Parish Church Of St Peter

The Parish Church of St Peter is probably 11th-century in origin, with the tower dating to the late 11th or very early 12th century. The two western bays of the aisles were added in the third quarter of the 12th century, while the eastern bay on each side is early 13th century. The northeast chapel dates to the early 15th century, as do the tower buttresses and west window. The rest of the church was rebuilt and greatly enlarged in 1878 to designs by William Butterfield, with a further extension in 1907.

The building is constructed of coursed and uncoursed stone rubble with stone dressings and slated roofs. It consists of a nave with west tower and north and south aisles extending alongside the tower, a south porch, and a chancel with south Lady chapel, northeast chapel, organ chamber and vestry.

Exterior

Long and low, the church is externally almost entirely 19th and 20th century in a successful, if overly smooth, medieval style that copies many of the features replaced in the rebuilding. There is a good vista with the tower, porch and lychgate from the approach up the hill. The 19th-century chancel and Lady chapel are in a 13th-century style with lancet windows and a south door with a hood mould to the Lady Chapel. A triplet of lancets fills the east wall. The 19th-century south aisle has 15th-century-style windows and a steeply pitched roof. The 19th-century south porch is in a late medieval style with a glazed, timber-framed gable and carved bargeboards.

The wide north aisle of 1907 has a lower pitched roof with a plain parapet and largely 14th-century-style windows, including a pair of two-light openings at the west end and reticulated windows in the north wall. There is a small lancet in the north aisle east wall, and a wheel window in its east gable. The north chapel is 15th century and has a pair of two-light windows with vertical tracery. The 19th-century north vestry was extended north in 1965-6 and is also in a 13th-century style with lancets and twin gables.

The late 11th or early 12th-century west tower is undivided externally and has massive 15th-century buttresses, an embattled parapet and a low, pyramidal roof topped by a tiny spike. The 19th-century west window is in a late 13th-century style with delicate geometric tracery set in a 15th-century opening; the west door is also 15th century and has continuously chamfered mouldings and a label.

Interior

Internally, the church retains much medieval fabric of interest. The west tower is circa 1100 and has low arches of that date to north and south that formerly opened to small chapels or chambers beside the tower; that on the south was formerly blocked and was reopened in 1878. These have round heads and chamfered imposts, that on the south with a band of flat chevrons on the tower side. An unusual arrangement, they speak of the importance of the church at this time. The very plain tower arch is circa 1200 and has a slightly chamfered, pointed head and chamfered imposts.

The nave arcades were extended at their east ends in the 13th century and again in the 19th century. The north arcade has four bays. The first two bays from the west are mid-12th century. The first pier is round and has a scallop capital, and there are matching responds to the west and on the west face of the second pier, which was formerly a long respond. The arcade arches here are round, and have a chamfered inner order and a plain outer order. The third bay from the west is early 13th century and has a pointed arch of two hollow chamfered orders; the outer dies into the wall, the inner is carried on short, corbelled shafts, with another long respond between it and the next bay. The easternmost bay on the north side is 19th century in a 15th-century style with polygonal responds with moulded capitals; it opens into the 15th-century northeast chapel.

On the south side, there are five bays. The western two bays are also mid to late 12th century and are similar to those on the north, but the responds and pier capital have stylised leaf forms. The third bay, also with former long responds converted to piers on both sides, is like that on the north. The eastern two bays on the south are 19th century in a 13th-century style and have chamfered, pointed arches with a central round pier with a moulded capital. The northeast chapel has a heavily restored 15th-century window of three lights with vertical tracery that now opens into the organ chamber. The nave ceiling appears of late medieval or early post-medieval date.

The 19th-century chancel arch is in a 13th-century style, with an inner order on half-round responds with moulded capitals. Both the chancel and the northeast bay of the nave are richly decorated with 19th-century mural painting; the chancel roof also has stencilled and painted decoration. The chancel north door, now opening to the north vestry, is 14th century, very rebuilt. There is a further 19th-century opening to the Lady chapel, and a 20th-century opening to the organ chamber.

