St George's Church | |
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50°50′16″N 0°39′33″W / 50.8377°N 0.6591°W | |
Location | Church Lane, Eastergate, West Sussex PO20 3UX |
Country | United Kingdom |
Denomination | Church of England |
Website | www.parishofabe.org.uk/page5.html |
History | |
Status | Parish church |
Founded | 11th century |
Dedication | Saint George |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Active |
Heritage designation | Grade II* |
Designated | 5 June 1958 |
Style | Norman architecture |
Administration | |
Province | Canterbury |
Diocese | Chichester |
Archdeaconry | Chichester |
Deanery | Rural Deanery of Arundel and Bognor |
Parish | Aldingbourne, Barnham and Eastergate |
Clergy | |
Rector | Rev. Simon Holland |
St George's Church is an Anglican church in the village of Eastergate in West Sussex, England. It is the ancient parish church of Eastergate, although since 1992 it has been administered as part of a joint ecclesiastical parish with the churches in neighbouring Barnham and Aldingbourne. As part of this group, the building is still in regular use for worship on Sundays and weekdays. Eastergate village school has links with the church, and pupils regularly attend services.
There is historic and structural evidence of a Saxon place of worship on the site, and some 11th-century work survives in the chancel, but the present appearance of the church is mostly 13th-century. It was then restored in the Victorian era, and some further rebuilding work was undertaken in the 20th century.
The "long, straggling village" of Eastergate[1] is administratively located in the district of Arun, one of seven local government districts in West Sussex. The church is in a rural situation south of the village street; it is approached through a farmyard next to the manor house, and a "magnificent" Elizabethan granary building that was originally part of the farm has been used by the church for various purposes since the 1970s. English Heritage has listed both buildings for their architectural and historical importance: St George's Church at Grade II*, and the former granary at the lower Grade II.