Barpham (Bargham) Church SCM 1954

Barpham Church

BARGHAM CHURCH
TQ 068 090
Written and Illustrated by A. BARR-HAMILTON

BARPHAM HILL is set in the lonely stretch of downland that is bordered by the village of Burpham and Amberley, Sullington and Patching. Wepham Down and Harrow Hill are near neighbours. Upon its face and all about it are the marks of long-forgotten peoples. Neolithic flint mine and Bronze Age farm-stead, Celtic road and field; terrace-way and valley-way, cross-dyke and barrow jostle each other upon the desolate landscape. Here is abundant evidence of an age-long and populous upland community. Evidence, too, of its gradual decline through historical times until, to-day, the area is all but uninhabited.

Among these solitudes, upon and below the hill to which they have given name, lie the twin farmhouses of Upper and Lower Barpham, with their attendant cottages, which alone remain of the "lost" village of Bargham.

Popular belief associates the disappearance of Bargham with the Black Death. Ancient record throws no light upon the matter and yields little information beyond the fact that, in about 1100, the village possessed a church which paid a pension to the great Priory of St. Pancras at Southover; and that, by 1523, this building, or its successor, no longer served its purpose, its emoluments being taken towards the foundation, in that year, of a prebend in Chichester Cathedral which still bears its name.

Two years ago, when the writer first sought the site of the church, he enquired at a cottage some half-mile distant and was unhesitatingly directed to the "Chapel Croft" as the field which contains the site is still known.

At that time, the spot was marked by low, green mounds in the form of a rectangular nave and chancel. Within these was a mass of bramble, nettle and elder scrub while a giant ash, grown up through the chancel floor, had crashed and lay, gaunt and grey, resting on the remains of the eastern wall. Visible through the undergrowth, one tooled stone, chamfered on the inside and evidently in situ, suggested a priest's doorway in the south wall of the chancel. Across the lane from the ruin were the great, thatched barn, the long, low Tudor farmhouse, the collection of venerable outbuildings and the ancient catchment pond that comprise Upper Barpham.

It seemed remarkable that no serious attempt at excavation had been made and desirable that the oversight should be remedied.
Accordingly, in the following summer, with the kind permission of His Grace The Duke of Norfolk, the Chancellor of the Diocese and the Research Committee of the Sussex Archaeological Society, work was commenced.

Firstly, elder and bramble were removed, with the result that some details of the chancel were revealed, notably the lower courses of the east wall and, in the south wall, the lower part of the jambs of the priest's doorway and the base of the chancel arch. It was evident that some clearance of the chancel had been made not many years earlier and it transpired that the late Dr. Eustace, of Arundel, had made a limited excavation at this point; and that certain men of Angmering, at the close of the last century, had dug about the site of the altar, disturbing several burials in their search for the silver which, according to local tradition, lies buried here.

The figure at work here is standing within the curve of the western apse,
which has been breached by two graves in the foreground.
On either side of the burials are the footings of the Norman tower

Next, the chancel walls were completely exposed on the inside and the interior of the chancel cleared down to floor level. Among the objects found were Horsham slab and broken roof tiles, including glazed ridge tiles, of fourteenth or fifteenth century date. Some small fragments of the font were discovered, adhering firmly to the roots of the fallen ash, and these were sufficient to show that it had been of the rectangular Norman type common in West Sussex, executed in Purbeck marble, having a circular basin and ornamented on the exterior with shallow arcading. By a coincidence, the ancient farmhouse, virtually un-touched since its erection, was undergoing renovation during the summer and the removal of a wall brought to light a large portion of the same font, an early carved capital and a number of other stones, including flags, which evidently had been removed from the church.

Priest's doorway, south wall of chancel

South base of chancel arch, with east base of south transept arch

The chancel walls were of broken flints, set in a good white mortar, with some faced stones of hard chalk and Purbeck stone, while a number of pieces of Roman bonding-tile, found among the rubbish on the floor, had evidently fallen from them. The floor was of trodden earth but there were indications that a covering of flags and possibly glazed bricks had been removed for use elsewhere. The priest's doorway was of light sandstone, beautifully tooled and probably of the Perpendicular period.

