England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Newtimber St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Newtimber lies in southern Sussex not too far from its southern English Channel coast. Newtimber is located roughly 7 miles northwest of the resort of Brighton and sits immediately west of the A23 road which connects Brighton with London. Newtimber is a tiny place little more than the estate of Newtimber Place and surrounding fields, there is no distinct village other than the estate cottages around Newtimber Place. Much of the parish is tucked away in an enclosed area of land surrounded on two sides by the escarpment of the South Downs. Like most Wealden parishes it was a farming community with arable farms on the plain and sheep grazing the steep escarpment slopes of the chalk downs. Newtimber is drained westward by a small tributary of the Adur which, when reached, turns the flow south through a gap in the Downs to the English Channel at Shoreham's port. Newtimber is sited at around 50 metres above the sea but surrounded to the south by Newtimber Hill at 202 metres whilst to the east Wolstonbury Hill over-tops that by a further 4 metres. Newtimber parish was shaped to take in a mixture of land-types being elongated from north to south, covering just under 1,700 it would have supported a population of around 150 parishioners. In Domesday times Newtimber was a holding of William de Warenne and could offer 7 ploughs, the usual meadows & woodland but did possess a mill.

The Church

St John the Baptist's church sits a quarter mile south of Newtimber Place on the eastern side of Church Lane. The church has its origins in the 13th century and in the early English Gothic style which is shown by both nave and chancel. Pevsner, however, bemoans the over-zealous restoration describing the church as having "all original features restored out of existence". Those changes began in the early Victorian period, and immediately after the end date of this transcript, when today's western tower was built to replace its medieval predecessor, mock "Gothick" in style and augmented by a Victorian rose window it is nevertheless an attractive piece. The remainder of the church was extensively restored in 1875, the work as denigrated by Pevsner, which heavily restored the church. Church Lane wanders southwards towards the Downs, a white signboard points the way to the church and where a small parking may be found on the verge. A curving pathway leaves the wooden gate to reach the churchyard, sadly the eastern end of the church is tight to surrounding trees and this does somewhat limit the angles available for the photographer.