List of former places of worship in Chichester District
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Throughout the district of Chichester, churches and chapels have fallen out of religious use and in many cases now have a new function. "The Old Chapel" at Nutbourne, now in commercial use, was built for Bible Christian worshippers in 1905.
In the district of Chichester, a large rural area in the English county of West Sussex, there are more than 50 former churches, chapels and other places of worship that still stand but that are no longer in religious use. Many are in the ancient city of Chichester, the district's largest centre of population: many medieval and Victorian Anglican churches were built there to serve tiny parishes (sometimes covering only a few streets) that were later combined with others, and chapels serving various Nonconformistdenominations were closed after their congregations declined. Elsewhere, in villages and scattered farming communities in the rest of the district, churches and chapels were superseded by new buildings, closed due to declining attendance or shifts in population, or rendered unusable because of structural problems. A few former places of worship are now ruinous but still survive in derelict or fragmentary form. Many others are fully usable and have been converted to new uses: residential, commercial, educational, social and others. Some former churches stand empty awaiting a new function.
Of the 54 former places of worship in the district as of 2024, 21 have been listed by English Heritage for their architectural and historical importance. A building is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.[1] The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, a Government department, is responsible for this; English Heritage, a non-departmental public body, acts as an agency of the department to administer the process and advise the department on relevant issues.[2] There are three grades of listing status: Grade I, the highest, is defined as being of "exceptional interest"; Grade II* is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and Grade II, the lowest, is used for buildings of "special interest".[3] As of February 2001, there were 80 buildings with Grade I status, 114 with Grade II* status and 3,057 with Grade II status in the district.[4]
Overview of the district
The district of Chichester is on the west side of West Sussex.
The district of Chichester covers about 300 square miles (780km2)[5] and takes up most of the western half of West Sussex.[6] The population in 2011 was 113,800.[7] The ancient city of Chichester (originally a Roman town), with 23,731 residents at the time of the 2001 Census, is the largest settlement; there are also small towns, villages and hamlets. Only East Wittering, Midhurst, Selsey and Southbournecivil parishes have more than 3,000 people.[8]
The former Church of the Assumption of St Mary the Virgin in East Wittering(photographed in March 2012) stands empty and requires ongoing maintenance.
The city of Chichester has eight former Anglican churches, including six in the ancient city centre. St Olave's Church dates from the 11th century; the Churches of All Saints-in-the-Pallant and St Andrew-in-the-Oxmarket were built in the 13th century; and the Churches of St John the Evangelist, St Bartholomew and St Peter the Great all date from the 19th century[9] Anglican churchbuilding fervour that added hundreds of new buildings across England, not least in Sussex.[10] Several other churches existed but have now gone, and there were eight ancient parishes; also, many of the churches were close together in the northeastern quarter of the city. This may account for both the small size of the ancient churches[11] and the closure of many in the 20th century. Churches in the suburbs of Portfield and Rumboldswyke were declared redundant in 1981 and 1994 respectively.[12] Portfield's is now a doll and mechanical musical instrument museum,[13] and St Andrew-in-the-Oxmarket is an arts centre; St Olave's Church is a bookshop; Rumboldswyke and All Saints-in-the-Pallant have been converted into offices; St Peter the Great's Church has become a bar and restaurant; and the former Hornet Bible Christian Chapel is now a Chinese takeaway. Eastgate Hall, a Baptist place of worship from the 17th century until the mid-20th century, has had various secular uses including a restaurant, and is now a betting shop.[14]
Elsewhere in the district, several other former Anglican parish churches are now closed for public worship. Examples are East Wittering, where the isolated 12th-century building was replaced with a modern church near the centre of population;[15]Merston, where St Giles' Church was shut in 2010 because the roof was unsound;[16]West Lavington, whose parish was united with that of Cocking when the church became too expensive for the small congregation to maintain;[17] and Milland, where a new church was built alongside the old Tuxlith Chapel.[18] Small settlements within larger parishes, including Bedham,[19] Bexley Common, Henley Common[20] and Rake,[21] had their own mission churches (chapels of ease to the parish church) at various times during the 19th and 20th centuries but have now lost them.
