Church Heritage Record 610187

Nave with north and south porches and south aisle. Chancel with north vestry, and cellar beneath. South-east tower with spire.

[Approximate] Nave 8m (26ft) x 15m (50ft), aisle 3m (10ft), chancel 6m (20ft) x 8m (26ft)

The surrounding area is within the Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which is characterised by Ancient Routeways, dispersed historic settlements and ancient woodland. The Weald is considered to be one of the best surviving medieval landscapes in Northern Europe which, until the 1950s, was one of the slowest changing regions in Britain. A dispersed settlement pattern had been established by the 14th century.

The AONB management plan outlines the local history: High Weald lies within one of the largest tracts of woodland in early medieval England termed Anderida silva by the Romans; Andredsleah (‘leah’ suggesting wood pasture) by the Anglo-Saxons and Andredweald (high forest of Andred) by the Saxons. It was characterised by small family holdings, with income from agriculture supplemented by crafts. There was small industry consisting of the extraction and working of iron which account for the archaeological remains of Romano-British and medieval bloomeries, early modern forges and furnaces identified within the wider area.

To the south of the site is Hammerwood House built c.1790 by Benjamin Henry Latrobe (listed Grade I). Parkland around the house is registered as a late 18th century landscape. A search of archaeological records identified a bloomer in Cinder Wood, to the north-west, a pair of late 19th century cottages and a school house designed by R Norman Shaw and a 15th and 16th timber-framed house (Bower Farmhouse) to the west of the site. During World War II, an airfield was established at Bower Farm, with squadrons based in Hammerwood House. The East Sussex Heritage Environment Record should be referred to for detailed records and their location.

A church was built in 1879-80 to the designs of architect Edgar Philip Loftus Brock [1833-1895] registered at Montague Place, Russell Square. Brock trained in the office of E and W G Habershon where he was managing clerk. He was made a partner in 1865 and became sole partner in 1879 only becoming a member of the RIBA in 1882. It is not clear how many buildings Brock was involved with in partnership with the Habershon’s but Hammerwood is certainly his own design. Brock was at one time Hon. Secretary of the British Archaeological Association.

The church was commissioned, and built on land given, by Oswald Augustus Smith of the adjacent Hammerwood Park which the banker had bought in the mid-1860s. The builders were Messrs Nightingale of Reigate. According to a plaque inside the church, erected by his children, Smith also built the vicarage (former vicarage to west). He was buried at Holtye.

A copy of an article from the Super Express on 9 July 1881 is displayed inside the north porch which says an image of the church appeared in The Builder the same week as the article. It states that the name ‘Hammerwood’ derived from one of the old iron forges once prevalent in the Weald of Sussex.

The archaeological potential of the site is low. There are no known designations relating to the ecology of the plot, though it contains mature trees and bats are present in the building.

St Stephen’s is an attractive, quite typical Gothic church. Its south elevation facing out over the Hammerwood Estate was clearly intended to be the main elevation, with the tower located to this side, and a more ornate porch. However it is more often glimpsed from between trees from the road to the north side.

The exterior is accented by substantial two-tier buttresses and stone cross finials surmounting each gable. A steeply pitched nave roof has crested roof tiles (the south slope displays diagonal patterns), and in the south-east corner is a tall, 100ft, broached spire with lucarnes on alternate sides. It rises from a crenelated tower with gargoyles and has clasping three-stage buttresses to each corner, and each elevation has a two-light louvred window with quatrefoil above. Three-light windows pierce the south and east walls at ground level.

The walls have a continuous plinth just above ground level with intermittent ventilation grates, and a continuous sill beneath the height of the windows embellished by a dog-tooth flint band beneath. The north wall has three-light windows, the gabled south aisle has two single lancets with reticulated tracery to each bay and three-light west window. All windows have hoodmoulds. North and south gabled porches project at the same distance form the west end, the north is regularly used. The south porch, now mostly used for storage, is more detailed with several orders around the pointed arch and buttresses. A temporary WC has been positioned next to it and stone paving slabs have been laid to form a ramp up to the door.

The west wall has a five-light window with ornate curvilinear tracery and figurative head-stops to the hoodmould. Diagonal stone bands radiate around it, with flint chequerboard in the apex of the elevation above a small single lancet. This is repeated in the other gabled elevations around the church.

The chancel is lower than the nave. It has a two-light window in the north elevation and a gabled vestry with chimney projecting to the north, with simple two-light plate tracery window. Stone pavings have been laid around the west vestry door and wrap around to steps on the east side leading to the boiler room. The east elevation has a 4-light east window with rectilinear tracery with hoodmould with figurative head-stops. Flint and stone have been used to decorative effect to form bands of blind tracery in the east wall.

Access to the interior is through the north porch, up one step, which opens into the west end which has been cleared of pews, and the wood pew platforms made level with the tiled aisles. A bench along the west wall remains in situ as do original candelabra.

The interior is of three and a half bays. Walls are plastered and painted white. The high pitched roof is formed of arch-braced collar-beam trusses. The principle rafters rest on stone corbels in the spandrels of the arcade. Side-fixed electric spotlights add to two suspended brass chandelier. The main body of the nave is seated with fixed open oak-framed benches on raised wood platforms. Red and black quarry tiles pave the aisles between iron grates.

A south aisle is separated by an arcade carried on octagonal columns with foliate capitals. The font is located in the south aisle, by the south porch door (now used for storage). At the east end of the aisle a wood partition screens the ringing chamber which is raised by a step. The organ separates the north side of the chamber and the chancel.

The chancel is raised by two steps and extends beyond a chamfered chancel arch which has foliate capitals and attached shafts. Choir stalls are fixed to a raised platform on either side. The sanctuary is raised by another step and is paved with woodblock floor tiles. A door to the north accesses the vestry which has a sink, and is raised by three steps.