Hove, Sussex Genealogy

England   Sussex



Parish History
Hove St Andrew is an Ancient parish.

HOVE (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Steyning, hundred of Preston, rape of Lewes, E. division of Sussex; adjoining the town of Brighton on the west, and containing 2509 inhabitants. This place till lately constituted the endowment of two prebends in the cathedral of Chichester, called respectively Hova Ecclesia and Hova Villa. The village was of considerable extent for a long time subsequently to the Norman Conquest, but is now almost swallowed up by the encroachments of the sea, though it still has a few fishingboats, bathing-machines, and lodging-houses. A portion of the more respectable part of Brighton, including Adelaide-crescent, Brunswick-terrace, and Brunswicksquare, is in the parish. The road from Brighton to Portsmouth, and a branch of the London and Brighton railway, pass through the parish, which comprises 2500 acres, whereof 30 are common or waste. The living is a vicarage not in charge, united to that of Preston: the impropriate tithes have been commuted for £220, and the vicarial for £93. 10.; there are nearly 2 acres of glebe. The church is a modern edifice. In the Brighton part of the parish is a chapel dedicated to St. Andrew, containing 500 sittings: the living is in the gift of the Proprietors. A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 562-566. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51049 Date accessed: 08 April 2011.

A church was established in mediaeval times, possibly around the 12th century, at an isolated location in fields to the northeast of the village; access was only possible from the west. The original building was replaced with a simple Norman-style church with an aisled nave and a tower. By the 13th century a chancel had been added. This church functioned as the parish church of Hove until 1531, when the parish was united with that of Preston (to the northeast) and became the parish of Hove-cum-Preston. Although its parish church status remained, the church's structure declined into ruins, with a declining population unable to maintain it. By the 18th century the nave and chancel were crumbling; parts of the roof were removed; and the tower fell down in 1801.

Although St Andrew's Church in Waterloo Street was built in 1828 (as a chapel of ease), the parish officials realised that a rebuilding of the original St Andrew's would be needed as well to provide enough capacity. St Andrew's was reopened on 18 June 1836, with a seating capacity of 430. 80 seats were subject to pew rents. A 200-seat extension, in the form of a gallery at the west end, was added in 1839.

St Andrew's Church is a Grade II* listed building.



Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Hove St. Andrew records held at West Sussex Record Office Bishop’s transcripts 1831-1893 The parochial history of Hove is complicated with the result that the correct provenance of many of its records is often difficult to establish. The deposited parish material is now held at East Sussex Record Office The prebendaries of Hova Ecclesia were patrons of the livings of both Hove and Preston and were rectors of the former. On 28 August 1523 John Segar, LL.B was instituted vicar of Preston at the presentation of Thomas Adished, prebendary of Hova Ecclesia. Segar himself was later created prebendary and resigned the living of Preston, to which he (as prebendary) presented John Hudson, who was instituted vicar of Preston with Hove (E F Salmon (ed) 'The parish registers of Hove and Preston' (1912) vi). Succeeding vicars were instituted to the united benefice until the resignation in 1878 of the Revd Walter Kelly when the vicarages were separated, the Bishop of Chichester becoming the patron of Preston. Possibly as a result of the uniting of the benefices St Andrew's, the parish church of Hove, had become dilapidated and was completely re-built in 1836. On its consecration in 1891 All Saints Hove became the parish church and St Andrews (now 'old' St Andrews to distinguish it from St Andrew Waterloo Street) became a chapelry. In 1957 'old' St Andrew was once again constituted a parish by an Order-in-Council (PAR 387/7/8/1-2). At some time between September 1952 (the date of John Playford's inspection of the parish records) and 1971, the three earliest parish registers were sent by the vicar to Hove Public Library. While at the library, which had never been a Diocesan Record Office, the first register, the first two Preston registers and one loose leaf were inexpertly repaired and bound up together. It is clear from the introduction to E F Salmon (ed) 'The parish registers of Hove and Preston' (1912) that there were at that time five volumes and one loose sheet where now there are three volumes: only the fourth volume in fact contained material from both parishes. These registers were returned to official custody in 1978. The civil parish records, certainly at Hove Town Hall in 1910 (E F Salmon 'Inventory of books and documents belonging to the vicar and churchwardens of Hove', Sussex Archaeological Collections 53 (1910) 267) were by the early 1950s in the church strongroom where they were reported on for the National Register of Archives. It is probable that the civil parish records had been removed to the Town Hall as a result of the creation of Hove Urban District Council in 1894. It seems likely that only ancient material was reclaimed by the church and that the more important administrative documents remained at the Town Hall only to be destroyed by fire in 1966; this would account for the discrepancies between the 1910 list and this present deposit. This complicated administrative history has had two major effects on the present arrangement of the parish records. First, the volumes created by Hove Library have been given a single reference but paginated and described separately to distinguish their component parts. Secondly, a certain dispersal of the fonds has inevitably taken place. Strictly speaking all ecclesiastical material deposited by the vicar of Hove forms an archival unity. However, it has been found necessary to split certain classes of records, most importantly registers, into classes according to the church to which they relate. This is caused first by the failure of St Andrew's church to close its registers when it ceased to be the parish church and second by the difficulty of applying East Sussex record Office's classification scheme to parishes which appear, disappear and re-emerge. It must be remembered that the early registers are the records of the parish of Hove and thus belong to the parish church, All Saints (where they were held before being sent to Hove Library). As many of the civil parish records as possible have been allocated to Hove All Saints since the administration of business passed with the title of parish church in 1891 without leaving a continuing series of records at St Andrews. It must of course be remembered that the bulk of the material was actually produced while St Andrews was the parish church. Summary of contents: East Sussex Record Office PAR386/1/1 Early registers; 1538-1812 PAR386/1/2 Baptism registers; 1813-1873 PAR386/1/3 Marriage registers; 1814-1965 PAR386/1/4 Banns registers; 1927-1971 PAR386/1/5 Burial registers; 1813-1953 PAR386/1/6 Confirmation records; 1938-1958 PAR386/2 Records relating to registers; 1861-1963 PAR386/3 Service registers; 1917-1973 PAR386/6 Income of the benefice; 1861-1889 PAR386/7 Other records; 1855-1891 PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL PAR386/14 Minutes; 1937-1977

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Steyning Poor Law Union, Sussex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Sussex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.