Holy Trinity Church is an Anglican church in the village of Cuckfield in the district of Mid Sussex; one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. It was founded in the 11th century and was in the possession of Lewes Priory by 1090. The present structure dates from the mid-13th century but was extended in the 14th century and heavily altered and restored during the Victorian period, with much interior work by Charles Eamer Kempe and stained glass by both Kempe and the Clayton and Bell firm. The church's spire was replaced in 1981 following a fire. Former chapels of ease in outlying hamlets have closed, and the church now serves a large rural area in the centre of Sussex. It is protected as a Grade I listed building.
History
From his base at the episcopal see of Selsey, which he founded, the 7th-century bishop Wilfrid converted many of the pagan inhabitants of the Kingdom of the South Saxons (present-day Sussex) to Christianity. Primitive wooden or wattle and daub churches were built throughout the kingdom, especially in forest clearings. The village of Cuckfield is thought to have been founded at one such clearing in the dense forest of Andredesweald, which covered much of the north of Sussex; so a church may have existed in the village from about the 8th century, when Wilfrid's mission penetrated that part of the kingdom.
A church was not recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The first documented evidence for a settlement and church at Cuckfield came c.1090, when the church was in the possession of Lewes Priory, England's first Cluniac house. The reported date of this record varies, but William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey is consistently recording as holding the church. He died in 1088, so dates of 1090, 1091 or 1092 reported in some sources may not be correct. The influence of de Warenne and his wife Gundred on the Cuckfield area extended beyond passive ownership: having founded Lewes Priory, they built and lived in Lewes Castle and established a hunting lodge on land at Cuckfield. They may also have built the church itself, rather than merely taking possession of it on behalf of their priory. (Cuckfield is about northwest of Lewes, and was in the Rape of Lewes: one of the six pre-Norman subdivisions of Sussex.) The exact date of the church's founding is not known: although it was not recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, details of churches were only recorded haphazardly in that survey, and many pre-1086 churches in Sussex are missing from it.
In 1091, de Warenne's son William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey reaffirmed the grant of the church, the buildings in the village and all its tithes to the priory. A copy of this charter is held in the British Museum in London. Records of further confirmation of this arrangement survive from the 1120s (from Ralph de Luffa, Bishop of Chichester ) and the end of the 12th century (by Hamelin de Warenne, Earl of Surrey).
The Norman-era building, which had existed in the late 11th century, was probably a simple two-cell structure with nave and chancel. It was rebuilt in about 1250, when the Bishop of Chichester Richard de la Wych (later canonised) made an agreement with Lewes Priory to endow a vicarage and improve the church. At that stage, the priory controlled 39 churches in Sussex. He appointed his chaplain Walter de Warnecamp as the church's first parish priest, and put him in charge of the enlargement. The south wall of the Norman chapel was demolished and a three-bay aisle was built in its place, reached through three archways with round columns. The tower at the west end was also started, although it may have reached its full height only in the mid-14th century. The chancel may have been reconfigured as well.
The church had acquired its much of its present structural form by about 1340 after a decade of rebuilding and enlargement. Another bay was added at the east end of the nave; arcaded chapels were added to the north and south of the chancel and aligned with the walls of the nave aisles; the height of the nave was increased by the addition of a clerestory below the roofline; and the tower was extended to its present height with a belfry. The south aisle of the nave was extended to four bays to match the newly enlarged nave, and another was added on the north side for balance. This was supported on hexagonal piers. Several windows with flat headers and ogee-arched lights also date from this era, and the slim, tall spire is believed to be contemporary as well. It is slightly recessed within the castellated parapet of the tower, and is of the broach spire type.