List of places of worship in Rother
The district of Rother, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex, has more than 120 current and former places of worship. As of, 87 active churches and chapels serve the mostly rural area, and a further 38 former places of worship still stand but are no longer in religious use. The district's main urban centres—the Victorian seaside resort of Bexhill-on-Sea and the ancient inland towns of Battle and Rye—have many churches, some of considerable age. Others serve villages and hamlets scattered across the Wealden hills and marshes of the district. Even small settlements have parish churches serving the Church of England, the country's state religion. Roman Catholicism is less well established than in neighbouring West Sussex, but Protestant Nonconformist denominations have been prominent for centuries. Methodism was especially popular in the area: many chapels were built in the 18th and 19th centuries, although some have since closed. The majority of the population is Christian, and a Buddhist centre in Bexhill-on-Sea is the only non-Christian place of worship.
Dozens of buildings have been awarded listed status by English Heritage in recognition of their architectural and historical interest. These range from the Saxon-era parish churches in villages such as Beckley and Guestling to the Mediterranean-style Romanesque Revival St Anthony of Padua Church in Rye, built in the 1920s. Likewise, chapels as simple as the cottage-like former Bethel Chapel in Robertsbridge and as elaborate as the "rich and fruity" neighbouring United Reformed Church have been listed.
Various administrative areas operated by the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the United Reformed Church, Baptists and Methodists cover churches in the district which are part of their denomination. These areas include dioceses, archdeaconries, networks and circuits.
Overview of the district and its places of worship
Rother district occupies about of the eastern part of the county of East Sussex. It is one of five districts and boroughs in the county; it shares its western boundary with the district of Wealden, and surrounds the borough of Hastings to the south. The neighbouring county of Kent forms the northern and eastern border. The district is named after the River Rother, which enters the English Channel at Rye. Approximately 90,000 people live in the district, of whom about half are residents of the largest town and administrative centre, Bexhill-on-Sea. The only other towns, both with ancient origins, are Rye and Battle. The rest of the district is mostly undulating High Wealden countryside punctuated with small, historic villages.Sussex—the Kingdom of the South Saxons—was one of the last parts of England to be Christianised. It was isolated from other parts of the country because of the thick forest that covered it. When St Wilfrid and his missionaries brought Christianity to the area in the 7th century, they arrived by sea. The new religion quickly spread; the longest established churches in the present Rother area are apparently St Peter's Church in Bexhill's old town and All Saints Church at Icklesham, both founded in 772. Many more churches were built in the Saxon era, but most were either superseded by larger Norman buildings between the 11th and 13th centuries—as at Sedlescombe and Whatlington—or substantially added to, as at Icklesham. Many places also gained their first church during this period, and the size and opulence of some reflect the area's iron-industry wealth at the time. Nevertheless, some parishes were initially very large: for example, both Bodiam and Etchingham were served from Salehurst parish church until their own churches were built in the 14th century.
By the 19th century, few villages lacked an Anglican church, and attention turned to restoring and reconstructing ancient buildings—although places such as Hurst Green, Netherfield, Staplecross and Telham did receive churches of their own, often built as chapels of ease to distant parish churches. Some ancient churches still retain most of their medieval fabric and appearance, but churches such as Dallington, Northiam and Sedlescombe were so comprehensively rebuilt in the mid-19th century that they now have a largely Victorian appearance. In the 20th century, Anglican churches continued to be provided as residential development spread along the English Channel coast east of Hastings. Building styles varied: at Winchelsea Beach, old-fashioned brick, timber and tile-hanging were used in 1962; at Fairlight Cove, a square wooden box-like structure, intended to be both temporary and portable, has stood since 1970; in Camber, the 1956 replacement for a bombed-out chapel of ease is in an old-fashioned early-20th-century style; and at Cliff End on Pett Level an unusual building was purchased and reused. The Admiralty installed a Lifesaving Rocket Apparatus Station on the beach; in 1935 it was converted into the tiny St Nicholas' Church.
