St Mary, Clymping

St Mary’s is a Grade I Church of England parish church on Church Lane, Clymping (Climping), Sussex, in the Diocese of Chichester: a large Early English cruciform village church built around a late twelfth-century tower.

Overview

Historic England lists a cruciform building with a tower to the south of the south transept and a south porch. The tower and the doorway to the west of it are late twelfth-century; the remainder is early thirteenth-century. Sussex Parish Churches records that John de Clymping, later Bishop of Chichester (1253–62), held the living from 1220 and that work on the body of the church probably followed completion of the tower. The chancel has roll-moulded lancets, including low-sides, and an east wall of three tall lancets with a roundel above, shafted rere-arches with stiff-leaf capitals, and quatrefoils between the heads. The nave and chancel together are nearly 100 feet long. Parish history states that stone was imported from Caen. Pews were first installed in the early fifteenth century; some pew ends of about 1420 survive. The font is late fourteenth-century. The north transept, the Chapel of Jesus, has paintings by Heywood Hardy of the life of Christ set in the Sussex countryside, commissioned for the church’s 700th anniversary.

The churchyard holds a memorial to those killed in an air raid on 18 August 1940 and Commonwealth war graves. Sunday opening is advertised 10.00–12.30.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1027640
• Sussex Parish Churches: Climping – St Mary
• CYF Churches