Elsted

Elsted is a village, Anglican parish and former civil parish, now in the civil parish of Elsted and Treyford, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The village is on the Midhurst to South Harting Road 4.5 miles (7.2 km) west of Midhurst. In 1961 the civil parish had a population of 188. On 1 April 2003 the civil parish was abolished and merged with Treyford to form "Elsted & Treyford".

History
Elsted (Halestede) was listed in the Domesday Book (1086) in the ancient hundred of Dumpford as having 32 households: seven villagers, 23 smallholders and two slaves; with ploughing land, pasture and woodland for pigs, a mill and a church, it had a value to the lord of the manor of £15.

In 1861, the area was 1789 acre and the population was 174.

Parish church
The small parish church north of the crossroads, St Paul's, has a nave which had become derelict, leaving the chancel as the village church, until it was rebuilt in the 1950s. The surviving north wall is of Norman style herringbone stonework, with two round arched doorways filled in to make lancet windows.

Amenities
The village has one public house, and there is another at the former Elsted railway station at Elsted Marsh east of the village.

Notable people

 * Thomas Weelkes (1575-1623), composer and organist
 * Alwyne Michael Webster Whistler (1909–1993), British Army general
 * William Downes Willis (1790-1871), rector at Elsted until his death