---
title: "St James, Southwick"
description: "Located in Southwick, Hampshire. Built Medieval church virtually rebuilt 1566 by John Whyte, reusing priory fabric. Diocese of Portsmouth. Grade I. Medieval and Tudor, with Perpendicular east window style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Hampshire","Southwick","Grade I","Tudor","Perpendicular"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-james-southwick"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:43:25.823Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-08T16:00:15.810Z"
location: "Southwick, Hampshire"
country: "England"
county: "Hampshire"
town: "Southwick"
address: "High Street, Southwick, Hampshire, PO17 6EF"
postcode: "PO17 6EF"
built: "Medieval church virtually rebuilt 1566 by John Whyte, reusing priory fabric"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["James"]
diocese: "Portsmouth"
grade: "I"
style: "Medieval and Tudor, with Perpendicular east window"
materials: "Flint and stone rubble with roughcast; stone and flint chequerwork to lower tower; tile roof"
website: "http://www.stjamessouthwick.org.uk/"
openingHours: "Church open daily from 9am to 5pm."
parish: "Southwick"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1167160"
gridReference: "SU 625 086"
accessNotes: "Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby"
---

# St James, Southwick

St James Without the Priory Gate is a Grade I parish church on the High Street at Southwick, Hampshire, in the Diocese of Portsmouth, standing just outside the former Augustinian priory.

## Overview

Historic England notes that an Augustinian priory was established at Southwick about 1150, though the church probably existed before that. After the Dissolution, John Whyte was granted the priory in 1539 with the offices of lay prior, ordinary, patron and rector of the peculiar. He virtually rebuilt the church in 1566, reusing priory materials. Walls are flint and stone rubble with extensive roughcast; the lower tower is stone and flint chequerwork, the upper tower flint, under a tile roof. The plan comprises a nave with medieval south wall, chancel, north chapel and north aisle of the Tudor restoration, a south porch, and a west tower set within the west end of the nave.

Arcades have flattened Tudor arches on octagonal piers. Furnishings are exceptional: an eighteenth-century wooden reredos with coupled Doric pilasters painted to imitate marble; an Elizabethan altar table and Jacobean communion rail; box pews including the squire’s pew; a three-decker pulpit of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century panelling; and a late seventeenth-century west gallery on four twisted oak pillars. The font is twelfth-century on a late nineteenth-century Gothic base. The Whyte monument combines a fifteenth-century table tomb with a classical canopy of 1566. The church is usually open daily.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1167160](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1167160)
- [British Listed Buildings: Church of St James Without the Priory Gate](https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101167160-church-of-st-james-without-the-priory-gate-southwick-and-widley)