The half-hundred of Fishersgate

THE HALF-HUNDRED OF FISHERSGATE

containing the parishes of ALDRINGTON; HANGLETON; PORTSLADE

At the time of the Domesday survey the eastern half of Fishersgate Hundred, (fn. 1) then known as 'Eldretune', consisted of Eldretune (now Aldrington), 'Esmerewic', Hangleton, and Portslade. (fn. 2) The whole half-hundred was assessed together in 1296 under Portslade Atlingworth. (fn. 3) In 1327 the divisions were Portslade and Hangleton, (fn. 4) and in 1332 Aldrington, Portslade, Hangleton, and Atlingworth, though no subsidy was exacted from this last, the property of the prior of Lewes. (fn. 5) There were two 'boroughs' at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, namely, Portslade and Hangleton. (fn. 6) At this time the common farm of Portslade was 4s. every half-year, to which every yard-land in Portslade contributed 2d. and every yard-land in West Aldrington 1½d., with certain exceptions. A certain farm in East Aldrington contributed 13d. (fn. 7) The common farm of Hangleton was 2s. every half-year, and towards this the farmer of Hangleton paid 2s. at Lady Day, while the farmer of certain lands in East Aldrington paid the other 2s. at Michaelmas. (fn. 8) Hangleton alone is named on the subsidy roll of 1621. (fn. 9) East Aldrington, Hangleton, and Portslade are found in 1624, (fn. 10) however, and though the village of Aldrington was destroyed by the encroachment of the sea, so that not a single inhabitant appears in the census returns 1801–31, and only one in 1841, (fn. 11) yet these divisions remained unchanged. (fn. 12)

The hundred was given to William de Warenne after the Conquest and descended with the rape.