Church Of St Symphorian

The Church of St Symphorian at Durrington is a parish church built between 1914 and 1919 by architect Lacy William Ridge, with a chancel added between 1939 and 1945 by WH Godfrey. The building incorporates the remains of a 13th-century chapel. It is constructed of un-knapped flint with stone dressings and has a tile roof.

The plan is distinctive: the nave is a single wide span but divides into two sections at the west end, respecting the archaeology of the earlier 13th-century building. The chancel is taller than the nave and has an almost flat roof. The building includes an internal north-west chapel, a north-east vestry block, and a south-west porch.

Externally, very little 13th-century fabric remains visible. The north side preserves some 13th-century fabric, seen in the internal window splays, and is buttressed with four lancet windows. The south side has three lancets and a porch with a round-headed doorway in the east wall. The west end consists of two gables, with the south gable set back. The north gable has a pair of 20th-century lancets, while the south gable has a two-light uncusped 20th-century plate traceried window. The east wall is almost square with three stepped lancets and a cross at the apex of the roof.

The interior contains a remarkable roof from the 1914-1919 phase spanning the nave. At the west end it comprises two separate roofs, springing from the centre from the stub of a wall between the north and south cells of the church. East of this wall, it is a single span of very wide trusses with double rafters and collars, boarded behind with a flat boarded ceiling. The narrower chancel from the 1939-45 phase has closely-spaced moulded cross beams with short braces on moulded corbels, with the ceiling between the beams divided into panels by moulded ribs. Visible 13th-century evidence appears in the splays of one of the north-side lancets, one splay including a Saxon masonry fragment. A timber traceried screen leads to the north-west chapel, which has an altar against the west wall. The east wall incorporates a re-sited medieval trefoil-headed piscina.

The fittings include a font with a scalloped white marble bowl on a round stem on a square section plinth; a polygonal timber pulpit with a commemorative date of 1958, featuring panelled sides on tall reeded shafts; and a sanctuary rail of turned timber balusters. Benches have square-headed ends with canted corners. The stained glass is of interest, including the north-west window dated 1929 with a portrait head and the south-west War Memorial window in a 14th-century spirit.

A church is known to have existed at Durrington in 1086, presumably then as later a chapel of the parish of West Tarring, to which Durrington was a chapelry. The chapel was thought to have been dedicated to St Nicholas, and from around 1260 to St Thomas Becket. It comprised a nave and chancel, apparently of the mid 13th century. The chapel fell out of use during the Civil War when it was badly damaged, and in 1680, in response to a petition, the inhabitants were excused rebuilding the chapel and allowed to attend West Tarring parish church instead. In 1890 an iron mission room was built next to the chapel ruins. When Durrington was made a parish with its own vicar in 1914-1919, the Church of St Symphorian was built, incorporating parts of the walls of the earlier building and respecting its footprint.