St James the Less Church is the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

of Lancing, an ancient village which has been absorbed into the modern town of Lancing in the

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

of Adur, one of seven local government districts in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

county of

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

. It was founded in the 12th century in the most northerly of the three settlements in Lancing parish, which has Saxon origins. The present building is mostly 13th-century in appearance, and structural work has been carried out several times since—particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the church was restored from a ruinous condition.

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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

has listed the church at Grade I for its architectural and historical importance.

History

The name ''Lancing'' suggests

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

influence (the ''-ing'' suffix implied, in Saxon terms, a temporary settlement), and remains dating from the 6th century have been found nearby. At the time of 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

in 1086, the

Lord of the Manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

of nearby Broadwater, Robert le Savage, held the manor of Lancing. The land in the parish, which extended from the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England 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 ...

to the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

coast, was chiefly agricultural. Around this time, the large manor was divided into several smaller ones, of which North Lancing and South Lancing (as they became known) were the most important. Gradually, three settlements developed: North Lancing, closest to the Downs; South Lancing, near the coast; and the nearby Pende (now vanished), on the coast and briefly a successful port. No church existed in the area at that time, but one was established in North Lancing in the 12th century: a date of around 1120 has been suggested from analysis of surviving masonry at the ends of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

. In about 1180, an arched doorway, now forming part of the porch on the south side, was added. The whole structure was rebuilt between about 1280 and 1300, giving the church its present layout. It presents a consistent and harmonious architectural impression, despite the long period of time needed to complete the work. A stair turret leading up to the tower was built in the 15th century; part of the north aisle had to be blocked to accommodate this. In the 17th century—especially after the

Restoration of 1660 The Stuart Restoration was the reinstatement in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy in England, Scotland, and Ireland. It replaced the Commonwealth of England, established in January 1649 after the execution of Charles I, with his son Charl ...

—Anglican religious worship declined and many churches in England fell into disrepair. This attitude was common among the people of Sussex, where church attendances declined dramatically in many villages, including North Lancing. The first sign of structural decay at St James the Less Church came in 1618, when the upper part of the tower collapsed. By 1621 it had been repaired by cutting it down in size and topping it with a "Sussex cap"-style roof. The rest of the building quickly fell into ruins, however: birds were found to be nesting inside, pigeons bred there and the

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

was empty. By 1662, the church could no longer be used. The situation improved in the late 18th century, when some restoration work was carried out. More substantial rebuilding in 1827 added extra pews and altered several windows. The most recent addition was a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

in 1934.

Architecture

The church is built of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

cobblestone Cobblestone is a natural building material based on Cobble (geology), cobble-sized stones, and is used for Road surface, pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Sett (paving), Setts, also called ''Belgian blocks'', are often referred to as " ...

s. Areas of

pebbledashing Roughcast and pebbledash are durable coarse plaster surfaces used on outside walls. They consists of lime and sometimes cement mixed with sand, small gravel and often pebbles or shells. The materials are mixed into a slurry and are then thrown ...

remain, although some was removed in the mid-20th century.

Ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

has been used as well. Architecturally, the timing and completeness of the late 13th-century rebuilding has resulted in the church presenting an unusually complete example of the transition from the Early English Gothic style to the Decorated Gothic style. The church has, from west to east, a three-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

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 ...

with aisles on the north and south sides, a short tower and a

with a lower roofline than the nave. There is a porch with an entrance doorway on the south side, another door at the west end and a vestry at the northeast corner as well. Until its collapse in 1618, the tower was much taller and ended in a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

. The reconstruction shortened it (making the upper windows smaller) and added a Sussex cap—a shallow pyramid-shaped

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof common in Sussex. The date was commemorated by an inscription on the north wall. The church's original entrance doorway has been retained in the south porch: it has a round arch carried on

chamfer A chamfer ( ) is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fur ...

ed shafts with

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 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

-style

capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

. The detail on the stonework, although characteristic of the Norman period, is more intricate than usual. The arch has a

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin , lip), drip mould or dripstone is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a '' pediment''. This moulding can be ...

, which sits clear of the abaci at the top of the shafts. Inside the doorway is an ancient

stoup A holy water font or stoup is a vessel containing holy water which is generally placed near the entrance of a church. It is often placed at the base of a crucifix or other Christian art. It is used in Catholic, as well as many Lutheran and Anglica ...

for

holy water Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from ...

, which is now in poor condition. The other doorway, in the west face, is similar to its south-face counterpart, but is more likely to be 15th-century than 12th-century.

Buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es seem to have been added around the tower at some point during the 17th century, and a large buttress remains on the south side of the chancel. This was thought to be hollow until it was analysed properly in 1948 when pebbledashing was removed from the exterior. Most of the windows are either one- or two-light

Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed a ...

, although some later examples are in the Perpendicular Gothic style. Some of the chancel windows are larger, with three lights.

Stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

, by an unknown designer, was installed in three windows in 1866. Inside the church, remnants of the original Norman building can be seen at opposite ends: in the west wall of the nave and the east end of the chancel. The chancel, nave and aisles were rebuilt (to the same dimensions as the original building) when English Gothic architecture was at its height, and the

ed arches, octagonal pillars, chancel arch, blind arches and mouldings are considered good examples of their kind. The king post roof of the nave has also been praised. Interior fittings include a 14th-century

Easter sepulchre An Easter Sepulchre is a feature of Late Medieval British and Irish church interior architecture. Description The Easter Sepulchre is an arched recess generally in the north wall of the chancel, in which from Good Friday to Easter day were deposi ...

with an

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

-arched roof, part of a

sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, typically made of stone, located on the liturgical south side of the altar—often within the chancel—intended for use by the officiating priest, deacon, an ...

, some Norman

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

work, and a 12th-century square

in good condition.

Today

St James the Less Church was listed at Grade I by

on 12 October 1954. Such buildings are defined as being of "exceptional interest" and greater than national importance. As of February 2001, it was one of seven Grade I listed buildings, and 119 listed buildings of all grades, in Adur district. The style of worship in the church is Traditional Anglo-Catholic. A Said Mass is celebrated every Wednesday at 11am and a Sung Mass every Sunday at 10.30 with music led by the organ and choir; all are welcome. Th
parish
in its present form, covers . The eastern boundary is the

River Adur The Adur () 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 centur ...

; the

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

between the river and Leconfield Road forms the southern limit; on the west side, the ancient boundary with

Sompting Sompting is a village and civil parish in the coastal Adur District of West Sussex, England between Lancing and Worthing. It is half grassland slopes and half developed plain at the foot of the South Downs National Park. Twentieth-century est ...

parish, now running up Boundstone Lane and Upper Boundstone Lane, is retained; and old field boundaries on the

have been preserved in the north.

References

Notes

Bibliography