Consecration and description of Fairlight Church
165½
Fairlight Church
In chapter XXXIII was described the laying the first stone of Fairlight church by Mrs. Milward, who gave a thousand pounds to the fund for its erection. That was in 1845, and the church having been completed in the present year, 1846, the consecration took place on the 7th of August. The ceremony was conducted by the Bishop of Chichester, in the presence of Mrs. Milward, (the Lady for whom in the same year his lordship performed the marriage rites when taking as her second husband, the 8th Earl Waldegrave). Mr. W. D. Lucas-Shadwell, who gave the stone and £500, was also present at the consecration, together with about thirty clergymen of Hastings and neighbourhood, and a number of other influential persons. The Bishop was received at the west door by the chancellor, registrar, rural dean and the parish curate, attended by the clergy in their robes. After the consecration and the reading of the morning service, his Lordship preached a sermon, and at the conclusion returned to the communion table and read the offertory sentences during which there was collected £60 1s. The musical part of the service was by Hastings choir, under the direction of Mr. E. Elford. The Lord's supper was administered to 160 communicants, after which a party of about fifty persons adjourned to the parsonage to lunch.
Fairlight church is quite a landmark to sailors, and there is just one small spot on the high ground (top of Brittany Road in St. Leonards) from which Fairlight church can be seen on a clear day. There are no records of the old edifice of St. Andrew from which a reliable an authentic history of the church could be written. It was a small church, consisting of a nave 30 feet in length and 20 feet in width, a chancel 22 feet by 17 feet and a tower at the west end. From its architectural features it was judged to have been erected about the year 1180, a period when the Norman style was passing into Early English. The chancel and the arch under the tower were both pointed with chamfering-arch moulding. These, with the a small Norman window-light in the tower and indications of similar windows on each side of the chancel were the remnants of architectural interest that still remained. But the entire fabric was in a dilapidated, not to say, dangerous condition. The tower which at one time was said to have been surmounted by a spire, had been reduced for greater safety, and had a stunted appearance, and even then had to be supported by unsightly buttresses. (illegible text) For greater accommodation a gallery had been constructed on one side of the nave,(illegible text) but even then, the seats were too few for the parishioners and coastguards. It was absolutely necessary therefore to replace the old structure with a new one. The new church (of which see engraving) was dedicated to St. Andrew, but on a larger scale, its seating accommodation being for 400 persons. Messrs. Hughes and Hunter were the contractors of St. Leonards were the builders, but the internal fittings were by MR. William Edwards of Hastings. The design was by Mr. Little of London, and in the grave-yard church-yard are the graves of Maria Little, born 1804, died, 1876, and George Hutchinson, eldest son of Charles and Rebecca Little, who died, born 1825, and died at Hastings, 1867. In the same ground are many handsome monumental graves of Hastings and St. Leonards people.