Roman Catholicism has always had a strong following in West Sussex,[22] and the two former churches of that denomination in the district both closed because they were replaced by larger buildings. At Midhurst the old church became a restaurant,[23] and a barn served as a Mass Centre in Nutbourne until a permanent church was built at nearby Bosham.[24] In contrast, various ProtestantNonconformist denominations that were strong in the 19th and early 20th centuries have declined, leading to the closure and sale of many chapels – often small, simple buildings in rural locations. The city of Chichester was a Presbyterian stronghold in the 18th century,[22] supporting the Baffin's Hall chapel (now an auction gallery) from 1721.[25]Calvinistic causes opened chapels catering for groups whose frequent splits and amalgamations led to the adoption of various denominational descriptions: chapels at Fernhurst, Midhurst and Petworth, all named Ebenezer, were used at various times by Strict Baptists, Particular Baptists, Independents and Gospel Standard Baptists,[26] while a building with the same name in central Chichester passed from Independents to Congregationalists.[27] The same happened at South Harting, where a meeting house (unusually built of clunch)[22] that was provided for Independents in 1800 was ultimately superseded by a Congregational chapel, which survives in use, in 1871.[28] Several Congregational chapels in other villages closed before the denomination united with the Presbyterian Church of England to form the United Reformed Church: Broadbridge,[29] Cocking,[30] Funtington[31] and Wisborough Green[32] all lost theirs. Even chapels that survived beyond the 1972 union were not immune from decline: Bosham Congregational Church, latterly Bosham United Reformed Church, held its final service in 2005.[33]Methodism also experienced decline, and the gradual merger of several sub-groups (Bible Christians, Primitive Methodists, Wesleyans and others) to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain in 1932 reduced the number of chapels needed for worship.[34] In West Sussex, just as in neighbouring counties, it proved popular to convert these buildings – sturdily built, often attractively designed and usually sold cheaply – into houses[35] (as at Somerley,[36] Sidlesham,[37] Fernhurst,[38] Walderton[39] and West Wittering)[40] or for commercial use, as evidenced by the former Bible Christian chapels in both Chichester[14] and Nutbourne.[41] The now-vanished Society of Dependants (also known as Cokelers), a small and obscure sect found in Surrey and Sussex,[22] were based at Loxwood in Chichester district; their old chapel there is still in use by another congregation,[42] but former Cokeler chapels in both Northchapel and Chichester have now fallen out of religious use.[22]
William Townley MitfordMP paid for a combined school and church in this remote wooded part of the parish of Fittleworth in 1880. The "somewhat understated" Gothic Revival red brick and stone building is now derelict: the school closed in 1925 and the church in 1959.
A preacher from nearby Henley Common Mission Hall founded a chapel in a disused cottage at Bexley Common in about 1900. It fell out of use after his death, but the building survives in ruinous condition.
Now ruinous, this single-cell flint, brick and chalk chapel replaced Binderton's original parish church at the behest of the owner of Binderton House. His son Thomas Smythe[note 1] built it in the 1670s. It remained unconsecrated and fell out of religious use in the 18th century.
An oyster shed served as a chapel from 1812 until this "pleasant" (to Pevsner) Classical-style three-baypedimented chapel was built in 1837. A schoolroom followed in 1875. The final service took place on 21 June 2005, and the brick and pebble-fronted building was sold.
Built in the Edwardian era along with the surrounding houses in the Broadbridge area near Bosham railway station, this chapel—set back from the road behind houses—has been converted with minimal alteration into a cottage.
James Elmes designed this proprietary chapel in 1812. It is a Classical-style octagonal preaching-house of pale brick whose interior resembles a Nonconformist chapel: the large pulpit and galleries are more prominent than the altar. The CCT look after the church, which became redundant in 1973.
