Warminghurst is one of those churches which has lost its village. At the end of a small lane from…read morethe village of Ashington, just off the busy A24 Worthing-London dual-carriageway, it is a quiet, rural and isolated spot. The church itself is no longer in regular use, but in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. A simple, single cell, built in the 13th century, it is notable for its perfectly preserved 18th-century fittings. These include a fine, three-arched chancel screen from the period of Queen Anne, topped by a dramatic painting of her Coat of Arms. Wonderful box-pews, a pulpit and lecturn, all in unstained pine, fill the nave. Other items include an unusual Tudor funeral monument, part brass, part stone carving, to the left of the altar, and a wonderful ancient wooden roof. The whole interior is charming, and an unlikely survivor. Outside, lovely views of the South Downs can be had from the churchyard.

Rottingdean is nowadays part of Brighton, but as a settlement dates back at least to Saxon times…read more(the name means 'the Valley of Rota's people') and still likes to think of itself as a village, despite the volume of commuting traffic and suburban sprawl around it. However, there's no denying that the old centre still has a villagey feel to it, with old pubs (one dating from 1513), a proper village green (with pond), and houses built in a very authentic Tudor style fronted by some lovely gardens. Rudyard Kipling lived in the village for some years, as did the eminent pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones. The large, sprawling churchyard is entered through a lovely lych gate, erected in 1897. The church itself dates in part from the Saxon period, although most of what you see now is essentially a Norman rebuild from the 12th century. The exterior is classic Sussex, all flints and red roof tiles, with a sturdy looking tower, erected in 1205 to replace an earlier structure that blew down in a gale. This was the scene of tragedy in 1377 when, during the Hundred Years' war with France, the villagers took refuge in the church during a French raid. The raiders set fire to the tower, burning to death all those inside. As the guidebook tactfully puts it, 'Now our visitors from France come in peace'. Once inside, the interior is a little bit of a disappointment: the architecture is largely unremarkable, although it is pretty enough. Unusually, the floor of the church rises up steps from the nave into the tower and then again up to the chancel. It is lit throughout by simple Early-English style windows or single decorated lancets. These contain the most interesting items in the church: a series of seven pre-Raphaelite stained-glass windows by Burne-Jones, whose daughter was married here. The other item of special interest is the church cat: in the summer, he can often be found sitting in his basket in the lych gate. He's very aloof - clearly having more important things to do than pander to visitors...

The highlight of this beautiful church is the stained glass work designed by Sir Edward Burne Jones…read moreand carried out by William Morris. The colours are blindingly vivid, the detail is exquisite and the overall effect is to instil a sense of the numinous. The large east window, behind the main altar, features three archangels, from left to right, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael. Below the main panels, Gabriel delivers stunning news to Mary; Raphael, the healer, is seen in his traditional role as a protector of children; centre stage Michael, a paean to Burne Jones's ardent medievalism, is slaying a dragon. On the south window the Virgin Mary looks remarkably like a pre-Raphaelite beauty, ethereal and alluring, as does the eponymous St Margaret on the wall opposite. St Margaret of Antioch was a young girl living in the 11th century who was imprisoned and put to death for her beliefs she was much loved by the Crusaders who were fond of tempering their militaristic ethos with tales of chaste femininity. Further down the church, on the north wall, there are lovely depictions of Saint Veronica and Saint George and also Saint Martin. The original church was Saxon and there are a few remnants of its beginnings on the north wall; otherwise it is a fantastic example of Norman and Early English (which is to say Late French) architecture and craftsmanship.