The nave walls were then cleared on the inside in order to ascertain the complete ground plan of the building, which was found to com-prise nave and chancel only. When the caps of earth were removed from the north and south walls, the bases were found of two piers with flanking shafts, one in each wall and adjoining the position of the chancel arch bases. All had been deeply reddened and splintered by severe exposure to flame. Further west, also apparently built into the wall, were part of the plinths of two more piers, similarly reddened.

Here, without doubt, were the remains of transept arches of an earlier building, of which the transepts, at some time after the fire and, possibly, because of it, had been abandoned; whereupon the remnants of the arches had been built up to complete the nave of the little mediaeval church which was now exposed. The filling consisted of flints in good white mortar with ashlar containing small blocks of Purbeck stone and large slabs of sandstone. It was noted that a yellow mortar had been used in the construction of the earlier building and, thereafter, it was easy to distinguish it from work of other periods.

The transept arch bases were of particular interest. That on the north side was laid on Roman tiles and both, like the chancel arch, had a central column of dark sandstone, roughly fashioned and tooled, while flanking shafts were of Purbeck stone, neatly carved and typically Norman in appearance. There were certain inconsistencies in arrangement which suggested later repairs.

West of the transept arches were found the positions of north and south doorways, roughly opposite, and west of the doorways the nave walls were of a different character from anything previously uncovered, being constructed of whole flints in white mortar, roughly laid, with considerable use of broken Roman material. North and south walls were laid upon chalk footings of which the eastern ends were joined by a similar footing laid across the width of the nave.
The ground plan of the later building complete, that of the "yellow mortar building" was followed. Indications of an apsidal east end to the north transept suggested a typical Nor-man plan of central tower, nave and apsidal transepts and chancel. Accordingly, the earth floor of the mediaeval chancel was stripped and, a few inches below, were found the footings of the Norman apse, cut into by several graves.

Attention was turned again to the north transept, where the lowest course of faced stones and flintwork of the little apse were found to remain in splendid condition. The mutilated footings of the south transept apse were also cleared. Between the transept arches were found more footings, their position and massiveness indicative of a central tower, while the great width of the western wall of the north transept suggested a turret staircase.
Thus the main features of the ground plan of a Norman church had been established with the exception of the nave which, apparently, had been incorporated from yet an earlier building.

When the two western ends of the footings of the Norman chancel had been uncovered, there had been found, one immediately west of each, two small rectangular footings in which had been used a rather poor white mortar containing broken Roman brick. The later clearance of the westernmost footings-assumed to be those of a western tower-disclosed that their inner edges curved in such a manner that, if produced inwards, they met in an arc facing west. The arc marked the commencement of further footings of flints in Roman brick mortar. This raised the possibility of a western apse of still another early building, but fuller investigation will be needed before this can be regarded as certain.

The north transept apse

Should this prove to be so, the western apse could hardly be later than the early period of Saxon Christianity in Sussex. It might con-ceivably have belonged to the Roman period, but the mortar, not in itself characteristically Roman, contained isolated pieces of typically Roman mortar which had probably fallen from the bricks that had been pounded for its manufacture.

In clearing the Norman church, in addition to a variety of Roman building material, a few shards of pottery were found of possible Roman and Late Saxon date, and some Early Norman pottery, also shards of periods subsequent to the sixteenth century. Other discoveries were a volute capital carving of eleventh-century date, traces of ochre frescoes and one or two fragments of early stained glass.

It seems odd that a community that possessed a church in Saxon times and a substantial building soon after the Conquest, should have escaped mention in the Domesday Book; and there must be a strong possibility that the Domesday manor of Bercheham, hitherto identified with Burpham, was, in fact, that of Bargham; and that Burpham is included under the entry for Wepham.

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Much remains to be done and it is intended, next season, to trace, as far as possible, the plans of the two early churches, when, it is hoped, some conclusive dating evidence may be found. The writer acknowledges his indebtedness to His Grace The Duke of Norfolk, E.M., K.G., the Chancellor of the Diocese, and the Sussex Archaeological Society for per-mission to excavate the site; to the friends who have given up their leisure from time to time to render much valuable assistance; to Mr. T. G. C. Evans, O.B.E., F.L.A.S., the Agent of the Estate, to Mr. W. G. Thurston of Lee Farm and Mr. T. Feist of Upper Barpham Farm for their unfailing kindness and help; and to Mr. N. E. S. Norris, F.S.A., Curator of the Sussex Archaeological Society, for his invaluable work upon the spot, and classification of objects found.

From The Sussex County Magazine 1954