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In the English county of West Sussex, many former chapels, churches and other places of worship have been demolished without direct replacement. Declining congregations, structural problems, commercial redevelopment, vandalism and many other reasons have contributed to the loss of about 70 buildings across the county. Major towns such as Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Worthing and the cathedral city of Chichester have each lost several religious buildings, while former chapels have also been removed in rural hamlets such as Copsale, Iping Marsh and South Mundham. Details of all places of public worship which have been completely demolished without direct replacement on the same site are recorded here. Private, hospital, school, prison and similar chapels are excluded, as are former churches which are ruinous but still extant—such as the derelict building in Bedham which functioned as the hamlet's church and school. Buildings demolished to allow a new church to be constructed on the same site are also excluded; but if a church was pulled down and a replacement was built on a different site, as at Chichester (St Richard's Church) and Burgess Hill (the Baptist church), details of the old building are given. Many churches listed here were built during the 19th century and demolished after World War II. Although the government's scheme of statutory listing for buildings of special architectural and historic interest had started in the 1940s, it was—with a few exceptions—not until the late 20th century that churches and chapels of the Victorian era began to be given the protection from demolition or significant alteration which listed status confers. By 1980, nearly 80 of the approximately 600 Victorian places of worship across Sussex as a whole had been lost.〔 Many demolition-threatened buildings survived by "pure chance, combined with the laudable initiative of a few private individuals": processes to preserve former churches that were no longer required, coordinated at a denominational or local level, never developed. Fewer places of worship have been lost since about 1980, as charitable bodies such as the Churches Conservation Trust, Friends of Friendless Churches and Historic Chapels Trust have become more influential and local initiatives have had more success. Nevertheless, some churches of considerable architectural merit have been lost, such as the "most distinguished modern church in Crawley" (the European-influenced St Richard's Church at Three Bridges), St John the Baptist's Church in Bognor Regis ("one of the town's few distinctive buildings") and the substantial St Peter's Church at Treyford, often called the Cathedral of the Downs. ==Demolished places of worship== } as of ) for the building, having outgrown their chapel in Terminus Road. At the time it was used as a theatre: the Episcopal congregation had left in 1887. Another £618 was spent on refurbishment and an extension, and an organ was installed in the apse at a cost of £150. A church hall was added in 1915. The chapel closed in 1980 and the congregation moved into the United Reformed Church nearby, which is now styled "United Church". |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Terminus Road Methodist Chapel |Littlehampton |Arun |Methodist |1826 |1982 |Commercial (Sergeant Pepper's Amusements and Snack Bar) |Organised Methodist worship in the town dates back to 1816, when a Society was formed and services were held in houses. In 1825, it bought a site on Terminus Road for £155.7s.6d. (£}} as of ) and built a chapel at a cost of £482.5s.6d. (£}} as of ). This opened the following year and was used until 1898, when the congregation moved to the former St Saviour's Church. The Classical-style stuccoed building became a shop; until its demolition a prominent ball-shaped finial could still be seen on top. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Lodsworth Chapel |Lodsworth |Chichester |Congregational | | |Garage |This "little Congregational chapel" on the edge of Trussler's Heath in this village between Petworth and Midhurst was erected by a shopkeeper called Mrs Farthing. Registered for marriages between 1865 and 1943, it was demolished by the early 1960s. | |- ! scope="row"|Congregational Temple |Midhurst |Chichester |Congregational |1907 |1946 |Residential (Russell Court) |This octagonal Free Renaissance Revival-style brick and stone church opened in Midhurst town centre in 1907. It was wrecked by bombing in 1942 and was demolished without replacement. Worshippers entered through a tall portico of stone columns. The roof was topped with a cupola with louvres. | |- ! scope="row"|Independent Chapel |Rogate |Chichester |Congregational |1826 | |Residential |Opened in 1826 for Independent Christians, this chapel later changed its character to adopt Congregationalism. It stood on School Lane in the hamlet of Rogate. | |- ! scope="row"|First Church of Christ, Scientist |Rustington |Arun |Christian Science | |2007 |Residential (Chestnut Cottages) |There was a Christian Scientist presence on The Street by 1962, when their reading room was sold to the Jehovah's Witnesses and converted into a Kingdom Hall. The single-storey church nearby was demolished and the site sold for residential development. | |- ! scope="row"|Rustington Methodist Chapel |Rustington |Arun |Methodist |1877 |1952 |Road |Founded by Primitive Methodists who had previously worshipped at a cottage, this chapel was originally a smithy. It was turned into an 80-capacity chapel in 1877, and was used until it was bought and pulled down in 1952 to allow the adjacent road to be widened. A large church was built to replace it at nearby Claigmar Road. