St Leonard's Church is an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church in

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

, in the English city of

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...

. It is on New Church Road in the

Aldrington Aldrington is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, previously part of the old borough of Hove. For centuries it was meadow land along the English Channel stretching west from the old village of Hove to the old mouth of the River Adur, and i ...

area of Hove, which was previously a separate village, and it serves as Aldrington's

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

. The church was on ''Church Road'' but now stands on New Church Road, renamed in reference to the other church ( St Philip's) which was started in 1894 as a chapel of ease.

History

Aldrington developed in the mediaeval period as a small village between Hove, to the east, and the original (inland) settlement at

Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...

, near the mouth of the

River Adur The Adur ( or ) is a river in Sussex, England; it gives its name to the Adur district of West Sussex. The river, which is long, was once navigable for large vessels up as far as Steyning, where there was a large Saxon port, but by the 11th ce ...

. Over time the course of the river changed, and the population gradually fell; damage caused to houses in the

Great Storm of 1703 The great storm of 1703 was a destructive extratropical cyclone that struck central and southern England on 26 November 1703. High winds caused 2,000 chimney stacks to collapse in London and damaged the New Forest, which lost 4,000 oaks. Ships wer ...

increased the rate of decline, and the area was totally depopulated by 1800. A mediaeval parish church, built in the 13th century with a tower,

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. Ove ...

and

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 ...

, existed on a site to the northeast of Aldrington's only road. This started to fall into disrepair in the 16th century, however, and was in ruins by 1638, with the walls collapsing soon after 1800. The rapid residential development of Hove in the early and mid-19th century revived Aldrington. As demand for land and housing grew, development spread westwards and Church Road — the continuation of the main east–west route through Hove and Brighton — was extended from the edge of Aldrington into Portslade. In the sixty years from 1875, all of the land to the south of Church Road was developed with housing, and the opening of

Aldrington railway station Aldrington railway station, sometimes known by its former names of Aldrington Halt and Dyke Junction, is a railway station that serves the area of Aldrington in Hove, in East Sussex, England. The station is from Brighton on the West Coastway L ...

to the north stimulated growth in its vicinity. The parish of Aldrington officially became part of Hove in 1893, being incorporated within its district. The following year, the section of Church Road west of Hove Street was renamed New Church Road after plans for the construction of

St Philip's Church ''Riceyman Steps'' is a novel by British novelist Arnold Bennett, first published in 1923 and winner of that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. It follows a year in the life of Henry Earlforward, a miserly second-hand bookshop ow ...

were agreed. St Leonard's church remained in its ruined state until 1878, when architect Richard Herbert Carpenter (the son of

Richard Cromwell Carpenter Richard Cromwell Carpenter (21 October 1812 – 27 March 1855) was an English architect. He is chiefly remembered as an ecclesiastical and tractarian architect working in the Gothic style. Family Carpenter was born on 21 October 1812 in ...

, designer of St Paul's Church in Brighton) and

Benjamin Ingelow Benjamin Ingelow (17 April 1835 – 1 January 1926) was an English architect who practised from an office in London. Biography Ingelow was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, where his father was a banker. His training started when he was articled to Arth ...

were chosen to rebuild it. They incorporated parts of the tower and south aisle into the new design, which was a reproduction of the mediaeval style — in particular through the use of

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s and knapped flintwork. The new tower included six bells. Another major rebuilding took place in 1936, to increase the capacity of the church. Harold Milburn-Pett, architect for the

Diocese of Chichester The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was founded in 681 as the ancient Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey, until the see was translated to Chichester in 1075. The cathe ...

, undertook this work. The building was widened significantly: the original nave was turned into an aisle, and a new nave and chancel were built on the north side. A northern aisle was never added, although there were plans to do so; the northern exterior wall of the church, intended as a temporary structure, is therefore different in style from the other walls, being in red brick rather than knapped flint. (As with the first rebuilding, the rest of the 1936 work used knapped flintwork.) In the same year a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

was added to the tower for the first time. New lancet windows were installed at various times after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, as was a

lychgate A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style ch ...

on the southern side. The church was listed as Grade II in 1950. The ashes of actor

C. Aubrey Smith Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948) was an English Test cricketer who became a stage and film actor, acquiring a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, as in the first sound version of ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937) ...

are interred in his mother's grave in the churchyard of St Leonard's. The church also holds a Commonwealth War Grave from 1917. The 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 II by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

on 24 March 1950. This defines it as a "nationally important" building of "special interest". As of February 2001, it was one of 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of

Parish

The area served b
the parish
covers Aldrington. It includes all residential streets in the area bounded by Wish Road, the sea, Boundary Road/Station Road and the railway line between

and Aldrington stations, and extends north of the railway to include the whole of Hove Cemetery. This originally opened in 1882, and was later extended on to the former trackbed of the Devil's Dyke Railway.

Notes

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aldrington, St Leonard

St Leonard Leonard of Noblac (also Leonard of Limoges or Leonard of Noblet; also known as Lienard, Linhart, Leonhard, Léonard, Leonardo, Annard; died 559), is a Frankish saint closely associated with the town and abbey of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, in Hau ...

Churches completed in 1878 19th-century Church of England church buildings Grade II listed churches in East Sussex

History

Parish

See also

Notes

Bibliography