TIMELINE

Stuarts & Georgians

Still working on it - please call back later 

Maps of early ferry etc

During the reign of Elizabeth I  and that of her successor James I (1603-25) any remaining wall paintings would have been covered in limewash.  We also know that the farmer of Erringham “was presented in 1605 for not repairing the chancel aisle belonging to Erringham”.   That may have been either the north chapel or the north transept or both.

The Reformation did not remove all the lazy and absent clergy.   By 1636 at the latest, the curate at Old Shoreham was covering for a vicar living in some luxury at Keymer 8½ miles away.   His successor, Simon Wynch, was said to be “absent and totally negligent of the cure” in 1686, and he subsequently disappeared completely.   The old vicarage house itself was in ruins by 1676.   Although other vicars were subsequently appointed, none of them served in the church and curates continued to hold the services for the congregation.

This decline in spiritual care was matched by the condition of the building.   The north or Erringham chapel was no longer needed for its original purpose, being out of repair by 1605.  By 1769 the north chapel had largely fallen down and the north transept was roofless.