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We must emphasis it a very small narrow road and probably dates back to at least Roman times, but the roadway is marked on a map in 1733. The property itself dates from the early 18th Century. There was a blacksmiths workshop and small pond on the corner of *** road and the high street in 1877 and probably before. There is a book known to locals which was published by the Beeding & Bramber local History society called “Beeding history of a village”, this book states from parish records that in 1841 the small house called Little **** on the Westside of *** Road was close to a large roadside pond. It was then documented as Noah’s Ark and was lived in by a farm labourer, Thomas Patching, his wife & six children:
The children dying young could be as a result of them getting some kind of disease as there were few medical treatments around at the time and the fact Mr Thomas Patching was only a poor farm worker. During the latter part of 1918 there was a national epidemic of Influenza, the log bog shows the school was affected by closing down for 2 weeks, There is no written evidence of any of pupils of the school dying at the time but nationally the mortality rate was very high, as the village was a small close community back then it would have been probable to catch something & without treatment could have proved fatal. Unfortunately without the house deeds SPI has found it very difficult to get any factual information on this actual property, even after weeks of research……. but SPI will continue searching……
Upper Beeding lies at the foot of the Downs on the east bank of the River Adur on the line of ancient trading and pilgrim routes. In Saxon times it was owned by the Kings of Wessex, but after the Norman Conquest it became part of the Rape of Bramber, held by William de Braose. The community was originally called Beeding, with the civil parish changing to Upper Beeding in modern times (date unknown). In the early 13th Century the monks of Sele Priory (St Peter's Church, Beeding) began a mission to the area of St Leonard's Forest near Horsham, and established a small mission base, naming it Lower . Despite being some 10 miles away, Lower Beeding remained a part of (Upper) Beeding parish until Victorian times About 1840 landholding was dominated by a few large estates, most of which were leased. The estates of the Bridger’s, lords of Beeding and Horton, included two large farms, Beeding Court, and Upper Horton, The Horton manor belonging to the Burrell’s, and Tottington Manor included two farms belonging to the Clitherows and the Blunts. Other large estates included Pond farm and the Hyde in Upper Beeding village, but the only two which were owner-occupied were the Penfolds' New House farm, and W. Gorringe's New Horton in the north, a farm created between 1795 and 1813.
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