A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



selves at Otham, in Hailsham parish, near the modern hamlet of Polegate 

 (before migrating to Bayham), the desecrated chapel of which still remains, 

 showing some interesting early fourteenth-century windows and handsome 

 sedile and piscina. 



Of Bayham Abbey, founded about A.D. 1200, the plan of the destroyed 

 church, 252 ft. in length, with its polygonal apse and double transepts, has 

 been recovered, but the least injured parts are the cloisters, the frater subvault, 

 and the chapter-house. The work is mostly of early thirteenth-century 

 character, simple, but marked by exceedingly graceful proportions. The 

 quire and eastern transepts are of the beginning of the fourteenth century, and 

 the nave was partly rebuilt before its close. This establishment does not seem 

 to have influenced the church architecture of its neighbourhood to any extent. 



Of the abbey of Dureford, near Rogate, founded in the reign of 

 King John, by De Husee, lord of Harting, as a dependency of Welbeck 

 Abbey, Nottinghamshire, nothing remains but a few foundations, some carved 

 stones, grave-slabs, and encaustic tiles. It only acquired Rogate church, but 

 it owned land in the neighbouring parishes, such as Trotton, and probably 

 both churches owe some features of their architecture to the canons. 



The Cistercian abbey of Robertsbridge, founded by Robert de 

 St. Martin in 1176, and enlarged by his successors, has little now remaining 

 but some walls of the church, a crypt, and a portion of the refectory. 

 Salehurst church was probably partly built by these monks. 



The Augustinian canons had more houses than any other order in 

 Sussex, and of nearly all some remains exist. Of the priory of Pynham, 

 or De Calceto, near Arundel, only the stump of a gate-house or tower, 

 with good early thirteenth-century buttresses, remains, but excavation 

 would probably reveal the ground plan of the church and offices. Torting- 

 ton, in the same locality, founded early in the twelfth century, exhibits 

 walls and fragments of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; among them 

 a wall with graceful triple vaulting shafts, which may have formed part 

 of the church. This priory owned numerous lands in the neighbourhood, 

 and Tortington church, with its interesting chancel arch, was among their 

 possessions. In it, and in the similar small twelfth-century church at 

 Binsted, hard by, we may trace the influence of the canons. 



Hardham Priory, higher up the Arun, founded temp. Henry II, retains 

 in the entrance to its chapter-house one of the most beautiful pieces of early 

 thirteenth-century architecture left to us in Sussex. Its pointed arches, with 

 quatrefoil piercings, slender detached shafts, and dog-tooth ornament, recall 

 the work at Boxgrove. 



Shulbred, in Linchmere parish, lying in the remote north-west corner 

 of the county, had another small priory, also of late twelfth-century foun- 

 dation, and although the church has been destroyed, others of the buildings, 

 such as the prior's house, remain. To this priory we owe the perfect little 

 mid-thirteenth-century chancel of Linchmere church. 



Michelham Priory, in the parish of Arlington, near Hailsham, founded 

 in 1 22 1, also possesses extensive remains of its domestic buildings, such as a 

 gatehouse, the refectory, with its great west window, the monks' lavatory in 

 the cloisters, and some fine vaulted chambers ; but of the church very little 

 exists save the foundations. 



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