This small church in the northern quarter of the city centre underwent restoration in 1851 but is originally 11th-century with some 13th-century work (especially in the tiny, nearly square chancel). The 25+1⁄2-by-17+1⁄3-foot (7.8m ×5.3m) nave is topped with a steepled bell-turret. In the 1950s the church became a SPCK bookshop.
A "simple demure roughcast church" of the 13th century, hidden behind buildings along a narrow alley, this single-cell building has windows of a slightly later date and a bell-turret. Redundant since 1952, it is now a museum.
Called "as simple as a barn" by Pevsner, this single-cell 63+1⁄2-by-22+1⁄2-foot (19.4m ×6.9m) flint church is 13th-century with a Victorian vestry. Redundant since 1969, it was sold for office space in 2008. There is some Purbeck Marblework inside.
The circular St Sepulchre's Church was wrecked in 1642. George Draper built a Neoclassical replacement on the site 190 years later using stone and galleted flint. Macdonald Gill made changes in 1929, then the church became redundant in 1959 (at which point its benefice was united with that of St Paul's Church) and was used by a theological college.
Built for £5,650 to Richard Cromwell Carpenter's design in 1848–52, and highly regarded by Pevsner, this Gothic Revival stone church stands opposite the cathedral. A tower was planned, but a porch was built in 1881 instead. It was sold for commercial use and is now a bar.
Baptists worshipped on the site from 1671, but in 1728 the chapel was rebuilt in its present form: a stuccoed tile-clad building whose gable end was topped with round finials. Sold in 1954, when the congregation moved to a new church, it passed through various uses before becoming a Coral betting shop.
St Martin's Hall was recorded in 1741 as a stable, then a storeroom and warehouse. Seceders from another chapel converted it into an Independent place of worship in 1833, adding a Sunday School in 1857. After the congregations joined each other again, the stuccoed and gabledGothic Revival building was incorporated into a hospital and later became a house.
Built in 1833 for Independents who had first met in 1822, this first fell out of use in 1878 when worshippers transferred to Providence Chapel. The stuccoed "minimal Gothic Revival" building then passed to The Salvation Army, who sold it in the early 21st century. It was extensively altered and is now Citadel House.
Between 1865 and 1907, George Draper's Gothic Revival flint and yellow-brick chapel was used by Bible Christians; then it was a United Methodist church until 1968. After closure it entered commercial use and is now a Chinese restaurant. For 30 years until 1835, Bible Christians used a building on Orchard Street.
Built for Presbyterians and later used by Unitarians, Baffin's Hall is a red and grey brick chapel of 1721. The façade has two arched windows flanking a bricked-up arch and flanked in turn by projecting wings. After closure in 1930 it became an auction room. Its marriage registration was cancelled in September 1934.
John Sirgood's localised Nonconformist sect, also known as Cokelers, established a chapel on this street-corner site in or before 1891. The stucco-clad building, in the Vernacular style, became a house after its closure in 1975.
This stone and red-brick building, which is now a house, dates in its present form from 1907 but was merely a rebuild of a 101-year-old Congregational chapel.
A new church was built in the village centre in the 1950s, and this isolated 13th-century building was declared redundant in 1983. It was sold at auction for £191,000 in July 2021. It is 12th- and 13th-century and has a Norman doorway with chevron carving and elaborate capitals.
Providence Chapel, built in 1845, was used by Baptists and later (until about 1963) United Methodists before passing to the Exclusive Brethren. They moved to a new building in the village, and the lancet-windowed local stone and brick chapel became a house after the cancellation of its worship certification in March 1989.
This 200-capacity chapel dates from 1864 and incorporates stones from the original spire of Chichester Cathedral, which had collapsed in 1861. The building is now the Time Machine Fun Centre, a museum concerned with the science of time.
This former church and church hall in Linchmere parish has been superseded by the other two churches in the parish, at Linchmere itself and in Camelsdale.
In 1884–85, Colonel Hollist and Lord Egmont sponsored the construction of this mission chapel to St Mary's Church at Easebourne, in the hamlet of Henley Common. Easebourne's vicar also left money in his will. The brick and tile structure is now a house.
