Corrections to the guidebooks from local historian, Sarah Leigh. That King Aethelwulf lived ‘a few fields away’ I know of no basis for this but I don’t know if there is any archaeological speculation - do you know where you got it from? All the authority (part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles) says is that he was buried in Steyning. We don't know if there was a palace in Steyning but it’s likely that there was, as it was a royal vill. If there was it is likely that it was near the church, not ‘a few fields away’. Your commentary suggests that we know where it was. Nor do we know where he was buried but I would imagine in the church. Steyning caused the Conquest! This is quite the wrong way round, a completely wild idea. Where on earth did you find it - I’d love to know! William decided on the Conquest for various reasons, and Steyning was one of the places on the Abbot of Fecamp’s list of requests as their reward for helping (among several other manors and churches and several big jobs for Fecamp monks). The church was the counterpart of Fecamp. Have you seen the Abbey Chuch at Fecamp - its enormous. The then Abbey church at Fecamp, consecrated 1098 and destroyed by fire the next century, was the Abbey church for a huge community with enormous property all over France and a very large number of monks. Probably the same masons worked on the east end of our church had similar features at that period (1090-1104 roughly, when the south aisle arch you have commented on with the lions). We can see that from the two surviving chapels from the present Fecamp abbey church, but we could certainly couldn't possibly say it was the ‘counterpart’, that would be amazingly pretentious. The lions’ tails are intertwined - yes, but the point is they are sharing heads - see pic below. Chequer Inn. Like many of the houses in the High St it has a Georgian front but the house behind was not rebuilt, it is fifteenth century. You’ll really upset our owners of ancient houses if you call them Georgian! The Stone House [on the corner at the mini roundabout) is fifteenth century, not Georgian, I know it well and the mention of the gaol there dates from 1476. It just has a Georgian wing built on to it on the left. The Cuthman legend. It's very important to make it clear that there is no documentary evidence of how the church came to be built - this just a local tradition, embodied in the Latin life of Saint Cuthman written 400 years after his probable lifetime, most probably by the monks, probably about 1100 . The best guess about the real Saint Cuthman’s life is that he flourished In the late 7th century, when St Wilfrid was converting Sussex to Christianity). There's absolutely no indication anywhere that he came from Devon or Cornwall, I don't know where you found that. The only basis for all this, the legend, as recorded in the 12th century Life of St Cuthman of which two later manuscripts survive (see my Guide for a facsimile of one of them), says he was born in Sussex and came eastwards - it may be he came from somewhere near Bosham as the other centre of his medieval cult is Chidham, a village near Bosham. Here’s a summary of the 12th century life setting down the oral tradition; if you want to read the whole thing it is set out in an authoritative article in the 1997 issue of the Sussex Archaeological Collections which you can find online at archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1079173 by Professor John Blair who is the real authority on Anglo-Saxon saints and the Anglo-Saxon church. "St Cuthman, as has come down to us from the reliable report of old men, was born in Sussex of Christian parents. He was put in charge of his father’s sheep, who would obey him when told to stay in a circle. His father died, and when Cuthman and his mother ran out of money and she became disabled he made a wooden bed with a wheel at the front and laid her on it, pushing it before him with the help of a rope from his shoulders. He went eastwards, vowing never to rest until the elder rope broke and there he would build a church. He went on his way supporting himself and his mother by begging. Eventually he came to Steyning where the rope broke and the bed fell - his mother was not harmed … People rarely came there then - there was little noise or traffic, and inhabitants were very few. It was a sheltered place at the foot of a steep-sloping down, then overgrown with thorns and trees, now transformed into fertile and fruitful farmland, fittingly enclosed by the streams of two springs descending from the downs. He built a hut for his mother, and started to build his church. While he worked he used to hang his gloves on a sunbeam. One day he found that a wooden beam was useless. A pilgrim from foreign parts came up and said “what are you all lamenting?”. The pilgrim miraculously solved the problem and Cuthman fell at his feet, saying “Show me, Lord, who you are”. “I am Andrew” he said, in whose name you built this temple; but you will be a sharer of perpetual memory and glory in it” and at once he vanished." There is another version of the Life in which the mysterious stranger is Jesus, but our church is dedicated to St Andrew (and, since 2008, St Cuthman as well) and I think that is much more likely. The details about the ring of sheep etc are common to a number of saints’ lives around the 7th century and have no basis in fact. I wrote a summary of the likely history of the real St Cuthman in my virtual tour of the Church: "It’s a delightful story, very beloved of local residents, but sadly it’s more likely that Cuthman was quite an important person, sent here in the course of the conversion of Sussex to Christianity. Around the probable time of his life, in the late 7th century, Wilfrid, Bishop of York was in Sussex organising the foundation of the first churches, which were normally founded on land granted by the King of Wessex. Many of the churches St Wilfrid was involved in founding were dedicated to St Andrew, like