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Chiddingty Churc,hGuide I I S I

JEFFERAY I I MONUMENT ~ I I I ~+ SOUTH AISLE N 0 0 ~ 1 f- a.. I ~ I L.U (j) NAVE : WEST PORCH CHANCEL Z I a:« 0 f- 0 0 J' TOWER;; (3FONT NORTH AISLE I SACRISTY - / ',--

CHURCH PLAN 7) NORTH i

Chiddingly Church, a listed building, is a landmark. Its spire is visible from every point of' the compass, and indeed were it not for the Church, it would be difficult to say exactly where Chiddingly is. For this is a 'dispersed' village, having its origin in a number of scattered settlements, all linked to the Parish Church by an intricate system of footpaths and bridleways, over thfrty miles in all. But wherever you live in the Parish, be it at Golden Cross or Whitesmith, Hale Green or Muddles Green, you can still see the Church spire pointing to heaven.

Chiddingly has a Saxon name. It is spelled in the Domesday Book 'Cetelingei', which represents the effort of a Norman clerk to come to terms with a broad South Saxon accent and most probably means, 'the place of Cedd's people'.

It is worthwhile standing in the churchyard and trying to imagine the landscape as it was a thousand years ago. Woods everywhere, because this was the Southern edge of Andredsweald, the grea.t Wealden Forest. ma.rshy ground to the South where now Willett's s,tream divides Chiddingly from Muddles Green. Beyond is t'he rline olf t.he Downs and the ghostly outline of the LongMan of IW,ilmt,p.gton Down. Those who hold to the theory of 'le~ lines', those mysterious lines of force connecting ancient s~cred sites, have postulated such a line running North from the through the churchyard. Be that as it may, altho1:;tga tb:,ere is no trace of a Saxon church, there is evidence from~re- Conquest charters that Chiddinglywas served by a priest.

The first church of which trl;lces remain was builtin the late 11th or early 12th centuries. When the chancel was rebuil t in 1864., Norman masonry was found in the founda~ions, these included corbels, zig-zag moulding, and traces of what may have beem a sedilia. The details were recorded by the Vicar, the Reverend J. H. Vidal, in 'Su~sex

-1- Notes and Queries' for September 1~94. The church, with the exception of the North porch, is built of sandstone of local origin, and there is a tradition that the stone came from a pit at Hilder's Court, about a mile North of the church.

Starting at the East end: the present chancel was completely rebuilt in 1864. The only trace of medieval work is the trefoil-headed piscina in the South wall. An 'Easter sepulchrel is mentioned in wills of the 15th Century, but nothing of this came to light at the time of rebuilding~

The print of the exterior, see below, by Albion Russell, dated 1841, shows that the East window was then five plain lights. The twg plaques flanking the window are memorials to the Lashmar f~mily and are there today. There were only two lancet windows in the North wall of the chancel and presumably their counterparts on the West face, which look early E~g~ish in syle.

-2- Note in the illustration, the position of the ancient Vicarage House. This was prior to the Georgian Vicarage, built by the Reverend J. H. Vidal in 1846 and erected on a new site hard by. It is now in private ownership ('Old Vicarage'). Sometime after 1846 the old house was demol ished.

James Noakes, Churchwarden, lived near the Church in, the

house now called' Pilgrims'. It was enlarged by him in 1855 from the nucleus of a 15th Century cottage.

To the right of the exterior of the South-West lancet window is a 'mass' clock, a sundial devise which marked service times from the pre-Reformation period.

From the chancel we go down two steps through the 13th Century chancel arch to the nave. The marks of plugged 'mortises on the inside of the arch suggest that in the Middle Ages there was a rood screen dividing chancel from nave. This latter is a perfect square, 38ft in each direction. The aisles are Early-English, perhap~ between 1250 and 1300, as &re the lancet windoW$ of Ofle light in the west wall. In the Ta,te t3t'1a' er ,ear!l!y,l~4th Centuries t he arc ades of three baiys d,~v,i,dti'Flfg'itlne .fl'a\\fie;f1r0'ml,t'!;'I:eai s les were built, the slight di ff'ereFlce i$fl's1~'ylJ;eib~i't-\weeflthe Nort hand Sout h arcades suggest ing th'a't"t;,t;i'eW(!)1rKIwas dtwe in two stages.

