Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is an outstanding medieval parish church dating from the late 12th century to around 1500, restored in 1851 by R.C. Carpenter. The building is constructed partly of flint and stone rubble with stone dressings, and partly of ashlar. The nave, chancel and tower have tiled roofs, while the aisles and vestry are covered with lead.

The church has a nave with north and south aisles, north and south porches, and a north rood stair tower. The chancel also has north and south aisles and an east vestry. A covered passageway joins the north porch to the Old Parsonage. The south aisle is wider than the north, and the chancel sits at a slight angle to the nave.

The west tower is built of ashlar in three stages with battlements. It has a continuously chamfered west door set in a square frame beneath a four-light Perpendicular window. A small stair turret rises on the south side.

Although the windows have been heavily renewed, they retain their medieval character. Both north and south nave aisles have four two-light Decorated windows with reticulated tracery, with those west of the porches being larger. The eastern four bays of the nave clerestory on each side contain early 13th-century lancets with nook shafts featuring stiff leaf capitals; the western window on each side is 14th century, with two ogee lights in a square frame. The former west quoin of the clerestory remains visible on the north side. The gabled south porch has a 14th-century south door with many tiny mouldings on small shafts and an outer hood mould with head stops. The small north porch connects to a 20th-century passageway to the Old Parsonage. A polygonal north stair turret for the former rood screen stands at the junction of nave and chancel on the north side.

The chancel chapels have two-light 14th-century windows, those on the south with ogees, those on the north without. The chancel clerestory has three two-light windows with simple Y-tracery on each side. The east window displays Geometric style tracery. The south chapel east window is very early 14th century with three lights. The north chapel east window, also three lights, is mid-14th century.

The low east vestry dates to the late 15th or early 16th century and sits beneath the east window. It has a four-light east window with a depressed head and a small east door.

Inside, the nave has five-bay north and south arcades. The eastern four bays, including the east half of the fourth pier on each side, date to around 1200 and have pointed arches on alternating round and octagonal piers with early leaf capitals. The arcades were extended by one bay to the west in the early 14th century. The fourth piers, originally the western responds, were formed into full piers, and the newer, western part of their capitals have stylised leaves imitating those on the earlier part. The west responds have 14th-century moulded capitals. The arches of the west (fifth) bay on each side have slightly different, more complex profiles than those to the east. The nave roof has crown posts on tie beams with arched braces standing on corbels between the clerestory windows.

There are transverse arches in the middle of each aisle. That on the north has a chamfered arch dying into the wall, while that on the south has a short cross wall and an arch on a head corbel. Small niches sit on the east responds of both nave arcades: that on the south is smaller and 13th century, that on the north is larger with a 14th-century ogee head. A rood stair at the east end of the south aisle includes a piscina at upper level. The aisle windows have rere-arches with nook shafts with moulded capitals and hood moulds with curled ends. The low-pitched aisle roofs, probably early 16th century, have foliate bosses at the junction of the principal rafters and the ridge.

The tall 14th-century tower arch has a continuous chamfered outer order and a chamfered inner order on half-round responds with moulded capitals like those at the west ends of the aisles. The ground floor of the tower has a pointed barrel vault.

The round, late 12th-century chancel arch is moulded on both sides. The nave face has a cusped outer order on nook shafts with foliage capitals; the inner order has chevron on polygonal responds with stiff leaf capitals. There is hyphenated chevron on the chancel face of the arch, and small rolls on the soffit. A late 15th or early 16th-century ogee-headed door at the south end of the chancel east wall leads into the east vestry, with a matching four-centred ogee niche to the north. An additional ogee niche sits behind the altar, and a matching set of fittings includes three-seat sedilia and integrated piscina on the south and an Easter Sepulchre on the north.

The three-bay chancel arcades are also late 12th century and have round arches with hyphenated chevron and small rolls on alternating round and polygonal piers with a variety of leaf and crocket capitals. The chancel chapel windows have rere-arches like those in the aisles, and the tomb recess in the south chancel chapel has a similar hood mould. The east ends of both chapels are enclosed with 14th-century parclose screens. The chancel chapels open to aisles through chamfered arches, that on the south on corbels, that on the north on dying mouldings.

