From Kelly’s Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867
BODIAM is a parish, on the high road to Hastings. 8 miles south from Cranbrook, in the Eastern division of the county, Staple hundred, Tunbridge Wells county court district, Ticehurst union, Hastings rape, diocese of Chichester, archdeaconry of Lewes, and rural deanery of Dallington. Here is a fair annually on the 6th of June. The register dates from the year 1557. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £280, with residence, in the gift of the trustees of the late Thomas Cubitt, Esq., and held by the Rev. Charles Parker, M.A., of Caius College, Cambridge. Bodiam Castle, now the property of George Cubitt, Esq., M.P., who is also lord or the manor, was built by Sir Edward Dalyngrudge in 1386: the site forms a parallelogram with four round towers at the angles, and four square ones between them: the great gateway is flanked by two square towers, and the entrance defended by a portcullis and machicolation: there is a broad moat round it: it was taken by Waller in 1643. Here is a National school. The parish comprises 1,596 acres. The population in 1861 was 303.
Parish Clerk, Charles Thompson.
POST OFFICE.-Lovel Davis, receiver. Letters arrive from Hurst Green at 7.15 a.m.; dispatched at 6.45 p.m. The nearest money order office is at Staple Cross
National School, Charles Thompson, master; Miss Anne Merricks, mistress
CARRIER TO BATTLE.-James Hickmott, wednesday
Body Mr. John
Parker Rev. Charles, M.A. [vicar]
COMMERCIAL.
Adams Simon, farmer, Park farm
Collins Edward, miller
Davis Lovel, grocer
Hickmott James, carrier
Road Brothers (of Rye), corn, coal, lime & manure merchants (Lovel Davis, gent), Wharf
Levett Thomas, farmer, Court Lodge farm
Malpuss John, blacksmith
Merricks James, jun. farmer
Merricks James, sen. farmer
Ransom Jesse, Red Lion