Marden villages

Posted byAndrew Kerry-Bedell

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Up Marden

Up Marden is a small rural community occupying the chalk ridge south of Apple Down, set in a Sussex downland landscape.

During the Iron Age (1200 – 550 BC) and later Roman Period (43 – 410 AD), the land around Up Marden continued to be farmed. There are substantial Roman sites in the area, notably Pitlands Farm, which has an extensive Roman villa buried below the foundations of its barns and other buildings. Even though Up Marden is relatively isolated, Roman pottery and coins are still sometimes found in the fields close to the church.

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The area has been attractive to settlers since prehistoric times and, about 2 miles away from the village, is ‘Bevis’s Thumb’ (below) a Neolithic long barrow where the first local farmers buried their dead between 2500 and 2700 BC.

The story of Up Marden, as we know it today, begins in the late 5th century, just after the Romans had left Britain. Waves of Germanic peoples, the Saxons, crossed the sea from mainland Europe to settle and farm this area. This heritage is reflected in the name ‘Marden’ which derives from Old English ‘maere-dun’ which means ‘boundary down’. We aren’t sure where the homesteads of these early farmers were, but they buried their dead on top of Apple Down 174 m (570 ft) above sea level.

Archaeological excavation of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in the 1980s on the summit of Apple Down, found by metal detectorists, was followed by DNA analysis of the buried remains. It revealed graves covering the whole of the Saxon period in this country (410 – 1066AD) including, first, pagan migrants from mainland Europe, then those that called themselves pagan, but were born in the area. Finally, those local to the area, but who had adopted Christianity after the 6th century, buried in an east-west orientation. These Christian individuals could well have lived in the hamlet of Up Marden, about 1 km away to the south of the burial site, and they probably still used the same hill top for burials used by their ancestors.

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The earliest reference to ‘Upmerden’ is in a 14th century copy of a Saxon Charter. This recorded the transfer of land to Goda the Thegn in AD 900 and its subsequent sale to Bishop Wlfhun of Selsey in 935.

St Michael’s and All Angels Church Up Marden

This simple 13th century church is enchanting. With a profound spiritual tranquillity, it evokes a sense of early medieval life.

Once described as ‘the most modest and least ecclesiastical looking church in the world’, St Peter’s stands in a woodland setting on a spur of the South Downs. It consists of an undivided nave and chancel dating from the 12th and 13th century, a porch of the 17th century and a vestry added in 1906. It is built of flint rubble with ashlar dressings, has some modern brickwork and is roofed with tiles. A millennium tapestry hangs on the north wall of the nave.

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‘’Sussex’s Downland churches were founded by missionaries penetrating dense upland forests to convert pagan settlements. They would have been wood-framed with wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs. The rebuilding of these churches in stone must have seemed a huge architectural advance, begun under both the Saxons and Normans well before the Norman Conquest in 1066’ – St Michael’s at Up Marden, Simon Jenkins, ‘England’s Thousand Best Churches’.

The historian Ian Nairn wrote in Pevsner’s Sussex volume that St Michael’s Up Marden is ‘one of the loveliest interiors in England. The atmosphere is as tangible as any moulding, the slow, loving, gentle accretion century by century, until it is something as organic as any of the South Down views around it.’

Nairn encouraged Simon Jenkins to visit the church, and later the writer recorded, ‘It sits alone in its clearing, amid yews and alders down a farm lane off a road that goes nowhere. I have never met a soul near the place, though somebody must walk through the wood each day to unlock it. Open the creaking door, you enter a simple plastered double chamber. There are no chamfered arcades, no corbel heads or Perpendicular windows.’

‘Up Marden has no aisles, no transepts, no window tracery. Norman masons did not drag Caen stone from their barges into these hills. The flint and limestone of Apple Down were all the builders of Marden had to hand. Yet their deep lancet windows fill the church with an even light. Tree shadows stir the sun gently over the brick floor’. 

Architecturally, Nairn wrote St Michael’s is, ‘all 13th century, without a window altered’, but with a few later additions. The un-aisled nave and chancel have lancet windows and the chancel wall plates are decorated with dogtooth moulding. There are box pews in the chancel and a trefoil-headed piscina, with another unusual piscina in the nave under the easternmost window of the north wall. The font is probably 12th century, and the crosses on the lintels of the south door, within the 16th century porch, suggest the church was a ‘resting place’ on the Christian pilgrim route from Winchester to Chichester.

It is possible that the 11th century chancel arch was brought from the medieval chapel in West Marden, demolished in the 15th century. St Michael’s church silver consists of a silver cup, paten and flagon. They were presented to Up Marden church, by Camilla Countess Tankerville of Uppark in 1724.