Yapton has a delightful church set in a quiet corner of the village. For once, the lovely exterior…read moreleads to an equally charming interior, only lightly restored by the Victorians. History Although there was a church on the site in the Saxon period, all that remains of this is the lower part of the tower the north wall is the south wall of the Saxon nave. Most of the structure dates from 1180-1220; the nave and tower date from 1180-1200 and the chancel from 1200-1220. The pretty porch was added some time after 1400, along with the west window. The additional buttressing of the tower to counter evident subsidence may also have been added in this period. Dormer windows were inserted in the ceiling in the 17th century, and the present East Window inserted in 1902. This replaced an 18th century one which itself replaced the original lancets (the remains of which are clearly visible). The church From the outside the church is picture-postcard pretty, with the leaning and heavily buttressed tower flanking the nave and porch. From the sides the roofs sweep low over the aisles to barely 5ft above the ground. Inside, the nave has four bays of plain, barely pointed arches, resting on square capitals. The capitals are decorated with foliage, though those on the south aisle look unfinished local legend has it that the masons were called away to repair Chichester Cathedral after the fire of 1187 before they could finish. The fine king-post roof with its tie-beams is original. The south aisle has an old round-headed window to the east, and two small round windows indicate an early attempt to let in more light. The chancel arch rests on two fluted corbels, and the spacious chancel has pairs of lancets to north and south. Of its furnishings, the church claims its font to be Saxon, but others point to an early Norman date. Either way, it probably pre-dates the present church. It is decorated with chevron banding and arcades of arches enclosing Maltese crosses, executed in low relief. The north aisle has the traces of mediaeval wall painting. Outside, the south wall has a number of scratch mass-dials, the two clearest of which are on the jamb of the Priest's door to the south chancel. The churchyard with areas given over to wild flowers, shaded under mature trees is exquisite, the embodiment of the English village. The church has a regular morning Sunday service and a monthly contemporary-worship evening service.

Alfriston is the largest, best preserved and most touristy of all the villages in the Cuckmere…read moreValley. It's little High Street is thronged by traffic and tourists all year round. The parish church of Saint Andrew, however, seems to stand aloof from all this: standing on a bluff in a loop of the Cuckmere River, it dominates the spacious village green. It was built in 1360, in a perfect cruciform shape, the architecture presenting perfectly the change from Decorated Gothic to Perpendicular: there are windows of both types throughout the church. The crossing piers have unusual concave sides matching capitals. The Easter Sepulchre, Piscina and Sedilia are elaborate and full of ogee arches and gables. What surprises most visitors first time, however, is its size: for a small village, this is one big church, which has won it the epithet 'the Cathedral of the Downs'. Although memorials are few, it has some superb stained glass: a mediaeval figure of Saint Alphege high in the north transept, and one by Kempe (1912) in the south. The bells date from 1390 onwards and, because of the central crossing tower, are rung from the floor of the church. Once outside, admire the view: next door, in the care of the National Trust, is the Old Priest's House and gardens, worth a visit in its own right.

St Mary's is one of those churches which rewards careful study, of what is an unusually complex…read morebuilding history. Tucked off a lane to the east of the present (and very modern) expanse of the village, it has a lovely churchyard overlooking fields, sheltered by two particularly fine cedars. The oldest part of the present building is the south nave wall, either side of the porch, which contains an original round-headed window. The church guide dates this to around 1080. The porch and tower are also mediaeval, the porch from around 1400 (still with some original roof timbers) and the tower a robust 15th century Perpendicular design with angled buttresses. In 1836 a north aisle was added. However, in 1886-7, under the careful and sympathetic guidance of John Oldrid Scott (1841-1931), the chancel was taken down and rebuilt further east, and both the nave and north aisle were extended to match, doubling its size and altering its proportions from those of a humble village church to the impressive building we see today. Thus the chancel, although largely Victorian, retains late 13th century details in the bar tracery of three of its windows (a fourth was reset in the choir vestry). Many of the most distinctive features belong to Scott's work: at the east end of the north aisle, an unusual setting of twin gothic arches leads to the choir vestry. More impressive still is the chancel itself. This has a complete Victorian decorative scheme of high quality, with elaborate and rare encaustic wall tiling, above which are walls patterned with stencil designs, all covered with a wagon roof, also with stencil designs. Further decorative work is found in the beautiful, delicate wrought iron chancel gates. The other furnishings of note are pre-Victorian, and include fragments of mediaeval stained glass in the chancel windows, a Decorated Gothic font with ogee panels, and a dignified Jacobean pulpit topped with a sounding board.

