Arthur Hussey

“ However it is too much to expect, that a reputation of long standing will be easily overthrown or altered; wherefore Sussex must probably be contented to remain notorious for the contemptible character of her churches, just as Lincolnshire universally bears a name for the reverse, whereas it would be easy to refer to a district in that county, of which some of the sacred edifices would scarcely be paralleled even in Sussex. ”

“ Bosham.—This church comprehends chancel, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, and western tower with shingled spire. The chancel arch is unusually lofty, originally round, but now depressed in the centre. The pier shafts are remarkably high, the upper portion of the capitals being square abaci, below them a round moulding resembling a shallow cushion, and beneath those the capitals of the several shafts. The entire contour of the arch is peculiar, but I should pronounce it more like E.E., than an earlier style. The chancel is E.E., very large and lofty. ”

“ Rich as the county of Kent is in historical works, of greater or less value, I have not derived from them all the assistance I could have desired. I must acknowledge large obligations to Hasted's History, in enabling me to identify several places described in Domesday Book; but in some few of the Kentish manors two, and even more, churches are specified; and in general it has been possible to do no more than to propose a surmise as to the situation, in each case, of only one of those churches. ”

“ All the windows retain their tracery. The nave, over the east end of which stands the tower, is lofty, with good clerestory windows; the chancel also is lofty, with good windows, and, with the exception of the western face of the roodscreen, and the top of the doorway, possesses all its old fittings in a perfect state, though the paving tiles have been sadly disarranged. ”

“ The outline is clearly traceable, proving the building to have comprised only nave and chancel, the length of the whole measuring but twenty-one paces. The mortar of the old walls is very hard, without the apparent admixture of any kind of gravel. The spot may be easily recognised by an ash tree standing within the area of the foundations. Barpham chapel is neither named nor indicated in either the map of the county engraved by Hondius, 1610, that by Kip about 1670, or that of the original edition of Camden. It is affirmed, that "the church had fallen to decay before the time of Elizabeth." ”

“ In my own case, as already stated, I happen to be, partially, acquainted with all the three counties I have taken in hand, more closely with Kent and Sussex, than with Surrey ; beside which I have profited by the local knowledge and inquiries of private friends, [2] and have consulted, if not all, yet, the best histories of those counties. Repeated researches and much consideration have entirely persuaded me, that, in the verification of the places mentioned in Domesday Book, it is essentially necessary to pay the most accurate attention to the hundreds. ”

“ In the high chancel is a perfectly plain piscina, mutilated; and in the southern a trefoiled ogée-headed one. A tiebeam supplies the place of a chancel arch, as in the neighbouring church of Ashurst, Kent. The tiebeams &c. of both nave and aisle have ornamental mouldings, but are loaded with whitewash. Near the south door is a mutilated stoup, headed like the piscina. The font is Dec., octagon with carved sides, of sandstone. The entrance to the churchyard is by a lychgate, under an old cottage, but the corresponding house, forming half the gate, has been pulled down. ”

“ Among the various interesting matters comprised in that remarkable document, called "Domesday Book," [1] one is the evidence it presents as to the early existence of churches in different parts of the kingdom; and to those engaged in archaeological inquiries the idea will readily occur, certainly it will be universally admitted, that it is very desirable to institute a comparison between the churches, mentioned in the Domesday record, and those now standing, or known to have stood, on or near the same spots. ”

“ Spelman says, in his Glossary, that the title "parish," paroichia, was introduced into England from Rome in Saxon times, but is seldom, in old records, applied to divisions so small as modern parishes, more commonly signifying an entire diocese (in which sense the word is used by Bede) . Certainly from my acquaintance with Domesday Book it might be supposed, that the term "parish," as the boundary of a district, was utterly unknown at the period of the Survey; the "manor" being that, which is constantly referred to. ”

“ In different parts of the building a few of the ancient windows remain, but generally they have been altered. The north and south doors are round-headed, but the former is disused. The roof, which is high, spans the aisles, as well as "the nave, but the south wall has been raised, consequently the roof over that aisle likewise. Throughout the church both within and without very little stone has been employed, the door and window-frames, piers, &c. being wrought in chalk. The font is coeval with the edifice, of peculiar shape, but not fine. ”

“ St. Nicholas, although a parish (so early as 1070, Hasted) was long without a church, having only an altar in the cathedral; but A.D. 1418 Bp. Rich. Yong gave license to build a church "in cimiterio dicte ecclesie nostre in parte boreali—in the cemetery of our said church on the northern side" (of the cathedral, where the church of St. Nicholas now stands) the same to be "rectoria in perpetuum—non vicaria—a rectory for ever, not a vicarage;" which was accomplished after some opposition from the monks of the priory. ”

“ The first column of the List contains the Modern Names of places; the second the corresponding names, extracted from Domesday Book; and when any place appears among the latter only, the reason is, not that in every case no modern appellation is known; though in some instances that may be the fact; but that the church, formerly standing there, has been desecrated, and the site is no longer, if indeed it ever was, recognised as a distinct parish or chapelry. In the third column are given the churches mentioned in Domesday Book. ”

“ The ends of the aisles range with that of the chancel. The large east window is of a rather singular pattern. Beneath the exterior of the window are the walls of the ancient vestry, from which a door originally opened into the chancel on the southern side of the altar. Over the north porch is a parvise, formerly called the Treasury. The south porch has also a parvise, and a groined roof. Kilburne describes much coloured glass as existing in his time. Very few fragments of it now remain. Both the tower and the walls of the aisles have battlements and stair turrets. ”

“ At the north-east angle of nave is an excellent example of the ancient method of constructing buttresses, namely, with bonding stones firmly connecting the buttress with the wall, not, as is commonly done in modern times, merely raising a heavy mass of masonry against the wall, in which latter case the foundation very frequently sinks, when the body of the structure leans away from what it was designed to support. ”

“ Woldingham.—This church is described as being only about thirty feet long by seventeen wide, the interior divided by a screen, standing in a lonely situation in a wood. (M. & B.) —Since the above was written, the church must have been rebuilt, the present being a very modern structure of flint with brick dressings, without a single old stone visible in any part of it. Neither is there any screen. In fact the building comprises only a single room, without any mark of separation for a chancel, the pulpit and reading-desk being placed against the wall of the east end, in the south corner. ”

“ Farningham.—A church of chancel, nave, north porch, and square west tower with battlements and stair turret. This building has undergone much repair, in which bricks have been largely employed. The chancel seems E.E., and probably the nave is so likewise. The north wall is the oldest. The chancel being much narrower than the nave, in the two east walls of the latter are small E.E. windows, under the southern of which must have been an altar, the south wall retaining a piscina, trefoiled under a square hood, and beside it is a large arch, which has been ascertained to belong to an E.E. tomb. ”

“ Martin by the Romans; that Bercta (Bertha) daughter of Charibert, king of the Franks, and, Christian, queen of Æthelbert, pagan, king of Kent, frequented the church for her devotions; and that Augustin and his companions used it for all religious purposes until the king, after his conversion, gave them licence for building or restoring other churches. In the walls of the present fabric, particularly of the chancel, are Roman bricks; which however can only intimate, at most, that some materials from the original Roman building might have been used in constructing the existing church. ”

“ The nave is very modern. The east end is circular, not constructed with straight sides, and the connecting wall rounded; but the plan of the apse commences from the tower, though not from thence forming a complete semicircle; consequently the chancel is small. The three original windows are filled up, but their cases are visible on the outside, showing them to have been very small, and rebated for glass externally. The existing windows also are small, and round-headed. From the appearance of the tower it is clear the church never had transepts. ”

“ St. Faith's appears as a chapel annexed to the rectory of the parish church, under the valuation of Maidstone College. It is also mentioned under the same circumstances in the accounts of the "Ministers" (i.e. the receivers for the crown of the rents of the dissolved religious houses) for the third year of K. Edward VI, A.D. 1549; but the existence of a churchyard of St. Faith's, as there declared, implying a right of burial, proves a higher character than that of a mere chapel-of-ease. ”

“ Southease.—This small church at present comprises chancel, nave, and western tower, but formerly had an addition on both the northern and the southern sides of the chancel; which must have rendered the shape somewhat peculiar, the east end being then greatly broader than the body of the building. The tower is round, the only entrance being apparently broken through the flint masonry into the church, and never neatly finished, for the sides are merely plastered, and the sill consists of the rough remains of the wall. ”

“ Cowden.—This church comprises chancel, nave, north aisle (erected A.D. 1837) , south porch, and a small shingled spire upon the west end of the nave. The building seems to have been extensively repaired, probably in the Dec. period, like others in this sandstone district, which comprehends part of both Kent and Sussex. There is no tower, the spire being elevated upon a substantial framework of remarkably fine timber, and admirably constructed upon arches, of which two cross at right angles, bearing a resemblance to stone groining. ”

“ And if at Easter mass should not be celebrated in the said chapel, the whole family should receive "Christ's body" in the mother church of Leigh. Again, we find an authorised encroachment upon the above reservations about 150 years from the foundation by John Belemeyns; for license to hear confessions and enjoin penance in "the great chapel, capella magna," of Penshurst "from all and singular persons inhabiting the said manor" was granted by the bishop A.D. 1393, "on account of the distance from the parish church of Leigh." ”

“ The chancel arch springs from the massive round piers with cushion capitals (varying somewhat from the common Norm, form so styled) having square abaci. The arch is very lofty, and single, but has another square-edged member above, as a hood moulding, that on the western side being, as usual, the richest, but having been sadly defaced. On the eastern sides of the arch two half-round shafts descend to the pavement. Each of the stones composing this arch extends completely through the wall. In the chancel are a piscina (Dec.?) and a Tudor arch as if for a tomb ”