Society of Dependants

These were simple undecorated buildings, with a room where those who had walked long distances to attend could rest during the day-long Sunday worship.

[3] A number of combination stores were opened around 1879 at: Norwood, Lord's Hill, Northchapel, Warnham and Loxwood, where members lived communally, investing and working in the business.

The following verse comes from the Dependants' Hymn Book[5] The group declined in numbers through the twentieth century, and, by the late 1980s, there were only handful of adherents remaining, worshipping in Loxwood and Northchapel.

[6] With a system of beliefs similar to the Peculiar People in Essex the Dependants believed that when without sin they would each be possessed of a small part of the divine body of Christ and that a place would be reserved for them at the high table at the marriage feast in Heaven.

The Lord's Prayer was not used in their worship, as it was regarded by Sirgood as an earthly institution which was incompatible with the higher life the Brethren wished to lead.

Unusually for a Christian sect the elders of the chapels would permit a young couple to live together in a trial marriage for up to two years, after which time they could separate or marry in a church or secular ceremony.

[7] The whole sect would be at chapel on Sundays and usually another two evenings per week as well as any public holidays, travelling great distances from outlying farms in many cases.

Following this members of the congregation might spontaneously sing Cokeler hyms and testify in broad Sussex dialect, but without the silences of a Quaker meeting.

There would be a back room at the chapel for members who had come a long distance to eat and rest between morning and evening services.