The windows in the North and South aisles a~~ ~arly perpendicular (15th Cent ury) which probably replaced earlier and smaller windows. The whole structure is coveredby a single pitched roof of king-post construction, containing some fine old timber. The roof is now covered in hand-made clay tHes, which replaced the stone slates, but a report of the architecture of the church by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1937 suggested that the original covering may have been thatch.

-3- At the West end of the nave is the magnificently proportioned arch of the tower. The tower and spire are presumed to be an addition of the early 15th Century. The evidence for this is historical rather than architectural. This is one of a group of church towers in this part of East , known as 'Pelham' towers from one common decorat~ve feature, the 'Pelham Buckle' carved on the external label stops of. the tower doorway. The' Buckle' (of a sword-belt) appears as a badge of the Pelham family from about 1408 onwards and the story that the 'Buckle' was a battle honour granted to a Pelham after the Battle of Poiti~rs, '1356, seems to be 17th Century invention, and is highly suspect. The Buckle can be seen on the tower doorways of the Parish churches of East Hoathly, Laughton, and Ripe, among other places, together with two shields on the spandrels of\I the doorway, in every case defaced, which may have borne 1!he arms of Pelham.

The connection of the Pelham family with this neighbourhood seems to begin in 1401, eight years after Sir John Pelham was appointed Constable of Castle, when he leased the Manor of Laughton from the De Vere family. The hamlet of Whitesmith was part of the Manor of Laughton, and all the estate properties were graced with the 'Buckle' badge, an example of which can be seen at Coldharbour Farmhouse. The Pelham connection only ended about forty years ago when the burden of death duties forced the Earl of Chichester to sell the Laughton estate, and end a tie that had lasted for five hundred years.

By contrast, the Sackville family, which acquired the Manor of Chiddingly by marriage in the 14th Century and held it for generations, have left no visible signs of their presence in the Parish church, although a tenuous link was maintained by their patronage of the living, until it passed to the Bishop of Chichester in 1988. In 1983 the Parish churches of Chiddingly and East Hoath1y became the United Benefice of Chiddingly and East HoathlY,

-4- THE TOWERis sixty feet high, and the walls are 4. ft 6" thick to take the immense weight of the spire which rises to a total height of 130 ft. A print of Richard Lower's of 1823 and a drawing by James Lambert dated 1768 show the apex of the spire to be more elongated than it is at present. Unless this is artist's licence, one would infer that either a few feet have been lost from the top of the spire, or that there was formerly a long wooden cap on which the weather vane was mounted. It is shaped as a pennant pierced by two sets of initials, H. M. and W.L., the lat ter probably of William Lashmar, Overseer in 1774- and Churchwarden 1803. He lived in the Vicarage House. The date 1897 appears on the vane which suggests that when the steeple was struck by lightning, this catastrophe was recorded during restorat ion. This is one of the three remaining ancient stone spires of , the others being at Dallington and Northiam, both in the . The .typical Sussex spire is of shingles on a wooden frame, as may be seen at , although there are numerous stone spires adorning Victorian churches in the coastal resorts. The spire is octagonal in shape, and flanked at the junction of the tower by ~our polygonal ~innacles. During the years the tower has d'ecayedl it,A',praces, aAd @ne can see how repairs have been made in ibd.cJ~wo.rR. :fin 189.7 the tower was struck by lightning. This hap~eRea ~n .a~y~~gpt to the consternation of the children in th.e o!fd. \3'h}1:1lr~c;4AIS'dAf@o:tby the church. There was a deafening cra1i3h, aTnd't1ac&¥,rushed out to find t he churchyard li t t ered wit h fragmer:\.t'sof stone from the stricken tower. When the repairs were compPeted a large admiralty anchor chain was slung round the base of the spire to check any outward movement, and various iron cramps inserted in the masonry. The chain was removed in 1985 when further tower restoration work was completed. An early photograph of the church shows the tower mantled in ivy, a sight to delight the poet and enrage the architect. The. ivy is no more, but a small amount of herbage defied eradication during the last restoration and lurks at the base of one of the pinnacles.

