The Hailsham area was historically supportive of Protestant Nonconformist beliefs and had few Catholics, and for many years worshippers had to attend Mass in basic premises: rooms in private houses and, from 1917, a subdivided loft in the stables of a brewery.

When created in 1957, Hailsham's parish covered an extensive, mostly rural area of East Sussex, and it was extended again in the early 21st century when nearby Polegate was included.

The market town of Hailsham, 8 miles (13 km) north of Eastbourne,[1] existed at the time of the Domesday survey of 1086 and has been a centre of agriculture and industry for centuries.

[2] Growth encouraged by the opening of a railway line brought more people to the town, and by the start of the 20th century Anglicans, Strict Baptists, Methodists and the Free Church had their own places of worship.

No provision was made for Roman Catholic worship, though: the town was covered by the vast parish of Our Lady of Ransom Church in Eastbourne (the largest in the Archdiocese of Southwark at the time).

In 1895 its priest appealed to the Vicar-General of the Archdiocese with a request to celebrate Mass in various towns and villages in the parish;[3] he compiled a list showing distances from Eastbourne and the number of known Catholics in each place.

[4] About 3 miles (4.8 km) from Hailsham was the village of Upper Dicker, a stronghold of Protestant Nonconformism (the 400-capacity Zoar Strict Baptist Chapel had opened in 1838).

Early efforts to establish a permanent base there faced difficulties: there was little money, Our Lady of Ransom Church could not afford to lend any, there was anti-Catholic feeling in the town, and no premises could be found.

[10] The property on Battle Road (a yellow- and red-brick building of 1887 which still survives)[11] had stables at the rear, and the hay-loft[10] was partitioned to form a rudimentary chapel, accessed by a timber staircase.

[15] Mass attendance rose from 29 in the early months at the hall to 70 by 1926, which included Catholics from the nearby town of Polegate (whose own church, St George's, opened in 1938) and villages such as Chiddingly, Hellingly and Herstmonceux.

[13] Money was already coming in to allow a larger church to be built: weekly collections were being put towards a building fund, a Catholic from Eastbourne left over £670 in her will in December 1932, and by November 1934 £1,500 was available.

[6][18] Bingham Towner's design was not adopted in full: what was intended to be a cruciform church was built as a long, narrow nave, small sanctuary, attached sacristy and side porch.

Joseph Cribb carved the foundation stone and statues of Our Lady and the Sacred Heart, and the "rather imposing entrance doors" were taken from a demolished mansion at nearby Battle.

[23] A new presbytery was built (again to the design of Henry Bingham Towner) south of the church in 1959, which allowed the priest to move out of a nearby cottage.

[26] Shortly after this the parish priest died, and new Stations of the Cross carved from Bath stone by Joseph Cribb were donated to the church in his memory.

[40] Bingham Towner's 1954–55 church, a "pleasant little building"[31] of yellowish-buff brick, with a steep shingled roof[31][41] and designed in the Vernacular style, was small and unpretentious: Nikolaus Pevsner described it as "modest indeed", even after its porch and sacristy were added in 1966.

[31] The new church was designed to be wider than its predecessor, which meant the pitch of the roof (originally planned to be as steep) had to be flattened to avoid affecting nearby houses.

It reported that one priest served the parish of Hailsham and Polegate, two Sunday Masses were celebrated at St Wilfrid's Church, and the attendance across both was 153 worshippers.

[15] As originally constituted in 1957, the parish was bounded by the villages of Horam, Vines Cross, Warbleton, Punnett's Town, Three Cups Corner, Rushlake Green, Bodle Street Green and Windmill Hill; then the boundary passed north of Wartling, across the Rickney Levels (near Pevensey) and north of Hankham and Polegate; it then continued towards Ripe, Golden Cross, Whitesmith, Chiddingly and back to Horam.