Elsted

ELSTED is a small parish, in the Western division of the county, Dumpford hundred, Midhurst union, county court district and rural deanery, Chichester rape, diocese and archdeaconry, 5 miles south-west from Midhurst, and 6 from Petersfield. The manor of Elsted at a very early period (1290) was returned as being held by Henry Hussee, and subsequently it is found in the possession of the Camois, of Trotton; it afterwards passed to Sir Charles Mille, Bart., who in 1807 disposed of it to Lord Robert Spencer. The church (now disused) is of Saxon or very early Norman character: the chancel, of beautiful proportions, is in the First Pointed or Early English style. The register commences in 1571. The living is a rectory, united to Treyford and Didling, joint annual value £331, with residence, and held by the Rev. William Downes Willis, M.A., of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; it is in the patronage of the Rev. L. Vernon Harcourt and the Hon. Mrs. Vernon Harcourt, to whom the greater portion of the parish belongs. Here is an ancient manor house. There is a National school. Lord Leconfield is lord of the manor. The population in 1861 was 174; the area is 1,789 acres. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]