BARKHAM MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry location and associated place Fletching match the documented Barkham Manor at Piltdown/Barkham Lane, Fletching, East Sussex. Local historical research identifies the medieval and later Manor of Barkham in Fletching, while the supplied rentals, court rolls and surveys are catalogued under the Maryon-Wilson Barkham estate records. The saved form Bargham is treated as a historical/variant form, not as the separate Bargham/Barpham manor near Angmering.
Representative point: 50.97607, 0.04747
Basis: documented_manor_house — Mapped Barkham Manor house on Barkham Lane, Piltdown, immediately associated with the historical manor and estate. The site is also independently located in the TQ 438 216 grid square and described as the Barkham manor site in archaeological and local sources.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: 1840, with medieval and early-modern antecedents
Boundary confidence: low
Boundary basis: A local historical study reports that the 1840 Fletching tithe map assigned Barkham, including its shares of Piltdown and Grisling Commons, approximately 1,300 acres. It describes the manorial extent as occupying most of Fletching south of the present A272, with land extending around Fletching village, north toward the church and Splaynes Green, and including areas around Moyses, Holmesdale and Mailing Farm in Downstreet. It also identifies a former Barkham freehold at Badardehurst in Lindfield and notes property in Hartfield. These statements establish a substantial dispersed manorial extent but do not provide a recoverable, unambiguous perimeter or parcel list sufficient to construct a defensible polygon. The modern parish boundary must not be substituted.
Sources:
- The National Archives Discovery: F254807, Barkham Manor: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F254807 — Registry record for the exact manor, associated with Fletching, Sussex.
- The Manor of Barkham, Colin J. Hobbs, Danehill Parish History Society: https://www.danehillhistory.org/uploads/3/9/8/4/39840075/volume_6_dphs_magazine.pdf — Identifies the Manor of Barkham in Fletching; discusses its medieval history, the 1349/50 holding, the 1840 Fletching tithe-map extent of approximately 1,300 acres, and the named areas forming the manorial lands.
- Barkham Manor Map - House - Fletching, England: https://mapcarta.com/W445452724 — Locates the present Barkham Manor house on Barkham Lane, Piltdown, at approximately 50.97607, 0.04747.
- The Oast House, Barkham Manor, Piltdown, East Sussex: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1403049 — Provides an independently geotagged Barkham Manor estate location in TQ 438 216 and identifies the associated manor-house/estate site.
- Medieval Village Research Group, 23rd Annual Report: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-2897-1/dissemination/pdf/MVRG_23rd_Annual_Report.pdf — Places Barkham Manor in Fletching at TQ 438 216, records earthworks and probable house platforms west of the manor, and states that Barkham is first mentioned in 1066.
- Mapping the Medieval Countryside: Sussex inquisition, 1441: https://inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/25-481/484.html — Provides independent medieval evidence for Barkham as a Sussex manor and links nearby Fletching jurisdictions and manorial context.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- No authoritative digitised manor plan, tithe-map parcel schedule, or explicit perimeter has been located in the available evidence.
- The approximately 1,300-acre figure is a historical extent reported from the 1840 tithe map and includes shares of Piltdown and Grisling Commons; it should not be interpreted as the modern civil parish area.
- The manor's historical property was not necessarily contiguous: Badardehurst in Lindfield and an unlocated Hartfield holding are mentioned separately.
- Do not confuse this Fletching manor with Barkham Manor in Berkshire or with the separate Bargham/Barpham manor near Angmering.