All Saints Church, Patcham facts for kids

Quick facts for kids All Saints, Patcham
The church from the southeast
50°51′59.77″N 0°9′2.54″W / 50.8666028°N 0.1507056°W / 50.8666028; -0.1507056
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Open Evangelical
Website	www.allsaintspatcham.org.uk
History
Dedication	All Saints
Administration
Parish	Patcham, All Saints
Deanery	Brighton
Archdeaconry	Chichester
Diocese	Chichester
Province	Canterbury

All Saints Church is a special church in Patcham, an old village that is now part of Brighton and Hove in England. People have worshipped on this hilltop spot for about 1,000 years!

The church you see today has parts built in the Norman style (around the 11th-12th centuries) and a newer outside from the 13th century. Over the years, especially during the Victorian era, the church was repaired and made bigger.

Inside, you can find many old memorials and even some wall paintings. One memorial remembers Richard Shelley, who owned a nearby house called Patcham Place. He was a very important person in Brighton's early days. All Saints Church is a Grade II* listed building, which means it's a very important historic place. It's still used as a church today for the people of Patcham.

Patcham's first church was built for a large countryside area north of Brighthelmston, which is what Brighton used to be called. A small village grew up around this church. The church was rebuilt during the Norman times. Later, in the Victorian era, many changes were made to make the building stronger and create more space for the growing number of people.

As Patcham grew into a suburb in the 20th century, more churches opened. These new churches were often managed by All Saints Church. The outside of All Saints looks quite simple, but the inside is full of old and well-kept features like wall paintings and stone memorials. The churchyard also has some very old tombs that are also listed as historic.

History of All Saints Church

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that Saxon people arrived in the area now called Sussex in 477. By the 10th century, the Kingdom of the South Saxons was fully set up. This area was divided into smaller parts called hundreds. Patcham was part of Preston Hundred.

The smallest area was a "parish," which was based around a church. The parish of Patcham was first mentioned in 1086 in the Domesday Book. By then, a church already stood in the middle of a small village on a hill near the South Downs. Patcham's parish was very large, covering about 4,325 acres (1,750 hectares). It also had a big population for its time, around 1,750 people.

The mural above the chancel arch is 13th-century.

The Saxon church was rebuilt in the 12th and 13th centuries. One old doorway might be from that very early time, possibly even Saxon. It was moved to the north aisle when that part was built in 1898. The arch between the main part of the church (the nave) and the altar area (the chancel) was added in the 12th century. The nave itself is also from this period. The chancel was made bigger over the next 200 years, and its windows are from the 14th century.

A blocked doorway of Saxon or Norman origin has been reset in the north aisle.

In the 13th century, a tall, narrow tower was built at the west end of the church. It has thin windows typical of that time. The pointy top of the tower (called a broach spire) was added in the mid-1800s. The tower was made stronger with large supports called buttresses. The outside of the church was also fully repaired and rebuilt around this time. Before the 19th century, the only other changes were a porch added to the south side and some more buttresses on the south wall, both in the 16th or 17th century.

The church stayed mostly the same for over 600 years. But in the 19th century, it was changed a lot by four big repair projects over 74 years. The biggest change happened in 1898 when a much larger north aisle and a small room called a vestry were added. During one of these repairs (1880–83), a 13th-century wall painting was found above the chancel arch. It showed Christ in Judgement and was hidden under many layers of paint. This painting might be one of the oldest of its kind in England!

The north aisle (left of the tower), "quite out of proportion", was added in 1898.

In 1898, the outside walls of the west, east, and south sides were covered with grey cement. This was probably to make them stronger. Some people thought this made the church look less attractive. However, other historians say that many old churches were covered this way, so it might show what a typical church looked like back then.

Patcham is only about 2 miles (3 km) north of Brighton, which grew very quickly. This led to Patcham also growing from the mid-1800s. The village population grew from 286 people in 1801 to nearly four times that by 1901. In the 1920s, Brighton built many new homes in nearby areas. In 1928, most of Patcham became part of Brighton. The population kept growing, reaching 5,241 by 1930.

