Dedicated Builders

Last week's day off was a day of ups and Downs - Sussex Downs, that is. I know it's a poor attempt at a pun but never mind - it's Monday morning and I have three School Masses to celebrate today so allowances must be made!

One thing I forgot to do when in the lovely town of Steyning, was to ask someone how you pronounce the name of the place (Staining, Stenning, Stining). A little apart from the town centre is the great Norman/Saxon church (or what remains of it). The first church here was built by St Cuthman in the ninth century. His story is interesting. It is believed that he was a young shepherd in SW England who, on his father's death migrated to Steyning, taking his aged mother with him. (He walked, she rode in the handcart which he pushed). At Steyning, he got a group of people together and they built a church, and he lived the rest of his life there. In 1939 the playwright Christopher Fry wrote a one-act play 'reviving' this forgotten saint, called The Boy with a cart.

Anyway, the people of the town have erected a statue in his memory, looking at what has become of the church since his time. In the reign of the Confessor the church was given to the abbey of Fecamp in Normandy. If the proportions of the existing Church look somewhat odd, it is because of alterations made in the 16th century when the central tower, choir and transepts were taken down, as well as the two westernmost bays of the nave, and a west tower was built. What remains is however one of the finest pieces of Norman architecture in the country. The changes did not come about through the vandalism of the so-called reformation, but date from towards the end of the century. Whether they resulted from lack of maintenance, or simply from the church being so much bigger than what a small town needed or desired, I do not know. Certainly the town remained wealthy, enough to have a large grammar school and an adjacent junior school founded in 1614, though utilizing an earlier Guild House, belonging to the Fraternity of the Holy Trinity.

St Cuthman does seem rather critical of what he sees. What follows is a photo of the interior of the Norman Church - though like many Norman buildings it is fairly dark inside, and a view along Church Street past the Junior School towards the Grammar School. There are a great number of historical sites in this part of the country, and although I get completely lost when I venture South of Thames, the getting lost is part of the adventure. And when you find yourself high up on the Downs, on a beautiful sunny day with the view extending more or less for ever. and you the next town or village you come to will have something to make it worth while stopping for (other than seeking directions) then getting lost isn't so bad!