Church of the Transfiguration, Pyecombe

The small village of Pyecombe is situated in a long, deep valley (or coombe) formed by the river Wellesbourne as it flows towards the English Channel at Brighton. (The river is now a winterbourne and runs underground for most of its length.) The South Downs rise to about 700 ft to the east and west. The village is in two parts about 0.25 mi apart. The original medieval settlement formed around the church and an ancient trackway across the South Downs; when this declined, new development took place to the west. A 16th-century cottage which may have been part of the manor house is in this newer area. a date of 1170 has been attributed. The Norman tower at the west end was built in the 13th…

The church is aligned from east to west with its chancel and altar at the east end. It consists of a 12th-century chancel and plain, semicircular chancel arch; a nave of the same age, with two rectangular windows on each side; and a short tower from the 13th century, with two angled buttresses at the southwestern and northwestern corners. The former has a 13th-century gravestone incorporated into the stonework, but the buttresses are no earlier than 14th-century. On the north side is an entrance porch and a vestry. This was hidden under the roughcasting for about a century, but has now been revealed again. There are modern stone dressings around the windows. Some of the windows themselves…

The Church of the Transfiguration is part of the Benefice of Poynings with Edburton, Newtimber and Pyecombe. This covers five downland villages, each with one church: the others are St Andrew's Church at Edburton, Holy Trinity Church at Poynings and St John the Evangelist's Church in Newtimber. The former church of the Good Shepherd at Fulking is no longer in use but is nominally part of the Benefice. The parish itself covers Pyecombe village and the surrounding farms and downland, as far south as the Brighton and Hove boundary and north to Clayton. The church was Grade I listed on 28 October 1957. Two services take place each month, and Pyecombe Parish Council holds its meetings in the…