St John the Evangelist's Church is the Church of England parish church of Burgess Hill, West Sussex, England. It is a Gothic Revival church built of local bricks. It was consecrated in 1863 and was the town's first Church of England church. Since then it has administered several other churches in the town as either mission chapels or daughter churches, but all have either closed or been given their own parishes. The church is a Grade II* Listed Building.
The area now covered by the town of Burgess Hill was, until the mid-19th century, rural common land that straddled the boundary of the parishes of Clayton and Keymer. The area developed as a settlement after the inclosure act for Keymer's part of St John's Common passed on 18 April 1828 was implemented,[2] and the London and Brighton Railway Company opened its line from a temporary terminus at Haywards Heath to Brighton on 21 September 1841. The line passed through the area of St John's Common and the company opened Burgess Hill railway station on the same day.[3] The railway stimulated residential development and the Keymer Brick and Tile Works, already well-established as Burgess Hill's main industry, was able to expand its sales.[4] The inclosure of Clayton's part of the common was completed in 1857, and the town's growth accelerated.[4]
From the early 1840s, Church of England worship was held in the school in London Road. When inclosure was completed in 1857, its inclosure act provided for 1.5 acres (0.6 hectares) of land to be reserved to build a church. This had been suggested in 1854, when a local newspaper noted that between them the schoolroom, Keymer parish church and Clayton parish church could not cope with the number of worshippers.[5] There was an impasse until 1861: the land reserved for the church turned out to be too far away from where the town centre had developed, and even when a landowner offered 2 acres (0.8 hectares) of undeveloped land in the town centre free of charge, agreement was not reached. A group of landowners in Clayton parish was so angry at the proposal to move the church away from the site set by the inclosure act award that they took out a newspaper advertisement in July 1861 protesting against any change to this plan. They were ultimately unsuccessful, and building of the church began on the donated land.[6]Thomas Talbot Bury had been commissioned to design it, and a building firm from Chichester submitted the successful bid for the building work. The Bishop of Chichester, Ashurst Turner Gilbert, laid the foundation stone on 4 November 1861, and building work continued until June 1863, when the church was consecrated.[7]
For its first two years the church was a chapel of ease jointly held by the Parishes of Clayton and Keymer; but in June 1865 it was given its own parish and was dedicated to John the Evangelist. Its capacity was about 700 people. About half of the pews were subject to pew rents, which paid the vicar's stipend.[7]
Few changes have been made since the church was opened. Talbot Bury designed a south aisle that was added in 1875, and a vestry was added in 1889.[8][9] A vicarage was built in nearby Park Road in 1907 after a local doctor presented some land to the church.[10] Late in the 20th century the north transept and aisle were separated by a screen from the rest of the church, to allow alternative use of the space; this was formalised by the Diocese of Chichester in 1989.[9][11]
Annie Mackintosh, the mother of Antarctic explorerAeneas Mackintosh, is buried in the churchyard. Her grave includes a memorial to her son, who disappeared in the Antarctic in 1916.[12]
Associated churches
The former St Alban's Mission HallWorld's End's former Mission HallSt Andrew's parish churchSt John's parish church and steeple seen from Church Walk to the southSt John's parish church from the southeast
The growth of the town in the late 19th century — particularly to the northeast and west, some way from the church — prompted the opening of two mission chapels in the 1880s. Two permanent churches were built later, and have since been given their own parishes.
St Alban's Mission Hall was Burgess Hill's first mission room. It was in Fairfield Road on the Clayton side (west side) of the ecclesiastical parish, and was built in 1885 at a cost of £324 (£37,200 as at 2023)[1] to provide extra capacity in that area. Its popularity led to an extension being added in 1907, and services were held for much of the 20th century. The building survives but it is now an Age Concern day centre.[13][14]
Two years later Somers Clarke gave money for the building of a second mission hall to serve the northeastern part of the town, which had developed quickly after Wivelsfield railway station was reopened on a new site in 1886.[15] The area had acquired the name World's End when the railway was being built. The World's End Mission Room housed a reading room, schoolroom and accommodation for worshippers, but it fell out of use after a new corrugated iron church was built in 1899 nearby. It was on the land of Sampson Copestake, a local businessman, who gave money and more land to build a permanent church. The old mission hall was converted into two shops.[16]
In 1902 a separate parish was formed from portions of the parishes of St John the Evangelist and Ditchling.[13] It was named St Andrew's, and building of a permanent church with that dedication, to replace the earlier iron church, began soon afterwards. It was consecrated on 30 November 1908 in an incomplete state: the liturgical east end was eventually completed in 1924, and the planned tower was never built.[14] St Andrew's Church, designed by Lacy W. Ridge, is a Gothic Revival red brick building with some exterior stonework. The nave is very wide and lacks aisles.[8][13][17][18]