The new north aisle helped fit more people in the church. But as more houses were built further away, two more churches were opened. These were first used as smaller churches connected to All Saints:

• The Church of Christ the King was built in south Patcham. A new brick church replaced the temporary building in 1958.
• The Church of the Ascension was built in Westdene in 1958.

The old temporary church at Braybon Avenue became a church hall. All Saints Church also got its own hall in 1937, but it closed in 1995. In 1989, the church was repaired again. The inside was changed, and a new screen behind the altar (called a reredos) was made from old choir stalls.

Important Memorials

The Paine family of Patcham Place are remembered by stone memorials.

The church has several memorials, which are like special plaques or statues that remember people who have died. The oldest one is for Richard Shelley, who died in 1594. He was one of the first owners of Patcham Place, a large house that started as a manor house in the 1500s. Richard Shelley was a very important person in Brighton's early history. In 1579, he and other local leaders were asked to write down the old rules and customs for the fishermen and farmers of Brighton. They created a book called The Book of All The Auncient Customs.

There are many old chest-tombs in the churchyard.

Inside the church, you can also find memorials for three generations of the Paine family. John Paine rebuilt Patcham Place in 1764. He was also related to Thomas Read Kemp, who created the famous Kemp Town area in Brighton. The Roe family also has memorials here. William Roe and his son William Thomas Roe were important figures in the customs and navy departments of the government.

Outside in the churchyard, there are seven very old stone tombs that look almost the same. They seem to belong to the Scrase family. These tombs, along with two others nearby, are also listed as historic. On the north side of the churchyard, there's a memorial for a smuggler who was sadly shot.

The churchyard also contains 16 Commonwealth war graves. These are for soldiers and air force personnel from World War I and World War II.

Church Design and Features

The church has Decalogue tablets on the west wall.

All Saints Church has a tower at the west end with strong supports (buttresses) and a pointy top (broach spire). It has a main area called a nave with a tall aisle on the north side. There's also a porch on the south side, an area for the altar called a chancel, and a small room called a vestry.

The north aisle, built in 1898, is made of flint stones with red brick lines. The rest of the church's outside was covered in cement at the same time. Before this, the walls were all flint with stone details. The roof of the tower is made of slate, and the rest of the church has a tiled roof. The porch has a pointed roof over an archway from the 14th century. The tower has three bells, one from 1639.

The font dates from 1864.

The nave and chancel are separated by an old arch. Above this arch, you can still see parts of a 13th-century wall painting. It shows Jesus judging people and is thought to be from around 1230. It shows people going to Heaven and Jesus weighing their souls. This painting was found in the 1880s and has been redrawn.

The church has thin, tall windows (lancet windows) in the north and south walls and on the tower. Some have stone patterns called tracery. The windows in the chancel and nave are from the 14th century and have a style called Decorated Gothic. The tower windows are smaller and in an earlier style from the 13th century. The largest window is at the east end of the chancel.

The blocked doorway in the north aisle is the oldest part of the church that still exists. It's about 6.8 feet (2.1 meters) high and 2.75 feet (0.84 meters) wide.

The chancel wall has a special basin called a piscina from the 14th century, used for washing communion vessels. The font, used for baptisms, is round and from 1864. The church also has old silver objects used for communion, like a cup (chalice) from 1568 and a plate (paten) from 1666. On the west wall, there are old carved boards with prayers and the Ten Commandments. You can also find old carvings like crosses and dates etched into the walls, which are common in churches in Sussex.

Current Use

All Saints' Church was listed as a Grade II* historic building on October 13, 1952. This means it's a very important building. The church holds services in an Open Evangelical style. There is also a Sunday school and a regular youth group for young people.

All Saints is the main church for the area called the Benefice of Patcham All Saints. This area also includes the Church of the Ascension in Westdene, which is a modern building designed in 1958. The church's parish covers a large part of northern Brighton and the surrounding countryside.

In 2005, some parts of the parish were given to other churches in Brighton. At the same time, the Church of Christ the King (which was the parish church for South Patcham) was closed. Its parish was divided between All Saints and another church. So, All Saints' Church welcomed people from the northern part of Christ the King's parish. The Church of Christ the King building was closed in 2006, but it reopened in 2007 as a new place of worship called the Fountain Centre.

See Also

• Grade II* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
• List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove