The Church and grounds through the ages

Origins, the Domesday Book and to the 15th Century

We do not know when the first church was built in Sedlescombe or when the first inhabitant became Christian. We do know that many Romans brought Christianity with them and that, though it practically died out of the country during the chaotic centuries after their departure, Sussex became Christian again when Aella, [king of the South Saxons in the late 5th and early 6th centuries], was converted.

At the time of Domesday in 1087, there was a small church, “ecclesiola”, in the village. It is supposed that this building was erected by the Saxons of wood, their usual building material, and that, though no traces can be seen, it was on the same site as the present on standing commandingly, like so many other churches round about, on the top of the hill. Many people today ask why the church should be so far out of the village. The answer is that it is in the very centre of the parish where the ancient divisions Footlands, Hurst and the Street meet. Had it been built in the Street, where many feel that they would like to see it, it would have been at the extreme edge of the parish and a long distance from the farmhouses of Swales, Strawberry Farm, Footlands and Jacobs and the larger houses of Hancox and Sanders. Built where it is, no one in the parish would have had to walk more than a couple of miles to reach it.

There is nothing left of the tiny church which the Normans built to replace the wooden one, the last remaining part of it, the chancel arch, was renovated in the late 19th century. The Knights Hospitallers owned the advowson of the church which was dedicated to their patron saint, St John the Baptist.

The oldest part of the present church, all of which is made of local ironstone, is said to be the first half of the 13th century. The second rector, Ralph, was appointed in 1235, succeeding an earlier one, James, whose date is unknown. It is reasonable to assume that the church was either built or being built while James was in office.

In the 15th century it was enlarged, the perpendicular additions were made; the nave roof with its fine king post, trusses with moulded tie-beams and wall plates, the Tower arch and the Tower itself and two arches of the north aisle is of original 15th century work and two others of the same design though principally of modern stonework, have old internal jambs. All are of two cinque-foiled lights in a square head. There is a clear line visible on the outside of the north wall showing where the church at this date ended.

The Font

The Font and its unique cover date from early 16th century before the Reformation. The Font itself is a plain octagonal limestone bowl, gathered in below to a round bead at the stem, which, together with the splayed base, is circular. The oak cover, octagonal like the Font, is composed of beautifully carved linenfold panels surmounted by openwork tracery. The corner pieces are carried up to finials, in the centre of which the top rises in the form of a crocketted pinnacle. Whose hands, over 400 years ago, worked the wood into this beautiful treasure? Being now very delicate, it is fixed; hung on a tape and pulley. It is remarkable too in that it is made with doors to shut when the Font is not in use. There are traces of an old lock, said to have been ordered by the Pope to protect the holy water, which had always to be in readiness, from profane use.

With the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, the gift of the living passed from the Knights Hospitallers, whose order was suppressed, to the Crown, where it has remained ever since.

Memorials

In the Tower, carved on the north wall near the Font, and visible above the head of anyone walking in or out of the west door, is a memorial to ‘Mary’ ‘An humble and lowly soul with graces many moe’ etc. This was Mary Waters, born in Brede, daughter of John Waters, and married in 1616 in Sedlescombe Church to the ironmaster and churchwarden, Peter Famden. They lived at Brickwall.

Above this is another memorial, the lettering of which is so worn that most of it is impossible to decipher, but clearly visible are the words: “George Barnsley Eccl” and “…Olm Cathed magd”. Barnsley was the Rector of Sedlescombe for 50 years from 1674 to 1724 and was the Father of our Church School.

The Plan and restoration

The first plan of the church is a rough one, not drawn to scale and dated 1632. A tracing of it hangs on the wall beside the south porch and shows the very small size of the church, the chancel being where the nave is now. The east wall rose where the chancel steps are. There was no south aisle, but in the south wall (which stood where the arches are) are dormer windows and also two perpendicular tow-hinged windows on either side of the old south porch. There was no vestry. The plan is entitled “A Platform of the seats in the Parish Church of Sedlescombe”, and it shows the names of the people to whom each seat was allotted and very often the name of the house where they lived. Three quarters of these houses are still standing and occupied. 1632 was the date of the “Re-edification of the church”. We have no details of what this consisted except for the fact that a gallery was built at the back across the whole width of the church. The stones of the southern pillar of the Tower are noticeably rubbed smooth by the passage of people against it as they climbed the stairs Sunday after Sunday for three hundred years. The big beam now in the roof of the nave with 1632 incised on it was part of that new gallery as were the carved panels now forming the back of some of the pew seats.

Since each inhabitant of the parish had a place allotted to him on the Plan, it would not be difficult to check attendance; for at this time everyone was forced by law to attend church once every Sunday. It was the duty of the churchwardens to visit the absentees to discover the cause and, if necessary, administer a reprimand and a fine of 1/-d.

The ancient trees, Spanish chestnuts, still standing outside the west door, still bearing fruit every autumn are marked on the Plan. The next restoration took place 61 years later while George Barnsley, Sedlescombe’s most famous Rector, was in office. It was a maintenance job. “The Chancel of the church of Sedlescombe was well repaired, ye roof being wholly new, ye walls rough-cast in panel, ye inside of ye roof ceiled, ye walls whited.” The Tower took almost 800 shingles at £1.10 a thousand; all which repairs were done by Colonel Sackville’s Lady after his decease in pursuance of his order upon his deathbed that they should be done.

The charge was about £48. The Communion Table and the doors into ye said chancel were given by another hand.

The Communion Table is without doubt the 17th century central part of the one in use today which extended on either side in the 19th century.

