We owe the Church of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin and St Nicholas to Sir William de Etchingham (1333-89)
and the unknown mason who worked with him.

Building started in the early 1360s and the chancel at least was complete by the mid 1370s.
What you see today is very much the church as they conceived it.

Its axial tower plan is very unusual in parish churches of so late a date, and the aisles are part of the original design.
Although much of the heraldic glass that filled its windows was sold in the early 19^th century,

and the church itself had to be restored by William Slater in 1857, his approach to the task was profoundly conservative.

Even though the roofs had to be replaced, they were modelled exactly on their mediaeval predecessors and the tracery in the windows is original.

The church was intended to be the necropolis for Sir William and his family and his son, grandson and great grandson are all buried in the chancel.

The memorial brasses to Sir William and to his son, daughter-in-law and grandson

can be found in front of the high altar and are amongst the finest in the County.

Sir William asks us to pray for his soul and there is no doubt that he intended the church to be a collegiate church,

hence the relative size of the chancel and the provision of eighteen stalls.

There is also a magnificent sedilia with provision for three priests.

No chantry provision for serving the church has come to light and it can only be surmised that it was treated as if it was the chapel

attached to the adjoining manor house and that priests and possibly a choir were financed as part of the Lord's household.

The moat surrounding the manor house was extended to enclose the church.

Simon Jenkins in his Thousand Best Churches follows earlier accounts in suggesting that the Cistercians from nearby

Robertsbridge Abbey may have serviced the church, but this highly unlikely. It would have been precluded by their rule.

The stalls with their magnificent pairs of misericords are 14^th century and mediaeval glass

has been preserved in the tracery of the aisle and clerestory windows. The arms are those of the gentry families in East Sussex.

In the east window can be seen the arms of John of Brittany, John of Gaunt, Edward III and the Black Prince.

We know that the remaining windows of the chancel once contained those of Sir William and the Earls Of England

and it is permissible to wonder whether he was not making a social statement.

His great uncle had been summoned to the House of Lords in the days before peerages became hereditary

and it is just possible that he was quietly asserting that he was just as good a man.

There is mediaeval glass in the east window of the north aisle, found and inserted in 1934,

but the East window (apart from the row of shields) is by Clayton (1859).

He also designed the pulpit, which was executed by Forsyth.

The font, however, is from the 13^th century as is the 13^th century door in the south wall of the chancel

and these are clearly a carry over from the earlier chapel that stood on the site.