Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Whyke Road

This church was founded in the 11th century, with its nave and chancel dating to that period. The place Rumboldswyke is recorded in the Domesday Book, and while the church itself is not mentioned there, the surviving 11th-century fabric indicates a church was already established by 1086. The church is also known as St Rumbold's Church, and in the later medieval period it housed two fraternities, one dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the other to St Rumbold.

The church underwent early 13th-century refitting, when lancet windows were added, probably replacing much smaller original openings, and new liturgical fittings such as piscinas were installed. The building remained structurally little changed from the 13th century until 1866, when a north aisle was added in an early 13th-century style. A northeast organ chamber was added in 1890. The church fell out of regular use in the early 20th century after St George's was built, though it was used occasionally for funerals and services. It was restored in the late 1950s but permanently closed in 1979. In 2000-2002, it was converted to offices by CMA architects (the Chichester diocesan architects) with a removable inner structure, and this conversion has been listed as a minor amendment as of 25 September 2014.

The building is constructed of flint rubble with some Roman tile and stone dressings, with tiled roofs. Some old render remains on the south side and the east end of the chancel.

The exterior preserves enormous, crudely tooled 11th-century quoins at the southwest and southeast corners of the nave and at the southeast corner of the chancel, with traces of the nave's northwest quoin also remaining. The other original quoins are reused on the north aisle's northeast and northwest corners. A small bell cote sits on the nave's west gable. The west wall originally had a door with a lancet above, replaced in the 19th century by the present two-light window. The nave's south wall features a 13th-century roll-moulded south door and a single tall early 13th-century lancet. The chancel's south wall has two lancets, the western one being longer, with another lancet in the east wall. The north aisle has a single lancet in its east wall and pairs of smaller lancets in its north wall, which is notably low with a long roof slope.

The interior is now dominated by a late 20th-century mezzanine in the nave, hung with tension cables from the nave roof beams. The plain 11th-century chancel arch is round-headed with plain chamfered imposts and crude tooling. The 19th-century north aisle of three bays is styled after the early 13th century, with slightly chamfered pointed arches on polygonal piers featuring elegant waterleaf capitals and waterholding bases. The responds have moulded imposts. The north organ chamber opens from the chancel through a large pointed, slightly chamfered arch with two smaller, steeply pointed sub-arches within it, set on a single round pier with a square moulded capital and moulded base. A small 12th-century pointed-headed window now opens internally above the pier. The outer arch replaces a pointed medieval arch that opened into a shallow recess of unknown medieval date. The nave roof has five old tie beams with queen posts, possibly 18th-century, though the rafters are entirely closed in with 20th-century panels. The chancel has a 19th-century wagon roof divided into panels with roll-moulded beams and ribs. The aisle roof has exposed principal rafters and purlins but is otherwise plastered in.

The principal fixtures include a probably 13th-century piscina in the chancel with a pointed head, incorporating a pillar piscina made from an Anglo-Saxon baluster shaft. A roll-moulded statue bracket sits on the chancel's east wall near the southeast corner. A piscina in the southeast corner of the nave has a trefoiled head, and a stoup near the door also has a trefoiled head. A simple 19th-century pitch pine pulpit, polygonal on a polygonal stem, stands in the northeast corner of the nave. Simple 19th-century altar rails are stored in the church. The chancel floor has 19th-century red and black checked tiles, now partly covered, with ledger slabs in the nave beneath the present removable floor. Several 18th and 19th-century wall monuments of simple black and white marble slabs are found in both nave and chancel.

The churchyard, large and largely uncleared, contains many 18th and 19th-century slabs. The church forms a group with a one-storey cottage to the southwest.