Description

HOVE

TQ20NE HOLMES AVENUE, West Blatchington
579-1/3/178 (West side)
24/03/50 Church of St Peter

GV II*

Parish church. C12 nave and C13 chancel restored from ruinous
state 1890-1, sedilia and aumbry added 1940, northern addition
of larger nave and chancel 1960, porch restored 1987. C19 work
by Somers Clarke, 1960 enlargement by John Leopold Denman.
Pebble and knapped flint, brick dressings, brick coping to
full-height curved C20 buttresses, clay tiled roofs, hipped
bonnets to west end, coped verges, wooden shingles to
bell-cote.
Plan: chancel, 6-bay nave with organ gallery and west door
flanked by bow windows, south-west stair turret, earlier nave
and chancel forming 5-bay south aisle, south porch and
south-east vestry. All windows C19 or C20 apart from 2 small
Norman windows in west wall of south aisle. Gabled porch with
bargeboards, buttressed south wall, lancet window, 3-light
east window, curved east end of chancel, unlit with foundation
stone dated 1960, attractive use of 2 tiers of brick laid end
on to form chamfered plinth, north wall 3 full-height
buttresses, 6-square-headed metal casement windows set between
brick piers with bonnet hip tiles laid edge on as decorative
capitals, west end doorway flanked by 2 bows with curved metal
windows set below eaves, south front organ loft stair turret
with curved facade and many paned window.
Interior: rendered. Roof to nave rendered and carried on
double chamfered curved trusses rising from below the heads of
the window openings. Wooden gallery with baluster panels to
organ loft. There is a clerestory of unleaded 3-light splayed
interlocking sections to the south aisle lit by light wells in
the roof space. The nave roof and the clerestory are the main
features of interest; the fittings are as yet sparse. The C20
extension shows an imaginative and sympathetic use of local
materials. The only feature surviving from the earlier church,
a C16 brass commemorating the Scrase family who were tenants
of West Blatchington manor for some 400 years, was removed to
St Nicolas's Church, Portslade (qv) where it can be seen on
the east wall of the south aisle.
The church at West Blatchington had fallen into disuse by the
late C16 and was ruinous by 1700. In 1744 the parish was
united with that of Brighthelmston (Brighton), and did not
again achieve parish status until 1940.
(Dale A: Brighton Churches: 1989-).

Listing NGR: TQ2786506872

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Peter's Church, West Blatchington at Wikipedia
• St Peter's Church, West Blatchington official website
• Wikidata Q7595301

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)