Thought to take it’s name from the ‘Manor of Hame’, the site was one of five parishes of Angmering in the 11th Century (the others being Barpham, Ecclesden, East and West Angmering). The land was initially a manor in its own right, adjoining tenanted properties that formed a small village. The original manor house was built in 1570 when it became home to the Gratwicke family, who managed to acquire the entirety of Ham as a single estate over the following 300 years. In the 1830’s, the current manor house was built to designs by Henry Harrison, which included neoclassical elements such as the stuccoed east front.
After the death of William Gratwicke in 1862, residents of Ham Manor included Henry Aubrey-Fletcher (a Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex) and F.G Savill of the Shaw Savill Steamship Line.