This metal hut was registered in accordance with the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 as a mission chapel for Christians not otherwise designated. It is on the road leading to Thorney Island. It was used by a group of Pentecostal worshippers who originally met at a house on the same road. The building was acquired second-hand from Selsey, where it was in secular use, taken apart and transported to Hermitage, where it was rebuilt on a site where a footpath leaves Thorney Road. The operation cost £130.9s.9d.
The roof of this isolated marshland church became unsafe in 2010, so the church closed. The north aisle has such a low roof that there is no room for windows. The nave and chancel date from the 13th century; the arcade to the aisle may be contemporary.
This opened in 1840 and was in continuous use until the Calvinistic cause failed in 1936. It passed into secular use in the 1950s. The Early EnglishGothic Revival chapel is of stone with red brickwork.
Opened on 12 September 1833, this was converted (with significant alteration) into a Masonic hall after the congregation stopped using it for worship in 1886. Locally important Baptist Benjamin Pewtress (d. 1854) is buried in a grave outside the chapel. The Classical-stylepedimented building is of stucco-clad stone.
Milland's old church was superseded by the larger St Luke's Church, built on an adjacent site in 1879. The old building, just one stone-walled room topped with a bell-cote, made a "telling contrast" to its "fussy" replacement, in Pevsner's words. After a long period of disuse, the building was rescued by the FFC charity.
Along with Loxwood, Northchapel was the main centre of the localised Society of Dependants (Cokelers) sect. As well as this chapel, which was in use between 1870 and 1988, the community operated a cooperative shop in the village. The porch-fronted gabled chapel is set back behind houses on Petworth Road, and is of Petworth stone and brick.
A Bible Christian cause formed in this village in 1841, but this chapel was not built until 1905. After the Methodist mergers of the 20th century, it joined the Methodist Church of Great Britain, and continued thus until its closure and conversion into a commercial building. It has flint and brick walls and lancet windows.
A Mass Centre linked to St Richard's Church at Chichester was founded in a barn on Farm Lane in Nutbourne. It closed after a permanent church opened at nearby Bosham; stained glass windows and internal fittings were transferred there. The building is now part of the Catholic Bible School complex. Its marriage registration was not cancelled until 2006.
Built of brick in 1887, originally for Independents, this small Strict Baptist chapel was aligned with the Gospel Standard movement. It closed in November 2006 after the congregation reduced to one person, and two years later residential conversion was announced. Its registration for marriages was not formally cancelled until March 2017.
In use from 1819 until 1849, after which a new chapel (still in use) was built on Golden Square, this yellow-brick Classical-style building has been altered while in secular use but retains parts of a pediment, tall arched windows and a rusticated entrance porch.
Henry CowanMP built this stone, flint and brick mission chapel in 1907. It was converted into a house in 2000, then rebuilt in a distinctive Modernist style in 2010, winning local and national architectural awards.
Situated opposite Chichester cemetery down a rural lane, this flint and stone Gothic Revival church was designed in 1869–71 by Henry Woodyer. The tall chancel has an apsidal end, and a Lady chapel was built in 1915. It was declared redundant in 1981. After closure, the church became a museum of dolls and mechanical musical instruments.
This was built in 1879 as a mission chapel to St Luke's Church at Milland, which was granted parish status two years earlier. The turret-topped Early EnglishGothic Revival red-brick building, now a house, was by George Edmund Street.
Now the headquarters of HMDW Architects, the old parish church of Rumboldswyke was in use from the 11th century until its redundancy in July 1994. A simple nave and chancel are divided by a bulky arch with no mouldings. Lancet windows were added in the 13th century.
Sidlesham's first Wesleyan chapel dated from 1824. James Clayton, who is commemorated on a stone outside, rebuilt it in 1878 in a Gothic Revival style with lancet windows and flint, brick and stonework. It became a house in the 1980s after its closure at the start of that decade. Its marriage registration, granted in 1906, was cancelled in 1986.
