Steyning Methodist Church
Encyclopedia
Steyning Methodist Church is a Methodist
place of worship serving Steyning
and surrounding villages in the Horsham district
of West Sussex
, England. Built for a Wesleyan Methodist congregation who had outgrown an earlier chapel nearby, the Gothic Revival
building opened in 1878 and has since been extended. The flint and yellow brick church is set back from Steyning's ancient High Street and is within the village conservation area
. It is one of nine churches in the Worthing Methodist Circuit
.
Nonconformism
was well established in Sussex
by the start of the 19th century, and Wesleyan Methodism
had a strong presence. In 1807, the Lewes
and Brighton
Wesleyan Circuit
was founded, covering much of the county; it administered ten churches by 1841. In September of that year, Methodists first began to meet in Steyning, an ancient village whose strategic position made it an important centre of trade. St Cuthman founded its church in the 8th century; King Æthelwulf of Wessex was later buried there; and George Fox
and William Penn
were associated with a 17th-century Quaker
meeting house.
In 1843, the infant Methodist community (which had formed in September 1841) acquired a chapel
built eight years earlier for the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
, a local Calvinistic
Methodist denomination. They joined the Lewes and Brighton Circuit by March 1844, at which time there were 33 members. The "neat" building was called Trinity Chapel by 1855, and its Sunday school thrived. Consideration was given in 1874 to expanding the premises, but the congregation and trustees decided to move out and build a larger chapel instead. Henry Northcroft, active in the Worthing and Lancing
Methodist churches nearby, gave a plot of land behind Steyning High Street in 1875.
James E. Lund, an architect from Worthing, was commissioned to design plans for the new church. He attended and preached at Bedford Row Methodist Chapel in his home town, and was later responsible for designing Worthing Tabernacle
and West Worthing Tabernacle (now West Worthing Evangelical Church) in the Romanesque Revival
and Queen Anne styles
respectively. He planned a Gothic Revival-style
chapel capable of holding 300 worshippers and with an adjoining 200-capacity schoolroom. The Steyning-based building firm of Charles B. Oxley won the contract to build it, and the chapel was officially founded on 12 July 1877. Three dignitaries laid the foundation stone
: Henry Northcroft, Sir William McArthur and Caroline Spong, wife of the minister of Cliftonville Congregational Church in Hove
. There were speeches, a celebratory feast at a nearby inn and a public meeting, at which nearly £100 was raised for the church. Work was scheduled to continue until October 1877, but Oxley's firm went bankrupt and construction was suspended for five months until the receivers made arrangements with another builder. The chapel was completed within a month, and it opened for worship on 13 April 1878. The building contract was valued at £1,220.10s.0d, and the total cost including fittings and land was £1,885. The debt at the time of opening was £203.7s.9d; the church trustees had auctioned their former chapel (by now called Jarvis Hall
) in May 1878 and received £
223.16s.8d.
, which went towards the building fund.
The church struggled in its early years: the "peculiar difficulties of the Steyning cause", especially its low membership, were debated throughout the 1880s. Proactive work by ministers and the congregation, including outreach efforts to neighbouring villages and invitations to popular preachers, turned its fortunes around, and membership grew to 27 by 1892. One feature of the church was its lack of a full-time minister: it had been administered from Shoreham-by-Sea
Methodist Church since 1870, when the congregation still met in the old chapel. In 1912, a resident minister was appointed to serve Steyning and administer the nearby Ashington
Methodist Church as well; but within weeks, he was called away to another position outside Sussex, and left almost immediately. At that time, the congregation consisted mostly of local farming families, and contact with other churches in the village was minimal: when the Anglican
vicar of St Andrew's Church attended the Methodist chapel's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1927, it was headline news in the Sussex Daily News. The building served as a canteen for the armed forces during World Wars I and II, and a substantial air-raid shelter
was built during the latter.
Structural improvements were carried out in 1907, and in 1925 three extra rooms were built adjoining the schoolroom. These had their own foundation stones. The church was electrically lit from 1952, and major internal refits were carried out in 1968 and 1979. The £21,050 cost of the 1979 refit, which included a larger kitchen and a new meeting room, was partly met by the Joseph Rank Trust
.
