The nave and chancel are C13 and the north aisle and most windows C14, with a C15 tower. There is a C18 squire’s pew, a monument attributed to Rysbrack and a C15 brass.
Warbleton church stands on a hill with fine views towards the Downs. Richard Woodman, ironmaster and a ‘Lewes Martyr’ of 1557 is said to have lived in a house that stood within what is now the churchyard, where there is a modern memorial. Today, the village in the immediate vicinity of the churchyard is confined to a row of cottages and a pub.
The nave and chancel of local sandstone are mostly rendered and the oldest work is C13, particularly the chancel, with two south lancets and a chamfered doorway (renewed). The chancel arch has stops and a double-chamfered head, of which the inner order rests on moulded corbels on the square chamfered responds. It looks early C13 and though nothing in the nave is obviously of this date, the Burrell Collection drawing (1782) shows a small blocked round-headed window, east of the south porch, perhaps now hidden under the render. A south west lancet has a trefoiled head, which would mean it was little earlier than 1300, but it is too renewed to be relied upon for dating purposes.
Most detail is C14. The tracery shows a progression, which can be accommodated within a single building campaign that included a gabled north aisle and lower chapel. The square-headed north window of the chapel is blocked by a monument inside; those of the aisle are segmental with pierced spandrels. The four-bay arcade has octagonal piers on square bases and heads with two hollow chamfers, as do the arches into the chapel from aisle and chancel, though the capitals of the latter are cut into, probably for a screen. The chancel was given an east window that combines curvilinear elements with straight mullions and panelling, so it is later C14. The east angle-buttresses and wagon roof, which is panelled with moulded trasverse ribs, also date from then. The segmental north window of the chancel is linked to the aisle, but the panelled tracery is later in form. A broad trefoil-headed light in a square frame below the south west lancet is a lowside, whilst an adjacent two-light window with a trefoil in the head and a rounded tomb-recess beneath is, though comparatively conservative, no earlier. The nave has a single trefoiled south west lancet and a low stone porch, with a mostly renewed moulded arch, like the doorway.
The C15 east window of the north chapel has a depressed head and mature panelled tracery. There seems to have been no tower until one was added at this date. The tall tower arch, the head of which has two chamfered orders, with the inner one on corbels, reveals that it is at a distinct angle to the nave. Unusually, the south west angle-buttress incorporates an octagonal stair, so the west bell - opening has only one light – the others have two. There are a moulded west doorway, a three-light window with renewed panelled tracery and a corbel-table of grotesque heads below the battlements.
The lower entrance of an early C16 rood-stair is south of the chancel arch, with a corbel above for the rood beam. Post-Reformation changes included two windows east of the south porch with intersecting tracery in the Burrell drawing, which do not look old. In the north aisle a large manorial pew, dated 1722, is raised on pillars and affords an excellent view of the whole church. It was lit by a square opening shown in the Sharpe Collection drawing of 1804. Such pews are rare survivals and shows, as do other signs, that the C19 treated the church fairly gently, despite some renewed external stonework. The restoration of 1882 by W O Milne concentrated on the chancel. He may, however, have replaced or repaired the nave roof; that in the nave is plastered, hiding any older timbers. The two later south nave windows were replaced by ogee-quatrefoil ones of earlier C14 pattern and at the west end of the aisle is a vestry.
Repairs were carried out in 1962 under D Clarke of J D Clarke and Son (ICBS).
To find the cache find the monument in a wall in the churchyard to Richard Woodman
Date of monument 18AB
Date 2C June DEFG
N50 56.B-F,A/C,G-F E000 16.B+D,E-D,A/C
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