Holy Trinity Church, Cuckfield

Holy Trinity Church
The church from the southeast
51°00′18″N 0°08′36″W / 51.0049°N 0.1434°W / 51.0049; -0.1434Coordinates: 51°00′18″N 0°08′36″W / 51.0049°N 0.1434°W / 51.0049; -0.1434
Location	Church Platt, Cuckfield, West Sussex RH17 5JZ
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Website	www.cuckfieldholytrinity.co.uk
History
Founded	11th century
Founder(s)	Possibly William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey
Dedication	Holy Trinity
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	10 September 1951
Style	English Gothic
Administration
Parish	Cuckfield
Deanery	Rural Deanery of Cuckfield
Archdeaconry	Horsham
Diocese	Chichester
Province	Canterbury
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Revd Michael Maine

Holy Trinity Church is an Anglican church in the village of Cuckfield in the district of Mid Sussex; one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. It was founded in the 11th century and was in the possession of Lewes Priory by 1090. The present structure dates from the mid-13th century but was extended in the 14th century and heavily altered and restored during the Victorian period, with much interior work by Charles Eamer Kempe and stained glass by both Kempe and the Clayton and Bell firm. The church's spire was replaced in 1981 following a fire. Former chapels of ease in outlying hamlets have closed, and the church now serves a large rural area in the centre of Sussex. It is protected as a Grade I listed building.

From his base at the episcopal see of Selsey, which he founded, the 7th-century bishop Wilfrid converted many of the pagan inhabitants of the Kingdom of the South Saxons (present-day Sussex) to Christianity. Primitive wooden or wattle and daub churches were built throughout the kingdom, especially in forest clearings. The village of Cuckfield is thought to have been founded at one such clearing in the dense forest of Andredesweald, which covered much of the north of Sussex; so a church may have existed in the village from about the 8th century, when Wilfrid's mission penetrated that part of the kingdom.

A church was not recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The first documented evidence for a settlement and church at Cuckfield came c.1090, when the church was in the possession of Lewes Priory, England's first Cluniac house. The reported date of this record varies, but William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey is consistently recording as holding the church. He died in 1088, so dates of 1090, 1091 or 1092 reported in some sources may not be correct. The influence of de Warenne and his wife Gundred on the Cuckfield area extended beyond passive ownership: having founded Lewes Priory, they built and lived in Lewes Castle and established a hunting lodge on land at Cuckfield. They may also have built the church itself, rather than merely taking possession of it on behalf of their priory. (Cuckfield is about 14 miles (23 km) northwest of Lewes, and was in the Rape of Lewes: one of the six pre-Norman subdivisions of Sussex.) The exact date of the church's founding is not known: although it was not recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, details of churches were only recorded haphazardly in that survey, and many pre-1086 churches in Sussex are missing from it.