Bailiffscourt Chapel

The parish of Climping, sometimes spelt Clymping, covers a large coastal area next to the English Channel and the River Arun in West Sussex. The land, a combination of silty brickearth and alluvium, is prone to erosion, and large parts of the parish have been lost to the sea since the Middle Ages. The former villages of Ilsham, Cudlow and Atherington are now depopulated, their former churches have been destroyed, and their parishes combined with Clymping. The manor of Atherington existed at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, by which time it was held by the Abbey of Séez in Normandy. The name later became Bailiffscourt because the manor was used by the bailiff who administered the…

s in the side walls.]] The chapel is a simple Gothic building of the 13th century. The single-cell rectangular structure is dominated by a large three-light east window in the form of a lancet with cusping. Smaller single-light lancets remain in the north and south walls. The exterior is built of flint, rough stones and cobbles, some of which came from the original 11th-century chapel, and the sloping roof is laid with tiles. Inside, there are arches whose capitals are carved with foliage decoration and a mass dial dating from the medieval era. This was found on the beach nearby, and had apparently washed up from the submerged remains of the old church at Atherington. The ashes of Lord…