In Love and Faith: Arlington Church & Churchyard

A new book about Arlington’s history

Arlington is a puzzling place: a tiny village with an outsized church and churchyard. The Saxons chose an unusually low, wet site next to the Cuckmere River. Why? Was it for the sake of trading up and down the river?

The church is 500 metres north of a recently discovered Roman road from Wellingham to Pevensey. There was a small, previously unknown Roman town here, at the river crossing. It was abandoned before the Saxons arrived, but they recycled bricks, tiles and sandstone blocks from the ruins and incorporated them in the nave of their church. One Saxon window survives above the porch; it uses recycled Roman material.

Arlington may have grown rich on river trading – or as a result of being on a pilgrimage route from Lewes to Canterbury. The lofty North-East Chapel built in 1180, just as the Becket pilgrimage cult began, may have housed relics of a local saint. There was money to be made from pilgrims. At least one more chapel stood in the churchyard, in the southwest corner, but it has completely vanished.

Arlington has always been isolated, not helped by roads that in the past were often flooded. The sixteenth century brought the Reformation, dissent and disunity. In the 1640s, villagers egged on by Puritan politicians made terrible accusations against their vicar, John Wilson, who was a Royalist, and succeeded in getting him removed. In the late nineteenth century, the family living in one of the (several) manor houses in the parish tried repeatedly to claim the North-East Chapel as theirs, but they did not succeed.

This new book tells the strange story of Arlington church and its churchyard and it lists all the inscriptions. Ann Murray and Rodney Castleden hope that their book will be a useful stepping stone for anyone pursuing family history, or just wanting to know more about local history, and more about this enigmatic church. There are plans of church and churchyard, as well as indexes, all to help you to find the inscriptions – or a lost relative.

This 230-page book is the latest in a series of books of inscriptions to be seen in local churches; Bishopstone, Berwick, Selmeston, Alciston and St Leonard’s Seaford, (£12.95), and East Blatchington (£7).

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kathy@choresandmore.co.uk www.choresandmore.co.uk vicky@maid2help.co.uk www.choresandmore.co.uk Order In love and Faith (£12.95) or any of the other books in the series from Rodney Castleden at Rookery Cottage, Blatchington Hill, Seaford. Cheques payable to R. Castleden. Add £3 for postal delivery; free delivery by hand in the Seaford area by arrangement (rodneycastleden35@gmail.com).

Images from top, Book cover; Arlington Church, Medieval jar found under the floor; A deliberately vandalized medieval angel; a Saxon window.

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