After the English Reformation, Roman Catholic worship was illegal in England for nearly 250 years until 1791, and it grew slowly thereafter in comparison to West Sussex, where many large estates were owned by gentry who secretly kept the faith over many generations. Ill-feeling towards Catholics apparently persisted well into the 19th century in Battle, where the 1886 Church of Our Lady Immaculate and St Michael was set well back from the street and does not have an ecclesiastical appearance. In the early 20th century, bolder architectural statements were made with the Gothic Revival church at Bexhill-on-Sea and the elaborate Italian Romanesque-style church at Rye, both of which are listed buildings. Most of the other Roman Catholic churches in Rother district are simple mid-20th-century buildings, sometimes with distinguishing architectural features such as a modernistic portico-style entrance at Sidley, dalle de verre glass at Burwash and a Mediterranean-style blank-arcaded tower at Little Common.
Many Protestant Nonconformist denominations are represented by churches and chapels in the district—most prominently Methodism, whose chapels are found in many villages, although many have closed. John Wesley himself was a frequent visitor to the area, and the church he founded at Rye in 1789 was the administrative base of a vast Circuit covering much of Sussex and Kent. His last ever outdoor sermon was preached beneath a tree near Winchelsea Methodist Chapel. Rye was a hotbed of Nonconformist worship: a religious census in 1676 found 300 Nonconformists in the town, more than ten times as many as in the much larger parish of Salehurst, which had the next highest number. In 1847, chapels existed for Methodists, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers and Unitarians; Congregationalists, the Salvation Army and Jehovah's Witnesses also set up places of worship in the town later; and the Baptists split into several groups and have occupied five buildings over the years—all of which still stand.
Religious affiliation
According to the 2001 United Kingdom Census, 85,428 people lived in Rother. Of these, 76.5% identified themselves as Christian, 0.64% were Muslim, 0.15% were Jewish, 0.18% were Buddhist, 0.14% were Hindu, 0.03% were Sikh, 0.35% followed another religion, 13.91% claimed no religious affiliation and 8.1% did not state their religion. The proportion of Christians was higher than the 72.8% in England as a whole. Most other religions had much lower proportions of followers than in England overall—the corresponding national percentages were 3.1% for Islam, 1.11% for Hinduism, 0.67% for Sikhism, 0.52% for Judaism—but the proportion identifying with the "any other religion" category was higher than the national figure of 0.29%. Rother also had a lower proportion of people with no religious affiliation than average for England.Administration
All Anglican churches in Rother district are part of the Diocese of Chichester, whose cathedral is at Chichester, and the Lewes and Hastings Archdeaconry—one of three subdivisions which make up the next highest level of administration. In turn, this archdeaconry is divided into eight deaneries. The churches at Flimwell, Stonegate and Ticehurst are in the Rural Deanery of Rotherfield. The Rural Deanery of Rye covers 23 churches in the district: Beckley, Bodiam, Brede, Camber, East Guldeford, Ewhurst Green, Fairlight, Fairlight Cove, Guestling, Icklesham, Iden, Northiam, Peasmarsh, Pett, Pett Level, Playden, Rye, Rye Harbour, Staplecross, Udimore, Westfield, Winchelsea and Winchelsea Beach. Those at Brightling, Burwash, Burwash Common, Dallington, Etchingham, Hurst Green, Mountfield, Netherfield, Robertsbridge and Salehurst are part of the Rural Deanery of Dallington. The Rural Deanery of Battle and Bexhill administers the churches at Ashburnham, Battle, Catsfield, Crowhurst, Penhurst, Sedlescombe, Telham and Whatlington, the six churches in Bexhill-on-Sea and those in the suburbs of Little Common and Sidley.The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, whose cathedral is at Arundel, administers the district's six Roman Catholic churches. The churches at Battle, Bexhill-on-Sea, Little Common, Northiam, Rye and Sidley are all part of St Leonards-on-Sea Deanery. Those at Little Common and Sidley are served as Mass Centres from St Mary Magdalene's Church in Bexhill-on-Sea.
The Hastings, Bexhill and Rye Methodist Circuit, a 13-church administrative area, covers eight Methodist churches in Rother—at Battle, Bexhill-on-Sea, Brede, Pett, Rye and Winchelsea.
The four United Reformed Churches in the district, at Ashburnham, Bexhill-on-Sea, Robertsbridge and Sedlescombe, are part of the West Kent and East Sussex Synod Area of the Church. This is a group of 32 churches within the Southern Synod region.
Of the five extant Baptist churches in the district, four are administratively part of the East Sussex Network of the South Eastern Baptist Association: the churches at Battle, Rye and Sidley, and Beulah Baptist Church in Bexhill-on-Sea. The Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel at Rye is affiliated with the Gospel Standard movement.