St Leonard's Church is an

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 ...

church in

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

, in the English city of

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...

. It is on New Church Road in the

Aldrington Aldrington is an area in the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It was formerly a civil parish. For centuries it was meadow land along the English Channel stretching west from the old village of Hove to ...

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 (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 ...

. 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 in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railwa ...

, near the mouth of 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 ...

. 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 (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

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 Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, England. The station is from Brighton on the ...

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 were agreed. St Leonard's church remained in its ruined state until 1878, when architect Richard Herbert Carpenter (the son of Richard Cromwell Carpenter, 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, William Ingelow, was a banker. The poet Jean Ingelow was his ol ...

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 sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

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. Spire ...

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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, as was a

lychgate A lychgate (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...

on the southern side. The church was listed as Grade II in 1950. The ashes of actor C. Aubrey Smith 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 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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

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

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

History

Parish

See also

Notes

Bibliography