ATLINGWORTH MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The exact registry name, Brighton location, and associated archival references identify the historic Atlingworth Manor of Brighthelmston (Brighton), not the separately documented Portslade Manor. Historical accounts record Atlingworth under variant forms including Atlingworth, Adelingworth, Ablingworth, Athelingworth and Addlingworth, and describe it as one of the principal manors of Brighton.
Representative point: 50.8191, -0.1296
Basis: supported_manorial_centre — The Atlingworth Street/Kemp Town area is explicitly commemorative of Atlingworth Manor and is identified in local historical sources as former Atlingworth manor land. The point is a defensible representative location for the surviving Brighton urban core of the manor, but not a documented manor-house site.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early modern; extent attested in nineteenth-century historical summaries
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: Available evidence states that Atlingworth Manor lay in the parishes of Brighthelmston and Lewes, was paramount, and extended over Hoddown, formerly a warren. The archive catalogue confirms a 1631 survey and 1809-1810 manor maps, but the accessible catalogue records do not provide their mapped perimeter or parcel-level contents. A contemporary historical account also states that the boundaries of the relevant Brighton manors were undefined. It is therefore not safe to reconstruct a polygon from the modern Brighton boundary, parish boundary, Atlingworth Street, or Hoddown alone.
Sources:
- The National Archives: Atlingworth Manor, TNA/MDR record F254802: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F254802 — Registry record for the exact manor identity and associated place Brighton, Sussex.
- John Ackerson Erredge, History of Brighthelmston: https://readingroo.ms/5/0/5/5/50551/50551-h/htm — Quotes the Burrell manuscripts describing Atlingworth Manor as lying in the parishes of Brighthelmston and Lewes, being paramount, and extending over Hoddown; also notes that manor boundaries were undefined.
- My Brighton and Hove: Manors in 11th century Brighton: https://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/topics/historical-overview-of-brighton-and-hove/historical-overview-of-brighton-and-hove-5 — Identifies Atlingworth as the second-largest manor of Brighton, first named in 1296, and links its name to the present Atlingworth Street area.
- My Brighton and Hove: Atlingworth Street: https://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/places/placestree/atlingworth-street/atlingworth-street — States that Atlingworth was a major area of the town and that the street commemorates the manor; describes the former Upper Furlong and Cliff Furlong area of the Little Laine.
- East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office catalogue: 1810 index to map of the manor: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14714243 — Confirms the existence of an indexed 1810 map of Atlingworth Manor, but the catalogue entry does not expose the map perimeter needed for a reliable polygon.
- East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office catalogue: 1631 survey: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14709336 — Confirms a manor survey for 1631, potentially useful for future parcel-level reconstruction but not presently sufficient to define a boundary from the accessible record.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- Do not substitute the modern Brighton parish, civil boundary, or Atlingworth Street footprint for the historical manorial extent.
- Portslade sources use Atlingworth for an earlier place or manor-house association; this should not be conflated with the Brighton Atlingworth Manor registry record without examining the original court books and maps.
- The representative point is suitable for locating the manor's documented Brighton urban core, not for asserting the position of a surviving manor house.
- A defensible territorial polygon requires examination of the 1631 survey and/or the 1809-1810 manor map held by East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office.