Colonel Sackville was the Cavalier Thomas, second son of Sir Thomas of the 1632 Plan. Both were born at Hanox. His ‘Lady’ was Margaret Compton, now widowed for the second time. Her mother was also a Sackville a fact recorded on the memorial tablet to her husband now in the choir vestry. Carved in the marble stone above are the Sackville arms and below a cherub’s head.

Close by in the window in the north wall are the arms of his grandmother formed in stained glass. Part of it, a shield with two goats, can still be seen. She was Joan Dounton of Hancox. Hanging above the south door is the Colonel’s funeral helm made especially to lay on his coffin in the same way as a serving officer’s cap is to this day. His sword, helmet and crest were first presented at the altar having been carried in the funeral procession. He was buried with his ancestors in the Sackville vault. He was of the same family as the Sackvilles of Knowle.

The next restoration of the Church took place about 150 years later, recorded on a board in the vestry is the statement that ‘this church was enlarged in 1838’. It is signed by “John Pratt, Minister; John Simes, James Byner, Churchwardens”. It is presumed that this was the addition of the south aisle.

John Pratt holds the record of 58 years as Rector of this Parish and his family lived on in the village until after the First World War. The east window commemorates him and his wife Mary.

John Simes, the village butcher, lived at what is now called Holmes House where butchers carried on their trade for at least 150 years and which fittingly bears the name of the last one of all. The other churchwarden, James Byner, was parish Surveyor and was responsible for the building of the Turnpike Road, now part of the A21.

In the porch under the Tower is a tablet recording the last enlargement of the church, when a new chancel, vestry and porch were built. This is signed by Richard Pratt (son of the former Rector), Boyce H. Combe (of Oaklands), Edward Owen, the Rector and John Catt the builder and son of the schoolmaster. He also built the bridge over the Brede at the foot of the village.

The old east window was saved and put into the new east wall, the plain glass being removed and the present stained glass, showing the last supper and the crucifixion; was put in to commemorate the late Rector and his wife, John and Mary Pratt. The gallery of 1632 was removed, the beam with the date incised on it being used in the enlargement and put in the central place where it now is. The old pulpit was replaced with the present Victorian one of stone and inlaid marble and the weather vane was put up when the restoration was completed in 1874.

Ironcaster Memorial

In the floor of the north aisle is an iron slab immortalizing three members of the Bishop family who lived at Great Sanders (now a school). Only ironmasters were allowed these iron memorials. William Bishop (of the 1632 Plan) died in 1664, 24 years after his wife, Elizabeth. He was followed five years later by his little granddaughter Sarah. All this is recorded on the slab, but reads quaintly owing to the odd way of dividing the words and the curious reversing of all the Ns. No doubt it was made by local craftsmen whose illiteracy would account for the unusual lay-out. The Bishop vault is beneath this aisle where a window at the east end, depicting the Transfiguration and the Ascension is in memory of the last of the Bishop family to live in Great Sanders after 350 years.

Oaklands Corner

At the west end of the south aisle. The memorials in it give the family connections of the Brabazon Combes of Oaklands House (now the site of the Pestalozzi Children’s Village) beginning with Sarah, Baroness Teynam, who died at Oaklands, the home of her sister Anne and her husband Hercules Sharpe. The hatchment with the coat of arms was made to commemorate Anne, who died in 1838. It is framed in black and the background is divided in two, the left half white and the right, black. If the whole were black it would tell that the deceased was unmarried. The white half shows that her husband is still alive. In the middle is the shield, also divided into two, the left half having a black ground with a broad arrow (a pheon) which was the arms of the Sharpes of Northiam. The right half has a red ground with a gold band diagonally across it on which are three swallows; The Brabazon arms. The fact that the shield is hanging by ribbons and at each corner is a cherub’s head shows that the deceased is a woman.

Together Hercules and Anne had built Oaklands. It was Anne who brought the name Brabazon into the family. Her brother was the famous watercolorist, Hercules Brabazon, whose pictures are most sought after today. It was her daughter Anne who, by marrying Boyce Harvey Combe introduce that name into the family. The last member of the family, Harvey Combe, known to all as ‘The Captain’ has no memorial in the church or churchyard for his ashes were scattered in the park he loved.

There seem no record of the date when the organ was installed. Musically it has contributed much to the services but architecturally it has destroyed the beauty and balance of the church. For years the bellows were operated by successive small boys hidden in the corner and when, in June 1974, the electric blower and trompette stop were added as an additional memorial to those killed in the war, some thousands of sweet papers came to light - the relics of sweet consumed by generations of small boys to while away the tedium.

On a ledge beside the organ stands a model of the church made out of gypsum by John Catt, the builder.

The war memorial opposite, on the north wall, was made by another local builder, James Dengate and his son, Frank. Close by on the same wall are memorials to two other young men who died young; Henry Weston’s family were land-owning farmers in Sedlescombe and Geoffrey Parker’s lived at Glebe House, a stone’s throw from the church and opposite Castleman’s Triangle.

On a pillar of the Tower are two brass plates; the top one immortalizes General Nixon and his son Adrian. Sir John was a general in the Great War, in which his son was killed. His surviving sons put up the tablet to their mother. The family lived at the Manor Oast.

The fine oak west door was given by the Tyner family in the early days of the twentieth century. Many of the family are buried in the churchyard and their graves beneath the Irish Yews are visited now and again by descendants living in Australia.



Sources: B. Lucey: Twenty Centuries in Sedlescombe; The Friends of Sedlescombe Parish Church Heritage Trust guide.