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The tower is in four stages, the ground floor which since 1989 houses the meeting room cum vestry, the ringing chamber, a 'silence chamber' containing the clock, made in 1912, and the belfry with a ring of six bells. The weights of the bells and their founders are displayed at the tower arch but an additional note on the bells may be of interest to visiting campanologists. We are indebted for these details to Mr George Elphick's, 'Sussex Bells and

Bel fries' .

Treble J Inscription: 'Miles Graye made me 1634'. Miles Graye, whose foundry was at Colchester, was one of the best and most prolific bell-founders of his time and at the beginning of this Century, 270 of his bells were in existence.

, Second Inscription: 'Recast by Subscription 1774. Thomas Janaway Fecit. ' Thomas Janaway probably learned his trade at the Whitechapel foundry and in 1762 set 'up his own foundry in Chelsea where he worked unt il 1788.

Third 'Inscription: 'Iohn Lylham Robert Storer Chvrchworddenes. (sic) Roger Tapsel made me 1633'. Roger Tapsel succeeded his father at the West Tarring Foundry. The Chiddingly bell was his last work before the foundry closed in 1633. The churchwarden John Lulham, was himself a bell-founder with a foundry at Chiddingly. He was not a good or successful founder, and the only other examples of his work are at Cliffe, Lewes, and St. Mary's, .

-6- Fourth Inscription: 'T. G. 1617'. Thomas Giles moved his foundry from Chichester. to Lewes, where the Chiddingly bell was cast. Fifth Inscription: 'Recast by Subscription Thomas Mears of Fecit 1811'. Thomas Mears junior was a member of the great bell-founding family working at Whitechapel. In the early part of the 19th Century his output was enormous, amounting almost to a 1:- monopoly. ~ Tenor Inscript ion: 'Recast by Subscription 1773'.

ENTRANCES There are three ways into the Churchi by the ~est door of the tow~r, with its Buckle badges, by a South door or more usually, through the North door and porch. One or two features of ~theporc.Q ar.e, of interest. It is covered with Hor~1il;ams,tene s!J:6\bswhic!J;1were \.;lsed;on all the roofs until the 1864 Irestlo1P:a,t.,:DOFh't!J'FlJa:erbh'eaood-mou1d of the porch is a stonebe'6!r':i:'n.g '~Re ,Qi\tte 1~@57, whith may commemorate some enlargement of the porch. The da!te is not without intere?t asJt iq. in the period of the Commonwealth when church building was virtually at a standstill. It is not- impossible that there may be a connect ion with the activities of Robert Baker, Vicar of Chiddingly from 1652 to 1677, who defied the law forbidding marriage,~ in cihurch and conducted nearly seventy wedd~ngs in three years until the ban was lifted in 1657. The details qf MrBa>ker's defiance are in C. Robertson's ' and its Environs' under the entry for 1653. The entrance arch of the porch is of greensand, a stone formerly quarri.ed; at East bourne, and at Godstone in Surrey. What appears t~ be a filled-in window on the East wall of th'e porchts believed to be a holy-water stoup. The grave slab on the floor is that of

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John Herring, an 18th Century Vicar, who is commemorated by a mural tablet on the West Wall.

SOUTH TRANSCEPT A defaced corbal to the right of the pulpit may have shown the crowned head of the King in whose reign the arcade was built, either Henry III or Edward I, in the 13th-14th Centuries.

At the beginning of the 17th Century the South transept was built to house the large monument erected in 1612. The present square window with transom was built in the East wall to give additional light to the monument, and the 15th Century window which it replaced moved to high on the West wall.

Chancel View 1995

-8- .J E FFE RA Y'S lVIONUMENT,

From a Wood Engraving by Albion Russell of Chiddingly1840 iIIiIII

THE JEFFERAY MONUMENT and other memorials.

