Tangmere

TANGMERE is a small parish, in the Western division of the county, Aldwick hundred, Chichester rape, county court district, diocese and archdeaconry, West Hampnett union, and rural deanery of Pagham, 3 miles north-north-east from Chichester, and one mile and a half north from Drayton station, bounded by Boxgrove, Oving, and Aldingbourne. The church of St. Andrew is in the Early English style: the nave was built about the year 1170, but the chancel is of more recent date: it has a small shingle spire and 3 bells: the church has been thoroughly repaired and beautified by the erection of two handsome painted windows, by O'Connor. It has the original register of the parish (dating from 1539) in good preservation, uninterrupted. In the churchyard is a yew-tree 24 feet in circumference, and capable of holding several persons within its cavity. The living is a rectory, value £282 per annum, with residence, in the gift of the Duke of Richmond, and held by the Rev. George Gaisford, of Christ Church, Oxford. A school has been erected for boys and girls by the Rev William Burnett, M.A. In the year 1843 was found, while repairing the church, an altar-stone, five feet by two, with five crosses on it, in good preservation. This parish is entitled to send two children to the school, and two widows or aged maidens to the almshouses, at Boxgrove, founded and endowed by the Countess Dowager of Derby in 1751. The Duke of Richmond is chief landowner. The area is 774 acres, and the population in 1861 was 201. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]