Pagan Sussex was the last area in Sussex to become Christian, mainly because of its inaccessibility. When Christianity finally did come, it came from the sea. Wilfrith, Bishop of York, first faced the turbulent Saxons when he was shipwrecked on the coast as he was returning from his consecration at Compiegne. The party just cscaped with their lives, but it was to Sussex that Wilfrith returned when he was driven from his northern diocese. It was in 681 AD that he settled in the peninsula of Selsey, and with a few monks founded a monastery there, along, of course, with Padda, the legendary tame seal. From Selsey the missionaries went out to the Saxon settlements along the coast. It must have been many years before they worked round to the little settlements at the foot of the Downs, and indeed maybe not until the end of the eighth century that Graffllaln gave up Woden and Thor, and accepted Christ. The Saxons built mostly in wood, so sadly much evidence of their travails has disappeared over time. A welcome cxception to this rule may be found in the example of nearby Selham Church, which, being of stonc, happily rernains with us now. Grafkam presumably did not advance beyond the customary wooden building; the Domesday record was of a small structure to serve perhaps fifty or so souls. The Church was alnlost certainly positioned on the site of the old temple or holy place of the ancient Gods, because Christianity and its protagonists recognised the value of association that the old cults attached to a locality or individual site. It would, however, be a long time before any actual building appeared on such a site. Only by slow degrees did the religious life of the English village become centred upon a church. Even at the end of the eighth century, many communities of long standing had no form of church building. Furthermore, only a minority of the clergy ever rose to the priesthood. So Grafkanl probably followed countless other hamlets in just having a cross raised on high for prayer and the saying of Mass whenever bishop or priest came their way. The physical pattern of English parishes and their churches, as recorded in the Domesday Book compiled twenty years after the Norman conquest of 1066, remained almost unvaried until the latter half of the eighteenth century, when thc Industrial Revolution began to expand the number and size of towns and cities in England. Rural, ovenvhelmingly agricultural and only partly commercial England lasted a millennium, roughly from 850 to 1850 A.D. with modem, urban England but the outcome of the last century and a half. These two Englands still CO-exist and overlap today, as cities and towns spread to meet the bounds of the surrounding country parishes.

Like so many old village churches, there exist no early records about Graffham Church. Who built it? When? And why? Was the building of wood or stone at the time of Domesday? Who knows? What can be said, however, is that if therc had been a stone building, it is difficult to understand why the Norrnans did not adapt some of it to their plans when they came to build. What is left of the Norman work, namely the low arcades, is certainly not early Norman, but transitional 12'~ century work. There is also in the church that early stone font, but one cannot presuppose the existence of a stone church 'to match' it. One may fairly conclude that though religious sentiment may wcll have been a votent force in earlv mediaeval Endand. it ishv no wav conclusive that any actual building was deliberately constructed to pamper such religious sentiment. One simply cannot know for sure. The dedication of these old churches is likewise rarely known. Ancient records found it sufficient to say '. ..the Chtrrch at or of .. '. Even so comparatively late a volume as the Valor Ecclesiasticus (1534-1535) hardly refers to the saints to whom the churches were dedicated. In Sussex the Registers of the Bishops (1369-1508) contain only about a dozen. The existing dedication to St Giles may not be of that long standing. This is an extract from 'Sr~ssex Wzlls '; -"John Ede, 25'h February, 1.535. My ho~lIye to he buried in christyan burial1 where it shall please gocl to take nzy sprete, -yf zt he wt in my parishe of Grufflam, then I will my bodye to be buried before Suynt Niclzolas Altel; and for so lj~ingc I give to the repemcions of the suide chzrrche IS". Some have deduced from this that St. Nicholas was Graffham's patron saint in Tudor times, but it is still far from clear. The history of the church of St Giles remains shrouded in the vagaries that cloud much of early English ecclesiastical history. Records are naturally scarce, and so one must base a great deal on the individual interpretation of that actually left behind by the passing of time.

