page_title: St Mary's Church, Slaugham
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: St Mary's Church, Slaugham / History
caption_attribution_description: English: St. Mary's interior
context_page_description: St Mary's Church is an Anglican church in the village of Slaugham in Mid Sussex, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. The 12th- and 13th-century church, restored in the Victorian era, serves a large rural area of the Sussex Weald, covering three villages as well as the ancient settlement of Slaugham. It also controlled the church in the market town of Crawley—now one of the area's largest towns—for the first few centuries of its existence. A locally important family built a private chapel in the church in the 17th century, and a series of memorials to deceased family members are considered to be excellent examples of their type. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
context_section_description: By the time of the Norman Conquest, the historic county of Sussex was divided into six areas called rapes, each based on a town with a castle. One such division was the Rape of Lewes, which covered a large part of eastern and central Sussex bounded (clockwise from the north) by Surrey, the Rape of Pevensey, the English Channel coast and the Rape of Bramber. The parish of Slaugham, long from north to south but narrow, followed the western boundary of the rape for a long distance.  Its manor and village existed in the 11th century: although not mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086, it was held by William de Warenne's Lewes Priory by 1098 (and possibly from as early as 1091), in common with many manors and estates in central Sussex.
  William de Warenne and his wife Gundred supported the construction of churches in the Rape of Lewes, and may have founded a church at Slaugham. No trace of any 11th-century building remains, though, and the existence of a church at that time is a matter of conjecture.  The present structure is presumed to be built on top of its foundations. The oldest parts date from the early 12th century and consist of the north wall, a single doorway and other fragmentary remains in the nave, and the font. A chancel would have been built at that time as well to make a simple two-cell church, but no 12th-century fabric survives: it was rebuilt in the early 14th century.  Earlier, in the late 13th century, the first stage of the tower had been added at the west end of the church.  Its simple entrance door in the west wall is chamfered. The chancel arch, also 13th-century and unusually broad, similarly has chamfering to the walls of the nave. The 13th-century layout of the church was completed when a two-bay south aisle was built in about 1290.  It was connected to the nave by means of an unusually wide arcade with chamfered arches.  A single lancet window was inserted in the west wall.
  The simple layout was gradually added to over the centuries.  The east window in the chancel, in the Decorated Gothic style, dates from the early 14th century. Buttresses were added at the northwest and southwest corners of the tower a century later; and in the 16th century, two square-headed windows were added to the north wall of the nave, flanking the blocked Norman doorway. A major change came in 1613: William Covert, a member of the family who had held the manor of Slaugham since the late 15th century, built a private chapel (the Covert Chapel) on the south side next to the chancel. Its main feature is a memorial of "exceptional quality", considered one of the best in Sussex: it depicts Richard Covert (who died in 1579) kneeling with seventeen other figures representing his wives, sons and daughters.  The first letter of each person's name is shown above their head.  The intricately carved stone wall-tomb has Corinthian columns, pilasters and a moulded frame, and a straight balustraded top section consisting of an entablature and frieze with carved flowers. Richard Covert himself wears a suit of armour, while his three adult sons have military dress.  Both wives are reading prayer books on lecterns.  At the top are three funeral helms, two of which bear versions of the Covert coat of arms.
  Many churches in Sussex, including Slaugham's, were restored or rebuilt in the Victorian era. Some work had already been carried out on the south aisle in 1827—it was enlarged to hold an extra 200 seats— but most of the work was done between 1857 and 1860 by Gothic Revival architect Joseph Clarke. He added the top section of the tower, widened the south aisle further and removed most of the wall between it and the Covert Chapel (creating an archway instead), added a third bay between the chancel and the Covert Chapel, and built a vestry and organ chamber on the north side. In the west wall of the south aisle, a 13th-century lancet window remains, but Clarke added a rose window. Alterations continued later in the 19th century: a second vestry was built on the north side in 1879, the organ was moved again, and the tower was given a clock
caption: The interior looking towards the east window, showing the wide chancel arch
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