page_title: St Margaret's Church, West Hoathly
section_title: The church today
hierarchical_section_title: St Margaret's Church, West Hoathly / The church today
caption_attribution_description: All Saints Church, Hammingden Lane, Highbrook, near West Hoathly, district of Mid Sussex, West Sussex, England. An Anglican church built in 1884 in a rural part of the district. Listed at Grade II by English Heritage (IoE Code 302817)
context_page_description: St Margaret's Church is an Anglican church in the village of West Hoathly in Mid Sussex, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. By the late 11th century, a simple single-room stone building existed on the high, open ridge upon which the village developed. A series of medieval expansions doubled its size by the 15th century, and the present building has changed little since then—despite a Victorian restoration overseen by architect R. H. Carpenter. A major addition was the heavily buttressed Perpendicular Gothic west tower, topped with a tall broach spire and containing a peal of ancient bells. The large, steeply terraced churchyard also serves as a public cemetery and has far-reaching views across the Weald. The original dedication to Saint Margaret of Antioch fell out of use for many centuries until a researcher rediscovered it. The church serves a large rural parish which was reduced in size in 1882 when two residents of the hamlet of Highbrook paid for an additional church to be built there. English Heritage has listed it at Grade I for its architectural and historical importance.
context_section_description: St Margaret's Church was listed at Grade I by English Heritage on 28 October 1957. Such buildings are defined as being of "exceptional interest" and greater than national importance.  As of February 2001, it was one of 16 Grade I listed buildings, and 1,028 listed buildings of all grades, in the district of Mid Sussex.
  The ecclesiastical parish of West Hoathly covers a large rural area of West Sussex near the towns of East Grinstead (to the north), Haywards Heath (to the south) and Crawley (to the west).  Ashdown Forest lies to the east.  The parish boundaries are not coterminous with those of the civil parish of the same name; they take in the villages of West Hoathly and Sharpthorne and the fields and farms surrounding them.  Although the ecclesiastical parish of Highbrook has been separate since All Saints Church was built in 1882 on the initiative of two wealthy sisters who lived in the hamlet, the parishes are informally "twinned" and are part of a united benefice with the official title The Benefice of Highbrook and West Hoathly.  This was formed in September 1975.
  The advowson (the right to appoint clergy) was first recorded the last decade of the 11th century, when it was held by Ralph de Cheyney of St Pancras Priory at Lewes on behalf of William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey.  The Bishop of Chichester was authorised to hold the advowson from 1346, but in the late 14th century (in 1391 according to one source) the church was appropriated again by Lewes Priory.  This relationship ceased after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538; the advowson then passed in turn to Thomas Cromwell, Anne of Cleves and then The Crown.
caption: All Saints Church, Highbrook was built in 1882.  Its parish used to be part of West Hoathly's, and the two parishes are now part of a united benefice.
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