The history of Winchelsea

A town planned: the churches

There were two churches in the town - St Thomas and St Giles - and St Leonard’s outside the town walls, in Iham. There had been churches dedicated to St Thomas and St Giles in Old Winchelsea.

St Thomas’s was the principal church of New Winchelsea and originally the size of a small cathedral, with a central tower and spire that would have been visible far out to sea and a nave stretching right across the churchyard towards what is now German Street.

Images of both St Thomas’s and St Giles’ are found on the seal of the Corporation. The basic architectural style is Decorated Gothic.

All that remains of St Thomas’s now is the chancel (which has become the nave) and the ruins of the transepts. Two of the great piers that supported the tower are embedded in the end wall either side of the porch. The other two can be seen in front of the porch embedded in the ruins of the transepts.

One puzzle about the church is the detached tower that stood on the southwest corner of the church. This was still standing in the early 19th century. Its function is unclear. The tower may be the one depicted on the Corporation seal between the churches of St Thomas and St Giles. The image on the seal --- which has a watchman holding a lamp --- has led to suggestions that the structure was a watchtower. However, the image on the seal also has figures in the ground floor chamber, prompting suggestions that it was used as the Corporation treasury along the lines of similar towers in some towns on the Continent. Others suggest it was the bell tower or campanile of the church.

There has been much speculation about whether the church of St Thomas was ever finished, but it is generally accepted now that it was. The ruins of the nave were shown in a drawing of 1825 and a tessellated pavement has been found where the nave would have been. The question that then arises is who destroyed the missing nave and ruined the transepts. Conventional wisdom has it that the truncated state of St Thomas’s Church came about because of the French raids of 1359 and 1360. It has been suggested that the French targeted the church because the English were supporting the Pope in Rome, while the French were supporting the Pope in Avignon. However, a map of 1572 shows that the main tower was still standing and the roof timbers were removed from the transepts as late as the 1640’s. It now seems likely that the lost sections of the church were probably demolished by the church authorities during the 16th and 17th centuries to reduce the burden of maintenance on the impoverished parish. The materials would have been sold off.

The church of St Giles was located in Quarter 21, which is on the other side of what is now the A259 in Rectory Close. It served a parish within Winchelsea that was L-shaped and included the poorer western and southern quarters. The church was the scene of a barbarous massacre by the French in 1360, which is supposed to be the origin of the name of Deadman’s Lane often given to the road running to the south of the church (originally Fifth Street and now Hogtrough Lane). The church was hit by lightning and burned down in 1413, but rectors continued to be appointed until 1500. Most of the parish of St Giles was outside the new wall proposed in 1415. However, in 1541, the parish of St Giles was merged into that of St Thomas’s and soon afterwards the church of St Giles was decommissioned. Stone from the church was used in 1545 to repair the walls of Rye and the last ruins were levelled in 1780.

Little is known about the church of St Leonards. From tax records, it appears to have been quite a prosperous church at the time of New Winchelsea’s foundation but was of no consequence by the early 15th century. A length of the south wall was still standing in 1794 but was demolished shortly afterwards to make way for a new windmill.

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