St Botolph's Church is the
Church of England parish church of
Hardham,
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
. It is in
Horsham District
Horsham is a local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in Horsham. The district borders those of Crawley, Mid Sussex, Mole Valley, Chichester, Arun and Adur, and the unitary authority of Brighton & Hove.
The ...
and is a
Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. It contains the earliest nearly complete series of wall paintings in England. Among forty individual subjects is the earliest known representation of
St. George in England.
Dating from the 12th century, they were hidden from view until uncovered in 1866 and now "provide a rare and memorable impression of a medieval painted interior".
The simple two-cell stone building, with its original medieval whitewashed exterior, has seen little alteration and also has an ancient bell.
History
![St Botolph's Church, Hardham](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/St_Botolph%27s_Church%2C_Hardham.jpg)
Hardham village is just off the main
A29 road
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
, which is "excitingly" separated from the village lane by narrow hedges.
The A29 follows the course of
Stane Street, an important
Roman road, and Hardham was the first
posting station after leaving the Roman city of
Noviomagus Reginorum
Noviomagus Reginorum was Chichester's Roman heart, very little of which survives above ground. It lay in the land of the friendly Atrebates and is in the early medieval-founded English county of West Sussex. On the English Channel, Chichester ...
(present-day
Chichester
Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publi ...
).
Hardham was recorded in the
Domesday survey
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086 as ''Heriedham'', but a church was not described.
Hardham Priory
Hardham Priory was an Augustinian priory in Hardham, West Sussex, England.
It was founded around 1248 by Sir William Dawtrey as a priory of Black Canons of St Augustine which was at first called Heringham Priory. It was enlarged by Sir William ...
was founded nearby in 1248.
The church is late
Saxon or early
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
.
Despite its omission from the Domesday survey, the present building is often considered to be 11th-century;
all sources agree that it was complete by 1125 at the latest.
The design, described as "primitive" and simple,
appears to belong solely to the very early Norman style rather than "wavering between Saxon and Norman" like some contemporary churches; but the dedication to St Botolph is generally associated with Saxon churches.
Some stones and tiles used by the Romans for their nearby buildings were incorporated into the fabric of the building, especially in the
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
.
An
anchorite — apparently a woman called Myliana — was housed in a stone cell attached to the church from about 1250. A
squint
Squinting is the action of looking at something with partially closed eyes.
Squinting is most often practiced by people who suffer from refractive errors of the eye who either do not have or are not using their glasses. Squinting helps momentari ...
was added at the same time to give her a view into the chancel towards the altar and to allow her to receive Communion. Another known occupant of the cell was Prior Robert, who died there in 1285.
The squint was later blocked, but in about 1900 it was uncovered.
Some
lancet windows were added in the nave in the late 13th century, and in the 14th century the chancel received two new window openings.
Many churches in small villages around the
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...
were changed very little after they were built, and St Botolph's Church is an example of this. Minimal population growth over the centuries meant that enlargement was not needed; and the parishes tended to be poor, with little to spend on rebuilding or new architectural designs.
Therefore, the church retained its simple appearance until the 19th century, when a porch and
bell-turret were added.
At the same time, the frescoes were revealed again: first in 1862, when a section of whitewash was removed and one painting was found (although the work damaged it), and later in 1866, when the rest were uncovered. They are faded but clearly discernible.
Philip Mainwaring Johnston
Philip Mainwaring Johnston (1865–1936), also known as PM Johnston, was a British architect and architectural historian.
Education
Philip attended King's College School, London. He studied drawing and painting under Professor Delamotte at K ...
undertook some restoration of the frescoes around 1900 and wrote a study of them in the ''
Sussex Archaeological Collections'' in 1901.
Architecture
![Hardham, St Botolph's church - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Hardham%2C_St_Botolph%27s_church_-_geograph.org.uk_-_449480.jpg)
The church consists of
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
only. Such two-cell structures are common in the
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...
area of Sussex.
The nave measures , and the chancel is much shorter and slightly narrower at . The walls, thick, are of coarse
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
rubble masonry
Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an i ...
and flint with much re-use of Roman stonework and tiles. In particular, one of the blocks in the southeast
quoin is in fact a set of about 16 tiles with their original Roman mortar. The other quoins are rough-faced stone blocks with dimensions of about .
A
shingle-covered belfry stands on the east
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
of the nave, and a porch protrudes from the north side.
The exterior walls are covered in white plaster—a common feature of churches in the medieval era.
The nave and chancel are separated by a chancel arch whose "austere"
and "broad simplicity" is indicative of early Norman design.
The surface has "discreet", subtly
ring-moulded imposts which hardly interrupt the smooth lines.
Certain other features suggest Saxon influence, including the square east end of the chancel and the substantial, blocky quoins.
The south wall also has a bricked-up doorway, which may have been a Saxon-era entrance.
Overall, though, the building is low, broad and sturdy—a "vigorous, down-to-earth and practical work" which was characteristic of Norman builders.
The
king-post roof is likely to be original.
High in the nave walls are two small windows with modest splays.
