The Reverend Nathaniel Hayler is now officially the rector of Winchelsea, Icklesham and Pett following a ceremony at St Thomas’s on Wednesday 28 January. We’ll have a full report and an interview in next week’s Rye News.
This week, David Page – the editor of Winchelsea Magazine – looks at the history of the churches in the parishes.
Pett parish joined with Winchelsea and Icklesham in 2022 when the then rector became priest in charge. A new benefice of Winchelsea, Icklesham and Pett has been created and Nathanael Hayler became its first rector during Wednesday’s service.
The oldest church in the benefice is All Saints and St Nicolas, Icklesham. Parts of the fabric are Norman and there was undoubtedly a church here in Anglo-Saxon times. Recent evidence of a Roman iron smelting settlement suggests that this may have been a sacred site long before.
Though the present building dates from 1864, dedicated to St Mary and St Peter, there has been a church at Pett since at least 1291. The Church of St Nicholas, Pett Level started life as a life-saving rocket apparatus station and was bought from the Admiralty and dedicated as a place of worship in 1935.
The Ancient Town of Winchelsea, one of the Cinque Ports, first stood close to the sea but was overwhelmed by storms in the 13th century. The new town was founded in 1287 and St Thomas the Martyr was the most substantial of the three churches that were built here. During the town’s medieval heyday, there were also two friaries. Coastal drift, the silting of the river, the Hundred Years War and resulting economic decline suggest that the nave of St Thomas’s was probably never completed. The other churches have long gone, though the ruined chancel of the Franciscan Friary still survives.
Winchelsea played a notable role in the history of Methodism. John Wesley preached his last ever outdoor sermon here on his final visit to the town in 1790. In Winchelsea Chapel, the pulpit, from which he preached on previous visits, still stands.
Image Credits: Kt bruce , Vivienne Challans , Heidi Foster .