St Edward the Confessor Church is at the west end of the town, in Burgess Hill's main cemetery.[19] A small Perpendicular Gothic-style stone cemetery chapel was built in the early 20th century; this later was made a place of Sunday worship run from St John the Evangelist's. A modern brick-built extension was added in 1968, and it was given its own parish in 2000.[8][19]
Building
Thomas Talbot Bury designed St John the Evangelist's parish church in a 13th-century Decorated Gothic style with elements of the Geometrical style. It is built of red brick with large areas of yellow and black brick, and there are stone dressings on parts of the exterior.[9][17][20][21] The brickwork is in Flemish bond, and the roof is tiled.[9] The plan comprises a 3½-baynave, chancel, clerestory, north and south aisles and transepts, entrance porch to the south and three-stage tower to the northwest, topped by a tall tiled spire.[9]
Trefoil windows predominate. The middle and upper stages of the tower have paired lancet windows with trefoils above; the large nave window in the west end has five trefoils. Various combinations of trefoils and doubled or tripled lancets are also found in the aisles, chancel, transepts and porch.[9] The clerestory differs in its use of groups of two and three quatrefoils — an arrangement that Ian Nairn called "odd".[9][17]
The nave has a king post arched roof supported by octagonal columns. The chancel roof is similar but more sophisticated in its design.[9] The north aisle is cross-gabled.[20]
An oak-carved pulpit commemorates Simeon Norman, one of Burgess Hill's prominent 19th-century residents, who built the Grade II-listed Providence Strict Baptist Chapel. An oak lectern was donated as a memorial to another local family. Frederick Crunden, who gave money to the building fund, helped to decorate the church interior and later gave the land for the vicarage, also has memorials inside the church.[10] Other fittings include an altar of stone and marble, an ornate chancel screen and an octagonal font. The original pews have been retained. The Franz Mayer & Co.stained glass company designed some of the windows,[9] and another commemorates a local doctor who had donated the organ.[10]
On 5 April 2013 Hove Crown Court convicted musician Michael Mytton and retired priest the Revd Keith Wilkie Denford of sexually assaulting boys between 1987 and 1994 when Mytton had been organist and Denford had been vicar of St John the Evangelist's.[23] Denford was jailed for 18 months and Mytton was given a suspended jail term.[24]
St John's had employed Mytton despite his having been forced to leave a parish in Uckfield in 1981 because he was convicted of committing two acts of gross indecency with a 12-year-old boy.[23] When arrested for the offences he committed at St John's, Mytton told Sussex Police"I like boys. If I was a straight gay, life would be a lot easier. I like boys, I know I like boys and it has cost me everything."[23]
Both men pleaded not guilty.[23] Hove Crown Court convicted Mytton of committing offences between 1992 and 1994 and convicted Wilkie Denford of committing offences between 1987 and 1990.[23] The convictions are part of a wider scandal of past child abuse in the Diocese of Chichester.[23]
Present
St John the Evangelist's Church has been a Grade II* Listed Building since 22 April 1950.[9] As at February 2001 it was one of 54 Grade II* listed buildings in the Mid Sussex District.[25]
St John the Evangelist's[26] is now one of three Church of England parishes in Burgess Hill. St Andrew's parish, established in 1902, serves the east side of the town,[16] and St Edward the Confessor's's parish (created in 2000) serves the west side;[19] St John the Evangelist's parish church now serves for the central part of the town between the railway line and the A23 London Road, and some residential estates in the south of the town.[27]
St John's celebrates the Eucharist twice each Sunday morning and has also a Sunday evening prayer service. It celebrates the Eucharist also on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer (Common Worship) services are held every weekday except Monday.[28]
Burgess Hill is a town and civil parish in West Sussex, England, close to the border with East Sussex, on the edge of the South Downs National Park, 39 mi (63 km) south of London, 10 mi (16 km) north of Brighton and Hove, and 29 mi (47 km) northeast of the county town, Chichester. It had an area of 3.7 sq mi (9.6 km2) and a population of 30,635 at the 2011 Census, making it the fourth most populous parish in the county and the most populous in the Mid Sussex District. Other nearby towns include Haywards Heath to the northeast and Lewes, the county town of East Sussex, to the southeast.
Keymer is a village in Hassocks civil parish, in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2116 road 2.4 miles (3.9 km) south of Burgess Hill.
All Saints Church is the Anglican parish church of Patcham, an ancient Sussex village which is now part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. A place of worship has existed on the hilltop site for about 1,000 years, but the present building has Norman internal features and a 13th-century exterior. Several rounds of restoration in the Victorian era included some structural additions. A wide range of monuments and wall paintings survive inside, including one commemorating Richard Shelley—owner of nearby Patcham Place and one of the most important noblemen in the early history of Brighton. The church, which is Grade II* listed, continues to serve as the Anglican place of worship for residents of Patcham, which 20th-century residential development has transformed from a vast rural parish into a large outer suburb of Brighton.
St Margaret's Church is an Anglican church in the Ifield neighbourhood of Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is the ancient parish church of the village of Ifield; the medieval settlement was expanded to form one of the New Town of Crawley's 13 neighbourhoods, and the church's modern parish now serves several other neighbourhoods as well.
