Church Of St Augustine Of Canterbury

Church of St Augustine of Canterbury

This is a church originally built as a combined church and school building. The nave was constructed in 1858 by the architect G R Habershon in Gothic style, designed to serve as a church on Sundays and a school during the week. Between 1880 and circa 1880, the same architect added a west tower, north aisle, south porch and chancel in matching style. The north aisle was originally supported on timber posts, but these were replaced by a stone arcade in 1913. A north vestry of brick construction was added in 1958.

The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with decorative polychrome bands in yellow and black brick, combined with stone dressings. The roof is tiled with alternate courses of plain and fishscale tiles. The upper stage of the tower is weatherboarded, and the spire is shingled.

The plan consists of a two-bay nave and in-line chancel with a west tower, south porch, north aisle and north vestry. The nave and chancel feature two triangular-shaped louvres and a cross-shaped saddlestone at the east end of the chancel. The nave has two tall gabled half-dormers with double cinquefoil-headed lights and brick buttresses. The chancel has no east window. The south side has a single window and a four-light trefoil-headed window. The south porch is gabled with tiles on edge in a cross-shaped motif and a round-headed doorcase with panelled door. The west tower is narrow, with two stages. It has a west cinquefoil-headed traceried window below and a weatherboarded bell stage with traceried windows, mostly concealed by clock faces on three sides. It is surmounted by a steep pyramidal spire topped with a metal weathervane. The west end of the north aisle has an arched window with double trefoil-headed lancets and an oculus above. The north aisle has two pointed arched windows divided by a buttress. The 1958 flat-roofed brick vestry attached to the eastern end, constructed in stretcher bond brickwork with uPVC windows and plank door, is not of special architectural interest.

The interior features elaborate scissor-braced roofs to both nave and chancel, and oak pews in the nave. In the west tower is an octagonal stone font with Gothic style oak font cover featuring a descending dove on an iron pulley mechanism and panelling, donated by local landowner Arthur Rydon in 1919 in thanksgiving for the survival of his son, a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. The stained glass window at the west end was also given by Mr and Mrs Rydon. A step leads to the chancel with an elaborate Gothic style chancel screen, also donated by Arthur Rydon. A stained glass window in the south wall of the chancel is a Boer War Memorial to Cecil Shaw and Frederick Wilfrid Beynell Willett. The chancel has a plain wooden altar and wooden panelling with quatrefoil motif at the top. Above it is a tapestry worked by parishioners and visitors, consecrated in 2000, depicting Christ as the Good Shepherd with the seven wonders of St John's Gospel. The north arcade comprises three stone Tudor arches with clustered columns. The north aisle has a wooden screen dated 1930, a memorial to church benefactor Arthur Hope Rydon. Above it is a series of five paintings depicting the life of St Augustine of Canterbury, a memorial to parishioner William Boden, painted in 2001 by Julia Rushbury. The two stained glass windows in the north wall of the north aisle were designed and made by Rosalind Grimshaw of Bristol in 2002. One depicts Julian of Norwich, the 14th century mystic and anchorite, and the other depicts Josephine Butler who fought for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act and for further education for women. The walls of the north aisle display several memorials, including a wooden Gothic style memorial to the villagers who died in the 1939-1945 War.

Scaynes Hill was originally part of the ecclesiastical parish of Lindfield. Between 1858 and circa 1880, the building, comprising only the present nave, served as a church on Sundays and as a village school for the rest of the week before a dedicated school was built elsewhere in the village.