This postcard of Bramber shows how little the centre of the village has changed in the last hundred years. The remains of the castle can be seen in the background.
The village, which was named for the broom which once must have covered this area, was the centre of the rape of Bramber which William the Conqueror gave to William de Braose after the Norman Conquest. The Braose family built the church of St Nicholas as well as the castle which is on the site of an earlier Saxon stronghold. The castle was badly damaged in the 17th century during the civil war and little remains of it today.
The parish is closely connected with the nearby settlement of Botolphs and has been since the 16th century.
Parish registers date from 1601, the bishops transcripts from 1591. They can be seen at the West Sussex Record Office.
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