This enormous edifice is without doubt the show piece of the interior of the church and it is worth describing it in detail. The monument is to Sir John Jefferay, died 23rd May 1578, who was Chief Baron of Exchequer under Elizabeth I and, at various times, member of Parliament for Arundel and East Grinstead. His effigy in legal robes reclines on its elbow above the recumbent form of his second wife, Dame Alice. Below thElm kneels a grand-daughter, Elizabeth, later to ~arry Robert Bertie. In the two niches stand Sir John's. only daughter Elizabeth and her husband Sir Edward Montague, both with a look of ineffable hauteur. Lady Elizabeth's fa'ntastic ruff and fa>r-thingaleis in marked contrast to the simplicity of her mother's costume. The momument is in a}abaster, which was perhaps mined at Mount field, near-.'Battle, where there is still a quarry in use. The monument has been attributed to William Cure II, one of a famous family of sculptors who came ffom Amsterdam in 1541 and worked in for three generations. Latterly it is felt that it was probably the work of more than one sculptor as there are considerable variations in the quality of the carvings. This is one of the most impressive and important pieces of monumental sculpture in Sussex, as there are only two known examples in England of erect figures in monuments of this period <16th Century): The other being at Spilsby, Lincolnshire; and this fact is recorded in Pr-of. Brian Kemp's authoritative work 'English Church Monuments' <1980). 'Fhe families portrayed in'each memorial are related. An interesting local tradition concerns the stone drums 01'1wAich Sir Edward and Lady Elizabeth stand. These are supposed to represent the cheeses that were placed before them as stepping-stones as they walked from Chiddingly Place to church, as they were too proud to put their feet to the ground. There is also a persistent' tradition of a secret tunnel from Chiddingly Place to the church which is supposed to emerge either in front of the monument or at the base of the tower, but this

-9- is so far unproven. It is known, however, that part of a tunnel was found at 'The Place', which emerges in one of the original rooms of the present Place Farm.

The monument" has sadly been disfigured and although tradition attributes this to the Puritans of the 17th Century there is no foundation in fact.

It is thought by many that the monument probably suffered from the common mistake which identified this Sir John Jefferay with Sir George Jeffrey the inhuman judge of James II reign ('The Bloody Assizes').

This impression is unfortunately still prevalent. From what we gather of his private and public life, Sir John Jefferay was a most just and est imable man, so that it is doubly unfortunate that he has been confused with a man so .much his opposite.

The Montagues have lost arms and fingers, and three carved shields with a wealth of heraldry lie at the base of the monument awaiting restoration to their proper place above the inscription" The shields were in position until the Summer of 194.4-, when a V. I flying bomb exploded in the fields between the church and Muddles Green. The blast of the explosion caused some minor structural damage to the exterior of the church, and loosened the shields to such an extent that it was deemed safer to take them down. It is recorded that 60 high explosive and 1350 incendiary bombs were dropped on Chiddingly in the course of World War II.

In 1830 there was a wave of agricultural unrest known as the 'Captain Swing Riots', which swept across Sussex from East to West in a matter of weeks. They took the form of machine-breaking, rick-burning, riotous assemblies and a great deal of damage was done to the property of parson and squire. Riots took place at and Ringmer, the latter in the churchyard. The interior of Horsham Parish

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Church was badly damaged and it is not impossible that there was such an incident at Chiddingly, in the course of which, damage was done to the monuments. The riotsl which went on for two years in the South of England and East Ang'lia, provoked savage sentences from the courts. Over four hundred people were transported and nineteen hanged. As there are several memorials to other members of the Jefferay family in the church, it may help to add a note on their relationships.

I John Jefferay I, who lived in Chiddingl'y from c.1480 until his death in 1512, is commemorated with Amis, his wife in the black-letter memori,al brass on the floor of the centre aisle. His home, ChiddinglyPlace. now Place Farm, was enlarged by his grandson into an E-shaped Elizabethan manor house of which otly a part remains. John had three sons, the eldest Richard I, inherited Chiddingly Place from his father, the second Thomas 1. lived at Ripe, the third William I, lived at Pekes House in this parish.

