Church Heritage Record 610219

This is an ancient church, its development complex. Put simply, it consists of an eleventh century nave, of uncertain size and form, to which were added (in about 1200) a tower to the southeast and a south aisle (incorporating a reset Norman doorway). A chancel and south chapel followed by the end of the thirteenth century, the chapel becoming a chantry for the Halsham family in the fourteenth century. With the addition of a south porch in the fifteenth century today’s plan form was created. However, within this form the fabric presents several archaeological puzzles, described in further detail (but by no means resolved) below. In the post-Reformation period the leading families were the Carylls (sometime recusant Catholics who nevertheless left their mark on St George’s) and (from about 1750) the Burrells of Grinstead Park (demolished), who have several fine Georgian monuments in the church. The late eighteenth century appearance of the church is shown in a watercolour of 1785 in the British Library (figure 2). In 1795 a new peal of six bells were hung in the tower, cast by Thomas Mears of London. There is evidence of various seventeenth and eighteenth century brick repairs, and the church was also reseated and a west gallery added in the Georgian period. In 1890 the church was restored in 1890 by E. P. Warren, under the Revd R.B. Knatchbull-Hugessen (cost £3,500). The casing of the exterior in cement render may date from this time, although the building may already have been (lime) rendered. Warren’s restoration included new drainage and heating systems and the reordering of the chancel, with stained by C.E. Kempe. The gallery at the west end was removed and deal pews at this end replaced in oak. The church was further enriched with stained glass and other furnishings in the twentieth century, described below. Architectural description On plan (figure 1) the church consists of a nave and chancel without structural division, south chapel (now also a vestry), central south tower, south aisle and north porch. The exterior is largely cement rendered, with Greensand stone and limestone dressings, some areas of exposed masonry and brickwork and roofs clad with Horsham slabs. The flat base of the broach spire is covered with Horsham slabs, while its upper part is shingled. Areas of brick restoration include the plinth side walls of the north porch and some of the buttresses. Inside the walls are plastered and limewashed, and there are the vestiges of a fifteenth century wall painting of St Christopher on the north wall of the nave (with a windmill in the background). The floors are paved with stone slabs and ledger stones, with herringbone woodblocks beneath the seating in the nave. Unpicking the architectural development of the building is not easy, and not helped by the nineteenth century cement render that cloaks the exterior. However, the herringbone masonry exposed on the north wall of the nave (to the west of the porch, see photo upper right at top of report) suggests an eleventh century date, as does the existence of two small round-headed windows (one above the porch and the blocked head of another set lower to the west of the porch). The Sussex Churches website suggests that this may be the surviving part of a freestanding private chapel or oratory, to the southeast of which was added a tower in c.1200. This has three buttresses on the south side and inside has a north arch with a triple-chamfered head and semicircular responds, one with stiff leaf foliage to the capital. Large corbels over this arch suggest that the tower was physically independent of the chapel or oratory to the north, but the lack of weathering suggests that these features were incorporated in an extended chancel at an early stage, as an afterthought, making the tower base essentially a transept. The base of the tower is also open on the east and west sides, the former to the wide south aisle and the latter to the south chapel. Both arches have square responds with round shafts for the inner orders of the heads. On the south side of the aisle is a Norman doorway, stylistically dateable to the mid-twelfth century, with a keeled roll-moulding on the head and scallop capitals (the shafts are lost). This is evidently reset, possibly from the south wall of the old ‘nave’ or chapel. Between this aisle and the present nave is a three-bay arcade, somewhat lighter than the earlier work in the tower base, with circular piers on square bases. The chancel and south chapel appear to post-date the aisle, and are possibly midthirteenth century, although the round-arched south doorway of the chapel is oldfashioned for that date (possibly also reset?). The timber nave roof may be contemporary with this arcade but the aisle and south chapel roofs appear to be later, possibly fourteenth century (the outline of earlier, steeper roofs are visible on both sides of the tower, and