Situated at the north end of Earnley parish, this Methodist chapel served the community from 1839—a date prominently displayed on the stone in its gable—until the late 20th century, but it was ruinous by 1980. Now refitted as a house, its flint and red-brick walls and arched windows have been fully restored.
Founded for an Independent Congregational group in 1800, this building was extended in 1828 but later fell out of religious use: a new chapel opened in the village in 1871. It is a Vernacular-style clunch-built structure with some brickwork.
Benjamin Ferrey's new church for this rural area, completed in 1849 (but since closed and destroyed), rendered this 13th-century church obsolete, and it fell into dereliction. Most of the exterior walls remain next to a farmyard in a thickly wooded area.
Expensive repairs and a dwindling congregation forced this church near Midhurst to close in 2009, and it was declared redundant. William Butterfield's Gothic Revival stone church dates from 1850 and has a rood screen of Sussex Marble.
A mission room was founded in this village in the parish of Compton, and was financially provided for by the will of the parish church's incumbent in 1901. It was later registered as an Evangelical place of worship.
This stands on Chapel Lane outside the village. In its original form it dates from 1811, but an extension was built in 1858. The stone building is now a house, but it retains its stone date plaque. It was registered for marriages in March 1948 and formally deregistered in March 2017.
A building on the site was registered as a Free church between 1912 and 1948, and was later re-registered for worship by The Salvation Army. A new building was put up and licensed accordingly in 1968.
St George's Church is an Anglican church in the East Worthing area of the borough of Worthing, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. Built in 1867–68 to serve new residential development in the southeast of the town, the Decorated Gothic-style structure was extended later in the 19th century, and expanded its reach further by founding three mission halls elsewhere in Worthing. English Heritage has listed it at Grade C for its architectural and historical importance.
St Mary's Church is an Anglican church in the Goring-by-Sea area of the Borough of Worthing, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. The late Norman parish church of the ancient village of Goring retains some architectural elements from that period, but Decimus Burton's comprehensive restoration of 1837 has given the church its present Gothic Revival exterior appearance. German artist Hans Feibusch, who worked extensively in the Diocese of Chichester, provided a mural in 1954: it is considered impressive, but caused controversy at the time. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
St Botolph's Church is an Anglican church in the Heene area of the borough of Worthing, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. It had 11th-century origins as a chapelry within the parish of West Tarring, but declined and fell into disuse by the 18th century. Neighbouring Worthing's rapid development as a seaside resort in the 19th century encouraged residential growth around the ancient village of Heene, and a new church with the same dedication was built to serve both Heene and the high-class planned estate of West Worthing. Edmund Scott's Early English Gothic-style church stands next to the fragmentary ruins of the old church, which are listed separately at Grade II.
Ebenezer Particular Baptist Chapel is a former Strict Baptist place of worship in Hastings, East Sussex, England. Founded in 1817 by members of the congregation of an older Baptist chapel in the ancient town, it was extended several times in the 19th century as attendances grew during Hastings' period of rapid growth as a seaside resort. It was closed and converted into a house in the late 20th century, but still stands in a prominent position in Hastings Old Town. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Hastings Fishermen's Museum is a museum dedicated to the fishing industry and maritime history of Hastings, a seaside town in East Sussex, England. It is housed in a former church, officially known as St Nicholas' Church and locally as The Fishermen's Church, which served the town's fishing community for nearly 100 years from 1854. After wartime damage, occupation by the military and subsequent disuse, the building was leased from the local council by a preservation society, which modified it and established a museum in it. It opened in 1956 and is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the town and borough of Hastings. The building, a simple Gothic Revival-style stone chapel, has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for its architectural and historical importance.
St John the Evangelist's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the cathedral city of Chichester in West Sussex, England. Built in 1812 to the design of James Elmes as a proprietary chapel, the octagonal white-brick "evangelical preaching house" reflects the early 19th-century ideals of the Church of England's evangelical wing before High church movements such as the Cambridge Camden Society changed ideas on church design. The Diocese of Chichester declared it redundant in 1973. Although worship no longer takes place in the building, its theatre-like design has made it a popular venue for concerts and musical events. The church is a Grade I Listed building.
