Old Fishbourne and New Fishbourne: Parish History
For centuries, Old Fishbourne and New Fishbourne were separate communities, each with its own parish governance. Their histories overlap but are not the same.
Two Parishes
Old Fishbourne, sometimes called "West Fishbourne" in older sources, sits at the head of the tidal creek running into Chichester Harbour. It is the older of the two settlements, documented in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Fiseborne." The manor of Old Fishbourne was the seat of the manorial lordship.
New Fishbourne, sometimes "East Fishbourne," lies slightly further east, closer to the main road between Chichester and Portsmouth. It grew up as a separate settlement with its own church (St Peter and St Mary) and its own parish identity. The distinction between "Old" and "New" reflects the relative age of the two settlements, though both are ancient by any reasonable measure.
Each parish had its own vestry and, from the nineteenth century onward, its own parish council, the lowest tier of local government in England. The two communities shared a school and many practical facilities but maintained separate administrative identities well into the twentieth century.
Unification (1987)
In 1987, the two parishes were unified into a single civil parish: Fishbourne. The merged parish council serves the combined community and manages local amenities, planning consultations, and community events.
The unification reflected practical reality. The two settlements had long since grown together, and maintaining separate parish councils for what was effectively one village had become an administrative anachronism. But the names "Old Fishbourne" and "New Fishbourne" survive in local usage and in the historical record.
A Note on the Lordship
The Manorial Lordship of Old Fishbourne is distinct from the civil parish of Fishbourne. A manorial lordship is a form of property under English law (an incorporeal hereditament) and has no connection to modern local government. The lord of the manor has no role in parish governance, no authority over parish land, and no relationship to the parish council. They are entirely separate things that happen to share the same geography.