The Parish Church of St Bartholomew

St Bartholomew’s Church stands beside the A265 in Burwash, East Sussex. A Grade II* listed building, it began as a Norman church in 1090. Only the massive tower from that first structure remains, its wide mortar joints still visible on the outside. The rest was rebuilt and restored in 1856, when the chancel was renewed though its 13th-century arch was kept. Between 1989 and 1990 the floor was renewed again after old planks rotted. The church’s history reflects the rise and fall of local industries. In the south aisle lies an early-16th-century cast-iron memorial slab, the oldest of its kind in England. Burwash once housed the Wealden iron industry, and the slab shows how metalwork shaped the village’s fortunes. Inside, visitors see the thick-walled tower and the renewed chancel with its medieval arch. The south aisle holds the iron memorial, while the lowered floor and fresh planking tell of later repairs. The churchyard still carries traces of the earth removed in the 19th century.