The church contains very fine 14th-century parclose screens to the north and south chancel chapels. The dado is panelled and supports a traceried arcade with a brattished cornice. Both screens retain their original doors, and the east part of the north screen is said to incorporate part of the old rood screen, though they have been moved eastwards as the south screen cuts a 14th-century tomb niche.

The 14th-century square font stands on a square panelled base with shafts at the corners. An early to mid-13th-century piscina in the south chapel has a trefoiled opening. A mid-14th-century piscina for the former rood loft in the south-east corner of the nave above the south arcade east respond has a trefoiled ogee head. A suite of late 15th or early 16th-century chancel fittings, heavily restored, includes in the east bay of the chancel south arcade a three-seat sedilia with adjoining piscina, featuring ogee arches, blind panelling and super mullions. A matching Easter sepulchre in the east bay of the chancel north arcade has a four-centred, ogee opening in a square, enclosed canopy; there are contemporary depressed ogee niches in the chancel east wall, and the east door to the vestry is similar.

Other fittings include a 19th-century polygonal stone pulpit on marble shafts and a brass eagle lectern, a copy of that in Holy Trinity Coventry, given in 1878. The 19th-century nave benches have square ends with fold-out seats on the ends.

The church contains some good 19th and 20th-century glass, including the south chapel east window by Douglas Strachan of the mid-20th century and the north chapel east window also mid-20th century by Hugh Easton.

There are many interesting monuments, including a 14th-century tomb recess in the south chancel chapel, possibly associated with the 14th-century rebuilding. A brass of 1455 to John King, an inscription without figures, is reset in a marble slab of 1826. At the west end of the south aisle, but formerly in the Easter Sepulchre in the chancel, sits an unsigned bust of Henry Lushington, who died in 1763 in Patna, having survived the Black Hole of Calcutta, set within a Gothick surround and attributed to Sir Robert Taylor. In the north chapel, a large 17th-century wall tablet commemorates Katherine Gildredge (died 1625) and her two infants, with Corinthian columns supporting a complex pediment with reclining angels. Also in the north chapel is a small wall tablet to the noted Cornishman Davies Gilbert (formerly Davies Giddy), Member of Parliament, who died in 1838, an engineer, author and president of the Royal Society. Nearby are several other 18th and 19th-century wall tablets to members of the Gilbert family. Many other 18th and 19th-century wall tablets and ledger slabs of the 17th and 18th centuries are found throughout the church.

The royal arms of George III are displayed, along with several hatchments of the Cavendish family in the chancel, including the 1st Earl of Burlington of the second creation.

The church appears in Domesday Book, and while the earliest visible fabric dates to the late 12th century, irregularities in the setting out of the chancel suggest that the present building was rebuilt around an earlier core. The chancel, including both chancel chapels, was built in the late 12th century. The nave, aisles and nave clerestory were built around 1200, presumably replacing an earlier, unaisled nave. Some further work on the chancel was carried out in the mid-13th century, when the east window was installed. The chancel clerestory is probably also of this date. The nave and both aisles were extended by an additional bay to the west in the early 14th century, when the tower was also added. At about the same time the outer walls of the nave and choir aisles were reworked and given new windows. The south porch is also early 14th century. A contemporary tomb recess in the south chancel chapel may be intended as a patron's tomb. There was further work in the late 15th or early 16th century when the east vestry was added. Evidence for 17th and 18th-century work has been lost. The church was restored in 1851 by R.C. Carpenter, and some fittings were added in the later 19th century. There was further minor restoration following damage in the Second World War.

The church at Eastbourne, then known simply as Bourne, is in Domesday Book, and the settlement was the administrative centre of a Hundred. No visible trace of the Anglo-Saxon church remains, but its presence probably explains the irregular setting out of the chancel. The whole church was rebuilt on a grand scale in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, indicating the importance of the place and perhaps suggesting that it was intended to be a collegiate church of some form. It was held as a prebend by the Treasurer of Chichester Cathedral. The south chancel chapel is dedicated to St Margaret and St Bartholomew, and is said to be associated with Bartholomew Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere and his wife Margaret, who held the manor of Bourne in the early 14th century. The construction of the vestry in the early 16th century may be connected with the contemporary rebuilding of the vicarage, now known as the Old Parsonage. Eastbourne became known for sea bathing in the late 18th century, and grew enormously from the mid-19th century, but the main development was to the east, so the area around St Mary's church retains a village-like feel.