Bexhill: St Barnabas
Diocese of Chichester
Church, 610337
This church is on the Heritage at Risk Register (verified 2025-11-06)
View more information about this church on the Heritage at Risk website
Overview
Grid reference: TQ 745 73
The large Gothic pebble-faced stone church of St Barnabas is set on a minor street corner on Sea Road a short distance back from Bexhill’s pebble beach front, just south of the hill on which stands the historic old town with the medieval parish church of St Peter and the ruins of the Bishop’s residence. The church is designed in the early Gothic style of c 1300, generally in the lancet style but with use of Free Gothic tracery. There are prominent stepped gabled buttresses which provide punctuation to the various parts of the composition.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Complex. Five-bay aisled nave with west porch, north transept, chancel and flanking organ chamber and vestry, adjacent nave to the south with east and west chapels and south porch. Crypt under the chancel with a large room.
Dimensions:
Both naves estimated to be c 23m (75ft) x 8m (26ft).
Footprint of Church buildings: 1057 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The first reference to Bexhill is in a charter granted by King Offa of Mercia in 772AD, in which he established a church and religious community there, which may have been on the site of the historic parish church of St Peter. After the Conquest William I gave the manor to Robert, Count of Eu, along with most of the Hastings area. The manor was given to the Bishops of Chichester in 1148, and it is probable that the first manor house was built by the bishops at this time. The ruins still visible at Manor Gardens in Bexhill Old Town were built about 1250, a short distance north of the church, however there is little chance of archaeological remains at the church site, as the area was always prone to flooding prior to the building of the sea wall in the Victorian period.
The town prospered throughout the medieval period and into the 19th century. The railway came to Bexhill in 1846, but the town experienced a tourist boom and expansion typical of the south coast towns only from the 1880s following the building of a sea wall. The Victorian new town was built along the shoreline between 1883 and 1902.
The church was built as part of this expansion in 1891 to a design by Sir Arthur Blomfield, and was conventional with aisled transeptal nave. The south extension was added in 1908-9 with a legacy from Miss Evelyne Clarke, in scale practically another church with Lady chapel at the apsidal east end which opens off the south aisle of the main church.
The chapel of All Souls at the west end of this was designed by Leslie Moore in 1935. The ceiling of the apsidal chapel at the east end was painted around this time, the chancel was restored with new floor and reredos, the pulpit was elaborated with a tester, and new textiles were commissioned. W H Randoll Blacking may have been involved in this work, which was partly undertaken under the auspices of the Warham Guild and its founder member F C Eeles (then Secretary of the CCC).
The Grade I listed De La Warr Pavilion built in 1935 by Erich Mendelsson is a major feature of the town belonging to the later phase of the town’s development. Following the decline in the tourist industry since the 1970s Bexhill is now more residential in nature, with a considerable population of pensioners.
Following a fire in the north-west corner in November 2005 a plain full height plywood screen was recently inserted just within the southern arcade to separate the two, and the original church has been effectively mothballed. The smoke damage has been largely removed but there is still scaffolding around the west end.
Exterior Description
There is a lot more to this very large church than one would expect from Nairn’s and the statutory listing’s 3-line descriptions, particularly inside, though both the exterior and interior is presently in an unsatisfactory condition after the fire. It might be noted that there are relatively few listed buildings in Bexhill, and this church is one of the most prominent in the townscape.
The church is designed in the early Gothic style of c 1300, generally in the lancet style but with use of Free Gothic tracery. There are prominent stepped gabled buttresses which provide punctuation to the various parts of the composition. The west end of the nave has a tall 2-light lancet flanked by two shorter lancets with a vesica with agnus dei above, above a lean-to narthex with a row of small lancets and adjacent doorway. Short lancets to the aisles and 2-lights to the clearstorey.
The north transept has a 2-light plate tracery window above a small 3-light square-framed window. On the west side of this is a lean-to porch under a cat-slide continuation of the aisle roof, with a shouldered doorway. The chancel has a 5-light Free Gothic tracery east window and 2-light lancets in the side walls. A flat roofed organ chamber with moulded parapet and adjacent lean-to vestry, and a nicely articulated stone double stack rising from the chancel complete a complex vista.
The nave of the south extension, which is almost as big as the old church, has a pointed 5-light Decorated tracery window in the west wall under a small 3-light breather, with alternately 3- and 4-light windows with depressed arch heads the south wall. These have tracery complementing the east window tracery of the “old” church. There are short pointed 2-lights to the apsidal chancel. There is a porch on the south side with a stone moulded gable, again depressed, this apparently rarely used; the shouldered entrance is again on the west side, with a row of small lancets in the south wall.
Building Fabric and Features
Nave
19th century 5-bay aisled
Porch
19th century west
Transept
19th century north
Chancel
19th century
Organ (component)
19th century chamber
Vestry
19th century
Nave
19th century adjacent to the south
Chapel (component)
20th century
Porch
20th century south
Crypt
20th century under chancel
Building Materials
Flint
19th century facing
Bath Stone
19th century dressings
Tile
20th century roof
Limestone
19th century interior dressings
Interior
Interior Description
Moving inside through a depressed arch doorway in a lean-to porch at the west end of the south aisle flush with the narthex, within is a vestibule with square-headed doorway on the south side leading into the chapel of All Souls to the south, and pointed doorway previously to a narthex to the north which was burned out during the fire, this entrance now hosts the War Memorial. Moving into the church through a square doorway, the interior is cavernous. The building has been divided into two following the fire of 2005 with a rough plywood screen running east-west, worship taking place in the All Souls Chapel at the west end of the south “new” church.
