St Nicholas, Poling

From the outside, Poling church looks almost entirely Tudor.

The windows are square with square hood mouldings to keep the rain off, and thin stone mullions. Simple trefoils in the pointed tracery are the only ornaments. The west tower with its prominent stair turret and buttresses is also typical of the 15th century. 

Inside, however, and the church's Saxon and Norman origins are revealed. The Saxon nave is typically tall for its width, and a single round-headed Saxon window with a big splay to increase the amount of light coming in still remains in the north wall. The window was blocked for centuries – when it was reopened a fragment of the original Saxon shutter was discovered and is now displayed below. 

The south aisle was added in about 1200, two simple pointed arches and the chancel rebuilt either at the same time or later in that century. 

The last significant rebuilding gave the church its Tudor trimmings that define its character today. It also added a rood screen of which two beams survive, the lower one with a modern cross. The upper beam is battlemented and pierced with circular quatrefoils – it is not aligned properly and was brought in from somewhere else. 

The final touch was added in the 1830s when the Duck of Norfolk presented the church with six medieval carved bosses, probably from Arundel church, that now adorn the roof and rood beams. 

The setting of the church is a precious survival – one of the few places in the coastal plain that seems untouched by time. It is entirely surrounded by fields – only the roofs of distant warehouses show how close the development that lines the coast from Littlehampton to Eastbourne really is.

St Mary, Fittleworth

The nave of Fittleworth church looks rather odd as you walk down the path. The first thing you see is a line of rather domestic-looking dormer windows in the roof, and then you notice that the stone of the nave does not match that of the chancel and tower.

A series of pictures inside the church explains all. The old nave was pulled down in 1871 and rebuilt - one picture shows the 13th century chancel and tower standing alone like, as the caption puts it, 'like bookends with nothing in between.'
Nobody knows why the nave was demolished. Another of the pictures shows the old one, a delightful and unusual timber structure like a barn, probably dating from the 16th century. It was filled with box pews and galleries. It is possible that it had become structurally unsound, of course, but another possibility is that the parish priest, who had been recently promoted from vicar to rector, simply wanted a swankier building in stone. 

Whatever the reason, the architect Henry Woodyer was brought in to do the work. He faced a number of difficulties including the short tower, which meant the nave's roofline would have to be so low the side windows were going to be very small - hence the dormer windows to let more light in.
Inside, the new stone nave arcades are a bit too grand for this modest church, supporting the theory that the new rector wanted a church that reflected his new status better.

St Agatha, Coates

Time seems to have stopped at Coates. The tiny church is little altered since the 13th century, sitting on a hillside a few hundred yards from a 17th century stone manor house and barns, practically the only buildings to be seen.

St Agatha's walls are almost entirely Norman, from the early 12th century as shown by a small window in the south wall of the nave which has its round head carved out of a single stone. The 13th century alterations consisted mainly of improving the light by inserting lancet windows. Two lancets were punched through the east wall of the chancel instead of the more usual three, a feature of other churches in the area such as Barlavington. 

The ceilings have been plastered but retain many of the original beams. The middle beam in the nave supports a queen post with wiggly braces.
Another unusual feature is the porch, which is to the north, probably for the convenience of the residents of the manor house.
The only significant damage was caused by a restoration in 1906 when the belfry was enlarged (though a tall spirelet was later removed and replaced by a cap closer to the shape of the original). The architect also repointed the walls with harsh cement that clashes horribly with the earlier work.

St Mary, Stopham

For almost all of its 900 year history, St Mary's has been associated with the Barttelot family whose monuments fill the church.

The Barttelots are said to have come over with William the Conqueror and owned property in the area by at least 1296, marrying into the de Stopham family to create the local dynasty. At one time, it was said, the Barttelots could ride from Stopham to Horsham without leaving their lands.

The church dates from the late 11th century and is little altered, still showing the remnants of Saxon building styles especially in two very tall arches in the north and south walls of the nave and the triangular arch into the later tower.

The chancel is divided from the nave by a circular Norman arch and is unusual in having another arch at the east end creating a separate sanctuary. 

The east window is much later (15^th century) and could have been transferred from the Barttelot's original house nearby when they moved to a much bigger place on the River Arun next to Stopham Bridge. Originally, it is thought, the sanctuary could have been a circular apse.

