Old Shoreham / Soresham

Harrison (1920) writes: "The original building was probably pre-Conquest. That part of the N.W. wall where the nave is narrower and the work on the outside rougher, with quoining resembling long-and-short work, is probably of that period ; one of the blocked-up doorways is also of the same date. Font, modem; the hexagonal cover of original font is utilised as vestry table." The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 6, pt. 1, 1980) notes: "Old Shoreham church was built before the Conquest and was recorded in 1086 [...] William de Braose included the tithes of Erringham and Shoreham in his grant to the church of St. Nicholas, Bramber, c. 1073"; there ais no mention of a font in the VCH entry for this church. The present baptismal font in this church is modern, a Victorian rendering of an old Norman design; it consists of a square cushion-capital basin with a large carved motif on each side; raised on a plain cylindrical pedestal base at the bottom of which is a moulding with foliage motifs at 90-degree angles; a plain lower base, and a shorth plinth, both square. The wooden cover is square and flat, with metal reinforcements. [NB: we have no information on the font(s) of the medieval church here].