Birdham is a village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located on the Manhood Peninsula, south-west of the city of Chichester. The parish church is dedicated to St James, although the dedication was to St. Leonard until . The village sits on the shores of Chichester Harbour and is home to a locked marina on the site of a former tide millpond. The tide mill building itself still exists. In between it and Chichester marina are the lock gates to the disused Chichester Canal opened in 1822. The local school is Birdham C of E Primary School. According to the 2011 census Birdham parish had a population of 1,483.

HMS Birdham HMS ''Birdham'' was one of 93 ships of the of inshore minesweepers. Their names were all chosen from villages ending in ''-ham''. The minesweeper was named after Birdham in West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on th ...

, a minesweeper, launched on 19 September 1955, was named after the village.

History

Birdham's name derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''bridd'' and ''hām'', and means a settlement frequented by young birds. The only evidence of prehistoric settlement is a Bronze Age settlement. Birdham is first mentioned in a series of Anglo-Saxon charters relating to land grants to the

See of Selsey Selsey Abbey was founded by St Wilfrid in AD 681 on land donated at Selsey by the local Anglo-Saxon ruler, King Æðelwealh of Sussex, Sussex's first Christian king. The Kingdom of Sussex was the last area of Anglo-Saxon England to be evang ...

. Unfortunately, most of these are forgeries, Birdham was located in the ancient hundred of Whittering in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

according to the Domesday Book of 1096. Birdham is an area of dispersed settlements with no defined centre with a single store and no pubs. The enclosure of Manhood Common led to the development of small farms but the rapid rise in population only began in the 1930s. During World War II, the tide mill and associated boat yards became HMS Sea Serpent in 1942. The various holiday camps in the area were used as billets for troops training for amphibious landings, especially D Day. In May 2019, a new community centre opened.

Governance

Birdham is governed at the parish level by Birdham Parish Council. Birdham is a part of the Chichester District, and as such is governed by Chichester District Council. Birdham is governed at the county level by West Sussex County Council. For representation in Parliament, Birdham is a part of the Chichester constituency. Since 8 June 2017, the Member of Parliament for the Chichester constituency is Gillian Keegan.

Geography

Demography

The 2011 census recorded a population of 1,483 for the parish of Birdham, forming 645 households. Birdham is a majority

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

parish with 981 (66.1%) residents identifying as such. 1,463 residents (98.7%) listed their ethnic group as White. The median age of Birdham parish was 50.

Landmarks

The parish church, St James' Church, is a Grade I listed building.

Transport

The nearest railway station is some northeast of the village, at Chichester or

Fishbourne Fishbourne may refer to: Places * Fishbourne, Isle of Wight, a village * Fishbourne, West Sussex, a village ** Fishbourne (UK electoral ward) * Fishbourne Roman Palace, an archaeological site in West Sussex People * William Fishbourn (1677–17 ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in West Sussex Civil parishes in West Sussex Chichester District