In 780 Oslac, Duke of the South Saxons, gave to the church of St. Paul (presumably the cathedral of Selsey) a piece of land known as 'Earnaleach and Tielesora'. Subsequently, in 930, King Athelstan granted to Bishop Beornheage of Selsey land at Medmerry in Selsey 'with the woodland and fields lying therewith called Erneleia'.
Besides the great abbey of Battle, the Benedictines had houses for monks at Boxgrove and Sele, both originally cells of alien monasteries. The nuns of the order had a settlement at Chichester previous to 1075, but were ejected when the cathedral was removed thither. They had also a short-lived convent at 'Ramestede,' and another at Rusper. The Cluniacs had only one priory, but that was the greatest house of the order in England—the priory of St. Pancras at Lewes, whose possessions extended almost all over the kingdom. The monks of Lewes held at one time or another no fewer than fifty-six churches in Sussex. The only Cistercian abbey was that of Robertsbridge. The Augustinian canons had six houses, all small; and there was a nunnery of the order at Easebourne.
Roger de Montgomery, earl of Sussex, granted an estate at Lyminster to the abbey of St. Peter of Almenesches, of which his daughter was abbess. Shortly after the death of his wife in 1082 he gave for the good of her soul half the manor of Climping, with the church of that vill. Roger of Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury and Chichester, gave the manor of Runcton to the Norman abbey of Troarn, some time before 1086, and several of his undertenants followed his example and bestowed lands and tithes in West Sussex upon the same abbey, which had further obtained the church of St. Cyriac in Chichester by 1155, when Henry II confirmed these grants.
EARNLEY is not named in the Domesday Survey, being possibly then included in Wittering. It is probably represented in the return of knights' fees of the Bishop of Chichester in 1166 by the holding of William de Lancing, who with three others held I complete fee, as towards the end of the 12th century William de Lancing, son of William and Maud, gave to his uncle Luke de Ernele 2 hides in Earnley as ¼ knight's fee, less 1 virgate, and this gift was confirmed by his daughter Bertha. The bishop's feodary of c. 1290 shows 2 hides at Earnley attached to Preston and held by Ingelram de Brok; they were held by his heirs in 1300 and by Niel de Brok in 1310, and later by the family of Radmylle—Richard in 1398, Ralph in 1403, and William in 1479. This perhaps indicates a mesne lordship, as the estate seems to have remained in the Ernele family.
The advowson of the church of Earnley was in the hands of the prebendary of Sidlesham between 1400 and 1444, but its earlier and later history is obscure. It was a very poor living, worth only £4 6s. 8d. in 1291, which was also the value of the rectory of Almodington.
ALMODINGTON is not named in the Domesday Survey but was presumably part of the Bishop of Chichester's manor of Sidlesham and may be represented by the 3 hides held in 1086 by Gilbert. In 1166 Hugh de Almodington with four others held 1 knight's fee of the bishop. The Aldingbourne park paling list of c. 1260 shows that Walter de Almodington held 3½ hides, which were held, under Sidlesham, in c. 1290 by the heir of Ernis de Almodington. This was probably John, who figures in 1296 as one of the larger tax-payers in the Manhood. Walter de Almodington held the 3½ hides in 1300 and 1310, and both he and his mother Clemence, widow of John, appear in the subsidy lists of 1327 and 1332. In 1337 Robert son of Walter recovered the manor of Almodington against John de Almodington the elder and younger, John and Richard de Ernele, and Joan daughter of John de Ernele. The church (invocation unknown) The registers begin in 1562.
The two estates constituted the abbey's possessions in Sussex at the time of the Domesday Survey, but the church of Poling was probably added shortly after this date, and in 1178 Pope Alexander III confirmed to the nuns of Almenesches all their rights in the churches of Lyminster, Climping, Poling, Ford, and Rustington, as well as in the manors of Climping, Rustington, Ford, Preston, and Poling. Later tradition asserted that it was founded by Earl Roger, and the fact that the abbey's portion of Lyminster was called 'Nonneminstre' in 1086 (and 'Nummenistre' in the bull of 1178) suggests that there may have been nuns resident here from an early date.
EAST MARDEN is a very small parish on the Downs. A road winding across the parish from North Marden to Stoughton passes through East Marden village from north to south, and another winding from Compton to Chilgrove passes through the village from east to west. The church of ST. PETER stands on a spur of the Downs north of the village. The font is goblet-shaped, perhaps 12th-century, standing on a modern octagonal base. The registers begin in 1691. Land in East Marden was given, with the church, to the cathedral of Chichester in the 12th century to form a prebend, possibly by Geoffrey son of Azo and Agnes his wife, who subsequently gave to the prebend of East Marden land in Horslie which Aldred once held of them, constituted the prebendal manor of EAST MARDEN. After the Reformation this manor, like most prebendal estates, was usually leased by the prebendaries for three lives; among the lessees were the families of Juxon, Brereton, Longcroft, and Woods.