What is left to us today is due mainly to the works of G.E. Street. In 1S74 it was decided to rebuild the church as a memorial to Bishop Wilberforce. £3000 was made available. The work was entrusted to Street, a well-known but frequently maligned restorer. Street has often been criticised as too drastic, and indeed his great fondness for polychromatic work has become a major sticking point with Inany antiquaries. He incorporated patterns of different colours in the brickwork of his churches, and used lavish and modem interior decorations. The Church of St Mary Magdalene at Paddington was a project 01Street's, and indeed the gold crypt, mirrored in the gold stars on the blue ceiling, certainly does lead one to ponder the thin line that lics between flamboyance and showing off. T11e Sussex Archaeological Collection of 1948 gives voice to the concern that Street aroused in many; '. . .Old St Giles in a drawing in the Sharpe Collection (1804) depicts admirably its many typical Sussex features, e.g. nave and south aisle under the same sloping roof, with dormer.. .the new building restored by Street emerged in 1S74 a very different building from the mediaeval structure. Funds were not lacking and Street went to work drastically.. .The Chancel arch is modern. The old east window gave way to a novel composition of five lancets under triple rear arches.. .Street's worst offence is the remodelling of the chancel and the addition of a south chapel, with the erection of a sham traditional Norman arcade copied fi-otn those of the nave. This meant the obliteration of the south side of the chancel.. . ' One can clearly sympathise with the traditionalists in this matter. In times where change is so intcgral to society, where newer, bigger and faster are often regarded as the true indicators of success, it is refreshing to be able to occasionally sit back, takc stock and reflect upon the niceties of existence, and take refuge in the securities of the past. Happily though, solace may be taken in the knowledge that churches are not mere museum pieces-they are primarily for prayer and worship, not aesthetic value. Our little church is very attractive, and serves its purpose extremely well; twin fold attributes of which one may be justifiably proud. A pity, yes, that a few more visible signs of the past were not vouchsafed us, but an insurmountable problem, as some have put about, I think perhaps not.

1655. The baptisms and burials are fairly complete, but there are considerable gaps In the marriage records. The founder of parish registers was Thomas Cromwell, Henry Vlll's Vicar-General. In 1538 Cromwell issued injunctions to every parish in England and Wales to keep a record of births deaths and marriages. The penalty for each default was 3s. 4d., to be applied to the repair of the church. There was considerable resistance to the scheme, as people feared that the system was to be a vehicle for taxation. There still exist about 650 registers dating from 1538, but in the majority of parishes the early records have been lost, mislaid or destroyed. The first entry in the Graffham register reads, '. ..Thornas, some of William Edwards was born May the 3, 1655.' The names of Philp, Carver, Baker, Bignold and Ewon (later Ewen) appear fairly regularly. It was recorded that a '...Thornas Mounfield snr...' was '. . .buried in woollen and testified on oath.. .' The Burial in Woolen Act had been passed ion 1678 to help the depressed woollen industry. The last entry on this practice came in 1758, where '. ..no affidavit brought of this person being buried in woolell accoording to statute, of which I have given notice in writing to William Tupper and William Stickle, churchwardens.. .' Much evidence of yesteryear has vanished with the passing of time, but there do remain notable exceptions, Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, one of the most influential English Roman Catholic figures of his time was one figure who left in his wake a fair deal of evidence that has survived the passage of time.

Manning became Archdeacon of Chichester in 1840, but continued to live in The Old Rectory (now Beechwood) at Lavington. Manning here spent the happiest years of his life. As he wrote, '...here the morning and cvcning prayers and the music of the English bible for 17 years became a part of my soul. If there were no eternal world, I could have made it my home.. .' In about 1840, Manning prepared a compilation of all the families in the parish, including a complete record of those persons who had attended Communion in the years 1840 to 1843. The fanlily records wcrc all carefully tabulated, with many illuminating 'General Remarks7. From Manning's comments, happily preserved with the church records, one may begin to paint with broad strokes a picture of the Graffham lay community of 200 years ago. Attendees included '. . .William Ayling, bonl 1775, copse cutter, has worked for the Duke of Richmond for 50 years; Rebecca Holden (b.1801) makes straw baskets and hats; Harriet West (b.1787) widow goes out as nurse; Janles Sturt, carrier; James Prior (b.1787) horsebreaker; Joseph Vowlcs, bcer shop keeper; John Boxall (b.1774) blacksmith; Joseph Todman (b. 1797) widower and potter; Mary Howick (b. 1769) shopkeeper and has a blacksmith's forge managed by her nephew, John Pescod, a churchwarden in 1839; Edward Hills, (b.1803) bricklayer; Edmund Albery, bricklayer; Bookham (b.1751) molecatcher; widow Marshal1 has had

