St Botolph's Church, Hardham

Hardham village is just off the main A29 road, which is "excitingly" separated from the village lane by narrow hedges. The A29 follows the course of Stane Street, an important Roman road, and Hardham was the first posting station after leaving the Roman city of Noviomagus Reginorum (present-day Chichester). Hardham was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Heriedham, but a church was not described. Hardham Priory was founded nearby in 1248. The church is late Saxon or early Norman. all sources agree that it was complete by 1125 at the latest. Some lancet windows were added in the nave in the late 13th century, and in the 14th century the chancel received two new window openings.…

The church consists of nave and chancel only. Such two-cell structures are common in the South Downs area of Sussex. The nave and chancel are separated by a chancel arch whose "austere" and "broad simplicity" is indicative of early Norman design. There are also original Early English-style lancet windows, which "suit the church very well", and other windows which were added later. The porch and bell-turret were added in the Victorian period. A squint was cut into the south side of the chancel in the Middle Ages. It was the site of a now vanished anchorite's cell, which would have projected from the wall. Internal fixtures include a 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic octagonal font, benches…

There are four main themes to the wall paintings: Adam and Eve, the Life of Christ, Judgement and Apocalypse (including Hell scenes), and the Labours of the Months. The paintings are in two tiers along each wall. There were originally explanatory inscriptions in the borders above the scenes, but only a fragment of these survives on the east wall of the nave. The description below follows the numbering scheme in the booklet by the Courtauld Institute cited below, which is available for visitors to the church.