Slindon

Slindon appears in the Domesday Survey as an 8-hide manor in the hundred of Binsted, held by Hugh under Earl Roger of Shrewsbury. Azor of Slindon had held it before the Conquest. The manor was valued at 20 pounds TRE, falling to 16 pounds in 1086, with 23 villeins, 12 bordars, 1.5 demesne ploughs, 7 men's ploughs and a church.

Shortly after Domesday, the manor was given to Christ Church Canterbury. In 1106 Henry I, at Archbishop Anselm's request, restored Slindon to the archbishopric, to be held as two knights' fees. The archbishops used Slindon House as an occasional residence. Stephen Langton died here in 1228. Archbishop John Pecham held ordinations in the chapel in 1288 and 1291. In 1451 Robert Huberden farmed the manor at 26 pounds 13s. 4d. In 1535 the manor was valued at 37 pounds 18s. 11d.

In 1542 Archbishop Cranmer exchanged Slindon with Henry VIII. In 1552 it was granted to Sir Thomas Palmer, who forfeited it upon his execution for supporting Lady Jane Grey. Anthony Kempe received the manor in 1555 and died seised of it in 1597. The Kempe family held Slindon through the 17th century. Anthony Kempe, the last male of the line, died in 1753 aged 81.

Anthony Kempe's daughter Barbara married James Bartholomew Radcliffe, Earl of Newburgh. When Anthony James, the 5th Earl of Newburgh, died in 1814 without issue, the estate passed to his cousin Francis Eyre. Francis Eyre's daughter Dorothy (claiming to be Countess of Newburgh) married Colonel Charles Leslie. After their deaths the estate descended to Charles Stephen Leslie (d. 1916), whose son sold it before 1930.

Frederick Wootton Isaacson purchased the estate and bequeathed it in 1949 to the National Trust. The estate comprises 3,500 acres of agricultural land and woodland on the South Downs.