Parish Church Of Holy Trinity

Parish Church of Holy Trinity

This parish church stands on the foundations of a 12th-century church and represents a substantial building campaign spanning from around 1250 to the early 17th century, with significant restoration in the mid-19th century.

The church is built of Sussex sandstone rubble with a plinth, and the roofs are covered with Horsham stone slabs. The building comprises a chancel with north and south chapels and Sergison chapel to the north, a four-bay nave with north and south aisles, unusually positioned north and south porches, and a west tower with a shingled spire.

The chancel dates to the 13th and 14th centuries. The 14th-century arcades on the north and south sides comprise two bays with hexagonal pillars, responds to match, mainly moulded capitals and bases, and two-centred arches. Two blocked doorways lie east of the arcade. A 13th-century piscina in the south wall has a trefoiled head to the inner order, carried on shafted jambs with moulded braces and capitals, with a cill bearing the remains of a 12-foil basin and a stone shelf behind the capitals. The mid-19th-century east window contains five lights with tracery of late 13th-century character.

The North Chapel, dating to around 1330 to 1340, has a restored 14th-century east window of three trefoiled lights and vertical tracery in a two-centred head with external hood-mould and hollow-chamfered four-centred rear arch. A 16th-century doorway into the vestry has a depressed Tudor arch with a 15th-century moulded jambs reset and old four-centred chamfered rear arch.

The Sergison Chapel, dating to the late 16th or early 17th century, has walls of rubble with ashlar dressings and a chamfered plinth. The mid-19th-century windows and a reredos of around 1910 are later additions. The pavement is of white and serpentine marble.

The South Chapel, dating to around 1330 to 1340, contains a piscina in a square-headed recess with a plain round basin. Mid-19th-century windows and a reredos of around 1910 are later additions.

The nave dates to the mid-13th and 14th centuries. The 14th-century north arcade comprises four bays with hexagonal pillars. The three western bays of the south arcade are mid-13th century and have cylindrical pillars with plain capitals and moulded abaci and bases. The pointed arches are of two orders with small chamfers and voussoirs. Above the arcades are original 14th-century clerestory windows, now blocked by aisle roofs on the outside, comprising quatrefoils with inner splays and segmental-pointed rear arches. In the south wall, east of the main south doorway, is a mutilated holy-water stoup with a round-headed niche, with another in the south porch.

The North Aisle, dating to the mid-14th century, contains mainly 19th-century windows, but the third window west of the doorway is of three elliptically headed lights, probably early 16th century and partially restored.

The South Aisle, also mid-14th century, contains mainly 19th-century windows. The south doorway has two chamfered orders and a two-centred head, with the outer order of the jambs reset.

The West Tower dates to the mid-13th and mid-14th centuries. It is built of sandstone rubble in one unbroken stage up to the string-course below the bell chamber. Above this, the tower is of squared rough ashlar with a corbel table of trefoiled arches and embattled parapet. At the two west angles are 15th-century diagonal buttresses of three stages of rough squared ashlar with plain offsets and chamfered plinths. The west wall has 19th-century buttresses and the south side a modern stair turret. The 14th-century archway to the nave has semi-octagonal responds of small courses with moulded bases and capitals and a pointed head of two chamfered orders of small voussoirs. The west doorway has two chamfered orders with base stops and a pointed head, with an impost moulding now mainly decayed. Lancet windows are present. The spire is broached and shingled.

The North Porch is 19th century except for a middle tie-beam which may be 15th century. It has structural timber-framing with carved bargeboards bearing the Tudor rose emblem, and cinquefoil-headed lights with a pointed entrance.

The South Porch is late 19th century except for a 15th-century truss with a cambered tie-beam and curved braces. It was restored by Kempe, who built one of the lychgates. The base is of sandstone with structural timber-framing with cusped heads and quatrefoil motifs and wavy bargeboards.

The roofs of the nave and chancel were erected by Edward Neville, Lord Bergavenny, around 1460. The chancel is divided into three bays by two intermediate tie-beams and the nave into four bays with five tie-beams, one at each end and three between. The tie-beams are moulded and embattled and supported by moulded wall posts and curved brackets. The spandrels are filled with varying tracery, some with red rose centres. The roofs are of trussed rafter and collar-beam type. Five-sided ceilings are divided into panels by moulded ribs with bosses at intersections, variously carved. The nave has similar bosses. The panels are covered by 19th-century painting and corbels have 19th-century angels holding shields.

The roofs of the chapels and aisles have modern boarded soffits, though some corbels and short posts are original.

The font probably dates to the 13th century and has a round bowl which has been patched and relined with lead, carried on modern shafts.

Monumental brasses include Gerald Borell, died 1509, Archdeacon of Chichester and Vicar of Cuckfield, with an inscription and shield on the south wall of the south chapel; Milicent, wife of John Michel (died 1524), with an inscription on the north wall of the north aisle; a standing effigy of Henry Bowyer in Elizabethan armour with a mouth scroll bearing the words "O Prais (Sic) the Lord"; and Henry Bowyer and Elizabeth his wife, died 1589, depicted on a panel flanked by Ionic shafts of black marble and alabaster with a moulded shaft and entablature, showing the effigies of a man in Elizabethan armour and his wife kneeling at a prayer desk with three sons and three daughters on the north wall of the south chapel.

Mural monuments and tablets include Ninian Burrell (died 1629) in the south chapel, a kneeling effigy in a recess with curtains held open by standing angels; Charles Sergison, Commissioner of the Navy (died 1732), on the north side of the sanctuary, a sarcophagus with a seated figure of truth holding a plaque carved with his portrait, supported by a cherub, by Thomas Adey; a wall tablet to Mary Ann Sergison (died 1804) on the north wall of the north aisle, a neo-classical nymph mourning against an urn by Westmacott; Sir Walter Headley (died 1675); Percy Burrell (died 1807) by J Bacon; and Francis Warden (died 1785).