TQ4223 : Tower and Spire, Church of Ss Andrew & Mary, Fletching
taken 11 years ago, near to Fletching, East Sussex, England
Grade I listed.
There is no mention of a church in the Domesday book, but a stone church was certainly built at an early date, the tower of the present building shows work which dates from the late Saxon or early Norman period.
The church is a cruciform shape, one of the largest in the district and was completed about the year 1230. The church was confirmed to the Priory of Mitchelham in 1398 by the Bishop of Chichester. At the dissolution of the monasteries the patronage was granted to Anne of Cleeves and was eventually purchased by the first Earl of Sheffield.
The tower is Saxo-norman and was originally built without a spire or its buttresses. These were added about 1340.
The tower is of two stages, the lower stage has a round headed window on the north, south and west sides, on each of the upper stage is a double wide headed opening of original Norman work. The eastern pair have been visible only from inside the church as a result of raising the level of the nave roof in the 14th century.
The spire was probably first erected about 1340 It is octagonal with broaches at the bases, and the whole of the tower floors and the spire itself are carried on an independent timber frame built inside the earlier tower. The apex of the spire is 99 feet above the ground.
There are eight bells.
The church is built of sandstone rubble with a roof of Horsham stone.
It consists of the west tower, a four bay nave, north and south transepts and a mausoleum at the north end of the north transept, a south porch, chancel and vestry. The porch is 15th century.
The nave has clerestory windows, the roof has five Crown posts.
The doorway from the nave to the tower is probably Saxon, with early Norman Chevron ornament over the arch on the west side. The east side is restored. The church was altered in 1340 when the walls appear to have been raised.
The original Norman church was probably the length of the present nave and of width to the present piers, the foundations of which are Norman, still in perfect condition. The total length of the church is 142 feet.
The transepts are part of the general rebuilding in early English style in the 13th century. The north transept was probably converted into a Chantry Chapel about 1340, with its own door in the west wall. There is a squint and a piscina. The south transept contains a monument to Richard Leche and Charity his wife. He was High Sheriff of Sussex and Surrey, and died in 1596. His widow married secondly the Earl of Nottingham, who was as unkind to her as her first husband had been kind. There is a small skull between them indicating the death of a child. His will provided money for the benefit of the poor people of Fletching, and this charity has survived virtually unaltered to the present day, its administration has been bought up to date by a scheme of the Charity Commissioners established in 1963.
There is a Table Tomb to the Dalyngrygge family, probably Sir Walter of that name and his wife. On top of the tomb is a brass showing him and his wife underneath a double canopy. The family built Bodiam Castle with the approval of Richard II.
There is also a 13th century monumental figure of a knight and his lady which was discovered in 1830 at the foundation of one of the buttresses of the church.
Nearby is a brass to Petrus Denot mounted on a stone slab. The brass consists of a pair of gloves and is dated around 1450. He was indeed a Glover. This slab was probably originally on the floor.
The chancel is 4 feet wider than the nave, it is also very long compared to the length of the nave being a length of 50 feet. It was heavily restored in the 1880s when a vestry was also added. The eastern window was also restored in 1880 and has stained-glass by Kempe. The south side of the chancel has two low side windows.
There is a modern piscina and sedilia replacing the former medieval work.