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Fletching is an attactive village in the Wealden district of East Sussex, 6 miles E of Haywards Heath. The church is in the centre of the village, and has a 12thc. W tower and nave, 13thc. aisles and transepts, and a largely Victorian chancel. A porch and the Sheffield Mausoleum project from the S side of the building.
Fletching is mentioned in the Domesday Book, but no church. The church guide book is the source for the medieval dedication to St Mary.
The church, and particularly the chancel, was thoroughly restored in 1878-80 by J. Oldrid Scott.
Comparable bell-openings in the area, such as Wadhurst and Burwash, do not have semi-columnar responds as does Fletching.
When the church reopened after restoration in winter 1880, a local newspaper reported that 'The Norman arch over the belfry door has had its zigzag tracery entirely restored' (Eastbourne Chronicle, 4 December 1880, 2). The doorway may not be in situ.
Eastbourne Chronicle, 4 December 1880, 2.
Anon 1981, Fletching. A Description of the Parish Church of St Andrew and St Mary the Virgin (guide book), 1981.
I. Nairn and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Sussex, Harmondsworth 1965, 501.
Rev. F. Spurrell, 'On the Architecture of Fletching Church', Sussex Archaeological Collections 4, 1851, 237-42 (section of church and detail of mouldings opp. p. 237).
Rev. S. D. Wilde, 'Fletching Parish and Church', Sussex Archaeological Collections 4, 1851, 231-36 (plan opp. p. 231).
