St George's Church, Eastergate

St George's Church
The church from the southeast
50°50′16″N 0°39′33″W / 50.8377°N 0.6591°W / 50.8377; -0.6591Coordinates: 50°50′16″N 0°39′33″W / 50.8377°N 0.6591°W / 50.8377; -0.6591
Location	Church Lane, Eastergate, West Sussex PO20 3UX
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Website	www.parishofabe.org.uk/page5.html
History
Founded	11th century
Dedication	Saint George
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	5 June 1958
Style	Norman architecture
Administration
Parish	Aldingbourne, Barnham and Eastergate
Deanery	Rural Deanery of Arundel and Bognor
Archdeaconry	Chichester
Diocese	Chichester
Province	Canterbury
Clergy
Rector	Rev. Simon Holland

St George's Church is an Anglican church in the village of Eastergate in West Sussex, England. It is the ancient parish church of Eastergate, although since 1992 it has been administered as part of a joint ecclesiastical parish with the churches in neighbouring Barnham and Aldingbourne. As part of this group, the building is still in regular use for worship on Sundays and weekdays. Eastergate village school has links with the church, and pupils regularly attend services.

There is historic and structural evidence of a Saxon place of worship on the site, and some 11th-century work survives in the chancel, but the present appearance of the church is mostly 13th-century. It was then restored in the Victorian era, and some further rebuilding work was undertaken in the 20th century.

The "long, straggling village" of Eastergate is administratively located in the district of Arun, one of seven local government districts in West Sussex. The church is in a rural situation south of the village street; it is approached through a farmyard next to the manor house, and a "magnificent" Elizabethan granary building that was originally part of the farm has been used by the church for various purposes since the 1970s. English Heritage has listed both buildings for their architectural and historical importance: St George's Church at Grade II*, and the former granary at the lower Grade II.

In its earliest form, the parish of Eastergate covered 918 acres (372 ha) of flat, flood-prone land on the Sussex coastal plain, about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of the modern seaside resort of Bognor Regis and a similar distance southwest of the ancient town of Arundel.Romans apparently occupied the area, and may have established a villa near the modern village. A church in the parish was recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086; it was near the western edge of the parish, so St Mary the Virgin's Church at Barnham was more convenient for some parishioners, and likewise some residents of the neighbouring parish of Aldingbourne worshipped at Eastergate. By the following year, it was associated with the Norman Abbey of Séez, whose other holdings in the area included the manors of Atherington (with Bailiffscourt Chapel) and Littlehampton.