St Leonard's Baptist Church is the Baptist place of worship serving St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. The elaborate building was designed by the architectural firm of Thomas Elworthy, responsible for many churches in late-Victorian era Sussex, and serves the residential hinterland of St Leonards-on-Sea—an area which grew rapidly after its early 19th-century founding by James Burton. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
St Mary Magdalene's Church is a Greek Orthodox place of worship in St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Dedicated to Mary Magdalene and built in 1852 for Anglican worshippers in the growing new town of St Leonards-on-Sea, a seaside resort which had been laid out from the 1820s, the church's prominent position on the skyline overlooking the town was enhanced in 1872 by the addition of a tower. No longer required by the Anglican community in the 1980s, it was quickly bought by the Greek Orthodox Church and converted into a place of worship in accordance with their requirements. The alterations were minimal, though, and the building retains many of its original fittings and its "archaeologically correct Gothic" exterior which reflected architectural norms of the early Victorian era. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
St Leonard's Church is an Anglican church in the St Leonards-on-Sea area of Hastings, a town and borough in the English county of East Sussex. The main church serving James Burton high-class mid 19th-century new town of St Leonards-on-Sea was designed by Burton himself just before his death, and it survived for more than a century despite being damaged by the cliff into which it was built; but one night during World War II, the sea-facing building was obliterated by a direct hit from a damaged V-1 "doodlebug" which had crossed the English Channel. The Gilbert Scott brothers' bold replacement church was ready in 1961, and along with a sister church at nearby Bulverhythe served the parish of St Leonards-on-Sea, covered by the Hastings Archdeaconry. Historic England has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
St Leodegar's Church is the Anglican parish church of Hunston, a hamlet in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The dedication—rare in England and unique in Sussex—has also been spelt St Ledger historically. A ruinous church dating from the 12th century was dismantled and rebuilt by prolific ecclesiastical architect Arthur Blomfield in 1885, but some old features were retained. The building, an Early English Gothic Revival structure of stone, was criticised by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner but was built on a "generous" budget and has some elaborate structural features such as a double belfry.
All Souls Church is a former Anglican church that served the Clive Vale suburb of Hastings, a seaside resort town and borough in the English county of East Sussex, between 1890 and 2007. The "large [and] serious town church" has been described as one of the best works by prolific ecclesiastical architect Arthur Blomfield. Built almost wholly of brick, inside and out, it dominates the streetscape of the late Victorian suburb and has a tall, "dramatic" interior displaying many of Blomfield's favourite architectural features. The church also has Heaton, Butler and Bayne stained glass and an elaborate reredos. Falling attendances and high maintenance costs caused it to close after a final service in November 2007, and the Diocese of Chichester officially declared it redundant soon afterwards. English Heritage has listed it at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
↑ Gover, M. (July 2012). "Chichester District Profile"(PDF). Chichester District Council. p.4. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
1 2 "St. Giles' Church". The Parish of St Stephens North Mundham with St Leodegars Hunston and St Giles Merston. 2012. Archived from the original on 10 August 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
1 2 "Bosham Village Design Statement"(PDF). Bosham Parish Council and the Bosham Association. November 2011. p.21. Archived(PDF) from the original on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
1 2 "Memories of Fernhurst: Nonconformist Churches". Transcript of MS "Fernhurst in Living Memory", published in 1958 by Fernhurst Women's Institute. The Fernhurst Society. 2012 [1958]. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
↑ "No. 48534". The London Gazette. 24 February 1981. p.2684. Notice is hereby given that Her Majesty was pleased on the 18th February 1981 by Order in Council to confirm the following Schemes made by the Church Commissioners for: [...] declaring redundant the parish church of the parish of Portfield, in the diocese of Chichester.
↑ "Kevin G Campbell". Lowi Ltd t/a My Local Services. 2005–2012. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
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