There are also original
Early English-style
lancet windows, which "suit the church very well",
and other windows which were added later. The porch and bell-turret were added in the Victorian period.
A squint was cut into the south side of the chancel in the Middle Ages. It was the site of a now vanished anchorite's cell, which would have projected from the wall.
Internal fixtures include a 15th-century
Perpendicular Gothic octagonal
font, benches whose simple straight-headed ends date from the same era, and altar rails dating from 1720.
One of the two bells, possibly dating from the early 12th century, may be one of the oldest in Sussex but not the oldest, St Nicholas Church Worth is the oldest; the other was cast in 1636 and bears the inscription .
The wall paintings
Introduction
![Hardham - Labours of Adam and Eve](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Hardham_-_Labours_of_Adam_and_Eve.jpg)
In the early 12th century,
St Pancras' Priory at
Lewes, one of the richest monasteries in England, apparently supervised the decoration of the church interior with an extensive set of
frescoes.
Murals from the same school—known as the Lewes Group — can also be seen at
Coombes Church
Coombes Church is a Church of England parish church in the rural hamlet of Coombes in the Adur District of West Sussex, England. It has served the rural parish, northwest of Shoreham-by-Sea and next to the River Adur, since the 11th century. De ...
near
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England.
The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on th ...
,
St John the Baptist's Church, Clayton and St Michael and All Angels Church at
Plumpton,
and were once visible at the church in
Westmeston
Westmeston is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England heavily dependent in amenities on larger Ditchling to the near-immediate northwest. It is four miles (6 km) south-southeast of Burgess Hill and (10  ...
as well.
Unusually, the frescoes cover the whole church interior.
They are celebrated for their age, extent and quality:
Ian Nairn
Ian Douglas Nairn (24 August 1930 – 14 August 1983) was a British architectural critic who coined the word "Subtopia" to indicate drab suburbs that look identical through unimaginative town-planning. He published two strongly personalised criti ...
calls them "the fame of Hardham",
and descriptions such as "fine",
"
ardham'sparticular glory"
and "one of the most important sets in the country"
have been applied. The frescoes at Hardham were not on display to worshippers for very long: they were covered with whitewash in the 13th century.
Date and style
In addition to the link with the supposed "Lewes Group" of artists, the wall paintings can be dated on historical and stylistic grounds to the early 12th century. They represent the "Anglo-Norman" style of this period, as seen in Norman manuscripts and the
Bayeux Tapestry.
Dating of the paintings is further indicated by Scene 20 (see below).
Technique and conservation
The wall paintings were created in three stages. First, a thick base layer of plaster was applied to the walls; then a thinner layer of plaster was applied over this in patches, according to the layout of the scenes and borders; then each patch was then painted while the plaster was still wet. (This is the true
fresco technique).
The "bacon and egg" palette of colours was obtained from cheap locally available materials: red and yellow
ochre, lime white,
carbon black
Carbon black (subtypes are acetylene black, channel black, furnace black, lamp black and thermal black) is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of coal and coal tar, vegetable matter, or petroleum products, including fuel oil, fluid ...
, and green from
copper carbonate Copper carbonate may refer to :
;Copper (II) compounds and minerals
* Copper(II) carbonate proper, (neutral copper carbonate): a rarely seen moisture-sensitive compound.
* Basic copper carbonate (the "copper carbonate" of commerce), actually a cop ...
.
Since their discovery in 1866 the wall paintings have been variously restored and conserved in 1900–01, 1936, 1950, 1961–63 and 1986. They have suffered from moisture and salts. Much work has been done to improve the drainage and the exterior rendering of the church.
Description
There are four main themes to the wall paintings:
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
, the
''Life of Christ'',
Judgement
Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle s ...
and
Apocalypse (including Hell scenes), and the
Labours of the Months.
The paintings are in two tiers along each wall.
There were originally explanatory inscriptions in the borders above the scenes, but only a fragment of these survives on the east wall of the nave.
The description below follows the numbering scheme in the booklet by the Courtauld Institute cited below, which is available for visitors to the church.
Scene 1: Agnus Dei or Lamb of God
Above the chancel arch the Lamb of God is shown, surrounded by an
aureole
An aureola or aureole (diminutive of Latin ''aurea'', "golden") is the radiance of luminous cloud which, in paintings of sacred personages, surrounds the whole figure.
In Romance languages, the noun Aureola is usually more related to the d ...
, with an angel either side.
Scenes 2 to 14: Infancy of Christ
Running along the upper part of the east, south and north nave walls are depictions of episodes from the infancy of Christ. These comprise the nativity, annunciation to the shepherds, an unidentified subject, the journey of the
Magi
Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius t ...
, Herod ordering the massacre of the innocents, the adoration of the Magi, the dream of Joseph, the dream of the Magi, the flight into Egypt, the massacre of the innocents itself and Christ as a child in the Temple.
The scenes of the
Annunciation and Salutation or
Visitation (Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth) have above them the only remaining explanatory inscription. This reads in Latin: "Virgo Saluatatur. Sterilis fecunda probatur". In English this is: "The Virgin is saluted. The barren is proved fruitful".
