St Symphorian's Church, Durrington

Durrington was first recorded in 934 as a Saxon estate. In that year, King Athelstan granted some of the land to one of his thegns. By the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, Robert le Sauvage—Lord of the Manor of nearby Broadwater—held the land. The civil and ecclesiastical parish was smaller than the Saxon estate: it extended for about 2 mi from north to south and 0.7 mi from east to west. The church had existed since Saxon times, no later than the 11th century, but little is known of it: the structure was probably built of plaster, wattle and daub and thatch, in common with other churches of the era. The new design, a simple two-cell building, had a 56 x nave and a 23 x chancel…

St Symphorian's Church is a flint structure with stone dressings, built in the Early English style. The roof is laid with tiles. Internal fittings and furniture include a white marble font taken from St Paul's Church in central Worthing; an 18th-century altar from a demolished church at Treyford, West Sussex; and an organ installed in 1954 (and rebuilt in 2006) to replace the original.

St Symphorian's Church was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 11 October 1949; this defines it as a "nationally important" building of "special interest". In February 2001, it was one of 198 buildings with Grade II status (or the equivalent Grade C), and 213 listed buildings of all grades, in the Borough of Worthing. (These totals have since changed because of new listings and delistings.) The parish, in its present form (ratified in 1974), covers the Durrington, West Durrington and High Salvington suburbs in the northwest of the borough of Worthing, and some surrounding rural areas. The eastern boundary is formed by Mill Lane, Half Moon Lane and Stone Lane; the main Littlehampton…