History.

The first part of the following notes were compiled and published in 1966 although the author is not disclosed. What you read therefore, is the history of St. John the Evangelist up to that time. Since then, so much has been done in the re-ordering of the interior that you would not now recognise it from the description given below, but it serves as a very useful historical record of how it was.

Additional notes were added in April 2008 covering the period from 1979 to bring our history up-to-date.

St. John's Church Southbourne Sussex.

The village of Southbourne is a part of the civil parish of Westbourne; a parish that includes not only Westbourne itself (one mile north of Southbourne) but also Southbourne, Nutbourne, Prinsted, Hambrook and Hermitage villages. In the mid-19th century Westbourne included ‘five tythings’ but the only church then in existence was the mediaeval one at Westbourne itself - (St John the Baptist - ed).

As the 19th century advanced the district of Southbourne began to develop as a residential area, and so a site was chosen in the village for a new church. This was completed in 1876 at a total cost of £3,500 to provide 350 sittings. Since when Southbourne has been a separate ecclesiastical Parish.

The Exterior.

The church of St. John the Evangelist occupies a commanding site at Southbourne. Busy traffic thunders by all day yet with its setting of lawns and trees, the church preserves a quiet and quite rural corner still.

The church, built in 1876 to the designs of the architect, T. Chatfield Clark, is in the Early English style of architecture, not unduly distinguishable according to the experts on these things. (Pevsner in his ‘Sussex’ volume describes it as “bad”). Yet, with its commanding corner site and grey, clean stone it presents a fair enough picture indeed.

Prominent, of course, is the tower and spire, rather unusually placed on the south side of the nave rather than at the west end. Square in plan, the tower is of three storeys and is surmounted by a neat broach spire that soars gracefully above the trees.

The church, uniformly of light grey stone with a red-tile roof of even height, has two-light windows in the nave, windows with hood moulding carried down on either side to finish in a carved-ball moulding. Buttresses are found between each window, at the transept corners and at the east and west ends. These latter four ‘ends’ finish in neat gables with small crosses at the top and in each are windows of larger dimensions than elsewhere.

The Interior.

The interior is spacious and light and this feeling has been enhanced by the addition in recent years of much new light woodwork and by a scheme of redecorating that gives cream walls throughout (pale blue in the chancel) and a blue ceiling to the steeply rising roofs. A very pleasant atmosphere is thus created.

The NAVE is lit by two-light windows of clear glass but at the west end is the largest window in the church. It has five-lights, is broad and with a low arch and is filled with rich though rather dark coloured Victorian glass. The theme is ‘I was weary and they gave me rest’ and the whole window is in memory of Nathaniel Frary Miller of Massachusetts, U.S.A., who died in 1821.

Over the nave's south door is painted the word ‘Sanctus’ and a dove and also at this end of the nave is the low but beautifully carved font. At the east end by the chancel arch are the carved wooden pulpit of light oak and the older wooden eagle lectern.

The NORTH TRANSEPT is lit by a window of three lancets, the centre one the tallest and all under one moulding. The glass here is clear. A solid wooden screen of light oak in memory of Benjamin and Elizabeth Goodin has been placed across this transept to from a vicar's vestry, whilst on the east side is the choir vestry which extends to flank the chancel.

The SOUTH TRANSEPT has, however, been made into a chapel with a delightful low altar table backed by dark blue curtaining. The transept was prepared as a side chapel in memory of Richard Twine who was for 40 years churchwarden here. He was born in 1856 and died in 1939. Across the entrance from the nave is a light oak openwork screen that was placed here by relatives and friends as a memorial to Lewis Benjamin Goodin who was churchwarden from 1953 to 1960.

The CHANCEL, with its decorative theme of shades of blue has two low arches on either side and in one is placed the organ. Dominating this part of the church is the East Window, again of three lancets under one moulding but here with pillar between them and the whole filled with the best coloured glass in the church. Beneath the window is the high altar, the reredos, beautifully carved in Jacobean style. Jacobean, too, is the chair set on the chancel's north side.

Alterations Over The years.

The organ was rebuilt in 1919, two new stops being added.

Acetylene gas lighting and an “adequate” solid fuel heating system were installed in 1921, the final replacement of these being completed when in 1962 electric infra-red and tubular heating was introduced.

