORTH Pidelingeworth, Pedelyngworth (8th-15th c.); Pillingworth (17th-19th c.) is a small estate on the Sussex Downs in the extreme south of the parish of Ditchling, and was held of the Castle of Lewes for a third of a knight's fee. There is mention of a Martin de Pidelingeworth in 1201 and 1204, and Nicholas de Pydelyngworth was living in 1283. In 1290 Joan widow of Nicholas held a messuage and 60 acres of land in Ditchling as her dowry, part of the inheritance of Robert le Causays and William son of Robert de Mulstone, presumably her husband's heirs, who then sold the reversion to Gilbert Sykelfot. About the same time William de Mulstone sold most of his land at Pillingworth to Gilbert, who evidently became lord of the whole property. He and Joan de Pydelyngeworth were both living in 1296, but Gilbert's son John was in possession in 1327 and 1332. The subsequent history of Piddingworth is obscure. In 1421 a messuage and 200 acres of land in Ditchling, very probably Piddingworth, were claimed against Robert Oxenbridge and others by Thomas Stonkylle and Alice, and John Yoo and Margaret, as heirs of Gilbert Sykelfot, their wives being descendants of Isabel wife of John de Kyngstone, daughter of Gilbert; but the result is not recorded. Piddingworth is subsequently found in the possession of the Earls of Arundel, the overlords, in 1425 and 1440. After the division of the rape what appears to have been this manor descended with Ditchling manor to the Lords Bergavenny until in 1523 it is said to have been granted to John Alchorne the elder, with remainder to his elder son John and his heirs male, or failing them to Thomas the second son and his heirs male. The younger John died before his father, leaving two young daughters, Joan and Agnes, whereupon his brother Thomas took possession of the property, claiming that, in addition to the settlement above made, his father had actually willed the property to him. Thomas Alchorne died seised of it in 1559, leaving a widow Margaret, and was succeeded by his son Nicholas. He was followed by another Nicholas Alchorne, whose mother Alice was holding a third of 'Pillingeworth Farm' in dower about 1615. Tuppin Scrase agreed to buy the property from the Alchornes in 1624, but the transfer was delayed because Nicholas did not produce his mother's release of her share. It then contained 600 acres. An owner of the name of Alderson is mentioned as succeeding Tuppin Scrase, but John Wheeler died seised of it in 1643, leaving it to his son John, a boy of 10.In 1709 John Westbrook, grocer, of London, left the manor, with 375 acres of land, to his son Durban, whose brother and heir William died in 1750. John Westbrook, apparently William's son, held the estate at his death in 1788. In 1810 it was conveyed by George Nicholls and Philippa his wife to John Hamshaw, and some time before 1843 it was acquired by the Pelham Family, Earls of Chichester, whose Park of Stanmer it adjoins, and with whose descendants it has since remained until acquired by the National Trust and overseen by Brighton Council. The West family, George, Sarah Ann, and their children were the last to occupy the house at Piddingworth that was vacated following the first world war. Piddingworth was shelled by artillery some twenty years later when the farm was used for exercises in preparation for the Normandy invasion. |
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