Binderton

The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 4, 1953) notes: "There was a church at Binderton in 1086, [...] but its history during the next five centuries is an almost complete blank. It is not mentioned in the Taxation of 1291 or in the Nonae Rolls of 1340; no presentation, institution, or casual occurrence of any incumbent before the Reformation is known. Although it was not mentioned by name when the prebend of Singleton (q.v.) was given to Chichester Cathedral in the 12th century, the confirmation of that gift by Archbishop Simon in 1355 refers to the chapel of Binderton as forming part of that prebend [...] Of the medieval church of Binderton we can only form an idea from casual references [...] Alice Smith in 1523 desired to be buried in the chancel next her former husband George Osborne [...] in 1640 the churchwardens reported: 'Wee have a decent church for divine service … noe parte of our church is demolished nor put to any prophane use.' [...] Within twenty years, however, during the Commonwealth, Thomas Smyth, finding that the old church, which stood in the corner of the present grounds of Binderton House, would interfere with the view of the new house he was planning to build, pulled it down." There is no mention of a font in the VCH entry, but it does mention that a new church was built "on the other side of the road" by the son of the very man who demolished the old one. "The church was never consecrated and although Thomas Smyth was buried in it in 1688 it had sunk to the level of a barn within a hundred years", and only ruins remained at the time of the VCH entry. [NB: we have no information on the font of the medieval church here].