domesday to the present

Selmeston is mentioned in two entries of the Domesday Book of 1086, and is shown as being in the Hundred of Wandelmestrei (see Domesday and the Lost Village). The Domesday book also has entries for the two large houses that lie in the Parish, Sherrington Manor (variously referred to as Elerintone, Serintone and Sirintone) and Tilton house (referred to as Telentone and Tilintone).

The Black Death may have had an impact on the area at about this time (1300) and may be part of the reason that the village of Sidenore, which is referred to in the Domesday Book and may have been just to the North of Selmeston, had ‘disappeared‘ by 1350.

In 1300, Edward 1 stayed at the Priory in Lewes.  Thirty-eight years earlier, his father had suffered a crushing defeat there at the hands of Simon de Montfort. With his court entourage, it is believed that he then progressed  past Firle and  through Alciston and Selmeston on his way to Michelham Priory. There have been no subsequent royal visits!  

A Parish register was started in 1563, following a decree imposed by Thomas Cromwell in 1538 that all births, baptisms, weddings and burials be recorded. Inside the front cover of the first volume of the present register is written: “The Old Register which began in the year 1563 and continued to this present year 1667 is to be found in the Church Chest.” However, the old register seems to have been lost at some time after 1780, when Sir William Burrell made extracts from it as part of his Sussex Collections now at the British Museum.

In 1603 a bell was hung in the church tower with the inscription ‘ Joseph Haton made me’. A village fayre was recorded adjacent to the church in 1617, with that particular piece of land (extending up to the main road), taking on the name of Fairfields.