Partridge Green – St Michael and All Angels

Partridge Green is a hamlet in the parish of West Grinstead, where houses were built in the C18 (VCH 6(2) p84).  More appeared after a station (now closed) was opened in 1861.  There was an iron mission room, before a permanent church by W G Habershon and J F Fawkner (CDK 1890 pt 2 p157) was built in 1890, though in fact, by this date, Habershon had withdrawn all but his name from the practice.  The church remains a chapelry of West Grinstead.  A church said to have been designed by Sir R Blomfield at West Grinstead in 1889 (Fellowes p173) can only have been an alternative design for Partridge Green.

The church, which cost £2618 (KD 1899) is built of flint and is spacious though aisleless.  It has a mixture of plain traceried windows and lancets, including three east ones with circles over the side ones, and an unbuttressed tower with twin-openings and a tiled top.  Like the exterior, the interior is austere, relieved only by bands of blue brick in the otherwise red brick facing.  Stone is confined to the rere-arches of the windows and the tower and chancel arches.   As with many C19 churches built to a price, the carpentry of the steeply pitched roofs is the best feature, in particular the nave one, which has tall braced crownposts.

Fittings

Font: The battered, plain octagonal bowl looks C14, but may have been cut down from a C12 tub-font (www.crsbi.ac.uk retrieved on 15/4/2013).  It is said variously to be from Ashington (VCH 6(2) p72) or Wilmington, East Sussex (A K Walker p122); the former seems more likely, if only for geographical reasons.  The pedestal is not original.
Glass:
1. (East window) C E Kempe, 1890.  The intense colours and careful drawing of the single figures are unusual for the date.
2. (South nave, first window) A L Moore, 1890 (signed).  The colouring is brighter than in much of his glass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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