Scene 15:
Baptism of Christ
The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is a major event in the life of Jesus which is described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark and Luke). It is considered to have taken place at Al-Maghtas (also called Beth ...
On the east nave wall is a poorly preserved depiction of the Baptism of Christ.
Scenes 16 to 19:
Dives and Lazarus
The rich man and Lazarus (also called the parable of Dives and Lazarus or Lazarus and Dives) is a parable of Jesus from the 16th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Speaking to his disciples and some Pharisees, Jesus tells of an unnamed rich man a ...
These scenes recount the story of the rich man and the poor man, known as
Dives and Lazarus
The rich man and Lazarus (also called the parable of Dives and Lazarus or Lazarus and Dives) is a parable of Jesus from the 16th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Speaking to his disciples and some Pharisees, Jesus tells of an unnamed rich man a ...
, and their contrasting fates before and after death, told in . Scenes include a fragment of the feast of Dives, the soul of Lazarus taken to heaven, the soul of Lazarus on Abraham's bosom and the death of Dives.
Scenes 20 to 24: St. George
Scene 20 provides confirmation of the dating of the paintings to the early 12th century. It shows "St George in battle against the infidel", and was therefore almost certainly composed after the
First Crusade
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic r ...
of 1095 to 1099.
The other scenes are St. George held by torturers, the torture of St. George, St. George on the wheel and the burial of St. George. These represent the earliest known depictions of the saint in a British church.
Scene 25: Labours of the Months
Scene 26: Hell scenes
A group of four Hell scenes (the Torments of the Damned) cover the entire west wall of the nave.
Scenes 27 to 30:
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
In the chancel the scenes of Adam and Eve cover the west wall above the chancel arch. They include an unusual
trompe-l'œil
''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...
representation of the Temptation, made to look like a textile wall hanging. Other scenes show the pair hiding their nakedness, sitting back to back, and lamenting after the fall. Eve is depicted being tempted by the forbidden fruit by a wyvern-like serpent, and milking a cow.
This last scene is a unique depiction of Eve.
The figures are "violent and elongated
..as distorted as a
Russian ikon, and
Ian Nairn
Ian Douglas Nairn (24 August 1930 – 14 August 1983) was a British architectural critic who coined the word "Subtopia" to indicate drab suburbs that look identical through unimaginative town-planning. He published two strongly personalised criti ...
noted the "diagrammatic sketching in of belly and buttocks
whichis brilliant".
Scenes 31 to 36: Passion and
Resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...
Christ's Passion and Resurrection are depicted on the chancel walls. Scenes include the
Last Supper
Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...
,
Christ's betrayal by Judas, the
Flagellation of Christ
The Flagellation of Christ, sometimes known as Christ at the Column or the Scourging at the Pillar, is a scene from the Passion of Christ very frequently shown in Christian art, in cycles of the Passion or the larger subject of the '' Life of C ...
, his entombment, the three Marys at the tomb, and the
washing of the disciples' feet.
Scenes 37 to 39: Apostles, Elders of the Apocalypse,
Christ in Majesty
Christ in Majesty or Christ in Glory ( la, Maiestas Domini) is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world, always seen frontally in the centre of the composition, and often flanked by other sacred figures, whos ...
Representations of the Elders and Apostles cover the upper parts of the north and south walls of the chancel. Christ in Majesty originally would have appeared on the east wall, but the figure has been destroyed by the later insertion of a window. Only the flanking seraphs remain.
The church today
St Botolph's Church was
listed
Listed may refer to:
* Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm
* Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic
* Endangered species in biology
* Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...
at Grade I on 15 March 1955.
Such buildings are defined as being of "exceptional interest", and in some cases of greater than national importance.
As of February 2001, it was one of 38 Grade I listed buildings, and 1,726 listed buildings of all grades, in the district of Horsham.
The parish covers the
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of Hardham and the surrounding rural area. The
River Arun
The River Arun () is a river in the English county of West Sussex. At long, it is the longest river entirely in Sussex and one of the longest starting in Sussex after the River Medway, River Wey and River Mole. From the series of small strea ...
, the southern edge of
Pulborough
Pulborough is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, with some 5,000 inhabitants. It is located almost centrally within West Sussex and is south west of London. It is at the junction of the north–sout ...
and field boundaries mark its outer limits. The
A29 road
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
runs through from southwest to northeast.
The parish is one of four in the joint
benefice of
Bury with
Houghton Houghton may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide
* Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland
* Houghton Island (Queensland)
Canada
*Houghton Township, ...
,
Coldwaltham and Hardham.
Services are held each Sunday, generally using the
Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
.
See also
*
Grade I listed buildings in West Sussex
The county of West Sussex in South East England has 176 Grade I listed buildings. Such buildings are described by English Heritage, the authority responsible for their designation, as "of exceptional interest ndsometimes considered to be intern ...
*
List of places of worship in Horsham (district)
*
St John the Baptist's Church, Clayton
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
St Botolph's Churchon the Sussex Parish Churches website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardham, Saint Botolph
Church of England church buildings in West Sussex
Grade I listed churches in West Sussex
Horsham District
11th-century church buildings in England