Bexhill

BEXHILL is a parish, giving name to the hundred in the Eastern division of the county, rape, county court district, and rural deanery of Hastings, union of Battle, diocese of Chichester, and archdeaconry of Lewes: it is situated 6 miles west from Hastings, near the coast. The church of St. Peter is a fine old structure, consisting of a nave, chancel, and side aisles: the nave is apparently of Norman construction, being divided from the aisles by round-headed arches, supported upon massive pillars; the chancel is in the Early English style, with lancet-shaped windows. The living is a vicarage, yearly income £989, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Chichester, and held by the Rev. Henry Winckworth Simpson, M.A., of St. John's college, Cambridge, honorary prebendary of Chichester. Part of the parish, containing 675 inhabitants, has been formed into an ecclesiastical district, attached to the church of St. Mark, of which the Rev, J.H. Simpson, M.A., is the incumbent; endowment from rent charge £286. There is also a Wesleyan chapel. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company has a station here. The Earl De La Warr is lord of the manor; and the Duke of Cleveland, Thomas Brassey, jun., Esq., and Thomas Papillon, Esq., are the largest landowners. The area is 8,814 acres; the population in 1861 was 2,084. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]