Alfriston

ALFRISTON (ELPHRIES -TOWN) in "Domesday Book" called ELFRICES-TUN, is a parish situated on the river Cuckmere, 8 miles south-west from Hailsham, 4 north from Seaford, 58 from London, near the road from Lewes to Eastbourne, and 2 and a half from Berwick station, in the Eastern division of the county, Alciston hundred, Pevensey rape, union of Eastbourne, archdeaconry and county court district of Lewes, diocese of Chichester, and rural deanery of Westham. The church of St. Andrew is a cruciform structure, supposed to have been built about the commencement of the fourteenth century: it is in the Gothic style, and consists of north and south transept, nave, and chancel, with tower, and shingled spire, supported by four noble Gothic arches; it contains two piscinae, one in the wall on the south side of the chancel, the other in the wall on the north transept on the east side. The register dates from - marriages 1504, baptism 1538, burials 1547. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £135, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and held by the Rev. Charles Bohun Smyth, M.A., or Wadham College, Oxford. Frog Firle farm-house is a very ancient building, and was the Grange, belonging to Wilmington Priory; the pest house still remains, and is situated on Deans Place farm. Many saxon silver pennies and early English gold coins have been dug up in the neighbourhood. In the centre of the village stands a market cross, an upright pillar of stone. The Duke of Devonshire, Lord Gage, and Mrs. Brooker are the chief landowners. The manor principally belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall. A considerable portion of the parish is down. The area is 2,425 acres; the population in l86l was 522, assessed at £3,023. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]