Saving a Sussex Downland Saxon Church - St Paul's at Elsted

hello I'm Richard Vogue's the bald Explorer out on another Church investigation and I'm in West Sussex I'm at the foot of the South Downs I'm sort of as West as you can go in West Sussex I'm here to have a look good Elstad Church and with me somebody who's been on our videos before we have Andrew Jackson hello Andrew Rory Richard lovely to meet you again another beautiful sunny day in West Sussex excellent this is st. Paul's I believe another of the the three churches in the area that are all linked together in in their own way is that correct that's right they're in a combined parish and parish of else due to trade for to come Diddley and you have been to delink Church young lady so do check out the diddling video because that was very interesting but we are at st. Paul's should we go and have a look at it I think we ought to now there's your gonna take us at in an interesting way because there is a gate but there is these steps here this this is a footpath and it's long been here so I should follow you through all right up towards that the well I can say the sort of Midhurst area but we're a bit west of Midhurst aren't we yeah so as we come up to the front of the church this particular church now this church similar case with diddling that it's was in a bit of a sorrowful State and has been repaired but it's it's early times is back at Saxon times it is part of the structure which we'll see in a minute is indeed Saxon it's probably a thousand years old but what we're looking at here is not much more than 50 years old because it was rebuilt and rededicated in 1951 wow that's quite recent third church modern modification well it was the case of needs B because it was derelict yes inside the church is a before and after model of what it was like and yeah we'll illustrate very well just what yes why there was a need for a rebuild and I mean and it's drastic isn't it you know the difference between the before and after is quite drastic with walls missing the bell in the corner oh yeah I mean it's quite a big change well it is it's it's difficult to know how much detail to go into but the point was that there were three the three medieval churches in this village were effectively closed and a big new Victorian Church was built in their place yes which in its turn fell into disrepair and was demolished within a hundred years of being built so they had to rebuild this church or have nothing or have nothing yet and we're going to tell that story of the the new church and its demise in a separate video it's very it's very picturesque it's very quintessential English in Elstad itself that is a village you've got that and it's a farming community presumably well it's well there are farms around you of course but you can say any English community is farming now it's probably not not particularly accurate because more people are doing things than farming but it boss go back 50 or more years and all these cottages were lived in by farm work yes it was really in the 1960s that farming stopped needing people living on the doorstep yes mechanization took over more more bigger equipment and yes that's right and so we hear the terms of diversification all the time about how farmers have diversified to do different things and use the land in different ways but from the graveyard here if we can take a step over here you do get some amazing views a 360 well almost 360 degree view around from the perimeter of the the little wall that puts the church in you were telling me before of course that a lot of churches are built on the highest place yeah and because of that they would have been dedicated to some Michael st. Michael and that's that's typical is it of church on high in high places well yes if you think of any place any church on a tour that that is usually or almost always dedicated to some Michael bit Glastonbury Tor Brent or in on Dartmoor or borough mump in Somerset right now and that's introduced a little fact I didn't know now let's go back to welcome Michael the Archangel he was yes so we're looking at the East End of st. Paul's here and it's a there's a lot of Flint work you've got those two there ago the original Lich Windows it is likely though it is it's almost certain they were rebuilt in a reconstruction of a church when it was rebuilt in the 1870s right it had been closed from the late 1840s to the early 1870s nearly 25 years and major work had to be carried out to it to get it into a state to be rebuilt but it was reopened in 1872 so you've got these two periods then two major periods of reconstruction where work has gone on you've got those two stuff in the 1950s that you referred to earlier and then literally the sort of mid to late Victorian period well that wasn't her yes and then even later Victorian period in the early 1890s a tree which stood roughly where we are now fell on the roof or the nave made punched a huge hole in the roof of the nave but not so big that it couldn't have been repaired and the rector left it left that the gash in the roof yes which up with the obvious outcome that the gilded building began to deteriorate the nave was closed and and the building effectively became a ruin over the next 60 years before being rebuilt so very much that can be put that foot off a rector in charge well we don't know what the politics know the wider politics or indeed his own feelings but certainly we had to sort out the outcome in the early 1950s now when you come round to this wall which I guess is the north wall we get to see a dramatic change and this I guess is where we get to see some of the original Saxon work the herringbone masonry yes with the blocked arches there was a very narrow aisle or file on this church there wasn't a sow file and this this aisle was only was less than seven foot six wide so it does beg the question