Richard's son and heir was John II, the Sir John of the monument, whose only child and heiress was Elizabeth. Sir John's younger brother, Richard II, is commemorated in the mural tablet on the left of the chancel arch. The other members of the family whose monuments are st ill in the church are descended from the Pekes branch. William II and Awdray Harvey his wife with their two sons and seven daughters kneel in the charming monument, recently restored by the South door. This monument was originally behind the pulpit. The inscription records that all the children survived their parents, a rare occurence in the 17th Century with its high infant mortality. The eldest son, Thomas II, went to America in 1631 and his name appears in the New England register as living in Weymouth, Connecticut. William's grave-slab is just below the

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chancel step and the Jefferay coat of arms can be distinguished on it. The remaining Jefferay memorial which is on the North wall of the chancel 1s that of Margerie, wife of Thomas II, who died in her early twenties. It bore the macabre device of a skull in an urn, with the stark words 'Margarita fui' - I was Margerie.

The memorials of the other Jefferays of the older generation have vanished but there are two matrices of memorial brasses. The smaller of the two is below the sanctuary step at the North side and suggests that it may have depicted two figures kneeling and facing each other, which is characteristic of 16th Century brasses. The other and larger matrix is concealed by the sanctuary carpet. There are two figures with labels issuing from their mouths - an inscriptionbelow and the matrices of two shields at the upper corners. In his notes on the restoration of the chancel (186~), Mr. Vidal suggested that this might be the missing tomb of William Jefferay I.

For fuller details of the old Sussex family of Jefferay the reader is referred to M. A. Lower's 'Parochial History of

Chiddingly' .

The other memorials and ledger stones in the chancel are of members of the French and Bromfield families. The Frenchs had been ironmasters at Stream, in the North-East of the parish since 1540 where their furnace sites and hammer ponds can still be seen. They were connected by marriage to the Bromfields, a cadet branch of an old Welsh family, who had settled at Udimore, near Rye.

On the South wall of the chancel is a hatchmentof the arms of Bromfield impaling French. This devise concerns Thomas Bromfield (d. 1710) and his wife Ann, eldest daughter of Stephen French. As Ann was an heiress in her own right her arms are borne in the escutcheon of pretence.

-12- There are other ledger stones in the centre aisle. One is to the magnificently named Thomas Thunder of Thunder's Hill. Two mark the graves of former incumbents both of whom,wrote their own epitaphs. The one nearest the tower is of Thomas Eades. He was one of the four hundred Anglican clergy who, after the expulsion of James II in 1688, refused to take the oath of allegiance to his successors William III and Mary, and were deprived of their living in consequence. They are known as the 'Non-jurers' and they remained aI:>a seperate church producing both saints and scholars until they died out in the 18th Ceatury. 11homas lived on his own property at Whitesmith, to a.l).j.i~pe.0:\.Idag.,ei&A,ct.qb1arre'Uing with his neighbours. As his e;)1>i"~I~\P'A:I!s .1!I'l\Q it is worth recording:

i...,,{qrQ '11IQd~. of IMr. 1thomas 'Eade Ii,ep here. A faithful 'sme:phfEl'rd't'haltdlibdino~t jpow'rs reari But kept old Truth, and WQIiJ.!1:dRot !left 'mer go, Nor tlarn out of the way for friend or foe. He was suspended in the Dutchman's days, Because he would not walk in their strange ways. Daemona non armis sed morte subegit Jesus, As xt by death his rampant foes trod down, So must all those who doe expect a crown'. 'He died 1717, aged about 80 years'.

Next to him lies Thomas Baker, Vicar of Chiddingly and , who wrote poetry much regarded locally at the time, although the florid piety of his epitaph is hardly to the taste of today.

Over the Northand South doors are tablets bearing the arms of Richardson. Thomas Shepherd Richardson, locally known as 'Squire Richardson',bought Hilder's farm at the end of the last Century and transformed it into a small country estate. He and his family were great benefactors to the church and village.

