A Home With History

Estate agent Chesterton Humberts has a history that dates back to 1805. But as well as being property experts, the company believes it is important to understand Britain’s history. To support this Chesterton Humberts has employed its own in-house historian to bring the history of property to life.

Melanie Backe-Hansen, historian for Chesterton Humberts

On homes where the history is deemed particularly valuable, historical information is made available within property details. Historical information, such as former residents, when the house was built, how the area developed, and even any significant events in the house, is used to give a fascinating insight into the history of the house and the people who have lived in it.

Melanie Backe-Hansen, historian for Chesterton Humberts

Melanie Backe-Hansen is the first person to be employed as an in-house historian by a UK estate agent. Melanie is responsible for heightening awareness of our heritage by researching the history of individual houses and the history of streets and local areas. Her research has profiled the former homes of P.G. Wodehouse, T.S. Eliot, H.G. Wells and former Prime Ministers, Benjamin Disraeli and David Lloyd George.

Westlands Farm

Surviving documents give us a picture of the history of East Itchenor, but the exact location of the lost village is uncertain. From the 19th century, the current house has been located among open fields much as it does today.

Romans and Anglo-Saxons

The area of Chichester Harbour and in particular West Itchenor, Birdham and the former East Itchenor can be traced back to the Romans when it was used as a landing place for travellers arriving for Chichester. However, the first occupation of the area was in the Anglo-Saxon period, in the 7^th century, when it was occupied by Icca, the son of the ruling Saxon Cissa. The peninsula became known as ‘Iccen Ora’ or ‘Icca’s landing place’ which slowly became Itchenor.

Westlands Farm. The property is believed to sit on the very location of a lost medieval village – East Itchenor

Normans and thriving East Itchenor

By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Itchenor and Birdham were under the lordship of Earl Roger and East Itchenor was recorded with three families. East Itchenor was originally part of the Priory of Boxgrove and by the 13th century both Birdham and East Itchenor had churches. In fact, by 1291 East Itchenor was larger than Birdham, recorded with a value of £8 as opposed to Birdham’s £5 6s & 8d.

Plague hits small village

It is during the medieval period that East Itchenor’s history takes a turn. Records show that in 1332 the manor of East Itchenor was tenanted to William de Hunston, while the church and attached lands were still held by Boxgrove Priory. However, it is thought that when the Black Death came to England in 1348, East Itchenor was badly affected. We know from records that the parish of East Itchenor survived until the 1440s, when it was united with Birdham, almost 100 years after the plague swept across England.

Village disappears

The manor of East Itchenor continued through the hands of wealthy owners, but it’s clear that there was no longer a parish and people living in a village, but rather it was relegated to farming land as part of the manor and church lands. The section where Westlands Farm is located today, on the edge of the peninsula, was part of the church lands, connected to what would have been the small village near the church. What is known is that the lands were not part of the manor, but belonged to the Priory of Boxgrove.

Sir Richard Sackville and the Dean and Chapter of Chichester

At the time of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, the land was acquired by the Crown and in 1557 was granted to Sir Richard Sackville. He was under-treasurer of the exchequer and chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, along with a number of other positions he held in Sussex. Only seven years later Sackville transferred the estate to the Dean and Chapter of Chichester.

Farmhouse constructed – Westlands

Westlands Farm has seen great changes since it was first built in the early 19th century, with the replacement of thatch for a tiled roof, as well as the conversion from two dwellings into a single family home.

Westlands farmhouse was built in the early years of the 19th century, with the first specific recording in the 1828 land tax records, showing the house and land leased from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster by a Mr. William Gibbs. He was also recorded as owning other sections of old East Itchenor, including part of the old manor. The tithe documents also record William Gibbs as occupying large parts of the area, amounting to hundreds of acres.

William Gibbs and agricultural labourers at Westlands

William Gibbs and his family continued as leaseholders of Westlands and neighbouring land into the 1850s. The 1841 Census shows the house shared by William French, agricultural labourer, aged 45 with his wife Annie, along with John Hebberden, also an agricultural labourer, aged 55 with his wife Lydia. In the house were William, an agricultural labourer with his wife Elizabeth and their five children (under the age of 9), and also James French, agricultural labourer, only 23 with his wife Ruth.

Westlands for sale

In 1854, we find the house and farm on the market, promoted as ‘the very compact and fertile farm…comprising a double tenanted brick built and thatched cottage, having four rooms to each tenement, with detached washhouse, jointly used’. From these details we know that the farmhouse was divided into two dwellings and was originally thatched. The property details in 1854 also tell us that it was still owned by the Dean and Chapter of Chichester and the leasehold had passed to William’s sons, Wyatt, aged 24 and Edward, aged 19. The sales particulars show Lot 1, Westlands Farm, sold for £1550.

Agricultural labourers working the land

The management of the farm continued in the same way after the sale, with the farmhouse rented by agricultural labourers. The 1861 Census records that one part of the house was occupied by James Peters, agricultural labourer, aged 72 with his 70 year old wife, Rebecca. The other part of the house was occupied by James Bowers, agricultural labourer, aged 33, his wife Anne and their four children. Their oldest, 10-year old William, was already a labourer.

Boughton family come to Westlands

By the 1890s, Westlands Farm became the home of the Boughton family, which established a family run farm that continued into the middle of the 20th century. The 1901 Census shows that the farmhouse had become one single home with head of the house, Henry Thomas Boughton as ‘farmer’, 39 years old with his wife, Fanny, 38 years old. Henry and Fanny had six children between the ages of 17 and six at this time.

The Boughton Brothers

The Boughton family continued to farm at Westlands during the early 20th century, adding further farm buildings, while the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (official office for church lands) were lords of the manor and had taken over the leasehold of Westlands. Even in the 20th century, Westlands Farm was rarely named in records and was simply known for the ‘Boughton Brothers’.

The Mason family move to Westlands

In 1935 things began to change and by the outbreak of World War II, the cottages and the farmhouse were all leased to different families. By 1945, Westlands Farm was leased to Anthony Mason, who had formerly been living at nearby Itchenor House. In 1945 he moved permanently to Westlands Farm, where his family has continued to this day.

Farm cottages to single family home

The 20th century saw further alterations with an extension added to the northern section of the house and further developments attached to the land.

The property is now on the market through Chesterton Humberts. For more information, call the Chichester office on: 01243 531010