Holy
Trinity, Hurstpierpoint
The parish church of Holy Trinity consists of a chancel with
arcades of two bays, north chapel, south chapel (now organ chamber
and vestry), nave, north and south transepts, north arcade and
aisle of four bays, south arcade and aisle of five bays, and a
north-west tower with an octagonal spire of stone. The base of the
tower serves as a porch and there is a small porch to the north
chapel. The nave has a clearstory.
The church was completely rebuilt from the designs of Sir
Charles Barry in 1843–5,who most famously designed the Houses of
Parliament
In 1854 the north chapel was added, and in 1874 the south
chapel; the last has a dated foundation-stone in the east wall. The
north transept has been fitted up as a chapel in memory of those
who died in the War of 1914–18. The church which it replaced
consisted of a chancel with a south chapel (the Danny chapel - see
Danny House) of approximately equal dimensions, a nave with south
aisle and north porch, and a west tower with a shingled spire. It
had been almost rebuilt by a rector, John Urry, about 1420, but the
tracery of the windows and most other ancient features had vanished
under 'churchwarden improvements' before 1835.
A number of funeral monuments and fittings were preserved from
the old church. The font is probably of c. 1200, but the heavy
round bowl has been reworked and painted; the stem is plain; the
base has a late-12th or early-13th-century mould. Near by, a broken
mortar, brought from a local farmyard, has been set on a stem and
base as if to represent a font. The enclosure around the font has
turned balusters and moulded handrail of the 18th century and may
have been the former communion rails.
In the east window of the south chapel are set fifteen
medallions of German or Flemish glass of the 16th and 17th
centuries; five are circular, the others oval; they mostly depict
scenes from the Old and New Testaments and include a Nativity, and
the placing of our Lord in the sepulchre. There are also four
similar oval cartouches in the west window of the tower-porch, all
collected and placed here by Canon Borrer in 1845.
In the south chapel is a much weathered recumbent effigy, 6 ft.
8 in. long, of a cross-legged knight in chain armour, of c. 1260;
he bears his heater-shaped shield on his left arm and his right
hand grasps the hilt of his sword. The feet rest against a
lion.
At the west end of the north aisle is a much mutilated effigy of
a knight of c. 1340 wearing a bascinet, mail gorget, close-fitting
gypon with scalloped lower edge, a baudrick, and plate armour with
knee-caps to the legs. The head rests on his helm, which has a lion
crest; the feet also rest against a recumbent lion. The figure now
rests on an altar-tomb against the north wall; the exposed south
side has four quatrefoil panels each enclosing a plain shield, and
the east end a single panel. The tomb is enclosed by an iron
railing, 4 ft. 10 in. high, which has three diagonal standards
treated with buttresses and with moulded and embattled caps and
spikes for candles; these are of early-16th-century date.
There are eight bells, of which three date from 1775, and the
others from 1846.
If any body would
like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you
could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the
Church numbers and names to avoid duplication