St Mary's Church, Westham

St Mary’s Church stands beside the old road to Pevensey Castle in the village of Westham, East Sussex. Built mostly of flint with stone dressings and a tiled roof, the church has a nave, north aisle, south transept, chancel and west tower. The earliest stonework, in the south wall and transept, belongs to the late 11th century. The north aisle and tower were added in the late 14th century, and the chancel was rebuilt around 1420. In the 1870s Lancaster architects Paley and Austin carried out restorations and enlarged the seating from 297 to 403. The tower contains six bells, the heaviest weighing 525 kg and tuned to G major. The tenor bell, originally cast in 1789 and recast in 1921, bears an engraved war memorial listing the village bell ringers lost in the Great War. The church’s bell ringers remain active and affiliated to the Sussex Country Association. After the death of Queen Elizabeth II the bells were rung fully muffled until the day after the state funeral in September 2022 as part of Operation London Bridge. The building is recognised nationally as a Grade I listed structure. Inside, the church offers a quiet space of worship and remembrance. The nave and north aisle provide room for the enlarged congregation seated since the 19th-century restoration. The south transept and north chapel flank the chancel, where the 15th-century work remains most visible. The west tower rises above the entrance, its bells ringing out over the surrounding rural parish. Beyond the churchyard the landscape stretches across Westham village, the hamlets of Hankham and Rickney, and the coastal strip towards Pevensey Bay and Eastbourne.