Elsted (Halestede) was listed in the Domesday Book (1086) in the ancient hundred of Dumpford as having 32 households: seven villagers, 23 smallholders and two slaves; with ploughing land, pasture and woodland for pigs, a mill and a church, it had a value to the lord of the manor of £15.[3]
In 1861, the area was 1,789 acres (724 ha) and the population was 174.[4]
Parish church
The small parish church north of the crossroads, St Paul's, has a nave which had become derelict, leaving the chancel as the village church, until it was rebuilt in the 1950s. The surviving north wall is of Norman style herringbone stonework, with two round arched doorways filled in to make lancet windows.[4]
Amenities
The village has one public house, and there is another at the former Elsted railway station at Elsted Marsh east of the village.
