England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Washington St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Washington lies in southern Sussex roughly 8 miles north of the coastal resort of Worthing, and within the modern county of West Sussex. Washington sits adjacent to the course of the A24 road which links Worthing with Horsham. Washington is a spring-line settlement sat at the base of the escarpment of the South Downs, it is centred around a T-junction of lanes south of the A283 road which parallels the course of the downs. Most properties are along The Street or Washington Bostal the main thoroughfares of the village. Like most parishes along the line of the South Downs the parish was extended as narrow strip of land encompassing both an area of the southern Weald together with downland above on top of the escarpment, the purpose being to give each parish a share of the differing land-forms. In the case of Washington that lead to a mixed farming economy with arable dominant by 60:40 over pastures. Modern developments have upgraded the A24 to a dual-carriageway highway skirting the western edges of the village. The crest of the downs is followed by the South Downs Way National Trail which makes its way to Chanctonbury Ring, an Iron Age hill-fort with its area filled with ancient beech trees and making one of the most prominent landmarks of the whole South Downs. Washington is drained northwards by small streams which make their way to join the River Adur, that river takes water east and then south through a gap in the chalk downland to reach the English Channel through the port of Shoreham. Washington is sited at between 50 to 70 metres above the sea on the fore-slope of the Downs, above Chanctonbury Ring is the highest ground topping out at 237 metres and giving impressive views across The Weald. Washington parish was quire extensive, covering just under 3,200 acres it would have supported a population of close to 900 parishioners. Whilst Washington was a Domesday entry, held by William de Braose, it describes a settlement of 159 households and is likely to be a regional entry rather than specific to this manor.

The Church

St Mary's church lies on the northern side of The Street quite close to the traffic flowing along the A24's dual-carriageway at the western edge of the village. Whilst some medieval fabric remains, the northern arcade & western tower, this is primarily a church dating from its rebuild in 1867. The northern arcade is the older of those two pieces being given the tentative dating of c1200 by Pevsner for its arches & responds whilst the circular piers are more clearly of the 13th century, Early English Hothic in style. The western tower is later and 15th century in the later Perpendicular style, its bell-openings are unusually filled with stone tracery, a characteristic atypical for Sussex. The remainder of the church is mid-Victorian built in 1867 in a High Victorian style which Pevsner found "hard and unlovable". By the church The Street is rather narrow but it widens east of the site allowing on-street parking. This is a church sat almost in the road such that the best aspects are from The Street.