Kelly's Directory 1911, Oving, West Sussex


Oving is an extensive parish, on the road from Bognor to Chichester, with a station at Drayton, in this parish, on the Brighton & Portsmouth line of the London, Brighton and South Coast railway, 66 miles from London and 3 east from Chichester, in the south-western division of the county, Box and Stockbridge hundred, Chichester rape, petty sessional division and county court district, Westhampnett union, rural deanery of Box grove (first division) and archdeaconry and diocese of Chichester. By local Government Board Order No. 31,762, the rural part of Rumboldswhyke civil parish is added to Oving in 1894. The church of St Andrew is of flint and stone, in the Early English style, and has a tower with spire containing 4 bells; the chancel windows are all memorials; the church was restored 1881, at a cost of £2,305 and affords 258 sittings. The register of baptisms, marriages and burials dates from the year 1561. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £260, with residence and 6 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Bishop of Chichester and held since 1900 by the Rev. Walter Crick M.A. of Wadham College, Oxford. Here are 6 dwellings for the aged poor, built in 1839 by the late Miss Woods, of Shopwhyke, and now endowed under the will of Ellen C. Drewitt with the sum of £2,500, producing an annual income of £65. Greens charity of £211 Consols, and Challen’s of £144 Consols, produce together £8 17s 11d yearly, which sum is in the hands of the vicar and churchwardens, and is administered under a scheme of the Board of Education, for educational purposes. Oving Manor House, built in the regin of Henry VII is the property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; portions of the original buiding still remain. Shopwhyke House is the residence of Mrs Guy Paget. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who are lords of the manor, oweners of the prebenal estates of Colworth and Woodhorn as well as Oving, and impropriators of the great tithes, are also the principal landowners. The soil is light and fertile; subsoil, clay and marl. The chief crops are wheat, barley and oats. The area is 3,210 acres of land and 3 of water; rateable value £7,622; the population in 1901 was 504 in the civil and 408 in the ecclesiastical parish.

Portfield is an ecclesiastical parish, formed in 1871 from this civil parish, and is given under a separate heading. In 1895 the greater part of it was added to the new civil parish of Chichester.

Colworth is a hamlet, 2 miles south

Parish Clerk and Sexton, Henry Ferrett.

Post & M.O. Office Frederick William Clarke, sub postmaster. Letters arrive through Chichester at 6.45am & 1.30pm (for the village and callers); dispatched 10.25am & 5.50pm Portsmouth, Brighton, Littlehampton, Havant &c & 7.25pm to all parts; Sundays arrive 7am and dispatched 11.50pm. Aldingbourne & Drayton station both 1 ½ miles distant, are the nearest telegraph offices.

Wall Letter Box, Colworth, cleared at 2.45am & 9pm week days, 9pm Sundays & Drayton station 7pm; no Sunday collection.

Public Elementary Schools (mixed), built in 1839 by the late Miss Woods, of Sophie & enlarged in 1883 for 130 children; average attendance 93; Miss Eva Gates mistress.

Railway Station Drayton, charles David Caplan, stationmaster.

Private Residents
Bridges Miss, the Box
Crick Rev. Walter M.A. (vicar), Vicarage
Drewitt Harold W. Colworth Manor
Drewitt Mrs, Drayton House
Gem Col. Arthur S. H. Oving Manor
Jonas Miss, Highground, Drayton
Kershaw William, Woodfield
Paget Mrs. Guy, Shopwhyke House
Percy-Smith Major Gen. Percy Wyndham, shopwhyke Hall

Commercial
Budd Joyhn, farm bailiff to C.J. Drewitt esq. Colworth farm
Clarke Frederick William grocer, Post Office
Cole Wm. T. asst overseer, Lavant
Cotterell Walt. Gardener to Mrs Paget
Cox John, King’s Head P.H. Drayton
Cripps William, Nelson Arms P.H
Davis Ben, wheelwright, Elbridge
Drewitt Harold W. farmer, Colworth Manor
Lunn Percy, blacksmith
McClure Margt. (Miss), district nurse
Mannings John, farmer
Paskett William, poultry farmer
Pitts Fred, farmer, Woodhorn
Sadler Geo. Horse dealer, Sycamores
Wickens Charles, poultry dealer, rushmans


01 Aug 2006

Transcribed by Stacey Gardner

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