Amberley

AMBERLEY is a parish in the Western division of the county, Arundel county court district, rape and rural deanery, West Easwrith hundred, diocese and archdeaconry of Chichester, about 55 miles south-south-west from London, 4 north from Arundel railway station, 4 west from Storrington, on one of the roads to Chichester. The church is a very fine old specimen of the Norman period, consisting of nave, chancel, south aisle, tower with 5 bells, and south porch, and some good Norman windows. The register dates from 1560. The living is a vicarage, with that of Houghton annexed, joint annual value about £300, in the gift of the Bishop of Chichester, and held by the Rev. George Arthur Clarkson, M.A. of Jesus College, Cambridge. There a school, chiefly supported by the vicar, the building being his private property. The remains of the old castle of Amberley occupy an elevated position on the east side of the navigable river Arun: It was the seat of the bishops of Chichester during many centuries, the site having been anciently granted to them: the edifice was built in 1369 by Bishop Rede, in the form of a rectangle: in 1613 the castle was captured by Waller: in the state apartments is the Queen's room, containing some curious paintings, in a state of decay, and a series of ten female figures. The population in 1861 was 456; area 2,900 acres.
RACKHAM is a hamlet of Amberley, in Thakeham union, with an area of 960 acres, and a population in 1861 of 194. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]