-13- John Herring, whose grave we have noticed in the porch, is reputed to have introduced the potato to this part of Sussex.

An earlier Vicar, Giles Watkin, has his memorial stone in the external West wall on the North side. His Christian name is given in its LaUn form, 'Aegidius'.

STAINEDGLASS There are only two s,tained glass windows in the church. The East wind'ow of 18"75 is a memorial to the Reverend James Vidal and his wife, during ,whose incumbency the church was restored and the old church school, now the village hall, and' the vicarage were built. He was Chiddingly's first resident incumbent for a long time. Mis predecessor, the Reverend Whitworth Russell, had combined his incumbency with the Chaplaincy of Bedford Gaol, and the Inspectorate of H. M. Prisons. He delegated his work to a ,succession of curates, and to judge by the church registers, only appeared in Chiddingly to officiate at the marriages or burials of his more influential parishioners. The curates 11ved at Vicarage House, which was located along the West side of today's church rails and was the home of a carpenter called Nathanial Guy. He had ~o keep some rooms in readiness for visiting or absent clergy. The Vidal window depicts Christ the Good Shepherd', very appropriately in a sheep-farming parish. butislp.'edil,b0€re in both design and colour. The window of tW0 l'~!ghtis"b the North-East wall which depicts St. John Baptist$m:cl' s.t .J'ohn Evangelist. is attributed to Powell and comrnein(:jj~afieSJohn Day of . a local landowner.

PULPIT. LECTURNAND FONT The pulpit 'is of t'A'e la,te 18th Century with a sounding board termiinaitingi~Ji),t: an ogee cap. The pulpit was once a 'three decker'with. s,1;aJ!ls for parson and clerk. A photograph of the in.terier:' ef the church taken prior to the first World War shows ene stall still in position. The box pews are of the same period.

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The oak eagle lectern is 20th Century, a vigorous piece of wood-carving, in memory of a member of the Richardson family. The font was brought from a derelict church at South Heighton and given a new pedestal. It was relocated in 1984 from North door site to the North transept.

THE ORGAN Is a one manual and pedal tracker instrument by J. Walker, built originally in 1870. It was purchased from the 'iron church' in Eastbourne for the sum of £75 in 1906, and brought in pieces to the church on a farm-cart. The case was then assembled by the village carpenter and the pipe work 'and action by Mr. Herbert Richardson, who was an amateur organ builder. 'Pdor to this, a small organ had stood in the ringing ga,U,erywith the choir stalls grouped round, to the gr;,ealtincoFw,enience of hoth choristers and ringers. Sinc.e ,the Rest0ratioFi work of 1982-85 the organ has beeR brol!)gh~!forward in front of the North aisle arch and a Sacristry formed behind. The screen curtain was removed from behind the organist. The charming Victorian decorations on the organ pip~s were repainted. .

The Royal Arms of George IV, 1820-1830, are displayed on the East wall of the transept with the names of the churchwardens who provided them. It is a curiously amateurish work, the supporting lion seeming to have borrowed his teeth from a bulldog, and it is believed to have been the work of the young Mark Anthony Lower, son of Richard Lower the schoolmaster and a notable Sussex Ant iquarian.

The church registers survive from 1621. Registers when completed are deposited at the County Records Office, The Maltings, Lewes, together with the churchwardens' and overseers' account books for the period 1660 to 1820 and other f'elated documents of the period. A transcript of which is held in the church.

-15- The church plate comprises a Charles I goblet dated 1542, given to the church some years ago for use as a chalice, and a George III stem patten, 1774, together with a Victorian flagon. These are used only occasionally and are kept in the bank. The everyday communion set was presented by the Reverend Hugh Robinson after his service as Chaplain to the Forces and 8 chalice giv.en in memory of his son Peter, tragically killed by a bull in 1983.

The list of incumbents from 1400 is displayed on one of the arches.

