West Stoke

WEST STOKE is a pleasant parish, of small extent, adjoining Funtington, in the Western division of the county, Bosham hundred, West Hampnett union, Chichester rape, county court district, diocese and archdeaconry, and rural deanery of Boxgrove. The village is small and retired. Stoke House is the residence of Lieut.- Col. Frederick Cavendish, J.P. Bow Hill lies to the north. On the southern acclivity of the Downs are two large mounds, supposed to have been erected over the bodies of the sea-kings whom the men of Chichester encountered and slew in the year 900. The living is a rectory, value £170 per annum, with residence, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and held by the Rev. Charles Buckner, B.D. of Wadham College, Oxford. The Duke of Richmond is the sole landowner. The area is 880 acres, chiefly down land; the population in 1861 was 94
KINGLEY BOTTOM is a mile and a half north; HOLLANDS, a quarter of a mile west; LONGFORD, a mile and a half north-east. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]