From Kelly’s Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867
BRAMBER is a parish and railway station, and gives name to the rape, in the Western division of the county, Brighton county Court district, Steyning hundred and Union, diocese and archdeaconry of Chichester, and rural deanery of Storrington, 53 miles south from London, one mile east from Steyning, and 5 miles north from Shoreham, on the river Adur. The church of St. Nicholas has a nave and chancel, with an embattled square tower: it is evidently of great antiquity, as appears from its style or architecture: the church was erected before the Norman accession, and was given to the monks of St. Florence, in France by William de Braose. The living is a rectory, with Botolphs annexed, yearly value £160, in the gift of Magdalen College, Oxford, and held by the Rev. John Morland Rice, B.D., late fellow of that college. In or near the town was an ancient hospital, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, called Bidlington Spital. The castle of Bramber, the property of the Duke of Norfolk, was the residence of William de Braose, a great baron; it stands on an eminence, which is supposed to be the work of art: from the vast thickness of its walls, and the trifling alteration which appears to have taken place since 1760 – at which period a correct view was taken of it – there is reason to suppose it was destroyed by gunpowder, or by some other violent means; but there is no authenticated account of its demolition. The area is 854 acres, and the population in 1861 was 119.
Parish Clerk, Edwin Stapley.
Letters through Hurstpierpoint, which is the nearest money order office
Railway Station Henry Holdway, station clerk
Rice Rev. John Morland, B.D. [rector]
Hare Robert Chas. farmer, Magdalen ho
Hudson Richard, market gardener
Potter James, White Lion
Woolgar Stephen, wheelwright
Woolgar William, wheelwright