Fittings and Furnishings

The church was entirely refurnished in the late 19th century and the chancel decoration scheme by W G Rich of 1893 is particularly notable. The chancel screen has depressed ogee arches and above them very complex ogee reticulated tracery. The cornice has demi-figures of angels, and there are good ironwork gates. The reredos is in a very elaborate Victorian Gothic style with two tiers of relief carving amidst tracery, large polygonal corner buttresses and an openwork cornice. Three-seat sedilia in a Decorated style with trefoiled arches on marble shafts and carving in the spandrels. The chancel dado has blind tracery panelling, rising higher behind the altar, and the sanctuary walls were painted by Rich with figures of saints and scenes in ogee niches, with a row of angels above. The roof has stencilling with complex motifs, including tracery and monograms, but the decoration formerly on the intermediate truss has been painted out. There are good 19th-century choir stalls with open tracery fronts and twisted iron candle stands, and the tracery metalwork communion rails are also by Butterfield. The Lady chapel also has a good 19th-century screen of similar design to, but simpler than, that in the chancel arch.

The pulpit has a polygonal stone base and a timber top section with alternating open tracery and carved figures; the timber lectern has figures and relief carving. The font is of 1878 by Butterfield in a 13th-century style, although it is said to be a copy of the original font. The polygonal bowl has a plain arcade of uncusped, pointed arches and stands on detached marble shafts around a central marble shaft. It has a polygonal marble base with fat scallops and a very elaborate Victorian cover in an Italian Gothic style with a cupola.

The rood figures are by Martin Travers and were installed in 1946; the mural in the northeast bay of the nave was painted in 1951 by Alan Sorrel. Some 15th-century glass, including figures and canopies, has been reset in the north aisle. There is some good 19th and 20th-century glass, including the west window and a window of 1917 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The western part of the nave roof may contain some old timber.

Only a few wall tablets survive, the most notable of which is that to Thomas Milner, vicar, died 1722, a white marble tablet with a black marble, open scroll pediment. An Anglo-Saxon grave cover with excellent interlace carving, and a probably 12th or early 13th-century grave cover with a cross shaft hang under the tower.

Setting

The 19th-century lychgate creates an attractive vista with the church.

Historical Context

There was a church at Bexhill long before the Norman conquest, when it was a minster or small collegiate church serving a large area of territory. However, herringbone masonry seen at the west end of the nave during restoration work in the mid-20th century suggests that the present church only dates to the late 11th or very early 12th century. The tower was built circa 1100, and formerly had north and south chapels or chambers opening through the low arches on either side, one of which (on the north) survived until the north aisle was enlarged in 1907. The other was demolished at an unknown date. The two western bays of the north and south arcades were added to the nave in the mid to late 12th century, with that on the north being slightly earlier.

The east tower arch was probably originally similar to those on the north and south. It was enlarged circa 1200 and given a pointed arch, but perhaps reusing the existing impost blocks. In the early 13th century, the third bay of the nave arcades were added on both sides. It is unclear if a very short nave was lengthened at this time or if these arches replaced earlier arches, perhaps similar to those opening from the tower. Both aisles were much narrower than the present aisles and were roofed with catslide roofs that swept down from the main nave roof; the scar of that on the north is visible at the east end of the north aisle. Also in the early 13th century the chancel was rebuilt; it formerly extended as far east as the present altar step. The foundations of an earlier, probably 12th-century, apse were seen during the 19th-century rebuilding work.

The northeast chapel was added in the 15th century as the Batesford chantry; also in the early 15th century a now demolished chapel was added at the east end of the south aisle, massive buttresses were added to the tower and the west window and west door were remodelled. By the 18th century there were north, south and west galleries and dormers in the nave roof.

The church was greatly enlarged, and almost wholly rebuilt, in 1878 to designs by the well-known church architect William Butterfield (1829-99). He lengthened the nave by one bay to the east and built a new chancel; he demolished the south aisle, southeast chapel and south porch, adding the south Lady Chapel and rebuilding the aisle at twice the width and twice the length, extending it alongside the tower, opening up the south tower arch in the process. He also built the south porch and a north vestry, and refurnished the church, removing the galleries and dormers. For Butterfield, who was noted for his dramatic and individual style, the work was very conservative and at least some of the windows and other features appear to have been copied from those that he replaced.

In 1907, the then vicar, Rev Theodore Churton, demolished and rebuilt the north aisle on an even larger scale than the south aisle. He also demolished the northwest chamber and added the organ chamber between the northeast chapel and the vestry. There was some refurnishing after World War II, when the rood was installed and the northeast bay of the nave painted. The northeast vestry was enlarged in 1965-6.