Walberton is a village & parish, 2 miles north from Barnham Junction Station, on the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, 3 ½ miles south-west from Arundel, and 7 ½ east from Chichester, in the south-western division of the county, Avisford hundred, Arundel rape, petty sessional division and county court district, Westhampnett union, rural deanery of Arundel (first division) and archdeaconry & diocese of Chichester. The Arundel & Chichester road crosses the northern boundary of the parish. In Domesday it is called Walburgetone and is believed to have been a military station. In 1817 a good deal of Roman pottery, deposited in glass vessels, was exhumed. The church of St Mary is of stone, partly in the Early English style, the nave being Norman with Perpendicular insertions, and the aisles a later addition; there is a wooden belfry with sbingled spire containing 5 bells; the church affords 300 sittings. The register dates from the year 1556. The living is a vicarage, net yearly income £247, with 26 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Chichester, and held since 1907 by the Rev. Phillip John Thomas Blakeway M.A. of Magdalen College, Oxford. Here is a Baptist chapel erected in 1847, seating 100 persons. The Poor’s croft of 2 roods produces £1 yearly, which is distributed in money. Walberton House, the property & residence of Joseph Liddle esq. was built in 1813, and has a fine hall, staircase & library. Avisford is the property & residence of Lieut-Col. Charles Percival Henty J.P. and these are the chief landowners and lords of the manor. The soil is gravel & loam; subsoil, gravel & clay. The chief crops are wheat, oats & barley. The area is 1,733 acres; rateable value £3,486; the population in 1901 was 587 civil, 610 ecclesiastical.
In 1882, by the Divided Parishes Act, Fords Lane & North End, from this parish, with 6 houses & a population of 37, were annexed to Yapton.
Parish Clerk - Charles Wakford
Post M. O. & T. Office – Albert Peskett, sub-postmaster. Letters are delivered from Arundel at 7.50am & 12.45pm; dispatched at 1.50 & 6.15pm; Sundays 11.50am
Wall Letter Boxes – Chichester Road, cleared 12.55, 6 & 8.45pm; Sundays 12 noon & 8.45pm; Brewery Road, cleared 1.50 & 6.20pm; Sundays, 11.50am; The Green, cleared 1 & 6pm; Sundays, 11.35am;
Public Elementary School, erected in 1874, for 120 children of the parishes of Walberton & Binstead, with an endowment of £12 yearly, arising from a house & land bequeathed by John Nash, 1732, for teaching poor children of this parish; average attendance 109; C. Rowland, master; Miss Mary Jean Rowland, assistant mistress. The school is controlled by 6 managers; Rev. P. J. T. Blakeway M.A. correspondent.
Private Residents
Blakeway Rev. Philip John Thomas M.A. (vicar), Vicarage
Booker Misses, Oakleigh
Capon Misses, Magnolia House
Carpenter Clair, Choller House
Day Alfred James F.R.G.S. The Hermitage
Henty Lt.-Col. Charles Percival J.P. Avisford
Humphrey Edward
Liddle Joseph, Walberton House
Long Mrs. John Stuart Lindsay, The Firs
Tanner George W. The Laurels
Commercial
Bell Louisa (Miss), grocer & draper
Booker Allan & Edward, builders & contractors, dairy farmers & undertakers & monumental masons
Bowley Harold, carrier & coal merchant
Burch Allan, horse dealer, The Green
Cate Martha (Mrs), farmer
Chapman Charles, farmer
Coote Allan, farmer, Old New Barn Farm
Ellis M & Son, brewers & maltsters
Goodacre John (Mrs), market gardener, Common Farm
Hartley & Nephew, bakers
Harris Alfred C. insurance agent
Hatcher Henry, blacksmith
Humphrey John, grocer, draper & butcher
Johnson William, Holly Tree P.H.
Langmead William Herbert, farmer (postal address Yapton)
Mills Christopher T. carrier
Morris Arthur William, Bull’s Hut P.H.
Palmer Frederick & Archibald, farmers, The Mill
Peskett Henry, boot & shoe maker, Post Office
Robinson Ellen (Mrs), Royal Oak P.H.
Sergant William, carpenter & undertaker &c.
21 Nov 2006 | Transcribed by Stacey Gardner |