15 children all scattered.. .'. Not all the Cardinals comments were so objective. Five names were attributed with the unwholesome title of 'addictus irrebvzetuti ', a whole family of husband, wife and ten children are dubbed tfarnilia rnalo et ignavla addicta ', the unfortunate daughter also being branded 'nzendax'.A farmer is called 'hostis ecclesiae et veligzonz' and the local carrier 'artibuspessimis dedztus '. One can only hope that such disparaging comment is not currently being collected for posterity! Manning left the Church of England in December 1850. Within 14 years he was Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, and became a cardinal in 1875. It is simply conjecture, but nevertheless intriguing to think what might have happened if Manning had become Squire of Craffharn by marrying Emily Sargent instead of Caroline. These days, it is generally fair to say that religious sentiment is less vigorous than would have been the case in the nineteenth century. At that time, the effect of prominent churchmen such as Manning and Newman joining the Church of Rome was monumentous, and it is not exaggeration to say that such an event could have thrown our tranquil Sussex parish into disarray.

Thomas Wakefield had been in partnership with Roger Tapsell of West Tarring, whose father Henry had been a bell-founder before him, Henry Tapsell's initials occurring on a bell in Bury dated 1599, and in conjunction with his son's on one at Feltham in 1600. Tapsell and Wakefield together cast bells at Hastings, Washington and Stopham in 1614, after which the latter set up for himself in Chichester. He did not seem to have prospered long there, as in 1621 he and Roger Tapsell are again found together casting a bell for Graffham. In 1610 a permanent foundry known as the 'Bell House' was established at Horsharn, and leased by the churchwardens to Richard Eldridge, formally of Wokingham. In 1618, his son Bryan Eldridge was tenant of the Bell House, where he cast a bell for lfield church, but he soon left Horsham for Chertsey, where he established the famous Chertsey foundry. After the tower was taken down, all three bells sat in the churchyard for a while, but one day the Eldridge bell vanished. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry state that '. . .in 1897 there were only two bells, and we have no knowledge of what became of the Eldridge bell.. .' Rumour round the village was that someone in desperate need of money had sold it, but the rumour was never confirmed. Who knows, maybe a bell with 'Bryan Eldridge made mee 1642' still graces a church somewhere. The remaining two bells were cracked and recast into four by the Mears and Stainbank foundry of London. It is sad to have lost the old bells, but again the antiquary's moan must be somewhat assuaged by the Fdct that the old metal is still there in the recast bells. In 1900, the four bells were hung in a Z frame for three and a cast iron side for one on 1900. These were augmented to six in 1984 by the addition of two trebles, and the replacement of a third, thanks to the fundraising efforts of rector David Grant and churchwardens Peter Parish, Jack Kynoch and Margaret Bateman. Special thanks should also be extended to the Bertram family.

In July 1998, the first suggestions were made to build a Lych Gate, in order to celebrate the Millennium. In January 1999, John Covington submitted the first designs to the Mille~lnium Committee. In March, the designs were approved by the English Heritage, submitted to the planning Authorities, and in October approval for the project was received from the Chichester Diocese and the local authorities. By the end of January, £5850 had been raised by public subscription, in addition to £1 000 pledged by the Parochial Church Council and £500 by the Graffham Parish Council. Tenders were invited. Sadly, local craftsman were unable to put together a bid, and so it was that sealed bids were received from three building firms. These were opened in the presence of the Churchwardens on 1 l February, with the tender being offered to T. Couzens and Son Ltd. This tender excluded the design and production of the gates, which were constructed by Martin Taylor, a local joiner and cabinetmaker On 24"' June,2000, the Millennium Lych Gate at St Giles' was officially opened by the Bishop of Horsham, and currently stands proudly at the entrance to our Church. A great deal of effort went into the making of the Lych Gate, which now stands as a fitting monument to the efforts of many people, from both within and without of the village.

Rood screen: A carved wooden screen separating chancel from nave, but mostly destroyed in the Reformation. Traditionally figures of Christ crucified (the Rood) flanked by St Mary Virgin and St John the Evangelist stood above the screen