Church Heritage Record 610083

Three-bay nave, west tower, chancel, north-west porch and vestry in one.

Nave estimated to be c 12m (40ft) x 5m (16ft).

Hangleton is recorded in Domesday, but the church is first mentioned around 1093 in a Charter of Lewes Priory, which held the patronage till the Reformation.  All that remains above ground of medieval Hangleton, as so often, is the parish church, Hangleton manor house dates to the 16th century.  Excavations by the Sussex Archaeological Society in the 1950s to the north of the church, including for the church hall, identified parts of the deserted medieval village (DMV).  The population had so dwindled by the 17th century that only the parsonage and manor house remained, however the church never became a ruin as did Aldrington St Leonard.  St Helen’s has remained in continuous use, possibly because of its attractive setting which attracted the wealthy of the area, and has a typically complex history and archaeology for a church of this antiquity.  The nave is 12th century, the tower and the chancel were added perhaps just before 1300 (pointed lancets in the tower, pointed west door from the nave, plate tracery east window).  It was restored in 1870 and then again in the 1920s. 

When the expansion of Hove enveloped the church it was again restored and re-opened for regular worship, and in 1961 the north porch and adjoining vestry were added.  The wall paintings on the north wall were discovered at this time but not restored until 1969.  At this time the church was re-roofed and the battlements were restored to the tower.  Apart from this, few of the original furnishings and fittings, and none of the moveables, has survived.  The reredos, screen and panelling in the chancel were introduced in 1927, the altar is of 1962, and the benches in the nave, the pulpit and the font belong to the late 19th century.

This ancient church is utterly compelling, both in its external simplicity and the rough and ready feel of the interior.  It could not lay claim to beauty, but it has an atmosphere of simple and unsophisticated homeliness and tranquility.    

The short crenellated tower is narrower than the nave, it has quoined corners, one of Quorr, one of Caen stone.  There are two corbels, one carved with an animal’s head, one with a human, reset into the parapet.  The tower is of two stages, the west façade pierced by two lancets, one above the other, the north and south facades are blind. There is a pyramid roof to the tower behind the crenellated parapet, the former a recent addition.

The fenestration of the south wall of the nave is irregular, as is the attractive herring-bone flint coursing reflecting the antiquity of this part of the church. The south-west corner is rebuilt in brick, probably in the early 20th century.  There is a pointed lancet to the west of the south doorway, this window is not shown in prints of 1782 and 1847 and indeed looks relatively recent. The round-arch headed doorway is plain, apparently there is a scratch dial on one of the jambs, not noticed during the visit. To the east of the doorway and high in the wall is a tiny round-headed window, the arch cut out of a single block.  This is mirrored in the north wall, and there are traces suggesting that a pair of such windows existed further west. East of this is a tall pointed lancet, again set high in the wall, the head under the eaves.

The chancel is narrower and lower, the roof of a similar pitch, the fenestration of the south wall pierced by two irregularly spaced pointed lancets, the western cusped, the eastern again cusped and high in the wall.  The east window is a 3-light window, which looks certain to be a Victorian replacement.  A print of 1847 shows a 3-light with plate tracery. The chancel north wall is also pierced by two lancets.  The east end of the north nave wall has a further lancet, the two western bays are taken up by the porch and vestry under a single cat-slide roof, an example for modern architects of how to handle such a small extension. The porch entrance is a round arch-headed doorway with double doors and upper lights. The vestry is lit by a rectangular window in the north wall and a pointed lancet in the west.

The interior is extremely charming and attractive, and full of interesting features.  The uneven, indeed lumpy walls of the nave are whitewashed, imparting an almost archaic atmosphere, as does the red brick floor, a rare survival, sloping with the lie of the land to the east.   Fragmentary wall paintings on the south wall date from the 13th century, with well-preserved trefoil scrollwork in the north-east nave lancet window splay; and of the 14th and 15th centuries, these latter including what appear to be two phases of paintings of St Nicholas picked out in red and ochre tones. There is a late 14th-century piscina with ogee head in the south-east corner of the nave, and the remains of a stoup in the middle of the wall.  A picture of 1907 appears to show box pews in the south-east corner of the nave.

Both nave and chancel preserve what would appear to be ancient timber roofs.  The nave is partially ceiled in and its interface with the chancel roof is awkward, and one might assume different dates for the two, but they still have the same “witches hat” profile suggestive of the 13th century.  The roof is a waggon construction with tie-beams and could be at least partly medieval. The chancel arch has been removed at some point, taking its place is an open tracery 7-bay wooden screen in the Decorated style. This was donated in 1925 in memory of William Nevett.

The wall-plate of the chancel roof sits on the top of the wall where the arch must have been. It has collars, and the eastern of the tie-beams cuts across the east window. The chancel floor has encaustic tiles, ornate within the sanctuary which is one step up from the chancel. The panelling and reredos were also donated in memory of Nevett. Choir stalls on each side have open cusped tracery fronts, these may be of somewhat earlier date.  A carved Romanesque ram’s head, probably a corbel, sits loose in the window sill.

A picture of 1907 shows painted decoration on the east wall and a simple altar, and what appeared to be the frame of a rood screen.  It would be a mistake, therefore, to think of the interior as unchanged, rather it is the product of a series of refurbishments.