this one. The legend of the poor shepherd boy probably wasn’t written down for about 400 years after Cuthman’s death." The Church The gravelids in the porch. I have heard various ideas that these were the tombstone of Cuthman, or his mother, or King Aethelwulf, but they are quite the wrong period for all of them and I don’t believe there are any gravestones for identified people surviving in England for several hundred years after that. These gravelids are 10th and 11th century respectively. Dogtooth There is no dogtooth decoration in the nave - it’s in the north aisle, south wall, on the outermost ring of the arches. What you are looking at in the nave are various variations of chevron. There are no sunflower images in the nave, it’s all foliage. I don’t believe that the 12th century builders would ever have seen a sunflower - it seems they were introduced to England in about 1500. To see what the sculpture in the nave really is download Malcolm Thurlby’s (one of the most authoritative academics on Romanesque sculpture) lecture given here in 2014, its on the Steyning Museum website, steyningmuseum.org.uk/historypage.htm and you will see we have no sunflowers! Reredos - It’s not a reredos, it is known as the Steyning Screen. Your photo shows the screen in its present position, to which it was moved about 8 years ago. It was never actually a reredos or a screen; it is a set of panels made for Fulham Palace, the seat of the Bishop of Fulham after 1485, apparently to celebrate the marriage of Catherine of Aragon to Henry VIII in 1509. It eventually made its way to Steyning hundreds of years later, perhaps in the eighteenth century. It used to be placed in front of our own splendid marble reredos, behind the altar. It was definitely not carved by ‘local craftsmen’. The panels are not abstract, they are all the emblems of the King, or Catherine, or the Bishop. I attach to this email a handout we use to explain the screen. -- Sarah Leigh
Greatly enjoyed this! I really like Steyning; it's a lovely "half-town"! The Wikipedia article about Steyning does state "King Alfred the Great's father, Æthelwulf of Wessex, was originally buried in that church, before being transferred to Winchester - a Saxon grave slab (possibly his) remains in the church porch." I've seen that slab, so it exists, but it's likely no more than speculation about Æthelwulf. My opinion, at least, though I like the idea and would like it to be true.
Corrections to the guidebooks from local historian, Sarah Leigh.
That King Aethelwulf lived ‘a few fields away’ I know of no basis for this but I don’t know if there is any archaeological speculation - do you know where you got it from? All the authority (part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles) says is that he was buried in Steyning. We don't know if there was a palace in Steyning but it’s likely that there was, as it was a royal vill. If there was it is likely that it was near the church, not ‘a few fields away’. Your commentary suggests that we know where it was. Nor do we know where he was buried but I would imagine in the church.
Steyning caused the Conquest! This is quite the wrong way round, a completely wild idea. Where on earth did you find it - I’d love to know! William decided on the Conquest for various reasons, and Steyning was one of the places on the Abbot of Fecamp’s list of requests as their reward for helping (among several other manors and churches and several big jobs for Fecamp monks).
The church was the counterpart of Fecamp. Have you seen the Abbey Chuch at Fecamp - its enormous. The then Abbey church at Fecamp, consecrated 1098 and destroyed by fire the next century, was the Abbey church for a huge community with enormous property all over France and a very large number of monks. Probably the same masons worked on the east end of our church had similar features at that period (1090-1104 roughly, when the south aisle arch you have commented on with the lions). We can see that from the two surviving chapels from the present Fecamp abbey church, but we could certainly couldn't possibly say it was the ‘counterpart’, that would be amazingly pretentious.
The lions’ tails are intertwined - yes, but the point is they are sharing heads - see pic below.
Chequer Inn. Like many of the houses in the High St it has a Georgian front but the house behind was not rebuilt, it is fifteenth century. You’ll really upset our owners of ancient houses if you call them Georgian!
The Stone House [on the corner at the mini roundabout) is fifteenth century, not Georgian, I know it well and the mention of the gaol there dates from 1476. It just has a Georgian wing built on to it on the left.
The Cuthman legend. It's very important to make it clear that there is no documentary evidence of how the church came to be built - this just a local tradition, embodied in the Latin life of Saint Cuthman written 400 years after his probable lifetime, most probably by the monks, probably about 1100 . The best guess about the real Saint Cuthman’s life is that he flourished In the late 7th century, when St Wilfrid was converting Sussex to Christianity).
There's absolutely no indication anywhere that he came from Devon or Cornwall, I don't know where you found that. The only basis for all this, the legend, as recorded in the 12th century Life of St Cuthman of which two later manuscripts survive (see my Guide for a facsimile of one of them), says he was born in Sussex and came eastwards - it may be he came from somewhere near Bosham as the other centre of his medieval cult is Chidham, a village near Bosham. Here’s a summary of the 12th century life setting down the oral tradition; if you want to read the whole thing it is set out in an authoritative article in the 1997 issue of the Sussex Archaeological Collections which you can find online at archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1079173 by Professor John Blair who is the real authority on Anglo-Saxon saints and the Anglo-Saxon church.
