The Parish Church Of St George

The Parish Church of St George

Parish church built in the early 13th century with an early 16th-century tower, north chapel dated 1871 (replacing an earlier chapel of 1542), and substantial refurbishment following a fire in 1939 by architect Frederick Etchells. The building is constructed of Mixon stone rubble with a tiled roof.

The plan comprises a four-bay nave with aisles, a three-bay lower chancel, a south-west tower, a south porch, and a north chapel.

The three-stage tower has a moulded plinth and buttresses of two stages with sloping offsets at the south-east and north-west corners. It is topped with a crenellated parapet, which was dismantled and rebuilt in 1966. The tower contains single-light windows set under four-centred arches. The cinquefoil head of the west window is original, though the remainder has been restored. The gabled south porch features a four-centred arch and buttresses. In the south aisle behind the porch is an early 13th-century round-headed doorcase, and the south aisle itself contains three 16th-century style windows, which are replacements following the 1939 fire. The north aisle has a 16th-century doorway with a renewed head and a renewed three-light window in 16th-century style. The chancel south side features three 13th-century lancets; the east end has three taller 13th-century lancets; and the north wall of the chancel has two 13th-century lancets. A gabled north chapel contains lancet windows with a tablet below the east window inscribed "Charles Crosbie Esq. Anno Domini 1871".

Internally, the south-west tower contains the original 16th-century half-winder staircase with solid treads of triangular blocks and three bells, one from the mid-16th century, one of 1594, and one recast in 1858. The nave arcades, north and south, comprise four bays with two-centred arches featuring plain chamfered mouldings and circular moulded capitals. The piers alternate between circular and octagonal forms with moulded bases. The westernmost south bay was walled up when the tower was built in the 16th century. East of the south doorway is a stoup set under a chamfered arch. The chancel arch is similar to the nave arcades, but its inner orders rest on corbels while the outer ones die into the walls. In the east wall of the nave, north of the chancel arch, is a small recess with a chamfered head and jambs decorated with a simple roll-moulding near the base to the south. The nave roof has oak ribs that were replaced after the 1939 fire.

The octagonal stone font with wooden cover was designed by Frederick Etchells, as were the pews and pulpit (the latter incorporating some older panels). The north or Trinity chapel is a 19th-century rebuilding of a chapel that existed as early as 1542. At the centre of its north wall is a monument of circa 1779 to John Page, Member of Parliament for Chichester, and his two wives, formed as a large sarcophagus of grey and white marble with a coved top surmounted by an urn. It features Ionic columns at the sides, a frieze of palm and oak sprays, and a central oval medallion flanked with drapery. Against the south wall is another large monument of approximately 1795 to Katherine Page in Classical marble style, with a coved top surmounted by an urn and an oval inscription panel flanked with drapery. Two unnamed and unsigned marble busts of circa 1840 representing a lady and gentleman of the Crosbie family are set on marble pillars. There are four 19th-century marble wall tablets to the Crosbie family and three 18th-century floor slabs to the Page family. The chancel contains lancet windows on the north and south sides with chamfered rere-arches and deep splays. The east wall has three lancet windows set in roll-moulded openings with continuous heads and jambs and a continuous moulded label. A moulded stringcourse runs at cill height around the north, east, and south walls of the chancel. A double piscina with a trefoiled, roll-moulded head is present. The roof of three bays, possibly from the 16th century, has original pegged rafters, staggered purlins, and two chamfered tie beams.

Despite the replacement of the nave roof and some internal woodwork following the 1939 fire, this is a substantially intact early 13th-century parish church with an early 16th-century tower and 19th-century chapel. The interior features notable medieval arcade and chancel arches, a stoup and piscina, a rare surviving 16th-century solid-tread half-winder staircase to the tower, and high-quality 18th and 19th-century monuments.