All Saints Church, Highbrook

All Saints Church
The church from the southeast
51°03′18″N 0°03′27″W / 51.0549°N 0.0574°W / 51.0549; -0.0574Coordinates: 51°03′18″N 0°03′27″W / 51.0549°N 0.0574°W / 51.0549; -0.0574
Location	Hammingden Lane, Highbrook, West Hoathly, West Sussex RH17 6SS
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
History
Founded	1882
Founder(s)	Francis Kirby and Caroline Weguelin
Dedication	All Saints
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	11 May 1983
Architect(s)	Richard H. Carpenter and Benjamin Ingelow
Style	Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	1882
Completed	1884
Construction cost	£4,000
Administration
Parish	Highbrook: All Saints
Deanery	Rural Deanery of Cuckfield
Archdeaconry	Horsham
Diocese	Chichester
Province	Canterbury

All Saints Church is an Anglican church in the hamlet of Highbrook in Mid Sussex, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. The tiny settlement, in the parish of West Hoathly, was distant from the parish church in that village; two wealthy sisters accordingly funded the construction of a new church to serve the local population. Richard H. Carpenter and Benjamin Ingelow's stone building, with a prominent spire, opened in 1884 and was allocated its own parish. The "handsome" church, designed in the 14th/15th-century style of the Gothic Revival, has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for its architectural and historical importance.

The ancient parish of West Hoathly covered a large area of the High Weald in central Sussex, characterised by clay soil with sandstone ridges. The hamlet of Highbrook developed on an isolated area of lower ground (still 400 feet (120 m) above sea level) in the south of the parish, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of West Hoathly village. The road connecting them, Hammingden Lane, runs along one of the narrow sandstone outcrops.

By the Victorian era, Highbrook had many long-established houses and farms—some of which dated from the 16th and 17th centuries— but it had not expanded much beyond this old core: its population was recorded as 186. Nevertheless, in 1882, two wealthy local sisters, Frances Kirby and Caroline Weguelin, decided to pay for a church to be built in the hamlet. They felt that the inhabitants were put off from travelling the long distance to St Margaret's Church at West Hoathly (the parish church): its situation at the north end of West Hoathly village meant the walk was about 2 miles (3.2 km). At that time, Sussex was in the middle of an unprecedented period of church-building, prompted originally by the Church of England's disquiet over the low level of church attendance revealed for the first time by questions in the United Kingdom Census 1851. Between 1860 and 1890, 269 churches of all Christian denominations (mostly Anglican) were built in Sussex, and the early 1880s was the peak period for new establishments. Although many were funded by the Church of England (through the Diocese of Chichester, the administrative and pastoral district covering Sussex), the late 19th century was also the principal era in which wealthy benefactors founded new churches, especially in rural areas or on country estates, and often as a memorial to a deceased relative or friend. Many examples survive in Sussex, including Highbrook's new and expensively endowed All Saints Church: the sisters paid £4,000 (£363,000 as of 2017) towards its construction.