The church grew in strength in the postwar period. Outreach to the village as a whole and ecumenical
activities with other local churches increased, and membership reached 66 in 1962. Services also became popular with pupils from a nearby boarding school
. Centenary celebrations included a parade from the church to St Andrew's parish church, which held a special service. Another internal refurbishment was carried out in spring 2001, after which the church was rededicated.
Steyning Methodist Church now shares a minister with another Methodist church at nearby Storrington
as part of the Downs Section of the Worthing Methodist Circuit
. A third church in the section, Ashington Methodist Church, closed in October 2010. Steyning and Storrington are two of the nine extant churches in the Circuit; the others are in Worthing, Durrington
, Goring-by-Sea, Southwick
, Shoreham-by-Sea and Lancing.
. The main building materials are flint
and pale yellow brick, and there are stone dressings and quoins
. The design is in contrast to the plain stucco
ed Neoclassical architecture
of the congregation's former chapel, the present Jarvis Hall
. The lobby, widened in 1968, is reached through an entrance porch. and was originally lined with glass panels with etched Gothic-style lettering reading . Other original fittings included tapestry carpets, stone tablets with the Ten Commandments
, a tall curved rostrum with decorative ironwork and a timber communion rail
. A pulpit
was mounted centrally on the rostrum, and an organ
stood behind. The 1968 refurbishment included replacing the organ with one taken from Whitefield's Tabernacle, Moorfields
, removing the rostrum in favour of a flat platform with a side pulpit and a communion table in the centre, and mounting a teak
cross on the wall above.
The chapel is set back a long way from Steyning High Street, behind a garden which was laid with lawn and shrubs in 1879. In its assessment of the Steyning village centre conservation area
, in which the chapel is situated, The Steyning Society commented that the chapel's environs were "a delightful area with a mixture of buildings on both sides of the road with a pleasing irregularity of building line".
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
place of worship serving Steyning
Steyning
Steyning is a small town and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles north of Shoreham-by-Sea...
and surrounding villages in the Horsham district
Horsham (district)
Horsham is a local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in Horsham. The district borders those of Crawley, Mid Sussex, Mole Valley, Chichester, Arun and Adur....
of West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, England. Built for a Wesleyan Methodist congregation who had outgrown an earlier chapel nearby, the Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
building opened in 1878 and has since been extended. The flint and yellow brick church is set back from Steyning's ancient High Street and is within the village conservation area
Conservation Area (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, the term Conservation Area nearly always applies to an area considered worthy of preservation or enhancement because of its special architectural or historic interest, "the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance," as required by the Planning ...
. It is one of nine churches in the Worthing Methodist Circuit
Methodist Circuit
The Methodist Circuit is part of the organisational structure of British Methodism,or at least those branches derived from the work of John Wesley. It is a group of individual Societies or local Churches under the care of one or more Methodist Ministers. In the scale of organisation, the Circuit...
.
History
ProtestantProtestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
Nonconformism
Nonconformism
Nonconformity is the refusal to "conform" to, or follow, the governance and usages of the Church of England by the Protestant Christians of England and Wales.- Origins and use:...
was well established in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
by the start of the 19th century, and Wesleyan Methodism
Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)
The Wesleyan Methodist Church was the name used by the major Methodist movement in Great Britain following its split from the Church of England after the death of John Wesley and the appearance of parallel Methodist movements...
had a strong presence. In 1807, the Lewes
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
and Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
Wesleyan Circuit
Methodist Circuit
The Methodist Circuit is part of the organisational structure of British Methodism,or at least those branches derived from the work of John Wesley. It is a group of individual Societies or local Churches under the care of one or more Methodist Ministers. In the scale of organisation, the Circuit...
was founded, covering much of the county; it administered ten churches by 1841. In September of that year, Methodists first began to meet in Steyning, an ancient village whose strategic position made it an important centre of trade. St Cuthman founded its church in the 8th century; King Æthelwulf of Wessex was later buried there; and George Fox
George Fox
George Fox was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.The son of a Leicestershire weaver, Fox lived in a time of great social upheaval and war...
and William Penn
William Penn
William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
were associated with a 17th-century Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
meeting house.
In 1843, the infant Methodist community (which had formed in September 1841) acquired a chapel
Jarvis Hall, Steyning
Jarvis Hall is a former Nonconformist chapel in the village of Steyning, in the Horsham district of the English county of West Sussex. Since its construction in 1835, the Classical-style building has been used by four different Nonconformist Christian denominations: the Countess of Huntingdon's...
built eight years earlier for the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion is a small society of evangelical churches, founded in 1783 by Selina, Countess of Huntingdon as a result of the Evangelical Revival. For years it was strongly associated with the Calvinist Methodist movement of George Whitefield...
