Church Heritage Record 610291

West tower, 3-bay nave, south porch, chancel.

Nave 12m long, 5m wide.

A Lower Palaeolithic handaxe was found in a trench 0.8 metres deep to the west of the Adur, south east of Annington House, ½ mile north-west of the church. There are Saltern mounds (left over from salt-making) on the valley bottom dating from the prehistoric period onwards, and there is a large quarry just south of Botolphs. Roman bricks and pottery have been found on Annington Hill, St Botolph’s Down, considered to be possibly the site of a Roman villa.

The chancel arch and nave are Late Saxon.  The parish appears to have been in the Manor of Annington, mentioned as early as 956. Botolphs is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, but the church is probably that mentioned under Annington, owned by William de Braose (Brasenose), 1st Lord of Bramber, who handed it over to St Florent de Saumur together with Beeding Priory and St Nicholas, Bramber. It passed to Sele Priory by 1100. The Normans rededicated the church to St Peter De Veteri Ponte, but the old dedication eventually prevailed.  The advowson of Botolphs belonged to Sele priory until the late 15th century when it passed, with the other possessions of the priory, to Magdalen College, Oxford. A priest is recorded c 1150.

The north wall of the nave has blocked arches of the arcade of a former 13th-century aisle. The stubs remain at each end.  The chancel was lengthened and the tower added in the 13th century, most of the windows were altered or replaced in the 14th.  The building and site has exceptional archaeological potential and therefore reference should be made to the Historic Environment Record and contact made with the County Archaeologist if any development of the site or building is being considered.

The north aisle was demolished by 1830. The porch was added in 1897, during restoration works at this time traces of mural paintings were first recorded.

The tower provides some vertical emphasis, and in the gently rolling countryside this simple and charming church can be seen from some distance. The tower has a pyramid cap, and a single lancet opening above a central buttress to the west face. Small slit window to reach side wall.  Brass weathervane and iron clamps.

The south nave wall has side-alternate quoins, probably of Late Saxon date. The north wall has three tall round-headed lancets inserted into the blocked arcade bays of the north aisle, apparently done in the early 19th century.   The west bay of the south wall has a cusped pointed lancet, east of this a small gabled brick porch.  East of this is a single window with pointed head within a round-headed blocked lancet, there are two similar, the western a low-side window, in the south chancel wall, there is also a scratch sun-dial here. Low-side window also in the chancel north wall, some remnants of lime render here. 3-light pointed window with double-cusped reticulated tracery in the chancel east wall.

The inner south doorway is round-arched and chamfered, with a boarded and studded door inscribed with the date 1630. The internal walls are plastered, some patches of red and ochre Medieval paintings survive in the nave and around the chancel arch. Some haloed figures can be made out. This may have been a scheme, as can be seen at nearby Coombe church.

The west tower arch is pointed, and has a plank door. Within this, there is a ladder leading to the belfry which has a 16th century bellframe and a possibly contemporary king-post timber roof structure to the pyramid roof.

The blocked north arcade of three bays has columns with plain circular moulded capitals and bases, pointed arches. The windows are deeply recessed with splayed reveals in the thick flint walls. Tiled floor in the nave with several 17th and 18th century ledger slabs in the central alley. There are plain late 19th century benches, and a handsome Jacobean pulpit. 19th century waggon roofs with tie-beams. Attractive iron pendant lamps.

The chancel arch is late Anglo-Saxon (c 1050) and is stylistically related to the earliest phase at Sompting St Mary, where the tower arch is of similar appearance and date. The soffit has a semi-circular roll, joggled at the apex, which decends onto carved corbels or capitals to north and south.

Within the chancel is a section of worn tile floor with an 18th century ledger slab, otherwise 19th century tiles and stone flags and ledger slabs in the sanctuary behind the 18th century communion rails, one step up. There is a pointed 13th century piscina in the south wall and a plain square aumbry in the north.