Bailiffscourt Chapel

Bailiffscourt Chapel
The chapel from the southwest
50°47′56″N 0°34′45″W / 50.7990°N 0.5793°W / 50.7990; -0.5793Coordinates: 50°47′56″N 0°34′45″W / 50.7990°N 0.5793°W / 50.7990; -0.5793
Location	Bailiffscourt Hotel, Climping Street, Atherington, Clymping, West Sussex BN17 5RW
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Pre-Reformation church
History
Founded	11th century
Events	1952: Recorded as being in use as a chapel of ease for parishioners in Climping parish
Architecture
Status	Private chapel
Functional status	Deconsecrated
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	5 June 1958
Style	Gothic

Bailiffscourt Chapel is a deconsecrated chapel in the grounds of Bailiffscourt Hotel, a luxury hotel near the hamlet of Atherington in West Sussex, England. Originally associated with the Norman Abbey of Séez, it was founded in the 11th century and rebuilt in its present simple Gothic form in the 13th century. It later fell out of use, but after Atherington's former church was destroyed by coastal erosion it was used again for public worship for a time—and as late as 1952 the building was again in use as a chapel of ease. Situated outside Bailiffscourt—a mock-medieval mansion built in 1935 by Lord Moyne on the site of an ancient manor house—on the only stretch of open seafront land for miles in each direction, the chapel is now used principally for wedding and civil ceremony blessings. English Heritage has listed it at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.

The parish of Climping, sometimes spelt Clymping, covers a large coastal area next to the English Channel and the River Arun in West Sussex. The land, a combination of silty brickearth and alluvium, is prone to erosion, and large parts of the parish have been lost to the sea since the Middle Ages. The former villages of Ilsham, Cudlow and Atherington are now depopulated, their former churches have been destroyed, and their parishes combined with Clymping.

The manor of Atherington existed at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, by which time it was held by the Abbey of Séez in Normandy. The name later became Bailiffscourt because the manor was used by the bailiff who administered the abbey's landholdings in England. The land on which the manor stood was an exclave of Littlehampton parish until the 19th century, but much of its associated estate was in Climping parish. The original manor house was built in the 11th century and originally had a chapel attached to it.