St Margaret's Church, West Hoathly

West Hoathly stands on a high ridge in the Weald, 4 mi south-southwest of the ancient market town of East Grinstead. Worth, now part of the Crawley urban area but originally a large parish with a Saxon church, lies a similar distance to the northwest. The land rises to 600 ft just outside the village, and outcrops of sandstone (such as the mushroom-shaped "Great-on-Little") are nearby. The area was already settled by the 11th century, and names recorded at that time include Hadlega and Hodlega — later standardised to Hodlegh and Hothelegh, then (West) Hoathly. The Domesday survey of 1086 did not mention a church or settlement at West Hoathly, At that time it would have been a simple…

Descriptions of St Margaret's Church include "large and interesting", It is built of sandstone rubble quarried from the local area, and has a chancel, nave, Lady chapel and adjacent aisle on the south side, tower with an octagonal spire, vestry in the southwest corner and an entrance porch. The "very delicate painting" is on the inside of one of the windows in the chancel's south wall, which was inserted in the mid-13th century. The present west gallery was erected in 1899 as a replacement for the original, installed in 1723 but removed during Slater and Carpenter's renovations of 1870.

was built in 1882. Its parish used to be part of West Hoathly's, and the two parishes are now part of a united benefice.]] St Margaret's Church was listed at Grade I by English Heritage on 28 October 1957. Such buildings are defined as being of "exceptional interest" and greater than national importance. As of February 2001, it was one of 16 Grade I listed buildings, and 1,028 listed buildings of all grades, in the district of Mid Sussex. The ecclesiastical parish of West Hoathly covers a large rural area of West Sussex near the towns of East Grinstead (to the north), Haywards Heath (to the south) and Crawley (to the west). Ashdown Forest lies to the east. The parish boundaries are not…