The stained glass in the east window and the north nave window is a 17^th century tribute to the nobility and lineage of the Barttelots. The east window is filled with their armorial bearings, and the nave window with a remarkable picture of Sir Brian de Stopham, who died in 1273, and a 17^th century Barttelot. It was made in Flanders and is signed Roelant.

The Barttelots are also memorialised in brass. Brasses cover the aisle from nave to chancel, recording members of the family from John and Joan in 1428 to Richard and his two wives (and nine children!) from 1614.

The Barttelot family still live in the area, but sadly their grand country house has been converted into flats.

St Leonard, South Stoke

South Stoke feels incredibly remote, at the end of two-mile cul-de-sac to the north of Arundel. The huddle of houses on a hillock enclosed by a loop of the River Arun only qualifies as a village because of St Leonard's church.

The church is a simple Norman structure with nave and chancel, probably the church mentioned in the Domesday Book. The west end was altered in the 13th century by the addition of an unusually spindly tower, which is reflected inside by a rather dramatic composition consisting of a tall pointed tower arch flanked by a pair of lancet windows in deep splays.
Since then, little has changed. The queen post roof was renewed in the 15th century and the exterior was given a typically hard Victorian appearance in the 19th, with the addition of the quaint spirelet on oversized corbels on the tower.
The village, however, did not prosper over the centuries. Elizabeth I confiscated it as part of the estates of the recusant Catholic Earl of Arundel. In the Civil War villagers backed the losing side, making several inflammatory entries in the Parish Register such as "1650 - This is the 2nd yr of the Usurpation and Interregnum, and by right, the 2nd yr of the reign of Charles ye second."

In 1797 the Dukes of Norfolk recovered the estate, only to enclose most South Stoke's common pasture for their Park. The canalisation of the Arun isolated the farm houses from their fields still further, as well as increasing the frequency of flooding. The arrival of the railway made matters worse.
The result, however, is that the village is unspoiled and oozes charm.

Mass Dials

18th century mass dial at Boxgrove

How did the vicar know when to start services in the days before clocks and watches? They would consult a sundial called a mass dial or scratch dial inscribed on the south wall of the church.

Mass dial now inside Bosham church, believed to be Saxon

In Saxon times, mass dials were often sophisticated timepieces, carved in relief, but after the Conquest they became much more home-made and functional - just a horizontal gnomon and holes or scratches in the stone where the shadow would fall at the start of services. 

The diagram shows a Norman scratch dial at Ashton-under-Hill, Worcestershire. The hole in the middle would have held the wooden gnomon, which would have been replaced periodically as they rotted away. The scratches mark noon and morning and evening services.

Some mass dials were even simpler. The priest would use the gnomon to bore a hole in the soft mortar between the stone joints, and a horizontal line of holes in the stone below to show the times.
Later mass dials became more elaborate and elegantly carved, with regular radiating rays and semicircular arcs, looking a bit like a school protractor. Some are complete circles, despite the fact that the upper half was just for show.

Mass dial at Wiggonholt

In the 18th century, mass dials with corrections for the time of year and complete with Roman numerals appeared, but clocks were appearing in churches by that time so it may be that such advanced dials were more of a hobby of the rector rather than necessary for timekeeping.
Mass dials are usually found on the south corner of the chancel or on a buttress, but many have been moved in the course of restoration, some even to a north wall where they would be completely useless!

St Mary Magdalene, Lyminster

As you approach Lyminster church from the north, it seems to be a familiar 13th century Sussex arrangement with a chancel and a nave with an aisle and a massive roof extending over both, reaching almost down to the ground.

Enter the church, however, and the first thing that strikes you is the height of the nave and chancel, linked by a an almost absurdly tall and relatively narrow chancel arch. The walls are only 2ft 7in thick.
The proportions are clearly Saxon, all that remains of a pre-Conquest Benedictine nunnery called Nonneminstre. It must have been an important church, as the 'minster' in the village's name indicates. 

Between 1170 and 1200, the north aisle was added and the nave heightened by 5ft, accentuating the proportions even further. The arcade has round columns and pointed arches. 

Unfortunately, the aisle was not strong enough to take the sideways pressure of the nave roof, and when a fire destroyed it in the early 15th century it was rebuilt with an unusual almost freestanding timber frame designed to prop up the arcade.
An upright timber sits neatly behind each column, with a beam and a crownpost supporting the roof.
The tower was started in the 13th century, and it is now the the main accent of the church as seen from the train as you speed towards Arundel.
Since the 12th century the church has been little altered, partly because little money was available – the two Victorian restorations cost less than £650 each.