The Parish Church of St Andrew

Church Steet Steyning

Website: www.achurchnearyou.com/steyning-st-andrew/

Saint Andrew's Church, Steyning



Steyning is one of the few places in South East England which can trace a Christian tradition going back to the eighth century.



The central figure in the early part of this tradition is Saint Cuthman, who after centuries of almost total neglect following the Norman invasion, has been restored to his rightful place with a statue opposite the church, a chapel dedicated to him and two stained glass windows. Christopher Fry's play 'The Boy With A Cart' (1939) made the stories of Cuthman popular throughout the English speaking world.



While the stories of Cuthman test the credulity of most people today, there is evidence from documents that his reputation was strong in Saxon England and that both the port and the church of Steyning were named after him. The body of King Ethelwulf, father of Alfred The Great was brought to Cuthman's church for burial after his death in a battle near London.



The Normans did their best to obliterate the Cuthman and Saxon associations in general; their new church dedicated to Saint Andrew expressed the skill and power they wanted to demonstrate on a grand scale. The recovery of Steyning church for the Abbey of Fecamp after King Harold had taken it away was given as one of the justifications for William's invasion.



At the time of the Norman invasion, Steyning held an important position both geographically and historically. What is now the River Adur was a sea estuary allowing ocean-going ships access to an inland port which was situated only a few metres to the north east of the churchyard. This was then an avenue into England for the Normans who also built the castle at Bramber to defend the position.



Of the original church only part of the nave survives. Evidence has suggested that it extended two further bays to the west where the present tower now stands. The great chancel arch was one of four that supported a central tower. To the north and south there were transepts, and beyond, to the east, a chancel and choir which extended practically to the eastern end of the present churchyard. It must have been a magnificent building from every aspect.



The church stood in all its splendour until the mid 16th century when both eastern and western ends collapsed and the transepts were probably damaged beyond repair by the fall of the central tower. The present tower was constructed partly out of debris from the original church with the purpose of shoring up the western end of the church. It was not until the mid 18th century that a modified chancel was built; it was improved in the mid 19th century when a pipe organ was also introduced.



The next major re-ordering of the church took place in the 1980's when the chancel was cleared of heavy Victorian furniture and vestries removed from the side chapels.



There are many interesting minor features in the church - the massive stone unearthed in the churchyard in 1938 which, along with a Saxon coffin lid, stands in the porch.. Its strange markings which have never been convincingly interpreted suggest that it was perhaps the stone which gave Steyning its name and central to the pagan rituals which took place on the site before Cuthman took it over for Christian worship. There is a sanctuary ring on the massive old door which leads from porch to nave. The font is contemporary with the Norman church, but it was dumped in the churchyard during the Reformation and only recovered in the mid 19th century. Close to the font, a consecration cross is incised into a pillar, but it is almost impossible to see; it was reproduced in an enlarged form on the stone at the top of the steps into the churchyard on the south side as a millennium project. Consecration crosses marked the points where the bishop laid his hand to bless the building during the elaborate consecration ceremony. There are various other interesting graffiti including masons' marks and the carvings at the top of the south pillar by the Cuthman chapel is an interesting example of pre Romanesque work, suggesting that the some work may have started on a new stone church before the Norman conquest.



For all the changes that have occurred, the building's beauty continues to give great pleasure to worshippers and visitors alike. Those of us who worship in Saint Andrew's are conscious of a great tradition of Christian devotion and worship which we have inherited. In our own day, we seek to enhance both beauty and tradition through a mixture of new and old forms of worship and our care for the building.



The church remains a house of prayer; visitors are invited to mark their prayers by lighting a candle and writing the name of any in special need.