were in the eighteenth century, see figure 2). The windows of the aisle and chapel are fourteenth century, both areas having cusped triple east windows (those in the chapel possibly relating to its adaptation to serve as the Halsham chantry). The ogee-headed piscina on the south wall of the chancel also looks fourteenth century. However, the four-centred arch of the opening between the chapel and the chancel looks later, probably sixteenth century, as are the chapel piscina and a curious battlemented recess with remains of painted decoration to the right of the chapel east window. There is no structural division between the nave and the chancel, or any change in the floor level, although a large projecting buttress on the north side of the tower base and the later screen divide the spaces. A small pointed window on the north side (now lighting the pulpit) could be connected with a pre-Reformation rood stair or loft. The chancel ceiling, along with those in the south chapel and under the ringing floor of the tower are boarded, probably in 1890; it is not certain whether the roof structures were renewed at the same time. The roof structures of the nave and south aisle were also previously boarded or plastered, but this was removed at some point (possibly in 1890) and the rafters exposed. The fifteenth century north porch has later (eighteenth century?) brick plinths at the sides. It is otherwise timber framed, with a four-centred arch with traceried spandrels, a niche recess over and cusped bargeboards

      The church is notable for the quality, number and richness of its furnishings. The most notable of these are described here in broadly chronological, with separate mention of the monuments and stained glass. The Norman font lies in the south aisle by the reset Norman door. It is square, with a marble arcaded bowl with tapering sides and a lion’s head at each corner. It sits on a later (probably fourteenth century) sandstone base, with cusped niches at the angles. (The oak font cover with incised decoration was made in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II). There are two fifteenth century brasses raised on tomb chests in the south (Halsham) chapel. At the east end of the chapel, close to the piscina and what would have been the altar (and therefore not in its original position) is that to Sir Hugh Halsham (d.1441) and his wife, shown as a knight, with his arms on banners above the canopy rather than on shields, with his wife. Most of the inscription in the marble slab is missing but the date 1421 is still visible and may relate to Sir Hugh’s first wife, Jacosa (Culpeper), who died in that year. However, heraldic experts suggest that it is his second wife who is depicted here. The figures are placed under crocketed Gothic canopies, and Sir Hugh’s feet rest on a lion, his wife’s on small dog. A second smaller brass to the west of the south door is to Sir Hugh’s mother Philippa (d.1395), and probably also dates from c.1440. She is under a Gothic canopy and has a small dog by her feet. There are further indents (some with surviving inscriptions) on the floor of the south aisle. Panelling against the east wall of the south chapel depicts biblical scenes in robust high relief; the style is Renaissance possibly originally a piece of continental furniture, introduced into the church at an unknown date, probably in the nineteenth century. The communion rails are eighteenth century; they have turned balusters and a flat moulded top. The fine octagonal pulpit is also eighteenth century, with a pilastered panel at the back and a moulded and inlaid tester above. On the south wall of the nave above the arcade, the Royal Arms of George IV are painted in grisaille on canvas. The oak benches in the nave date from about 1820. They have moulded tops and are numbered. On the backs they are painted with the names of local farms to which they were assigned, an unusual and charming detail. A seating list in the parish registers of 1823 suggests that at that time the sexes were divided, not in the usual way from side to side, but with men at the front of the church and women at the back. One or two benches have been relocated or removed (one pew back is reset below the reredos). The benches at the west end of the nave are oak copies of 1890 (but wider and without numbers or lettering). The communion table, organ, choir stalls, chancel screen and pulpit all belong to the 1890 restoration campaign:  The communion table is plain, with a panelled front, raised on a stone step  Occupying the arch between the chancel and south chapel, the organ was acquired for £165 from a Hull firm, who had built it in 1846 for a local church (there is also a fine domestic chamber organ in the tower area)  The timber chancel screen belongs to the 1890 reordering but incorporates earlier (seventeenth or eighteenth century) panelling  The choir stalls have an elegant buttressed detail  