Hailsham in 1842
Hailsham is a small town in the hundred of Dill and rape of Pevensey, 54 miles from London on the high road to Eastbourne. The population in 1831 was only 1,645. It has one of the largest markets in Sussex for sheep and cattle, held on every alternate Wednesday, its proximity to the rich pastures of Pevensey Level making it extremely favourable as a mart. The town is built on a gentle acclivity rising from the Levels. At Otham, in this parish, a religious house for monks of the Premonstratensian order was founded by Ralph de Dene and Sibilla his wife, but it was afterwards moved to Bayham. A few traces of the old walls alone mark the site. The church is in the later style of English architecture, with an embattled tower surmounted by light pinnacles. The benefice is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Lewes, and deanery of Pevensey. |