The interior is brick-faced with stone bands and dressings. The floors are of woodblock with some use of tiles and marble. The aisles have octagonal brick piers with stone bases and moulded capitals rising to pointed arcades, as noted already there is an extra arcade, opening onto the nave of the south chapel. The temporary screen is just to the north of this arcade. The responds and chancel arch have tight foliate carving.
To describe the main part of the church first, the nave has been cleared and is an open space, its vastness emphasised by the excellent and very impressive open arch-braced roof of two tiers, the members intricately carved with tracery in the spandrels. Moulded stone corbels. A chancel screen of fine filigree open tracery wraps around the large pulpit with tester.
Mosaic floor to the chancel between rather good choir stalls with open tracery fronts with lamps, a large arch opens in the north wall behind these containing the organ pipes. There are more tracery screens defining rooms flanking the sanctuary, containing the vestry to the north and organ console to the south; stairs to the crypt lead down from here. At the east end, Hopton stone steps and floor to the sanctuary and painted and gilded reredos, covered in plastic for protection. Pointed door to the vestry in the north wall, stone sedilia with Early English arcading in the south wall.
The “south nave” also has a splendid arch-braced roof, slightly simpler than that in the old church. Chairs of the 1930s or later in the nave. There are various shrines (St John Mary Vianny, Lady of Walsingham) around the church with plaster figures. Pointed chancel arch of two orders.
The Lady chapel is an impressive set-piece in its own right, with a painted ceiling with the Virgin and Child and cherubs against a cloudy sky, with a mural of historic figures (bishops, kings and queens, philosophers) on the cornice underneath, which was done later than the altar. Filigree wooden tracery chancel screen, the sanctuary with an altar chest with painted tripartite panel, marble floor.
A traceried solid screen at the west end defines the small chapel of All Souls, which appears to have been the part designed by Moore. The chapel has plain panelling all around and wooden piers which branch to support the beamed ceiling.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
19th century The High altar is an oak chest with plain panelling, originally there were riddel posts. South (Lady) chapel altar chest with painted tripartite panel, angels worshipping Virgin and Child. Plain catalogue conical chest in All Souls chapel. Plain panelled chest, nave altar in south church.
Reredos
19th century Wooden reredos, painted, with Christ and Apostles. Takes up the whole width under the east window, probably like the altar by the Warham Guild. Oak panelling returning around the walls. Oak panelling in the south chapel, similar style. Brocade and Crucifixion figure in All Souls chapel.
Pulpit
19th century The large two-decker pulpit in the main church is of oak, hexagonal with carved tracery panels on a moulded stone base. The rear panel is ribbed and coved, the panels painted white and rises to a tester, a notable item. The tester seems to have been added in the 20th century, perhaps in 1935.
Lectern
19th century Large brass eagle lectern in the south church. Wooden lectern, modern.
Font (component)
19th century Stone octagonal font with columns to the bowl, with elaborate carved ogee tracery panels containing shields, broad octagonal base.
Stained Glass (window)
20th century A good scheme of the early 20th century by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. • East window, Christ in Majesty. Possibly by A J Dix? • North aisle windows, St Luke, St Barnabas, St John, St James Major, St Peter, early 20th century, signed by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. • West window, World War I Memorial; Angels proclaim peace to the Israelites, they beat their swords into ploughshares. Possibly by A J Dix? • South wall, 3-light with Crucifixion, in memory of Thomas Mortlock died 1908. Possibly by A J Dix? • Lady chapel east window, Adoration of the Shepherds, in memory of Evelyne Stanley Clarke. Possibly by C E Tute? • There was a similar style window adjacent to the north, but this has gone. • South wall, 3-light with St Luke, Evangelist and patron of doctors. Given in memory of Joseph Wills, restored and dedicated 1965. Possibly by Francis Spear.
Plaque (component)
20th century Brass plaque, Margery Baird died 1960. Two framed baptism rolls at west end. List of vicars on panelling at west end of south extension.
Inscribed Object
19th / 20th century Clarke family memorials in the old church: • Foundation marble tablet in the north aisle, 1891, in memory of Henry Stanley Clarke. • Similar in memory of the vicar who led the building of the church, Charles Leopold Stanley Clarke, died 1896. • Plainer tablet commemorating the extension of the church in 1909 in memory of Evelyne Stanley Clarke, died 1898 (see also stained glass above). These three with attractive polychrome borders.
Organ (component)
20th century Three manual pipe organ by Norman & Beard of 1900, restored and enlarged by Hill, Norman & Beard. Chappell piano.
Rail
19th century Oak hand rails with tracery.
Plaque (component)
20th century • Wooden gabled memorial in the narthex with inset brass plaque in memory of the fallen in World War. • Brass plaque in memory of Kenneth Mackenzie Douglas, killed in action in Nyasaland 1918, and to his parents.
Bust
20th century Beaten bronze panel with bust of Lt Comm Ernest James Cuddy Royal Navy. Died in internment in Rotterdam 1917.
Portable Furnishings and Artworks
Registers date from 1891.
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 745 73
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Quinquennial Inspections
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