Guestling

GUESTLING is a parish, 3¾ miles west-south-west from Winchelsea, and 3½ miles north-east from Hastings, in the Eastern division of the county, Guestling hundred, Hastings union, rape and county court district, diocese of Chichester, archdeaconry of Lewes, and rural deanery of Bexhill, bounded on the south by the Brede channel. The church of St. Andrew is an ancient structure, in the Early English style, with some Norman details, and a low tower surmounted by a short spire: it contains some monuments to the Ashburnham family, of whom Sir William, grandfather to the present baronet, was raised, in 1754, to the see of Chichester, over which he presided forty-three years, and is buried here. The living is a rectory; the tithes have been commuted at £450 per annum, with residence, in the gift of Clare College, Cambridge, and held by the Rev. Edwin Newson Bloomfield, M.A., of that college. Here is an endowed school, the master and mistress of which receive £82 per annum, from money left by Mr. Bradshaw in 1734. George Martin, a celebrated linguist was born in this parish. Broomham Park, the seat of Sir Anchitel Ashburnham, Bart., is a handsome mansion, surrounded by a richly wooded park, in which are some stately avenues of trees. The village, consisting of numerous detached residences and villas, is partly built on the acclivity of an eminence commanding some fine views. The area of the parish is 3,564 across and the population in 1861 was 731. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]