THAKEHAM, a village, a parish, and a district, in Sussex. The village stands on rising-ground, 4 miles ESE of Pulborough r. station, and 6½ NW of Steyning; and has a fair on Whit-Tuesday. The parish includes Greenhurst hamlet, and the detached tracts of Muttons-Farm and Spear-Hill; and contains the district workhouse. Post town, Steyning, under Hurstperpoint. Acres, 2,980. Real property, £3,261. Pop., 559. Houses, 97. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £710.* Patron, the Duke of Norfolk. The church is partly early English.—The district contains 14 parishes and a part; and is divided into the sub-districts of Washington and Pulborough. Acres, 35,599. Poor rates in 1863, £5,086. Pop. in 1851, 7,434; in 1861, 7,567. Houses, 1,485. Marriages in 1863, 50; births, 244,-of which 19 were illegitimate; deaths, 130,-of which 36 were at ages under 5 years, and 5 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 494; births, 2,390; deaths, 1,368. The places of worship, in 1851, were 17 of the Church of England, with 2,963 sittings; 1 of Independents, with 100 s.; and 1 of Independent Methodists, with 200 s. The schools were 14 public day-schools, with 735 scholars; 23 private day-schools, with 370 s.; 13 Sunday schools, with 746 s.; and 2 evening schools for adults, with 37 s.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))