%20-%20kirdford%201.jpg)
This is a
massively constructed, heavily buttressed church of medium size,
constructed of sandstone believed to have come from neighbouring
Fittleworth (notes in the church) and, except where repaired, roofed
with Horsham slates from the Weald clay division of the Lower Cretaceous
Series.
Its somewhat unusual plan comprises a W. tower with a W. porch, a nave
with an independently-gable N. aisle, and a chancel with a N. chapel and
a lean-to sacristy immediately beyond the sanctuary. The original
nave and chancel were apparently Norman, as shown by the surviving
blocked S. doorway (shown below right), formed of two orders,
with a quarter roll around the outer order and pair of shafts with
cushions capitals supporting the inner order. Most of the church’s
more important work, however, is now Early English, including the basic
fabric of the N. aisle and chapel walls, each pierced by a N. lancet,
and the three-bay
N. arcade inside the building (illustrated below left, looking
southeast from the aisle), formed of double-flat-chamfered arches
springing from circular piers with moulded capitals. The chamfers
are fairly narrow and the form of the arcade in general suggests the
early thirteenth century. The two-light W. window to the aisle,
with plate tracery, has probably been renewed, while the three-light E.
window with reticulated tracery (below right), dates from the
first half of the fourteenth century (but after the introduction of the
ogee, c. 1320, and categorically not from the thirteenth century, as
stated in the notes in the church). The chancel arch is Victorian
but its rather crude
form,
composed of two orders bearing narrow flat chamfers, with semicircular
responds below, suggests it copies thirteenth century work either by a
different mason or of a different date or both. There is a squint
to the north of this arch, but the larger opening to the south appears
originally to have had a different function. The tower arch
carrying three flat chamfers which continue down the jambs without
intervening capitals, would also fit a thirteenth century date, although
as the Perpendicular tower itself gives no other hint of replacing an
earlier structure, perhaps this arch is actually contemporary and merely
constructed in what, at that time, would have been a distinctly
primitive style. Externally
the tower gives a curious impression, for the segmental-arched
bell-openings and the similar-sized windows immediately below, have lost
all their tracery, and this, together with the plain parapet above and
the massive semi-octagonal stair turret projecting at the northeast
angle, rising to the same height as the tower, give the tower an almost
eighteenth century appearance, although the W. window in the lower stage
retains its supermullioned tracery. The tower rises in two tall
stages, supported by angle buttresses, and there are more buttresses at
intervals around the rest of the building, including one to the north,
at the junction between the nave and chapel.
The
chapel communicates with the chancel through another arch carrying two
flat chamfers, of which the inner of is supported on corbels, and the
chapel ends in line with the altar rails, leaving room to the east for
an odd lean-to, Perpendicular sacristy. The two S. windows in the
chancel with straightened reticulation units above trefoil-cusped
lights, are probably late fourteenth century work.
Other windows in the church include one with the appearance of c. 1300
in the eastern end of the nave S. wall (with two trefoil-cusped lights
and an encircled quatrefoil in the apex), a three-light supermullioned
window in the chancel E. wall, a two-light supermullioned window in the
chapel N. wall, and an ugly Perpendicular one with alternate tracery
without subreticulation in the N. wall of the aisle. Nearly all
these have wide splays inside. Finally, one other part of
the building that requires mention is the porch, which is half-timbered
above a stone base and built against the tower W. doorway (as shown
left). The openings at the sides are supported on turned
balusters and the outer doorway is four-centred and very depressed,
suggesting a Tudor date.
Old woodwork
inside the building is confined to the roofs and altar rails. The
roofs are all of collar form, braced in the chancel only but all with
the addition of a few tie beams, some of which appear to have been
replaced. The altar rail (below) has barley sugar balusters
supporting a rail with ball finials on top, which Ian Nairn
ascribed to the late seventeenth century (The Buildings of England:
Sussex, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1965, p. 253). The shallow
square font appears to be Victorian at first glance but is inscribed 'H.
S. 1620 R. P.', the initials being those of the church wardens at that
date.