The elaborately-carved oak lectern with rotating top bears inscriptions recording that it was given in memory of Dorothea Burrell in 1891. The oak reredos is by Kempe & Co., 1912, and is carved with a representation of the Annunciation. An inscription on the side records that it is a memorial to Reginald Knatchbull Lugesson, rector. A timber screen between the tower base and south chapel bears a brass inscription stating that like the reredos it is a memorial to Reginald Knatchbull Lugesson, rector. There are five brass chandeliers in the nave and chancel, installed in the twentieth century (replacing oil lamps). There are a number of fine eighteenth century and later monuments. The main ones are, in chronological order:  In the south chapel, a Baroque cartouche to Richard Caryll (d. 1701) and his wife Frances (d.1704), attributed to W. Woodman Senior. The inscription does not attempt to conceal the family’s Catholicism, referring to Richard’s brother Peter (d.1686), a Benedictine monk, who is also thought to be buried here.  In the chancel (south side) by the altar, a nicely calligraphed small brass plaque recording the death of baby twins Leonard and Hannah Woodward (d.1710), with skull.  On the south wall of the chancel, another fine Baroque cartouche, to Thomas Woodward, rector (d. 1752).  In the south aisle, a large marble monument to William (d.1746) and Elizabeth Powlett (d.1753) by John Michael Rysbrack. They are represented in Roman dress, flanking a large central urn, in front of a grey obelisk backdrop.  In the tower base, a large monument to Sir Merrik Burrell of West Grinstead Park, MP and Governor of the Bank of England (d.1787). It is by Nathaniel Smith, and shows the bewigged figure of the deceased in profile in a medallion, with drapery over and a grey marble obelisk behind. Jenkins wrote in 1999 that the face had been ‘bashed off’, but it has since been restored by the Friends of St George’s. The monument is based on a design by Louis-François Roubiliac, to whom Smith was apprenticed.  In the south aisle the severe neoclassical monument to the Sussex historian and antiquary Sir William Burrell (d.1796) and his wife Sophia (d.1802) was relocated from the south chapel in 1891 (brass plate on side). It incorporates a large urn by John Flaxman.  On the north wall of the chancel is a small tablet to Elizabeth Woodward (d.1797), the wife of John Woodward, rector. It is unsigned, and has been attributed to John Flaxman or a pupil.  Over the arcade on the north side of the south aisle, oval marble wall tablets to Mary Ward (d.1808, with an urn) and James Ward (?1810). A further Ward monument is mounted on the external wall over the south aisle doorway.  On the south wall, a white marble monument to Walter Burrell (d.1831) and Charles Wyndham Burrell (d. 1827).  War memorials: On the north wall of the nave is a nicely-detailed stone and inlaid memorial to the men of St George’s and St Michael’s who died in the First World War. A smaller stone tablet below records the parish dead of the Second World War. Stained glass (in chronological order):  In the west window of the south aisle are some fragments of fourteenth or fifteenth century glass in grisaille, red and yellow.  The three-light east window of the south chapel depicts the Ascension and is by Clayton & Bell, 1878, in memory of Sir Percy Burrell (d. 1876).  The east window of the nave is a beautiful design by C. E. Kempe, 1890, in memory of Walter Wyndham Burrell Bt and his son Walter Henry Wyndham Raymond Burrell. It depicts the Crucifixion with attendant figures of the Virgin Mary and St John, with panels below of the Expulsion (left), St George (centre) and St John on Patmos (right).  The first window from the east on the north side of the nave is to the memory of Annie Katharine Loder (d. 1891) and is another fine design from Kempe’s workshop, by Alfred Tombleson. It depicts St Anne teaching the Virgin Mary to read, St George and St Catherine of Siena, under canopies.  The three-light west window of the nave (1922) is dedicated to Lt Col John Peter Hornung, Lt Col Arthur Housemayne du Boulay and Capt. Francis Spencer Collin, who all died in the First World War. It was designed by Walter Camm and made by Florence, Walter and Robert Camm of Smethwick, and depicts the risen Christ with a kneeling figure of a soldier in the central light and angels, archangels and the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the flanking lights. A striking and moving design.  In the south aisle, south wall, a three-light window depicting St Stephen of Hungary, St Elizabeth of Portugal and St George, 1967, in memory of members of the Hornung family and signed by Carl Edwards of Blackfriars Studios. The three figures are against a background of clear glass. Bells. The tower was not inspected. Six bells were cast by Thomas Mears in 1795, and recast in 1910. The bell frame dates from the 1660s (Scragg, 5