Rottingdean, E Sussex - St Margaret's Church - Judges postcard c.1930s

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Rottingdean - St. Margaret's Church 
• Publisher: Judges (13303)
• Postally used: no
• Stamp:  n/a
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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Rottingdean is a coastal village next to the town of Brighton and within the city of Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards.

The name is Old English for valley of the people associated with Rōta (a male personal name). Rota was probably the leader of a band of warlike Saxons who invaded the region in 450–500 AD and decimated the existing Romano-British inhabitants. The first recorded mention is in the Domesday Book (Rotingeden, 1086). Other variations to be found in ancient charters include Ruttingedene (1272), Rottyngden (1315) and Rottendeane (1673).^[2]

Rottingdean is in a dry valley whose sides in the upper reaches are quite steep, and this valley comes right down to the English Channel coast. The name was contrasted unflatteringly with Goodwood (another place in Sussex) in a national 1970s advertising campaign for wood preserver.

Rottingdean has about 2,500 inhabitants.^{[citation needed]} For most of its history it was a farming community, but from the late 18th century it attracted leisured visitors wanting a genteel alternative to raffish Brighton, among them some names famous in English cultural life. Some, in the late 19th century, notably the painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones and his nephew Rudyard Kipling, made it their home. Kipling's old house adjacent to Kipling Gardens is still standing, and the former house of the painter Sir William Nicholson is currently open to the public as a library and museum. When farming collapsed in the 1920s, much of the farmland became available for building, and Rottingdean increased significantly in population, but especially in the area known as Saltdean. A large number of smallholdings appeared in the detached part of the parish called Woodingdean.

In the summer of 1377 French pirates raided Rottingdean. The raiders probably intended to pillage the nearby Lewes priory.^{[citation needed]} The raiders were detected as they landed, and a portion of the village's inhabitants retreated into the church's Saxon-built tower. The pirates were unable to take the tower and set it on fire; over a hundred people are thought to have died in the blaze. The next day the pirates were met by a force led by the Lewes Prior. During the action, two knights, Sir John Fallisle, Thomas Chinie and the prior were captured. The pirates were, however, driven to depart, with the three men later being ransomed.

Rottingdean is also notable for the black wooden windmill on the hill on its western side. Nicholson made a woodcut that was used as the logo of the publisher William Heinemann; this is often said to have been a depiction of Rottingdean mill, but a glance at both will show that this is untrue. The Rottingdean Preservation Society and its earlier incarnations have been responsible for maintaining the windmill since 1923. It was successful in getting a Heritage Lottery Fund Grant of £41,800 which together with funding from the society has ensured that the windmill remains a remarkable Grade 1 listed attraction in the 21st century. The hill is a local nature reserve. It was also well known for sport, having a cricket club founded in 1758 and having been a centre of fox hunting, especially in the second half of the 19th century.

The shop, the Old Customs House, was the inspiration for the "local" shop in The League of Gentlemen.

St Margaret's Church is an Anglican church in Rottingdean, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. It is the parish church of the previously separate village of Rottingdean, which became part of the former Borough of Brighton in 1928.^[1] Parts of the structure date from the 13th century, and it is a Grade II* listed building.^[2]

The church is in the northeastern corner of the Green, the ancient heart of the village. A place of worship has stood in the position since the Saxon period,^[1] although there is disagreement over whether any part of the current structure is of Saxon origin. The Normans started building a cruciform church in the early 12th century, but its tower (located on the site of the Saxon building's chancel) collapsed during construction, destroying the new chancel and the transept, although the nave survived.^[1] By the early 13th century the chancel had been rebuilt and the nave extended by four bays. These were added to the south aisle, but this fell out of use after 1377 when the church and surrounding buildings were sacked by French invaders who had landed on the coast nearby. Damage to the west wall necessitated rebuilding at the same time, and the south aisle was blocked up.^[3]

The church remained structurally unaltered until a major restoration in 1856 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. A new three-bay south aisle was built; Scott removed an ancient window from the original aisle and built it into one of the new walls. The chancel wall was also partly rebuilt at this time.^[3] Earlier in the 19th century, box pews and a gallery were added; Scott removed the gallery during his restoration.^[4]

Additions in the 20th century comprised a porch at the west entrance, erected in 1908, and vestries in one corner of the nave, added in the 1970s in a style appropriate to the mediaeval architectural style of the church. This was designed by the Brighton-based architecture firm Denman & Son.^[3] A new gallery, at the west end of the nave and accommodating the organ, was also built in 1908; the original gallery had been on the south side. The bowl of the original Norman font was discovered in the vicarage garden; a replica was made in 1910, and the original bowl was displayed in the church.^[2][4]

Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer, is buried in the nave. His wife Georgiana, one of the MacDonald sisters, and their granddaughter, novelist Angela Thirkell, are also buried there.^[5][6] The ancient churchyard, extended in 1883, 1905 (with land donated by William Nevill, 1st Marquess of Abergavenny) and 1920, includes the graves of Scottish novelist William Black and music hall entertainer G. H. Elliott.^[5][6]

Lucy Ridsdale, daughter of Edward Ridsdale of The Dene, a house on the village green, married Stanley Baldwin in the church in 1892. He later served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on three occasions. The Baldwins donated a chair to the church in 1942; this stands in the chancel.^[7]

Sir Edward Burne-Jones, who designed many of the stained glass windows in the church, lived at a house on the village green for 18 years until his death in 1898. He was the uncle of author and poet Rudyard Kipling, who moved to a nearby house (The Elms) in 1897. Kipling wrote many of the Just So Stories during his time there.^[7][8]

In the early 20th century, a proposal was received from the developers of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a private cemetery in Glendale, California. They wanted to buy the church, dismantle it stone by stone, ship it to the United States and rebuild it in the park. A price was offered, but the sale was refused, so in the 1940s a series of drawings were made, and an exact replica was built instead.^[1][5][9] This was called the Church of the Recessional to commemorate Kipling's poem "Recessional".^[10]

The church is built of flint, with stone dressings and a tiled roof. Although the 19th-century work by Scott also used flint, its pattern is more even than the random distribution seen in the original walls.^[2] The entrance is at the west end, opposite the village green, and reached through a lychgatedating from 1897 in memory of Revd Arthur Thomas, vicar of the church for 47 years until his death in 1895. (Two windows in the square tower are also memorials to him.)^[6] The entrance door is flanked by two heavy buttresses. On top of the steeply pitched roof at the west end is a small cross,^[2]and a large clock is embedded in the wall below this.

The main structures of the nave, chancel and tower are all original. There are a series of trefoil and lancet windows on all sides, many of which are paired. Many of these have stained glass; most were designed by Edward Burne-Jones. In particular, the east wall has three tall lancet windows and a quatrefoil;^[2] the lancet windows, installed in 1893 in commemoration of Burne-Jones's daughter Margaret's marriage, represent the archangelsGabriel, Michael and Raphael.^[11]