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The tower is 13th century, with a weather boarded bell chamber. There are three bells, two are on the floor of the chancel and one mounted outside the South door, which can be used for services. One bell has the date 1620 and another 1628.

Simon Jenkins also reflects, ‘I trust Up Marden to have been a place of refuge. I see its parishioners finding a deep comfort in these walls, the comfort of certainty, a belief in a better life to come’.

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Up Marden Well

One of the most important things, sustaining life over the centuries of Up Marden’s long history, has been access to clean drinking water. This has always been a challenge for small communities living up in the South Downs.

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Gaining access to water from wells was essential to life in hamlets like Up Marden, because the nearest continually flowing rivers, the Rother and the seasonal Ems chalk stream, are several miles away.

Before the arrival of mains water in this area, Up Marden relied on its communal well, located in the field just to the south of the church, which stands on the 144 m contour some 472 ft above sea level. To ensure a reliable source of water, in high summer when the water table is at its lowest, the village well would have to be very deep indeed. Up Marden’s Village Well was restored by English Heritage Trust in 2003.

Up Marden Cart Shed

This timber framed cart shed was built between 1775 and 1830, used to store hay carts, other farm vehicles and implements for work in the fields around Up Marden. It is a hidden gem, and underwent some repairs and alterations in the 1960s.

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By 2012 the cart shed had been put on the Chichester District Council’s ‘at risk’ register, due to risk of collapse (below).

However, with funding from the South Downs Park Authority and Natural England, the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Singleton oversaw a complete programme of repair. Through a new outreach programme, students at the museum gained valuable first-hand experience in masonry and timber frame conservation skills. Completed in 2014, the conservation project has safeguarded the 250-year-old cart shed, for visitors to appreciate and enjoy in Up Marden.

An important feature of the shed’s oak frame, are the large number of 16th and 17th century timbers re-used in its construction and repair, which came from earlier buildings. Throughout the cart shed, you can also see original carpenter’s marks, two matched symbols by the joints of the timber frame. These marks, also known as ‘marriage marks’, were used during the construction process, to join together two timbers, which have been pre-cut and pre-fitted before being erected.  

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Roman numerals were used as carpenter’s marks, because their straight lines made them easier to carve. How many of these marks can you find in the timbers in the cart shed?

East Marden

East Marden itself is a beautiful village, sitting quietly in an unspoiled part of the South Downs. East Marden has only 32 houses, with most people working locally or retired. The majority of houses are privately owned, although some belong to the farm and are rented out. There is an atmosphere of rural tranquillity, but Petersfield to the north, and Chichester to the south are both only about fifteen minutes away by car for shopping.

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East Marden has no public transport connections apart from the Wednesday Bourne Bus, and nearest bus services are in the villages of Compton, Walderton and South Harting, around four miles away.

East Marden has been a small but close knit rural community for centuries. In 1724, the population was recorded as 9 families and by 1811, this had risen to 52 people living in 11 houses. By 1911 the population had risen again to 101 people, but by 1973 it fell back to 69 adults.

The 1920s and 1930s marked a prosperous period in the history of the village. During these years East Marden boasted a school, post office, a visiting baker and other tradesmen, a village club and an active cricket team. Sadly, all are now gone.

Battine House was probably built early in the 18th century, and was originally the home of Major William Battine (1683 – 1770), Surveyor General of Riding Officers in Sussex. These were men appointed on the most vulnerable stretches of coast in an attempt to deal with smuggling, rife in this area at that time.

In 1749, Major Battine was a member of the Grand Jury in a trial held in Chichester’s Guildhall which convicted to death, by hanging, members of the much-feared Hawkhurst Gang. Their extensive network of smugglers terrorised Kent, Sussex and Hampshire coasts for much of the 18th century. Battine House was also owned by the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russel (1872 – 1970) who started a school there in 1928. Later it became a youth hostel and is now a private residence.

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Many of the village houses have interesting histories. The oldest surviving dwelling, Cobbersfield Cottage, is believed to date from the late 17th century and another, St Peter’s Cottage, is dated 1728.

The Manor House was once the home of a Brigadier General Alfred Cecil Critchley (1890 – 1970). He was the youngest brigadier general in British Imperial forces, rising to this high rank when aged just 28 years old! After the end of The Great War (1914 – 18), he helped form the British Greyhound Racing Association, staging their first race in the UK in Manchester in 1926.

East Marden Well

East Marden’s communal well, with its quaint thatched roof and ancient supporting timbers, is set on a small triangle of grass at the centre of the village. With St Peters Church in the background, and its unusual square winding wheel, the well must be one of the prettiest in England.

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In places, the chalk of the South Downs can be up to 500m thick, but it provides one of the most important groundwater aquifers in the UK, supplying water to all the urban and rural populations along the South Coast.

