Woolbeding

WOOLBEDING is a parish, in the Western division of the county, Easebourne hundred, Midhurst union, county court district and rural deanery, Chichester rape, diocese and archdeaconry. Woolbeding, or, as in the "Domesday Survey," Welbeding, in the time of Edward the Confessor was held of the King by allodial tenure; out of the whole was reserved onecarucate of land, which Roger de Ulebeding held by the serjeanty of carrying the gonfanon, or square banner, before the King at Sparkeforde, in Hampshire: at a very remote date, however, the whole became the property of the Earls of Arundel, who continued lords paramount until the end of the sixteenth century: it is now the property of the Hon. Mrs. Ponsonby: it lies a short distance east of Stedham. The church is a small edifice, with chancel, font, square tower with 3 bells, and also a very handsome stained glass window. The register commences in 1581. The living is a rectory, value £250 per annum, with residence and 24 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Honourable Mrs. George Ponsonby, and held by the Rev. Francis Bourdillon, M.A., of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Woolbeding House is the residence of the Hon. Mrs. George Ponsonby, who is lady of the manor. The parish contains 2,253 acres, and had a population in 1861 of 338.
REDFORD is in this parish. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]