St Leodegar's Church, Hunston

Hunston is a large, spread-out village on the coastal plain south of the city of Chichester. "Good wheat-growing land" surrounds the residential development in the 1013 acre parish. Bishop Leodegar ( 616–678), sometimes anglicised to Leger or Latinised as Leodegarius, was martyred by having his tongue and eyes pulled out and being beheaded. Boxgrove Priory, a few miles away and also a possession of Lessay Abbey, administered the church until the Reformation in the 16th century. In 1851, the creation of a joint benefice formally united St Leodegar's Church with St Stephen's Church in neighbouring North Mundham. In early 1885, church officials decided to demolish St Leodegar's Church and…

The new St Leodegar's Church stands on the same site as its medieval predecessor, next to the 17th-century manor house in an isolated position south of the village. It is a stone-built church in the Early English Gothic Revival style, with a chancel, aisleless nave, vestry, entrance porch and elaborate bellcote. All windows are lancets. Some old burial vaults survive from the ancient church, but they are now in the churchyard next to the south nave wall; they were previously in the south aisle, which was not included in the narrower design of the new church. The bellcote has two bells taken from the old church: one has the initials , and the other is plain. The bellcote has carved…