St Nicholas' Church, Bramber Castle
Location
OS Ref: TQ 186 106
Last Visited: 2016

St Nicholas Church
Just down the hill from the castle entrance, St Nicholas Church has survived rather better.
Dating from 1073, making it the oldest post-conquest church in Sussex, it was originally built by William De Braose as a small cruciform chapel for a college of secular canons. By around 1250 in had been become a parish church, due to the college becoming embroiled in a dispute between Fécamp Abbey at Steyning and Sele Priory at Upper Beeding.

The Altar
Along with the castle, the church fell into ruins in the late sixteenth century, and remained so until 1783, when the Rev Thomas Green created a rather different church out of what remained. He removed the ruined chancel and transepts, and created a new chancel in what had been the crossing. Confusingly, he then added a low and unroofed tower over the crossing/chancel.
In 1931 a small combined entrance and vestry by W D Caröe was added to the west end.
External Links and References
External Links
- The Parish of Beeding and Bramber with Botolphs
The church's parish web site.
http://www.3bsparish.org/ - Bramber - St Nicholas
A detailed history
http://www.sussexparishchurches.org/spc_V31/west-sussex/22-west-sussex-a-b/343-bramber-st-nicholas
- The Parish of Beeding and Bramber with Botolphs