England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Rustington St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Rustington lies in the south of West Sussex forming a stretch of the county's English Channel coastline. Rustington lines roughly 2 miles east of the port of Littlehampton and a mile south of the A259 road which forms Sussex' main coastal road in these parts and linking Littlehampton with Worthing. Rustington is a village which has been transformed in modern times by coastal recreational development, at the time of this transcript early maps show a compact small crossroads village gathered around the church. Today speculative coastal development has merged Rustington not only with Littlehampton but to become a part of a strip of coastal urban properties running from Littlehampton all the way to eastern Brighton with only the barest of gaps between indistinguishable former villages. At the time of this transcript Rustington would have been a farming village with little or no connection with the sea, early gazetteers estimate roughly 75% of the parish acreage as arable at that time. Rustington is drained largely westwards into the nearby Adur which flows to the English Channel through Littlehampton. Rustington is sited at between sea level and 5 metres in very level terrain, one has to travel many miles inland to reach the 50 metres contour on Warningcamp Hill. Rustington parish was rather small in extent for its county covering slightly under 1,100 acres and supporting around 350 parishioners. Rustington is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church sits at the junction of The Street with Sea Lane, the former centre of the original village of Rustington. The church has fabric covering much of the early medieval period from the 12th through to the 14th century. The earliest fabric comes from the short Transitional Period which marked the very end of the 12th century, the western tower, together with its tower arch, and the southern arcade were all completed during this period and show a mixture of styles from Romanesque through to Early English Gothic. The chancel and the northern transept are both purely 13th century and Early English Gothic with lancet styles windows as evidence to that style. Finally the northern arcade was added during the 14th century together with the clerestory, both Perpendicular in style. Whilst Pevsner mentions "repeated hardenings and furbishings" no specific dates are rendered for these typical Victorian restoration events. There are two main entries to the churchyard, either from the southern end on Sea Lane or at the eastern end on The Street, both have suitable parking close by. Whilst the churchyard has quite a few trees dotted here and there they can be easily avoided by the photographer.