St Mary

given some new liturgical fittings such as piscinas in the early C13.

MATERIALS Flint rubble with some Roman tile, stone dressings, some old render on S side, E end of chancel also rendered, tiled roofs.

EXTERIOR Enormous, crudely tooled, C11 quoins survive at the SW and SE corners of the nave, and at the SE corner of the chancel.

The nave S wall has a C13 roll moulded S door and a single, tall, early C13 lancet.

The plain C11 chancel arch is round-headed on plain, chamfered imposts and has crude tooling.

C19 N aisle of 3 bays in an early C13 style has slightly chamfered pointed arches on polygonal piers with elegant waterleaf capitals and waterholding bases.

A small, C12 window with a pointed head now opens internally above the pier.

The outer arch replaces a pointed medieval arch that opened into a shallow recess of unknown medieval date.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES Probably C13 piscina in chancel has a pointed head and incorporates a pillar piscina made from an Anglo-Saxon baluster shaft.

Simple C19 pitch pine pulpit, polygonal on a polygonal stem in NE corner of nave.

C19 red and black checked tiles in chancel floor, now partly covered, and ledger slabs in nave under the present removable floor.

A number of C18 and C19 wall monument in both nave and chancel, mostly simple black and white marble slabs.

The place Rumboldswyke is in the Domesday book, and while the church itself is not mentioned, the C11 fabric indicates that there was already a church there by 1086.

The church was refitted in the early C13, when the lancet windows were added, probably replacing much smaller windows.

Structurally the church was little changed between the C13 and the C19

it had some new furnishings in the C17 that were subsequently removed in the C19 restorations.

SOURCES Pevsner, N and Nairn, I, The Buildings of England: Sussex Salzman, L F (ed), Victoria County History: A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4 , 171-74 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Mary, Rhumboldswhyke, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * An extremely interesting survival of a church of the C11, including its chancel arch and massive quoins with relatively few subsequent medieval additions and sympathetic C19 and C21 alterations.