Page 22 - ‘A Blaker Family History’ The family history of Joseph Blaker (1916-2007; ‘Joe’)

© The Blaker Society
© The Blaker Society

Old Portslade, or Portslade Village is located north of the A270, Old Shoreham
Road (the old Roman road, ‘Noviomagus Reginorum’, linking Chichester to
Brighton) in West Sussex. It is west of the Adur River, and is some 1.5km north of
Portslade-by-Sea, which is a mixed residential and industrial area abutting the
Shoreham harbour basin.

Location of Old Portslade, West Sussex

History
The actual etymology of Portslade may be ‘portus’ + ‘ladda’, which means ‘way to

the port’, where ‘ladda’ is from the Old English for ‘way’, but this is conjectural at
best. The parish is intersected by an ancient thoroughfare, which passes from
Saddlescombe, through Hangleton, towards the coast by Southwick. Where this
road passes through Portslade village it is called Drove Road.

The northern part of the parish is all Downland, and covered with traces of Early
Iron Age field systems, the summits of Tenant Hill and Sweet Brow having the
remains of contemporary and Romano-British settlements upon them.

The Old Village can be traced back to Roman times, and is mentioned in the
Domesday book. The area that is now known as Portslade Old Village became
established in the 11th century, with the building of the manor and church.

Opposite the church and manor house, on the north side of the High Street, is an
old house called ‘Kemps’, now divided into cottages. ‘Kemps’ is now a Grade II-
listed building, and is the oldest surviving dwelling house in Portslade Old
Village, located at the Eastern end of the High Street behind St. Nicolas Church.
The house, which was built in c. 1540, was the first house built on what later
became Portslade Street and then Portslade High Street. ‘Kemps’ consists of two
wings at right angles; the western wing is the oldest. It has been much altered
th
but shows traces of its 16 century origin. The eastern wing is later, possibly
about 1740. The exact details of the buildings that comprised the original remain
a mystery, but it is clear that there was a house, a forge, a barn, stables, and a
considerable amount of land, the main parts enclosed with traditional flint walls.
Whilst much altered, ‘Kemps’ has been kept very much in the spirit of the
Elizabethan times, with a wealth of historic features. In many ways the modern
facade is deceptive, as beneath the lime-washed stucco lies solid flint walls (up to
1.2 metres thick). The present kitchen has an open fire with a spit-rack, upon
which the wooden pulleys of the turn-spit remain. The threshold of this room is
formed by a 13th-century tomb-slab.

‘Kemps’ – Blaker Family Home, Portslade Old Village, Sussex

‘Kemps’ was the home to the Blaker family for many generations. The earliest
record in the church shows that the Blaker family was living in the village in
1485. The last recorded Blaker living in ‘Kemps’ was Ann Kemp Blaker (1784-