, a local Calvinistic
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
Methodist denomination. They joined the Lewes and Brighton Circuit by March 1844, at which time there were 33 members. The "neat" building was called Trinity Chapel by 1855, and its Sunday school thrived. Consideration was given in 1874 to expanding the premises, but the congregation and trustees decided to move out and build a larger chapel instead. Henry Northcroft, active in the Worthing and Lancing
Lancing, West Sussex
Lancing is a town and civil parish in the Adur district of West Sussex, England, on the western edge of the Adur Valley. It lies on the coastal plain between Sompting to the west, Shoreham-by-Sea to the east and the parish of Coombes to the north...
Methodist churches nearby, gave a plot of land behind Steyning High Street in 1875.
James E. Lund, an architect from Worthing, was commissioned to design plans for the new church. He attended and preached at Bedford Row Methodist Chapel in his home town, and was later responsible for designing Worthing Tabernacle
Worthing Tabernacle
Worthing Tabernacle is an independent Evangelical Christian church in the town and borough of Worthing, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex...
and West Worthing Tabernacle (now West Worthing Evangelical Church) in the Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
and Queen Anne styles
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
respectively. He planned a Gothic Revival-style
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
chapel capable of holding 300 worshippers and with an adjoining 200-capacity schoolroom. The Steyning-based building firm of Charles B. Oxley won the contract to build it, and the chapel was officially founded on 12 July 1877. Three dignitaries laid the foundation stone
Cornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
: Henry Northcroft, Sir William McArthur and Caroline Spong, wife of the minister of Cliftonville Congregational Church in Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
. There were speeches, a celebratory feast at a nearby inn and a public meeting, at which nearly £100 was raised for the church. Work was scheduled to continue until October 1877, but Oxley's firm went bankrupt and construction was suspended for five months until the receivers made arrangements with another builder. The chapel was completed within a month, and it opened for worship on 13 April 1878. The building contract was valued at £1,220.10s.0d, and the total cost including fittings and land was £1,885. The debt at the time of opening was £203.7s.9d; the church trustees had auctioned their former chapel (by now called Jarvis Hall
Jarvis Hall, Steyning
Jarvis Hall is a former Nonconformist chapel in the village of Steyning, in the Horsham district of the English county of West Sussex. Since its construction in 1835, the Classical-style building has been used by four different Nonconformist Christian denominations: the Countess of Huntingdon's...
) in May 1878 and received £
£sd
£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...
223.16s.8d.
Penny (British pre-decimal coin)
The penny of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, was in circulation from the early 18th century until February 1971, Decimal Day....
, which went towards the building fund.
The church struggled in its early years: the "peculiar difficulties of the Steyning cause", especially its low membership, were debated throughout the 1880s. Proactive work by ministers and the congregation, including outreach efforts to neighbouring villages and invitations to popular preachers, turned its fortunes around, and membership grew to 27 by 1892. One feature of the church was its lack of a full-time minister: it had been administered from Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
Methodist Church since 1870, when the congregation still met in the old chapel. In 1912, a resident minister was appointed to serve Steyning and administer the nearby Ashington
Ashington, West Sussex
Ashington is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A24 road 3 miles northeast of Storrington.The parish has a land area of 805 hectares...
Methodist Church as well; but within weeks, he was called away to another position outside Sussex, and left almost immediately. At that time, the congregation consisted mostly of local farming families, and contact with other churches in the village was minimal: when the Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
vicar of St Andrew's Church attended the Methodist chapel's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1927, it was headline news in the Sussex Daily News. The building served as a canteen for the armed forces during World Wars I and II, and a substantial air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelters, also known as bomb shelters, are structures for the protection of the civil population as well as military personnel against enemy attacks from the air...
was built during the latter.
Structural improvements were carried out in 1907, and in 1925 three extra rooms were built adjoining the schoolroom. These had their own foundation stones. The church was electrically lit from 1952, and major internal refits were carried out in 1968 and 1979. The £21,050 cost of the 1979 refit, which included a larger kitchen and a new meeting room, was partly met by the Joseph Rank Trust
Joseph Rank
Joseph Rank was the founder of Rank Hovis McDougall, one of the United Kingdom's largest flour-milling businesses.-Career:...