The very plain War Memorial Cross, so impressive in is severity, was unveiled on January 6th, 1921; the Memorial Garden in which it stands makes a beautiful surround to the Church.

The present white Altar Frontal, worked by the Misses Walker, once of Funtingdon Vicarage, has been used for 45 years since it was given to Southbourne Church.

Internal decorating of the church was carried out in 1922, and again recently in 1966, including on this latter occasion the “stripping” of the pews from a very dark brown to their present pleasing natural colour. The Lectern Bible, a Revised Version edition, was presented in memory of Harry Lamb Stringer.

In 1963 the church roof was re-tiled, but with all the best of the old tiles being preserved and put back on the south side of the building.

On Rogation Sunday, 1966, the Bishop of Lewes dedicated extensive improvements and alterations. These included the new pulpit (back on the north side where the old one had originally been fixed by “W. Poate & G. Poate, Nov. 3rd, 1875” before its removal to the south.); the low wooden Chancel screen replacing a white-painted concrete wall; new wood paving blocks and Chancel Step; new grey tiling at West end; the moving of the Font from the S.E. to the S.W. corner of the church; the curtaining of the east wall of the Lady Chapel; and various pieces of furniture. Nearly all of these improvements were private gifts.

This church may not be old as Sussex village churches go but it is pleasing, a sunny place and a friendly place with a feeling that here, at any rate, is a place of worship that feels rather like home.

Reflections on the last thirty years (1979 - 2008), stimulated firstly by the Life Together seminars and again by the current sermon topics.

These reflections were a great encouragement to me, and I trust they will be to you, to appreciate how God has been at work, and is still at work with this part of Christ’s body here in Southbourne.

In 1976 I understand there were about a dozen regular worshippers at St John’s. In 1979 numbers were greater and there was a robed choir. Currently the average attendance is 219. Then the income was around £3,000; it is now £192,000—but growing in faith is more than increase in numbers and income.

During the ‘80s various formats for services were tried, each appreciated by different people. Options/choices are not new to St John’s. Teaching weekends (Friday evening, Saturday morning, Sunday morning and evening) became regular events with emphasis on Renewal in the Spirit and Healing. By the 90s St John’s was known throughout the area for the healing service on the 3rd Sunday evening in the month. Cell groups (our home groups) studied Expressing His Life and followed this up with each new edition in the Saints Together series from Anglican Renewal Ministries. Other courses were held to develop our listening, bereavement and counselling skills, and also Alpha courses when these became available. At the same time, different members of the congregation were led to commitment in their individual walk to the benefit of us all, through study for the Bishop’s Certificate, Readership and Priesthood training. Four ordained ministers and several readers is amazing for a congregation in a village this size. In addition several others from the deanery came to us during their training, as Ron from Chidham did recently.

Children’s work, always important here, was difficult with no church hall/centre—but children’s groups ran each week using the vestry, organ loft and several rooms in what is now Longlands House—at that time the Vicarage. Once the church had been reordered in the mid-80s, with the removal of pews and choir stalls, then groups began to meet on Wednesday evenings in the church itself.

A significant development in the 90s was the formation of the music group with the growing number of young musicians progressing to senior school. This group became well-known in the diocese playing for events in the cathedral and at the annual youth weekend at Ardingly among others. The Diocesan Missioner and his side-kick the Diocesan Youth Officer for West Sussex (the present Bishop of Horsham and our vicar) were both well-known to the group in those years. Holiday clubs were held in August, then at Easter, for a week, so the children’s work grew alongside that of the adults.

It has been amazing to see how God has been able to grow the excellent youth and children’s work we now recognise here in this century, and extend it by people taking God’s love to the world. An interest, in the 90s, in work in Uganda and Tanzania and Faith in Action seemed to lead to two senior couples developing what is now a regular outreach to Uganda, Michael Marsden going out full-time to Central Asia, and presently to the group of seven young folk preparing to go out to Uganda in July—not forgetting the work in which we are actively involved in Banda Aceh, and now in Pakistan.

With this growth in God’s work here in Southbourne we can look forward expectantly to growth in the next decade. Are we willing to be led by him in the future?

Anne Hampshire (1979 to April 2008)

St Johns Church Southbourne

History.

St. John's Church Southbourne Sussex.

The Exterior.

The Interior.

Alterations Over The years.

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