Easebourne
Easebourne is a village, Anglican parish and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is half a mile north of Midhurst, across the River Rother on the A272 and A286 roads. The parish includes the hamlet of Henley to the north. In the 2001 census there were 708 households with a total population of 1,717.
History
Easebourne was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as an ancient Hundred, an extensive area reaching as far afield as Graffham and Cocking to the south, Stedham to the west and Tillington to the east, as well as two hamlets that were not parishes: Todham to the southeast and Buddington to the west; in total it included 12 settlements containing 276 households.In 1861, the population was 859, and the area of the parish.
Governance
An electoral ward of the same name exists. This ward includes Lodsworth and at the 2011 census had a population of 2,492.Amenities
There is one public house in Easebourne, the White Horse, and one in Henley, the Duke Of Cumberland. The Rother Inn closed in 1994 and the Holly Tree in 2004. Cowdray Park, to the east of the village, has a golf course, and is home to a cricket club and a first-class polo club.Parish
The parish church of St Mary is 13th century or earlier, and is a Grade I listed building. The parish includes the hamlet of Henley to the north, where there was a Mission Hall established in 1885, since closed. In the 2001 census there were 708 households with a total population of 1,717 of whom 785 were economically active.Notable buildings
Including the parish church, there are 88 listed buildings in the parish of Easebourne.Adjacent to the cricket ground lie the ruins of the Tudor Cowdray House, built as a mansion with castle features. Started in 1520, it was completed by 1542, but was devastated by fire in 1793. A restoration project in the early 20th century helped to stabilise the ruins.
Easebourne Priory was built for ten Augustinian canonesses and was founded before 1238 by the de Bohun family who were from St. Ann's Hill in nearby Midhurst.
On the northern edge of Easebourne village on the A286 road Budgenor Lodge, converted into flats in 2006, is the former Midhurst Union Workhouse which was opened in 1794 by a Gilbert Union of seventeen parishes. From 1835 it was run and enlarged by the Midhurst Poor Law Union, serving 26 parishes.
The bridge over the River Rother, which forms the boundary between Midhurst parish's North Street and Easebourne parish's Easebourne Lane, is a listed structure, built in 1826.