St Cosmas and St Damian Church is an Anglican church in the village of Keymer, in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. Rebuilt in 1866 in a style similar to the Saxon building it replaced, it is the parish church of Keymer and now lies within a combined parish serving three villages in Mid Sussex. The church bears a very rare dedication to the twin Saints Cosmas and Damian, Christian martyrs of the 4th century. It is a grade II listed building.
St John the Evangelist's Church is an Anglican church in the Preston Village area of Brighton, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The Grade II listed building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, was started in 1901 but did not take its present form for another quarter of a century. In the meantime, the nearby parish church of Preston was severely damaged by fire, and the new church was granted the parish church status which it still retains.
St Wilfrid's Church is a former Anglican church in the Elm Grove area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Designed and built in the 1930s to replace a temporary building in the densely populated Elm Grove area, its unusual design—not conforming with architectural norms of the era—was widely praised. It was declared redundant after less than 50 years as a place of worship, and was converted into sheltered housing with minimal alteration to the exterior. Shortly after its closure, it was granted Grade II listed status.
St Augustine's Church is a former Anglican church in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It is close to the Preston Park and Round Hill areas in the central northern part of the city. Built in 1896 and extended in 1914, its parish was extended after a nearby church closed, but in 2003 it was declared redundant itself. The building, which is listed at Grade II in view of its architectural importance, for a few years from 2004 the building was leased by the Elim Pentecostal Church. The Pentecostal congregation made free-standing internal changes to create internal spaces which could be heated in winter, but did not touch the fabric of the building. It is now the St Augustine's Community Arts Centre, encompassing a cafe, exhibition space, offices, and other rooms.
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.
Providence Strict Baptist Chapel is a former Strict Baptist place of worship in the town of Burgess Hill in Mid Sussex, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. Founded in 1875 by two prominent residents of the town at a time when Protestant Nonconformism was well established in Sussex, the chapel continued in religious use for over a century until it was sold for conversion to a family home in 1999. The Neoclassical building stands in a conservation area opposite Burgess Hill's main park. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church is a former Congregational church in St Leonards-on-Sea, part of the town and borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Considered "one of the most ambitious Nonconformist buildings in Sussex", the sandstone building of 1863 forms a significant landmark on one of the Victorian resort's main roads—despite the loss of its copper spire in the Great Storm of 1987. Unlike most churches of its denomination, it did not join the United Reformed Church when that denomination was formed in 1972. It fell out of religious use in 2008 and had stood empty and was at risk of demolition. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance. Bought by a new owner in 2012 it was almost completely renovated, but was then sold again in 2019. The new owner plans to open the church to the public as an arts and antiques centre with a cafe in the tower.
St John the Baptist's Church is the Church of England parish church of the village of Clayton in Mid Sussex District, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. The small and simple Anglo-Saxon building is distinguished by its "remarkable" and extensive set of wall paintings, dating from the early 12th century and rediscovered more than 700 years later. Much of the structural work of the church is 11th-century and has had little alteration. The church, which stands in the middle of a large churchyard and serves the small village of Clayton at the foot of the South Downs, is part of a joint parish with the neighbouring village of Keymer—an arrangement which has existed informally for centuries and which was legally recognised in the 20th century. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade I 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 John the Evangelist's Church is the Anglican parish church of the Upper St Leonards area of St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. The present building—a "very impressive and beautifully detailed" church in the Gothic Revival style, with a landmark tower—combines parts of Arthur Blomfield's 1881 church, wrecked during World War II, and Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel's 1950s rebuild. Two earlier churches on the site, the second possibly designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon, were themselves destroyed earlier in the 19th century. The rich internal fittings include a complete scheme of stained glass by Goodhart-Rendel's favoured designer Joseph Ledger and a 16th-century painting by Ortolano Ferrarese. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
Christ Church is an Anglican church in the town and seaside resort of St Leonards-on-Sea, part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Opened as the town's third Anglican church in 1860 to serve a rapidly developing residential area and to accommodate poor worshippers who could not afford pew rents at the fashionable St Leonard's and St Mary Magdalene's Churches, the original building was superseded by a much larger church built next to it between 1873 and 1875. Prolific ecclesiastical architect Sir Arthur Blomfield's simple Gothic Revival design forms a landmark on one of St Leonards-on-Sea's main roads, continues to serve a large area of the town and maintains a strong Anglo-Catholic tradition. It has been described as Blomfield's "finest achievement in Sussex" and "one of the main centres of Anglo-Catholic worship in Southern England". The interior fittings are the best of any church in the borough, and the design has been called one of Blomfield's most successful. St John the Evangelist's Church, founded as a daughter church nearby in 1865, also continues to thrive as a separate parish church. Historic England has listed Christ Church at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
St Peter's Church is a former Anglican church in the Bohemia area of the town and seaside resort of St Leonards-on-Sea, part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Founded in 1883 in response to the rapid residential growth of this part of St Leonards-on-Sea, the "outstanding late Victorian church" was completed and opened in 1885. Architect James Brooks was towards the end of his career but still produced a successful, powerful Gothic Revival design, which was built by prolific local firm John Howell & Son—builders of several other churches in the area.
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.
St Catherine of Siena Church is an Anglican parish church in Cocking, a village in the district of Chichester, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex.
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