St Margaret's Church, Ifield

The ancient parish of Ifield covered about 4000 acre of rural land in the north of Sussex, up to the border with Surrey. It was attached to the priory at nearby Rusper by the mid-13th century. The church was built in the centre of the small settlement of Ifield, which was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The present stone building is believed to stand on the site of an older wooden church—possibly dating from the 10th or 11th century. The earliest record of a vicar being present at the Church was in 1247 but is simply listed as '?' on the Church's list although 'Simon' took over in 1288 and there has been 53 vicars since then. By the 13th century, the church had a stone-built nave and…

St Margaret's Church has a chancel, wide nave with a narrow clerestory above and narrow three-bay aisles on the north and south sides, a tall tower (topped with a spire) at the west end and a porch on the north side. The nave, chancel and chancel-arch all date from the 13th century. The aisles and their arcades are largely unaltered from their 14th-century origins: including 20th-century designs by Brian Thomas. The roof of the nave is tall and steeply pitched, with substantial king posts and tie-beams. It is also of medieval origin. Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner considered the tower to be "perplexing", but described its windows and double internal arch as "odd and very effective…