Selmeston Church
Selmeston Church, whose dedication is unknown, was largely reconstructed in 1867 by the then Vicar, Chancellor W. D. Parish, and very little of the original building remains. Domesday Book, however, records that there was a church here served by a priest, whose patron was William de Cahanges, the Lord of the Manor.
In the 12th century the patronage was transferred to the Bishop of Chichester, who attached it to the cathedral prebend of Heathfield to which it still belongs. The list of Vicars dates from 1350 and the registers from 1667. The churchyard is circular.
Some Interesting Features
The windows are copies of the originals: the East window being of the Decorated and the rest of the Perpendicular period. There is a medieval holy water stoup in the modern porch.
The small south aisle is separated from the nave by a timber arcade of three bays
supported on two octagonal wooden pillars resting on modern stone bases. It is early
15th century, but has been considerably restored. Such arcading is unique in Sussex
churches.
At the east end of the South aisle there is a `brass' with the following
wording:
The body of Henry Rogers
a painfvll Preacher in this churche two
and thirty yeeres
who dyd the sixt of
May Ano dni 1639, and in the yeere
of his age 67 lyeth heere
expecting
the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
I did beleeve and therefore
spake
Whereof I tavght I doe pertake.
Henry
Rogers.
In front of the chancel is a ledger stone with the inscription:
“Ann Widow of William Cox of Stanstead in the county of Kent, and daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Rochester. Died 1741, aged 57 years”.