.
The church grew in strength in the postwar period. Outreach to the village as a whole and ecumenical
Ecumenism
Ecumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...
activities with other local churches increased, and membership reached 66 in 1962. Services also became popular with pupils from a nearby boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
. Centenary celebrations included a parade from the church to St Andrew's parish church, which held a special service. Another internal refurbishment was carried out in spring 2001, after which the church was rededicated.
Steyning Methodist Church now shares a minister with another Methodist church at nearby Storrington
Storrington
Storrington is a village in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England, and one of two in the civil parish of Storrington and Sullington. Storrington lies at the foot of the north side of the South Downs. As of 2006 the village has a population of around 4,600. It has one main shopping street...
as part of the Downs Section of the Worthing Methodist Circuit
Methodist Circuit
The Methodist Circuit is part of the organisational structure of British Methodism,or at least those branches derived from the work of John Wesley. It is a group of individual Societies or local Churches under the care of one or more Methodist Ministers. In the scale of organisation, the Circuit...
. A third church in the section, Ashington Methodist Church, closed in October 2010. Steyning and Storrington are two of the nine extant churches in the Circuit; the others are in Worthing, Durrington
Durrington, West Sussex
Durrington is a neighbourhood of the Borough of Worthing in West Sussex, England. It is situated near the A27 road, northwest of the town centre.Durrington means 'Dēora's farmstead', Dēora presumably being the name of a Saxon settler...
, Goring-by-Sea, Southwick
Southwick, West Sussex
Southwick is a small town and civil parish in the Adur District of West Sussex, England located three miles west of Brighton and a suburb of the East Sussex resort City of Brighton & Hove...
, Shoreham-by-Sea and Lancing.
Architecture
James E. Lund designed Steyning Methodist Church in the Gothic Revival styleGothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
. The main building materials are flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
and pale yellow brick, and there are stone dressings and quoins
Quoin (architecture)
Quoins are the cornerstones of brick or stone walls. Quoins may be either structural or decorative. Architects and builders use quoins to give the impression of strength and firmness to the outline of a building...
. The design is in contrast to the plain stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
of the congregation's former chapel, the present Jarvis Hall
Jarvis Hall, Steyning
Jarvis Hall is a former Nonconformist chapel in the village of Steyning, in the Horsham district of the English county of West Sussex. Since its construction in 1835, the Classical-style building has been used by four different Nonconformist Christian denominations: the Countess of Huntingdon's...
. The lobby, widened in 1968, is reached through an entrance porch. and was originally lined with glass panels with etched Gothic-style lettering reading . Other original fittings included tapestry carpets, stone tablets with the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
, a tall curved rostrum with decorative ironwork and a timber communion rail
Altar rails
Altar rails are a set of railings, sometimes ornate and frequently of marble or wood, delimiting the chancel in a church, the part of the sanctuary that contains the altar. A gate at the centre divides the line into two parts. The sanctuary is a figure of heaven, into which entry is not guaranteed...
. A pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
was mounted centrally on the rostrum, and an organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
stood behind. The 1968 refurbishment included replacing the organ with one taken from Whitefield's Tabernacle, Moorfields
Whitefield's Tabernacle, Moorfields
Whitefield's Tabernacle, Moorfields is a church at the corner of Tabernacle Street and Leonard Street, London, England, originally a wooden building built by followers of George Whitefield in 1741, replaced by a brick building in 1753, and again rebuilt over a century later...
, removing the rostrum in favour of a flat platform with a side pulpit and a communion table in the centre, and mounting a teak
Teak
Teak is the common name for the tropical hardwood tree species Tectona grandis and its wood products. Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma, but is naturalized and cultivated in many countries, including those in Africa and the...
cross on the wall above.
The chapel is set back a long way from Steyning High Street, behind a garden which was laid with lawn and shrubs in 1879. In its assessment of the Steyning village centre conservation area
Conservation Area (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, the term Conservation Area nearly always applies to an area considered worthy of preservation or enhancement because of its special architectural or historic interest, "the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance," as required by the Planning ...
, in which the chapel is situated, The Steyning Society commented that the chapel's environs were "a delightful area with a mixture of buildings on both sides of the road with a pleasing irregularity of building line".