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ARUNDEL AND LITTLEHAMPTON 117
mentions various strongholds and assigns to each a large number of hides ; the Sussex ones are Heorepeburan or Heorewburan (unidentified), Hastingecestre (Hastings), Lathe or Lawe (Lewes), Burhham (a form which makes clear the derivation of our village's name), and Cisseceastre (Chichester). These do not correspond to the later Rapes, especially in making no provision for the river now known as the Adur.
The present village stands just outside the burh after which it is named, and possesses a very interesting church, nearly all the interior stonework of which is chalk. The oldest part is the north wall of the nave with a tiny Norman window; late Norman arches open to the transepts, and that on the south is very elaborate with scallop caps, zigzag mouldings, and some little grotesque heads. Later work of the same (twelfth) century is the south aisle opening by two arches, one much more ornate than the other, and also the existing chancel. The latter is vaulted in two bays—an unusual mode of roofing small Sussex churches; the heavy ribs rest on plain corbels in the corners and on clustered shafts against the north and south walls. The original small lancets have been supplemented by later windows; as was extremely often the case in Sussex the builders did not get the chancel quite in line with the nave. The ivy-mantled tower is a Perpendicular addition, and in its northeast corner is a great stair turret with fern-covered rubble hip roof; it opens into the west end of the nave by a plain arch, and has apparently its original wooden roof with bell-hole. A gravestone of 1789 depicts for us a jockey on horseback. Burpham, with its beautiful trees and gardens, |
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