THE CHURCHYARDIs bounded by a low post and rail fence which was completely renewed by subscription in 1990, as it could no longer profit by repair. It. had served for over 200 years, carrying the initials of 56 local landowners and farmers who had contributed units of 'one set of post and three rails' according to acreage held. These were known as 'Church Marks', The new fence of solid oak was fashioned, as of old, without the use of a single nail. Four gates, a kissing gate, a stile and all the rails are stamped with the initials of today's donors, some of them now occupying the houses and land where the ancient contributors once dwelt.

There is an example of the wooden 'bed-head' gra~emarker, in. common use before 1840, which has been nes~(;)\rea: and relocated on the south flank of the old cAurch~~~~

A mason' s ~ark can be seen on the North-\Wes,t ,G\(;)rn'EJ'r.of the tower, a few feet from ground-level.

There are a number of headstones on t};J:e1!8\thand 19th Centuries which still exhibit excellent examples of carving and lettering, despite the ravages of time and weather. Note in particular the headstone of John Bray on the East side of the porch. this has a charming little terracotta plaque, by Jonathan Harmer of Heathfield, whose work is to

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be found in several churchyards in the neighbourhood. There are also many memorials to members of the Guy family, who acquired Chiddingly Place from the Chat fields in 1783, and, remained for over 150 years.

The task of keeping a Parish Church in good repair has always been and will always remain a burden, especially in a small community. Chiddingly with about 875 souls is no exception.

In the last 25 years, major works on the exterior and many improvements to the interior have been achieved. Now we must modernise the drainage system, taking surface water away from the base of the fabric. We wiJ!!lthen be able to embark on tl'leconservation of the Jefferay monument. We ask of your gen((D;rosityto l'eave a gift to our maintenance fund, so that t~e church which you have enjoyed and which we love so much, may glorify God in the years to come.

This guide is the first general up-dating since the Reverend Hugh Robinson, Vicar 1966-83, compiled the very readable previous edition. We have tried to include as much of the former text as possible, leaving room for several new features and alterations to the script, as more recent information came to light.

As here ~to ~fore the present writers also acknowledge the contributions of two more former clerics, the Reverend J. H. Vidal's letter on discoveries made during chancel rebuilding in 1864, the Reverend T. V. Southey, for his illustrated guide

-17- Coming up to modern times, we have verses written by an old resident William Chiv~s

Jose Loosemore Churchwarden. Joan Burgis Lay Reader. JANUARY 19~5.

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THE VICARS OF CHIDDINGLY frQm the Fifteenth Century

1~? John Stoke 1905 T.Vyner Southey M.A. 1~07 John Putter 1916 Cecil Clarke M.~ 1~13 Walter Gunmaylok 1922 A.F. Tracey 1~78 William Joy 1927 Jerom Victor I.Th. John Bumdon 1936 Henry William Overs 1.Th 1509 Simon Fewlar 1939 David James MacGregor 1513 William Titelton 1951 fStanley Farlie 1560 Thomas Chatfelde 1957 fGerard Summer good B.A. 1588 William Storckey 196~ fBrian Lees Gandon 1623 Samuel Burton 1967 fHugh Stanley Robinson AKC 1652 Robert BaWer 1983 Patrick Amos 1667 Ephraim Bethell 199~ M. Brian Lea M. A. lB.. D. 1671 Thomas Eades 1692 William Blackstone 1725 Giles Watkins 1728 Edward Luxford 1737 John Lloyd A.B. 17~8 John Herring A.B. 1777 Thomas Baker 1796 Henry Bishop A.M. 1825 Whitworth Russell A.~ 18~7 James Henry Vidal M.A. 1875 John Scale fFrom 1951-1976 also Vicar of Laughton

From 1983 Rectors of the United Benefice of Chiddingly with East Hoathly. Front Cover: Print by J. Swaine 1870, reproduced by kincrpeflnission of,the Cou'nty Archivist, The Maltings, Lewes, East Sussex. Printed by Battle Instant PrintlILtd,\L43 St GcorlllJs ROlld, IIUNtll1~", 1'1I1NISusscx "N34 3NF Tel: (01:424)43@153 Fux: (01424)44MH3