The church at Upwaltham is an amazing survival, almost unaltered from when it was built in the 12th century.
Its location away from
any big settlement meant that there was never pressure to extend it
or money to restore it, but its position close to the Chichester to
Petworth road meant that it never fell into disuse and decay as many
more remote churches did.
It was a jolly close
run thing, though. From 1833 to '51 the rector of Upwaltham and
neighbouring East Lavington was the dynamic high churchman Henry
Manning, later one of Britain's most high profile converts to
Catholicism, second Archbishop of Westminster and a cardinal. He had
East Lavington church so brutally restored and extended barely any
original features survive today.
Luckily, he never got
round to 'beautifying' Upwaltham. Perhaps he just liked it the way it
was – in in later life he described the church and its downland
setting as "only less beautiful then heaven."
Standing alone, halfway
up the hill, the church is a simple rectangle with an apsidal
chancel. Unusually, there is no east window. Instead, there are
windows on either side. The chancel arch is 13th century
(the 12th century arch would have been considerably
narrower).
The beams of the
kingpost roof may also be original, another unusual survival given
the dangers of rot and fire over the centuries.
In the chancel the
piscina or basin for washing the communion vessels is ornately carved
with spirals called volutes. It is possible that it came from
Chichester Cathedral.