Despite being next to the busy A259, Friston's little flint-built church sits in a lovely spot,…read morenext to Friston pond, and from its graveyard are sweeping views down to East Dean. The nave is thought to be mid-11th century, extended west in the early 12th century. The chancel and porch are 14th century, as are many of the windows and, possibly from the 14th or 15th centuries, the fine king-post roof. The only modern addition is the 19th century north transept. The interior is intimate and charming: on the south wall, remains of a small round-headed window and door are thought to be Saxon or at least in the Saxon-Norman overlap, the present south door being Norman. The handsome west window is 14th century. The chancel arch is wide and low, and the tiny chancel has unusual blank arches to the north and south, both with a single trefoil-headed light, and a blank reredos arch to the east, beneath a 19th century double-lancet east window. The fittings are of great interest. The nave contains two remounted brasses of Thomas Selwyn (d.1539) and his wife, but more splendid are the later Selwyn monuments, moved from the chancel recesses to the north transepts in the 19th century. Sir Thomas Selwyn (d. 1613) and his wife are depicted kneeling, facing each other across a prayer desk, within an elaborate pillared and arched frame of alabaster. Below the children all face east, with three babes in swaddling clothes beneath the prayer desk - 'like small French loaves', according to Pevsner. That to Edward Selwyn (d.1704) is a simpler classical design, carrying a long Latin memorial. In the porch, the east window surround has an unusual form of mediaeval graffiti, showing Christ on the Cross, and other marks, possibly showing a Gothic window. There are several aumbries, piscina and stoups, all 14th century, and an elegant bowl font, dated to around 1700. Outside, just to complete the picturesque is a fine tapsel churchyard gate.

Tortington church is located in a tiny hamlet, between Arundel and Ford. Erected to serve the lay…read moremembers of the now-ruined Tortington Priory half a mile away, this small 12th-century church is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Reached by a short path from the nearby lane, it is a lovely peaceful spot. Built around 1140, the church is essentially unchanged since that period, although the south aisle fell into ruin and was only rebuilt in the 19th century. From the outside, the walls are attractively faced with flint, with a roof of red tiles, and a wooden bell-cote. This contains two bells, one mediaeval and one from 1873. But the most striking external feature is the south doorway, executed in Caen stone, a perfect example of Norman romanesque with its detailed zig-zag carving. Once inside, the simple interior is charming, with small single-light romanesque windows, although some are Victorian copies. Dominating the space is a Norman chancel arch, again in Caen stone. The decoration is unique, with a band of alternating animal heads, executed in a heavily stylised fashion, with leaves, feathers and goggle eyes. It is thought they betray a Scandinavian influence. Equally impressive is the Norman font, of the same date as the chancel arch, and decorated with a very fine relief of romanesque arches, alternating with honeysuckle and shell ornamentation. On my visit, it was filled with offerings for the harvest festival. The pulpit dates from the 17th century, and has a fine decorative panels. Once back outside, just by the church gate is a very ancient petrol-station pump, next to an equally aged-looking shed, covered in ivy. I have no idea how or why it got there - it can't have a been a very convenient spot to fill up!

This little church, with its pretty weather-boarded bell turret, has a nave dating from the late…read more13th century, with windows mostly in the late Early English style, with simple bar tracery. The chancel dates from the 14th century and its windows have the more familiar Decorated Gothic form. Outside, the east and west walls of the nave are tile hung, and above the north doorway are fragments of Norman zig-zag carving. The interior is unusual for the absence of a chancel arch - in fact the chancel walls project into the nave. The east end of the nave roof has a most complex arrangement of beams, with six braces attached to the easternmost king-post. The most interesting features are the stained glass: in the curvilinear Decorated east window are 14th century fragments relating to the donor, the rector, Thomas Diliwyt, who held the living between 1388 and 1409. The glass includes the inscription: John Diliwyt Rector Huise Ecclesie Me Fieri Fecit. But better still are the remains in the south east nave window, which depict St Thomas a Becket, dressed as a Bishop, his right hand raised in blessing and his left holding a crozier, with the letters 'S. T.OM.AS'. This glass is thought to be late 13th century, making it the oldest in East Sussex.