Saxon and Medieval Pagham
The origins of the village
Pagham's history stretches back to the Saxon period, when the settlement was part of the lands granted to the early bishops of Selsey in the late seventh century. The name Pagham is thought to derive from Old English, likely meaning the homestead of a man named Paecca or a similar personal name. The Saxon village occupied the flat coastal plain of the Manhood Peninsula, working the fertile soil and drawing resources from the tidal harbour and the sea.
The connection to the church was established early. The Selsey diocese, one of the earliest in southern England, held extensive lands across the Manhood Peninsula, and Pagham was among the most valuable. When the episcopal seat moved from Selsey to Chichester in 1075, the Pagham estates passed to the new cathedral and its associated clergy. The Archbishops of Canterbury also held significant interests in Pagham, and the manor was one of their Sussex possessions for centuries.
The Domesday Book of 1086 provides the first detailed record of Pagham. The entry describes a substantial manor with extensive arable land, meadow, a church, a mill and a significant population. The value of the manor was high by Manhood Peninsula standards, reflecting the productivity of the land and the status of its ecclesiastical lord.
During the medieval period, the Archbishops of Canterbury maintained a manor house or palace at Pagham, used as a country residence and an administrative base. Several archbishops visited the village, and the manor played a role in the broader politics of the church. The dedication of the parish church to St Thomas a Becket, following his murder in 1170, underlined the deep connection between Pagham and Canterbury.
The medieval village was agricultural, organised around the open field system that prevailed across southern England. The harbour provided fish and shellfish, and the coastal position gave the village access to maritime trade, though Pagham was never a significant port. The saltmarshes around the harbour were used for salt production, an important medieval commodity.
By the late medieval period, Pagham had settled into the pattern of a modest but productive Sussex village, shaped by the church, the land and the sea.
The landscape that the Saxon settlers inhabited was different from the one we see today. The harbour was larger, the coastline was further south, and the fields were worked under a system of agriculture that was communal rather than private. The open field system, with its strips of arable land, its common grazing and its shared management, persisted at Pagham for centuries and left traces in the field patterns and land boundaries that can still be detected in modern maps.
The relationship between Pagham and the church hierarchy gave the village a significance that its size alone would not have warranted. The Archbishops of Canterbury were among the most powerful men in medieval England, and their Sussex estates, including Pagham, were important sources of income and influence. The manor of Pagham funded the archiepiscopal household, supported the cathedral establishment at Canterbury and provided a country retreat for a succession of archbishops who shaped English history.