Church of St Mary: A Medieval Parish Church in Rye
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- English
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page12 sections
History
Church of St Mary is an Anglican parish church in Rye, East Sussex, United Kingdom, with earliest building phases dating from the twelfth century. Its parish is Rye with Rye Harbour, and it belongs to the Diocese of Chichester within the Province of Canterbury. The church became known as the “Cathedral of East Sussex” because of its size and rich equipment, made possible in part by Rye’s prosperity under the influence of Fécamp Abbey, a major Benedictine abbey in Normandy.
Medieval origins and destruction
The present church developed from work undertaken between 1150 and 1180, with further additions in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. A predecessor may have stood elsewhere, possibly at the site now called Canon Garden. Rye was held as a royal grant by Fécamp Abbey until 1247, linking the town and parish with a powerful Norman religious institution.
In 1377, during the Hundred Years’ War, a severe French raid looted Rye and set the church on fire. The building suffered extensive damage, and repairs connected with the attack continued into the nineteenth century. The following year, men from Rye and Winchelsea raided Normandy and recovered much of the stolen property, including the church bells. One bell was hung in Watchbell Street as a warning against future attackers and returned to the church only much later.
Reformation and later use
Under Edward VI, the church became definitively Protestant during the Reformation, the sixteenth-century transformation that separated the English church from papal authority and established the Church of England. Catholic worship in Latin briefly returned under Mary I, before parts of the building were secularized during Elizabeth I’s reign.
Many treasures were sold or removed during the Reformation. Stone altars were replaced with wooden ones, and the chapels were separated from the main church. The building also acquired secular uses, including a gaol, storage space for the town fire pump, and a butcher’s shop. One chapel was said to have housed a butcher’s shop. Renewals and alterations in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries partly reversed these changes, while maintenance and chapel restoration continued in later centuries.
In 1742, the butcher John Breeds accidentally killed Allen Grebell in the churchyard after mistaking him for the mayor he had intended to murder. Breeds was hanged, and his body was displayed for a time beside the church in a gibbet cage. Grebell was buried in the north aisle, while Breeds’s skull was taken to the town hall, where it is said to remain. Local folklore holds that both men haunt the churchyard. Since 1942, Church of St Mary has held a joint commemorative service with Christ’s Church in Rye, New York. The building has been Grade I listed since 12 October 1951 for its architectural and historical interest.
Remains
Church of St Mary is a cruciform building organized around a central crossing, with a basilical nave, lower side aisles, transepts, chapels, and a hall choir to the east. A basilical church has a raised central nave above lower aisles, while a hall choir has central and side spaces of approximately equal height. The west front has low aisles, and the eastern choir is marked by three tall gables.
Medieval structure
Chancel, crossing, transepts, and nave
The chancel, crossing, transepts, and nave were built between 1150 and 1180 and altered in the fifteenth century. These parts form the main medieval core of the cruciform plan. Flying buttresses, external supports that transfer the outward pressure of vaulted roofs away from the main walls, were added at the southeastern end of the chancel during the fifteenth century.
Aisles and chapels
The north and south aisles were added in the late twelfth century. North and south chapels followed between 1220 and 1250, extending the building’s plan beyond the central nave and choir. The chapels were later separated from the church during the Reformation and restored in subsequent centuries.
Windows and stained glass
Carefully executed Perpendicular-style windows survive at the east end of the chancel and in the south chapel. The Perpendicular style is a late medieval English Gothic style noted for strong vertical lines and large traceried windows. Most of the stained glass is Victorian. A north-aisle window designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones in 1891 commemorates Mary Tiltman.
Interior furnishings and timekeeping
Pews, pulpit, and civic furnishings
The present pews date from the nineteenth century. The elaborately worked mayor’s seat and the pulpit date from 1547, and the mayor’s seat is placed near the pulpit during civic services. A coat of arms belonging to Queen Anne, who ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1702 to 1714, is dated 1703.
Turret clock
The turret clock known as the “New Clock” was made by Lewys Billiard, a Huguenot clockmaker, and installed in 1561–1562. Huguenots were French Protestants, many of whom left France because of religious persecution. A large pendulum was added later and extends into the body of the church. The clock face and the “Quarter Boys,” figures that make the clock strike every quarter hour rather than only on the hour, were added in 1760.
Bells
The church has eight bells dating from 1750, with a combined weight of approximately five tonnes.
