St Peter's Church, Henfield

St Peter's Church is the parish church of the large village of Henfield, in West Sussex, standing on a low gravel ridge a little to the north-west of the older part of the village. Built on the site of an eighth-century Saxon church also dedicated to St Peter, the present building dates mainly from the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and was heavily restored and partially rebuilt in the Victorian age. A Grade II* listed building of considerable historical and architectural interest, it has been the centre of worship in Henfield for some twelve hundred years, and its long history is closely bound up with the bishops of the Sussex see.

The first church at Henfield was founded in the year 770, when Osmund, King of Sussex, granted fifteen hides of land to a thegn named Waerbald and his wife Tidburg for the purpose of building a church here, dedicated to St Peter. It has been suggested that this early church was a minster — that is, that it housed a community of clergy serving a wide area — though this remains a matter of debate. The fifteen hides of land granted by King Osmund can be identified with the estates that later became Stretham (or Henfield) manor, Oreham manor, Henfield Park and the rectory estate, and the history of these lands shows the close connection between St Peter's and the Sussex bishops: by 1066 Stretham manor, which included the church itself, belonged to the bishopric of Selsey, and after the Conquest it passed to the bishops of Chichester, who succeeded the see of Selsey.

The present church was built in the great age of medieval church-building, with work of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and is crowned by a fine Perpendicular tower. Like most ancient churches, it was much altered over the centuries, and in the nineteenth century it was heavily restored and partially rebuilt, as was the fashion of the Victorian age. Within, the church preserves medieval features and monuments, including brasses and memorials to the families connected with the parish, recording the long history of the community it has served.

Henfield is also famous for a curiosity closely associated with the church: the celebrated "Cat House", a cottage near the churchyard whose walls are decorated with figures of cats. According to local legend, the cottage's owner, who kept a pet canary, fell out with a canon of the church whose cat had eaten the bird, and decorated his house with cats and bells to torment the clergyman as he passed by — a charming piece of village folklore that draws visitors to this day.

Today St Peter's continues as an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Chichester, at the heart of a united benefice that also includes the churches of St Giles at Shermanbury and St Peter at Woodmancote. With its ancient foundation, its medieval fabric and its place at the centre of village life, it remains the much-loved parish church of Henfield.

The church stands in the village of Henfield, in the Low Weald of West Sussex, between the towns of Horsham and the city of Brighton, near the valley of the River Adur. The historic village, with its old houses, its Cat House and its village museum, lies all around, along with the water meadows of the Adur, the South Downs National Park rising to the south, the nature reserves and countryside of the Weald, and the wider attractions of Sussex, with the coast and the Downs within easy reach.

From its foundation by the grant of King Osmund of Sussex in 770, through its medieval rebuilding in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries and its long connection with the bishops of Selsey and Chichester, to its Victorian restoration and the legend of the Cat House, St Peter's Church gathers twelve centuries of Sussex history into one building. A Grade II* listed church on its ancient site above the village, it remains the living parish church of Henfield — a venerable survival at the heart of the Sussex Weald.