page_title: Church in the Wood, Hollington
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Church in the Wood, Hollington / History
caption_attribution_description: South face of St Leonard's Church (Church-in-the-Wood), Church in the Wood Lane, Hollington, Hastings, East Sussex, England. This is a restored 13th-century Anglican church in the middle of a wood and nature reserve in the Hollington area of Hastings. Listed at Grade II by English Heritage (Heritage Gateway Code 293741)
context_page_description: Church in the Wood, officially known as St Leonard's Church and originally as St Rumbold's Church, is an Anglican church in the Hollington area of the town and borough of Hastings, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. Although Hollington is now a large suburb, consisting mostly of postwar residential development, the church has stood in isolation in the middle of an ancient wood since it was founded in the 13th century—almost certainly as the successor to an 11th-century chapel. Restoration work in the Victorian era has given the Early English Gothic-style building its present appearance, but some medieval work remains. Legends and miraculous events have been associated with the church, and its secluded situation has been praised by writers including Charles Lamb. The church is a Grade II Listed building.
context_section_description: The manor of Hollington (also spelt Horintune, Holintun, Horintone, Halinton and Halyngtone early in its existence) existed at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086: before the Norman conquest of England the land was held by Godwin, Earl of Wessex and another lord, Alstan, and amounted to 4½ hides.  Afterwards it passed to Robert, Count of Eu. The manor house and village (a scattered, mostly rural settlement rather than a nucleated village) were 2.5 miles (4.0 km) northwest of Hastings and a similar distance north of St Leonards-on-Sea on a ridge of high land.
  No chapel or church was mentioned in the Domesday survey, but the will of a later Count of Eu written in 1139 states that one existed on the present site in 1090, suggesting possible pre-Norman origins. There were two other places of worship in the parish at the time—a church in the manor of Filsham, and another chapel at Wilting.  Filsham was the more important manor, but its church (and the chapel at Wilting) had disappeared by the time Pope Nicholas IV ordered a census of all places of worship for taxation purposes in 1291. (Wilting's probably disappeared in the early 12th century, although a field and a wood in the area still bear the chapel's name.) A suggested reason for the isolation of the chapel—which was about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from the nearest house until after World War II—was that the ownership of the manor transferred at an early date to the Lord of the Manor of nearby Crowhurst, who abandoned Hollington's manor house and the surrounding area because they were superfluous.  The chapel, standing nearby, was then the only building still in use, and a wood grew up around it.
  The chapel is known to have been replaced by a church in the mid-13th century. The first mention of a vicar was in 1288, but the first whose name has been recorded was John de Levenyngton, who moved to All Saints Church in Hastings Old Town in 1344.
  The dedication to St Leonard came about over the course of many years by mistaken association with a former church of that dedication.  In 1291, a St Leonard's Church was one of seven medieval churches recorded in Hastings, along with St Margaret's, St Michael's, St Peter's, St Andrew's, St Clement's and All Saints.  Only the last two survive in the 21st century, and St Leonard's Church—situated near Norman Road in present-day St Leonards-on-Sea—was lost in the early 15th century (no later than 1428). Thereafter, it became a "free chapel" in Hollington's parish, and its former parishioners travelled to Hollington to worship. The original dedication of Church in the Wood, first recorded in 1562, was to St Rumbold. Gradually over the next 150 years, the name "St Leonard's Church" began to be applied to it; the first record of this was in 1712.  From the mid-19th century, the epithet "Church in the Wood" gained popularity after James Burton founded a new St Leonard's Church in the centre of his St Leonards-on-Sea resort and a second church (St John the Evangelist's) was established in Hollington.
  The church continued to serve the parish despite its isolation, but it declined into a poor structural state by the mid-19th century: in 1834 it was described as "in such a general state of decay as to make any attempt to repair it inadvisable".  Sir Charles Montolieu Lamb (no relation to the writer Charles Lamb), who lived at Beauport Park, a nearby mansion, wanted the church to be closed and a replacement built nearer his land, but parishioners demanded that the ancient church be repaired instead.  Work started in 1847 and continued for nearly 20 years: the church closed for a time in 1861 while repairs were made, then Matilda Dampner paid for a complete restoration in 1865 to commemorate her parents.  The church closed again while this was carried out, and reopened in 1866. The renovation was so substantial that it gave the church a mostly Victorian appearance, and only a few fragments of Norman-era fabric remained.
  Church in the Wood's parish was reduced in size in 1870 when some of its territory was given to the newly built St John the Evan
caption: The chancel is lower than the nave, and the tower has a tiled pyramidal cap.
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