it's incredible yes you've got two arches and you've got this this pier in the middle and so what you're saying Andrew is to about where we are now there was an oh yes for the purpose presumably of widening the church for more people but not a lot more people well one wonders could it have helped brace the church inside me because as you will see and there are actually braces in all corners and there are buttresses and to me maybe they were fearful it was going to fall whoop if they didn't do something again we don't know yes buried in the midst of time but then you go to the extent of these two great big arches yes with with the windows which were taken from the outside the aisle in the case of the the one over there that window was in the outside the aisle oh I see put a material back that one as you can see is a modern one right yes oh how fascinated but it's lovely to see the Saxon work exposed you know as a visitor now coming round we come round now to the the West End and there is an interesting feature high up which is a hexagonal window yes it's interesting but probably shouldn't be there the purists probably have taken extremely dim view of it but it's it has it has it has the function of ensuring that there's a lot of light in the church yes but the church was actually rebuilt in 1951 when money was very short and it was done on a very limited budget and as a result of which they didn't use a stone head sacral structure they used a reinforced concrete one which rotted the reinforcement blew and it had to be replaced it was replaced with another reinforced concrete structure which in turn has replaced what you see there now is actually proper is proper Portland stone hopefully it won't need replacing no good old Portland stone but with a Lepus squid oh yeah yeah that's fascinating isn't it of which whoopsie has a piece of glass in it now and the font is in front of it but it was it did enable the a leper or possibly somebody who was late for church want to be seen to look through them through no propers happening yes and of course as you say without the glass they could have been at least here as well well yes so let's go in and have a look inside because it's it's fascinating how light the church is anybody has visited a lot of rural churches on the one hand we'll know that often you go in and they're quite dark and they're quite cold but this is beautifully light and and very simple in its presentation well the decision was made obviously to ensure that again with a budget being at a minimum you will see that lease that the South Hall is actually rough brickwork areas internally which has been well covered in lime wash in whitewash so that that gives the impression of being okay with the all that remains a bit at the very base a very base yes as it has the model illustrates yes let's just have a quick look at the model we hinted at that earlier you can see the two churches before and after all in the space of a year's is from 1951 to 1952 and a dramatic reconstruction work has gone on there's an interesting story of how some of the money was gathered with the local children well the rector was absolutely amazing fundraiser if you got within 10 feet of him he was he was actual wallet he nobody people used to literally walk the other side of the street to avoid it but it it had the desired effect he got money from all over the place and in one year it was possibly 1950 there's I think it's called doesn't Nicholas fund was was a an arrangement by which the Sussex children school children would save farthings right and in that year they saved farthings for this church rebuilding front and if my memory serves me correctly they saved 236 pounds worth of farthings 980 farthings of the pound that gives you an idea of just how many farthings were accumulated which was a serious amount of money at that time yes cross bearing in mind that this whole church was rebuilt for two and a half thousand pounds gosh builder doesn't get out of bed for two and a half pounds today but um that money also Eleanor Roosevelt the widow of Franklin D Roosevelt was made aware of it and she sent some money Kevin and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother when she was still Queen Elizabeth brought disease the sixth wife she sent some silver teaspoons which were auctioned so a lot of people felt the rector's hand metaphorically on her shoulder in order to well get the money and a good job really that it was like that because he's reconstructed what could easily have disappeared oh absolutely I mean it had reached a critical stage and indeed even this building the the chancel which remained and had been blocked off by a door way across here across the chancel arch so that services were took place inside the chancel even the chancel had cracks in it it was structurally failing gosh well we'll finish off our video because we only have ten minutes but there's a much much bigger story but we'll finish off in here you can see the the difference between the light the chancel and the and in the nave it is looking back a very splendid Church is it open to the public if it is none of the churches in this parish a lot fantastic well for the moment Andrew thank you very much for taking us around elf did it's been absolutely fantastic and I look forward to seeing you in the next video good thanks for watching everybody and leave a comment make a suggestion and don't forget to subscribe but until next video thanks for watching goodbye you [Music]

Channel: Richard Vobes (The Bald Explorer)

Views: 1,859

Rating: 4.9666667 out of 5

Keywords: walks in england, heritage, bald explorer, richard vobes, walking videos, history, exploring, elsted village, elsted church, st Marys, exploring sussex, sussex churches, church, rural churches, histor

Id: 32GAWF3Y2Ao

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 16 2018