St Peter's. Stonegate. Wadhurst. East Sussex. TN5 7EW.

** sussexparishchurches.org/church/stonegate-st-peter/ **

A small chapel for this outlying part of the parish of Ticehurst was opened in 1838 (VCH 9 p257), designed by L Vulliamy (B 29 p142). A photograph of 1903 by Francis Frith depicts a small white gabled church with lancets and a shallow ‘west’ porch. This is said to have been refaced in brick to become the chancel of the present church (Elleray (1981) p81), but the photograph shows that the old church stood at right-angles to the road and almost on it, whereas the present one is set back and is parallel with the road, so their positions were quite different.

The present church, which is by G E S Streatfeild (BE(E) , has varying combinations of lancets, but this is really all it has in common with the work of 1838. The walls are brick with stone dressings and there is a low aisle, which is slight, particularly inside. The lower stage of the disproportionately broad tower, east of a big half-timbered porch, is conventionally gothic, but the horizontal bell-louvres on the boarded upper one, especially in the use of vernacular materials, are a sign of the early C20. The side of the heavy shingled broach spire facing the road is continued as a roof over a clock bearing the date of construction, 1904. The arcade and moulded chancel arch without abaci are conventional and the roof dominates the interior. It is arched to the collars and lacks the shiny varnish the Victorians would have given it.

Repairs were carried out in 1979-80 by A B Carter (ICBS).