St. Mary's Church, Broadwater, is located in the Diocese of Chichester, in the deanery of Worthing and serves the parish of Broadwater in Worthing in West Sussex. It is one of four churches within this parish alongside Hosanna, Queen Street Fellowship and St. Stephen's Church.
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1086. The Domesday Book: "Bradwatre ... here is a church".
Not much of the building from the Saxon times remain, however it is said that repair work in 1939 uncovered a Saxon doorway in the south wall of the chancel, visible near the boiler house, and other Saxon door jambs and window arches are preserved within the walls of the present tower.
The Normans built a small church of which only the tower remains as evidenced in its arches, though the clay subsoil has required successive repair and reinforcement of this tower. Legend has it that a Norman tunnel leads from the church to the nearby Broadwater Manor School (previously Broadwater Manor House). The tunnel may have been used as either an escape or smuggling route. Efforts to find the concealed entrance both from the church and the School in the 1980s were in vain.
12th century, late. Transepts added. Chancel lengthened.
13th century. New aisled nave built. Chancel rebuilt. Tower heightened.
14th (15th?) century. North door into the nave (main entrance, facing the village) renewed and porch added.
15th century. Windows and pillars in aisled nave altered. Low chancel screen installed, with evidence that there was at some time another screen above it.
1599. Altar slabs were removed by order of Queen Elizabeth (I). The remains of an ancient one of Sussex marble, partially concreted over, can be seen just inside the chancel, by the screen.
1819. Gallery built at west end.
1826. Short shingled spire taken down from tower. Six chapels, three to the east of each of the transepts, were knocked down. The north transept was converted for use as a school, with a gallery. Box pews installed in the nave. Galleries were built over both aisles.
1830. The tower was embattled and a turret was added over the spiral stone staircase in its southwest corner.
1853-55. Chancel roof replaced, walls straightened ("Mr Hide's experiment") and underpinned after having begun to be pushed outwards. Chancel windows replaced, except the one in the southwest corner which still dates from C15. Churchyard closed, no further burials.
1860's. Galleries over the aisles, west end and north transept were removed. New nave pews replaced box pews. Caen stone pulpit erected, designed by Charles Hide, son of the architect in charge of this restoration. The previous Jacobean pulpit was moved to Holy Trinity church, Worthing. Clergy vestry built east of the south transept.
1866. The tower was strengthened by filling the spiral stone staircase in its southwest corner and removing the turret above it. A new wooden staircase to the tower had been put in the north transept.
1887. West end rebuilt, reopened with porch. Door in south aisle blocked up.
1903. Clock placed in tower commemorating Reverend E K Elliot's 50 years as Rector.
1938. Six 1712 bells were recast and two tenor bells added.
1953. Cox & Barnard of Hove installed a stained glass window in the south wall of the chancel. It depicts John Wycliffe with a group of preachers.[1]
1986. Wooden dais/platform built under the west arch of the tower.
1989. Tower battlements renewed.
2001. First of four phases of a reordering process to equip the church for the 21st century. New heating & lighting system.
2007. North transept re-ordered with a mezzanine floor, creating two additional rooms available for children's rooms.
2009. All pews removed from the nave and some from the chancel. Nave floor replaced with stone and underfloor heating. Inner west door replaced with glazed doors.
2013? Extending the building to provide additional facilities.
Most notably Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr was entombed in the church in 1524 and his memorial is on the north wall of the chancel. The tomb was discovered under the nave floor in 2009. His son, also Thomas, died in 1554 and has a Caen stone memorial at the east side of the south transept, moved from the east end of the south aisle in 1826.
John Mapulton (also known as John Mapilton), rector of the church between 1424 and 1431 was clerk to the Court of Chancery and was chancellor to Queen Joanna, widow of Henry IV.[2] The church contains a brass dedicated to John Mapilton.
Two well-preserved brasses on a stone slab were discovered under old pews in 1826. This was set into the centre aisle of the nave and then moved, in 2007, to be positioned vertically the north transept. The main brass cross commemorates Reverend Richard Tooner who died in 1445. Below it is a memorial to John Corby, Rector 1393-1415.
The church also has a brass dedicated to the eleven brave fishermen who lost their lives in the Lalla Rookh disaster of 1850 while trying to save the lives of the crew of the Lalla Rookh, a ship caught in stormy seas off Worthing.
Writers Richard Jefferies and William Henry Hudson, as well as surgeon John White are buried in the church's cemetery.
A notable curate of the church was George Baillie Duncan.