Tarring Neville
(The Chest from the Spanish Armarda)
General Details
Tarring Neville lies on the main A26 Newhaven and Seaford to Lewes road, and
consists only of a church, 2 farms and a few of cottages.
The area was settled in the Iron Age with tumuli and settlements behind the
village on top of the South Downs at Itford Hill.
The village was originally an Anglo Saxon fort that marked an early boundary of
the land controlled by Aelle the Saxon, it was a boat building village as the
name included tar .
The village must have been somewhat larger in the past, as the Domesday Book
records its value as £8.00 which is more than most villages in the area. Its
main business was shipbuilding together with fishing and salt production.
The Neville part of the name was added after the Norman conquest when the
Neville family took over the village .
It is generally believed that the village was decimated by the Black Death,
and that it never recovered.
The church which was mainly constructed in the 1100 - 1200's contains an iron
chest brought ashore from one of the vessels in the Spanish Armada probably the
.
Services
Tarring Neville has no local services, but is well served by nearby Newhaven
about 1 mile south west and the county town of Lewes about 5 miles north.
The nearest trains run from Newhaven, and buses can be caught on the A26.
Views
Tarring Neville has some nice views across the Ouse valley towards
Piddinghoe .
Behind the village lies the magnificent South Downs with their flint
built buildings and beautiful views.
Name Derivation
This village is a Saxon village one of the first to be settled by Aelle around 477AD.
Tarring is derived from either Tare(tar) ing(fort or stronghold) or Torr(Tower)
ing(fort or stronghold) so it translates to the Tar Fort or Tower Fort.
The most likely explanation for this name is to mean that this was where ships were
waterproofed with tar.
The place names ending in ing,inge or ings were usually found on higher ground,
or in places which control strategic points, and appear to surround areas first settled
by the Saxons.
The Neville suffix was added after the Norman conquest in 1066 when the Neville family
took ownership of the village.
