St Mary, Yapton

St Mary’s is a Grade I parish church on Church Road, Yapton, West Sussex, in the Diocese of Chichester: a lightly restored late twelfth- and early thirteenth-century church whose nave roof comes down to within a metre of the ground.

Overview

Historic England lists the Parish Church of St Mary (1237782, Grade I, 5 June 1958). The list describes chancel, nave with aisles, and a tower to the south-west of the nave. Nave and tower are twelfth-century; the nave has lean-to roofs with later dormer windows; the tower has red brick buttresses and a hipped shingled roof; the chancel is thirteenth-century. The listing calls it a “very attractive unrestored medieval church.”

Sussex Parish Churches dates the fabric to about 1180–1220 and notes possible earlier work. The mid-twelfth-century font is carved with shallow arcading, a long cross in each arch and a band of chevrons. The chancel has paired lancets and a lowside to the south; the broad chancel arch has two chamfered orders on fluted corbels. A fourteenth-century west porch is of massive timbers infilled with flint. W. H. Godfrey undertook twentieth-century repairs. The east window glass is by Lavers and Westlake, 1909. There are no regular advertised opening hours through the Yapton, Ford and Climping benefice.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1237782
• CYF Churches
• Sussex Parish Churches: Yapton St Mary