We use cookies to improve your experience, some are essential for the operation of this site.

St Thomas a Becket, Pagham, Sussex

Location
(50°46′13″N, 0°44′57″W)
Pagham
SZ 883 975
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Sussex
now West Sussex
  • Kathryn A Morrison
  • Kathryn A Morrison
24 May 98

Please use this link to cite this page - https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=10359.

Find out how to cite the CRSBI website here.

Feature Sets
Description

The church comprises a 13thc. nave with N and S aisles, N and S transepts and a chancel. The NW tower stands over the W bay of the N aisle.

History

Pagham was famously given to Wilfrid by King Cædwalla of the south Saxons in the 7thc. Pagham and its church are mentioned in the Domesday Book, at which time the village was held by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Throughout the 12thc. the Archbishops occasionally visited their palace at Pagham.

The W front, apparently inspired by church facades in Western France, dates from the 1837-38 restoration by John Elliott and incorporates neo-Romanesque sculpture. Its pre-1838 appearance was recorded in architectural drawings of 1835 by J. Butler.

Features

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

The form of the font points to a late 12thc. date. The type of decoration found on the N and W sides recurs at Sidlesham.


Bibliography

D. Freke, 'Excavations in the parish church of St Thomas the Martyr, Pagham', Sussex Archaeological Collections 118, 1980, 245-56 (discovery of footings of pre-Conquest church and fragment of 10th century ring-headed cross).

J. Morris and J. Mothersill (ed.), Domesday Book: Sussex, Chichester 1976, 2.5.

I. Nairn and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Sussex, Harmondsworth 1965, 289.

A. H. Peat and L. C. Halsted, Churches and Other Antiquities of West Sussex, Chichester 1912, 116-19.

Victoria County History: Sussex. IV (Chichester Rape) 1953, 231-33, with plan.