List of places of worship in Lewes District
The area now covered by the district is mainly rural and characterised by small villages with ancient parish churches.
Most residents of the district identify themselves as Christian, and there were no places of worship serving any other religious groups until a mosque and Islamic community centre opened in Seaford in 2017.
Historic England or its predecessor English Heritage have awarded listed status to 43 of Lewes district's current and former places of worship.
[4] Lewes district covers 113 sq mi (290 km2) of the western part of East Sussex.
The English Channel forms its southern boundary for 9 miles (14.5 km); four of the five largest towns in the district—Peacehaven, Telscombe Cliffs, Newhaven and Seaford—are on the coast.
[16] Many Anglican churches in the district were built in the 12th century, as Norman architecture gave way to Early English Gothic.
Iford,[17] Piddinghoe,[18] Rodmell[19] and Telscombe[20] are wholly or mostly of that date; Barcombe,[21] Beddingham,[22] St Thomas-at-Cliffe Church at Cliffe,[23] East Chiltington,[24] Hamsey,[25] Newhaven,[26] Newick,[27] Plumpton,[28] Ringmer[29] St Leonard's Church at Seaford[30] and Westmeston[31] retain some parts from that century (most commonly the nave).
[44] Increased residential development in the 20th century prompted the construction of more churches: at Peacehaven (1922; replaced by the present building in 1955),[45] on the Nevill Estate in Lewes (1938),[46] and in the Sutton area of Seaford (1959).
A chapel in a house was used at first, but on 25 January 1870 a permanent church dedicated to The Sacred Heart and St Pancras was built.
[53] The following year he built a house in nearby Seaford; it included a chapel dedicated to St Francis de Sales, which was open to the public from the beginning.
[59] Newhaven's chapel closed around the time the Returns were compiled,[52] but a Methodist congregation subsequently began to share the Anglican parish church of St Michael and All Angels.
[68] The present Jubilee Christian Centre in Barcombe, a modern building, is the successor to a Strict Baptist chapel founded in 1810.
[69] Other Calvinistic or Strict Baptist churches no longer in religious use can be found in Newick (1834),[52] Ditchling (1867),[70] Lewes (two buildings: c. 1860 and 1906)[50] and Newhaven (1904).
[72] Another Connexion chapel founded around the same time in the Cliffe area of Lewes was demolished in the late 19th century.
[50] King's Church, an Charismatic Evangelical fellowship associated with the Newfrontiers movement, has congregations in Lewes[78] and Seaford.
[82] Other Evangelical churches have been registered in Peacehaven in 1966, replacing an earlier building,[83] and the Sutton area of Seaford in 1969.
[84] Quakers have met in Lewes since 1675, but their present meeting house dates from 1784 and has been altered and extended several times.
[85] In 1967 a permanent meeting house was established in Ditchling for Quakers in the area; it was a converted building which had had several secular uses.
[92] The Haywards Heath Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opened in Wivelsfield in 1999.
The other religions had much lower proportions of followers than in England overall: the corresponding national percentages were 5.02% for Islam, 1.52% for Hinduism, 0.79% for Sikhism and 0.49% for Judaism.
[110] Telscombe Cliffs United Reformed Church is part of the Surrey and Sussex Synod Area.