Before the arrival of mains water in this area, East Marden relied entirely on its communal well, the sole source of water until 1924. The centre of the village rests on an 85m contour, 278 feet above sea-level. This meant the well had to be dug down 200 feet to ensure a reliable source of water, especially in high summer, when the water table is at its lowest.

St Peter’s Church East Marden

This beautiful church stands on a spur of the South Downs, just as it has for almost 1,000 years, since Norman times.

At the top of a grassy slope and in the centre of the village, it was once described as ‘the most modest and least ecclesiastical looking church in the world’. The church is ancient, with references to the church being allocated a stipend or ‘prebend’ in the reign of Henry I (1100 – 1135). This was held by a member of a Norman family – the Aquilons.

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A stipend is a fixed regular sum paid as a salary or as expenses, usually to a clergyman, teacher or public official.

The earliest recorded church rector was in 1478 since when there have been over 40 rectors and curates. The first entry in the parish register is 1691 and the list includes vicars of Compton, who assumed responsibility for the combined parish of East and North Marden in 1940.

St Peter’s structure consists of an undivided nave and chancel dating from the 12thor 13th century. Its porch is 17th century and the vestry was added in 1906. Built of flint rubble with ashlar dressings the church also has some modern brickwork and is roofed with tiles.

The Chancel has two lancet windows of similar design, in the south and north walls. Their interior stonework is 12th or 13th century, but the exterior stonework is a modern renewal. In the north wall is a 12th or 13th century trefoil-headed niche. Thought to be a ‘credence’ but partly covered by modern panelling, it was once used to hold the bread and wine before consecration, in celebration of the Eucharist. The roof of the chancel has two ancient tie-beams with three memorials to members of the Battine family, the earliest of which dates from 1770.

The Nave has a 13th century lancet window in the north wall and 13th century arch over the north door. The roof has five ancient tie-beams and two westerly beams which support a simple bell cote, containing one uninscribed bell. The font is goblet shaped and perhaps 12th century, but stands on a modern octagonal base.

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The organ was presented by Mrs Walter Penn and was previously the private property of Prince Albert, the Prince Consort of Queen Victoria. It is said he often played it at St James’s Palace.

Details of the history and families associated with Up Marden, its church and people, are set out from medieval times up to the 1940s in the informative booklet: ‘The Church of St Michael and All Angels Up Marden’ available for sale in the church.  

Help to maintain this church by making a secure online donation 

North Marden

Situated about 8 miles from Chichester, North Marden has an ancient past. Mentioned in the Doomsday Book, its Saxon origins are echoed in its name. The Old English word for all the Mardens (East, West and North) is ‘maere-dun’, which translates as ‘boundary-hill’ and possibly marks the western edge of South Saxon territory.

North Marden is one of the smallest villages in the South Downs. Over the centuries its population has fluctuated but has always remained a small community. Today North Marden remains a quiet unspoiled hamlet in West Sussex with just four houses and cottages, but with its own church.

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In 1674 the village had 26 people, by 1851 this had dropped to 19 people and by 1911 it reduced to just 10. By 1971 it had gone back up to 20 people, almost the level it had been 300 years before!

St Mary’s Church North Marden

St Mary’s has a quiet peaceful atmosphere and is used for small services weddings and spiritual reflection. It is believed to have been founded in the late 12th century, by a Norman family, Geoffrey, son of Azo. The first recoded rector of St Mary’s is 1430, and it was originally a ‘chapel of ease’ to the larger St Peter’s Church in East Marden. 

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There are many chapels of Ease in England. This is a church building, other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for use by parishioners who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to it being some distance away.

St Mary’s Church in North Marden is built of flint rubble with ashlar dressings and some 18th century brickwork. The roof is tiled and the small vestry and south porch were added in the 19th century. However, the elaborate south ‘sawtooth’ doorway is Norman and made of French Caen stone. This was probably shipped across the Channel to Chichester Harbour, then transported by packhorse to North Marden.

The interior of the church, consists of an undivided nave and chancel, which has an ‘aspinal’ or semi-circular end, which is rare. The three round-headed windows in the apse appear 12th century, but are actually much more modern, as are the windows in the north, south and west walls of the nave. However, above the modern window, in the west wall, is another round-headed window which is 11th century Norman.

In the south east side of the apse there is a three feet high niche with pointed trefoil head. Made of Caen stone, it dates from the late 13th or early 14th centuries and could have been for a piscina or placement of a religious statue. The font is a large, sandstone bowl and dates from the 12th century or earlier. Its octagonal base was probably added in the 14th century. The roofing is modern, and the small bell tower or ‘bell-cote’ dates from 1829 and contains a single bell. 

Help to maintain this church by making a secure online donation

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