A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



been employed as much as in Hampshire, and even to have come as far east 

 as Steyning. It has been noted (V.C.H. Surrey, ii, 425) that, especially along 

 the northern border, Surrey and Sussex have something in common in the 

 masonry, and still more in the timber bell-towers and spirelets of a group of 

 churches in the forest country, which in early times virtually obliterated any 

 artificial boundary between the two counties. 8 



The successive occupations by Roman, Saxon, and Norman, and the 

 resulting religious changes, have left their mark upon the architecture of the 

 county ; while such minor events as the removal of the see from Selsey to 

 Chichester, towards the close of the eleventh century, and the varying fortunes 

 of alien priories and other monastic bodies holding lands and spiritualities 

 within the county, have affected the churches to no small extent ; still more, 

 of course, the Reformation of the sixteenth century, with the resultant changes 

 in their structure and fittings. 



There were at one time or another nearly seventy monastic establish- 

 ments in Sussex, including the cells of alien priories, colleges of secular 

 priests, friaries, houses of the military orders, nunneries, and hospitals, most of 

 them exercising considerable influence in the building, rebuilding, and main- 

 tenance of parochial churches and chapels, as well as contributing their own 

 very important quota towards the total of the ecclesiastical architecture of the 

 county. Thus, the influence of the wealthy and important Cluniac priory 

 at Lewes, which had the patronage of over fifty Sussex churches, is clearly 

 traceable in the churches of West Grinstead, Iford, Newhaven, &c., and in the 

 elaborate early wall-paintings of Hardham, Westmeston, Plumpton,and Clayton, 

 all executed in the first quarter of the twelfth century. The scanty remains 

 of the priory itself especially the beautiful ornamental details of mouldings, 

 capitals, and carvings show that Burgundian workmen and art followed in the 

 train of the foreign monks by whom the great foundation was constantly 

 recruited. The plans of this great church, of the infirmary and its chapel, 

 together with some others of the buildings, have been recovered in recent 

 excavations. (Vide Suss. Arch. Coll. xlix, 66, &c.) 



Doubtless there were churches of some sort to supply the needs of the 

 Roman-British converts, but of these we have no certain trace, although, as will 

 presently be shown, Roman materials have been abundantly used in a large 

 group of early churches. It is possible that the original sites may, in one or 

 two cases, have been retained by later generations of church-builders ; and also 

 that the sites of heathen temples were appropriated to Christian uses, as e.g. 

 in Chichester and in the fortified hill-village of Burpham. Urn burials were 

 found on the site of Arlington church in a late restoration. 



Even more important than Lewes Priory was the great Benedictine 

 abbey of Battle. It'proved to be one of the wealthiest of English abbeys at the 

 dissolution. Richly endowed by the Conqueror with lands and churches in 

 and out of the county, it influenced the character of many parish churches, 

 including that of Battle itself ; and as its first monks were brought from 

 Normandy it is only to be expected that they should exert their influence in 



* The churches of Reigate, Wotton, Chiddingfold, Dunsfold, and Alfold, show Sussex influence in their 

 masonry ; while the fourteenth-century timber towers of Rogate and Tangmere, Sussex, are of the same type 

 as the Surrey examples at Alfold, Burstow. Crowhurst, Dunsfold, Elstead, Horley, Home, Newdigate, 

 Tandridge, and Thursley. 



328 