"St Cuthman, as has come down to us from the reliable report of old men, was born in Sussex of Christian parents. He was put in charge of his father’s sheep, who would obey him when told to stay in a circle. His father died, and when Cuthman and his mother ran out of money and she became disabled he made a wooden bed with a wheel at the front and laid her on it, pushing it before him with the help of a rope from his shoulders. He went eastwards, vowing never to rest until the elder rope broke and there he would build a church. He went on his way supporting himself and his mother by begging. Eventually he came to Steyning where the rope broke and the bed fell - his mother was not harmed … People rarely came there then - there was little noise or traffic, and inhabitants were very few. It was a sheltered place at the foot of a steep-sloping down, then overgrown with thorns and trees, now transformed into fertile and fruitful farmland, fittingly enclosed by the streams of two springs descending from the downs. He built a hut for his mother, and started to build his church. While he worked he used to hang his gloves on a sunbeam. One day he found that a wooden beam was useless. A pilgrim from foreign parts came up and said “what are you all lamenting?”. The pilgrim miraculously solved the problem and Cuthman fell at his feet, saying “Show me, Lord, who you are”. “I am Andrew” he said, in whose name you built this temple; but you will be a sharer of perpetual memory and glory in it” and at once he vanished."
There is another version of the Life in which the mysterious stranger is Jesus, but our church is dedicated to St Andrew (and, since 2008, St Cuthman as well) and I think that is much more likely.
The details about the ring of sheep etc are common to a number of saints’ lives around the 7th century and have no basis in fact. I wrote a summary of the likely history of the real St Cuthman in my virtual tour of the Church:
"It’s a delightful story, very beloved of local residents, but sadly it’s more likely that Cuthman was quite an important person, sent here in the course of the conversion of Sussex to Christianity. Around the probable time of his life, in the late 7th century, Wilfrid, Bishop of York was in Sussex organising the foundation of the first churches, which were normally founded on land granted by the King of Wessex. Many of the churches St Wilfrid was involved in founding were dedicated to St Andrew, like this one. The legend of the poor shepherd boy probably wasn’t written down for about 400 years after Cuthman’s death."
The Church
The gravelids in the porch. I have heard various ideas that these were the tombstone of Cuthman, or his mother, or King Aethelwulf, but they are quite the wrong period for all of them and I don’t believe there are any gravestones for identified people surviving in England for several hundred years after that. These gravelids are 10th and 11th century respectively.
Dogtooth There is no dogtooth decoration in the nave - it’s in the north aisle, south wall, on the outermost ring of the arches. What you are looking at in the nave are various variations of chevron.
There are no sunflower images in the nave, it’s all foliage. I don’t believe that the 12th century builders would ever have seen a sunflower - it seems they were introduced to England in about 1500. To see what the sculpture in the nave really is download Malcolm Thurlby’s (one of the most authoritative academics on Romanesque sculpture) lecture given here in 2014, its on the Steyning Museum website, steyningmuseum.org.uk/historypage.htm and you will see we have no sunflowers!
Reredos - It’s not a reredos, it is known as the Steyning Screen. Your photo shows the screen in its present position, to which it was moved about 8 years ago. It was never actually a reredos or a screen; it is a set of panels made for Fulham Palace, the seat of the Bishop of Fulham after 1485, apparently to celebrate the marriage of Catherine of Aragon to Henry VIII in 1509. It eventually made its way to Steyning hundreds of years later, perhaps in the eighteenth century. It used to be placed in front of our own splendid marble reredos, behind the altar. It was definitely not carved by ‘local craftsmen’. The panels are not abstract, they are all the emblems of the King, or Catherine, or the Bishop. I attach to this email a handout we use to explain the screen.
-- Sarah Leigh
Wow’ you are dedicated . 😊
This is utterly fantastic, love it.
Thank you! New video coming this month.
Greatly enjoyed this! I really like Steyning; it's a lovely "half-town"!
The Wikipedia article about Steyning does state "King Alfred the Great's father, Æthelwulf of Wessex, was originally buried in that church, before being transferred to Winchester - a Saxon grave slab (possibly his) remains in the church porch." I've seen that slab, so it exists, but it's likely no more than speculation about Æthelwulf. My opinion, at least, though I like the idea and would like it to be true.
Looking forward to more !
Well done! That was very interesting and you now have a new subscriber! 🥰
Yay! Thank you!
This is great!
Thank you.
The originate of the clock? Michelgrove House.