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|New Road Wesleyan Chapel |Shoreham-by-Sea |Adur |Methodist |1829 | |Residential |Shoreham's first Wesleyan chapel had a capacity of 200 worshippers. Soon the congregation moved to a new church nearby in 1900, and The Salvation Army re-registered the building as their place of worship. It went out of religious use in or before 1921. | |- ! scope="row"|Primitive Methodist Chapel |Shoreham-by-Sea |Adur |Methodist |1879 |1937 |Commercial |Primitive Methodism became established in the town in the early 19th century. Meetings were held in various rooms and secular buildings, but in 1879 the group built a chapel near the town hall on High Street. It was used for worship until 1935, and was an Early English Gothic Revival structure with pinnacles and a stuccoed exterior. The marriage registration was cancelled in November 1935. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Small Dole Baptist Church |Small Dole |Horsham |Baptist |1880 |1983 |Residential |A red-brick chapel on the main road through Small Dole served the area's Baptists from 1880 until 1977, when it was closed and converted into the village hall. A new hall was built on another site after 1981, and the original building was demolished in 1983. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Zion Bible Christian Chapel |South Mundham |Chichester |Methodist |1821 |1959 |Vacant |Founded for Bible Christian Methodists by John Leng near the hamlet of South Mundham, this opened in 1821 and was extended in 1893. It went out of use in 1939. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Southwater Wesleyan Chapel |Southwater |Horsham |Methodist |1884 | |Residential |This Methodist church was founded in 1884 and had a capacity of 80. The red-brick building fell out of religious use in 1930. | |- ! scope="row"|All Souls Centre (Click for image) |Southwick |Adur |Anglican |1955 | 2012 |Residential ||This combined church and nursery school was built in 1955 on the site of a mission hall linked to the Church Army movement. It was sold, with permission to redevelop the site for housing, in 2008. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Primitive Methodist Mission Hall |Southwick |Adur |Methodist |1879 | |Residential |Lock Road (no longer in existence) had a hall which was registered for Primitive Methodist worship between 1879 and 1906 and then for Plymouth Brethren between 1921 and 1964. | |- ! scope="row"|Southwick Wesleyan Methodist Chapel |Southwick |Adur |Methodist |1876 |1962 |Residential |The present Methodist church in Southwick was built on Southwick Street in 1965 as an extension to a 1930s hall. John Lund's chapel of 1876, closed in 1955, was on Albion Street. It was an Early English Gothic Revival stone building with a capacity of 240, and was linked to the Brighton Circuit. |〔〔 |- ! scope="row"|Seamen's Institute Mission Hall |Southwick |Adur |Nondenominational | |1981 |Industrial |This hall was used for Christian worship between 1903 and 1957. The two-storey Institute building, which had a three-window range and paired entrance porches, also had a reading room and other facilities. It later became a public library. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|St Richard of Chichester's Church |Three Bridges |Crawley |Anglican |1954 |1994 |Residential |Structural problems caused Crawley's "most distinguished modern church" to be demolished after just 40 years. N.F. Cachemaille-Day incorporated continental European and Scandinavian architectural themes into his Modernist brick design of 1952–54, which featured a nave, a central altar and a cubic sanctuary. This had a portico and was topped with a glazed rotunda. A hall adjoined the church. The building was declared redundant from 1 January 1994, and a new St Richard's Church opened on an adjacent site in 1995. |〔〔 〔 |- ! scope="row"|St Peter's Church |Treyford |Chichester |Anglican |1849 |1951 |Vacant |Treyford's medieval church was superseded in 1849 by the so-called "Cathedral of the Downs"—Benjamin Ferrey's gigantic flint and stone Decorated Gothic Revival building which was also intended to replace Didling and Elsted's parish churches. Its corner tower was topped with a spire. The church did not thrive and suffered structural problems—the stone used may have been clunch, which weathers badly, and repairs were needed in the 1880s. It was destroyed with explosives in 1951. | |- ! scope="row"|Upper Beeding Mission Hall |Upper Beeding |Horsham |Anglican | | |Vacant |A tin tabernacle was erected in or before 1909 to serve the houses around the cement works in the south of Upper Beeding parish. The site was sold and the chapel demolished in the 1960s. It had a single bell, which was removed prior to demolition. | |- ! scope="row"|Free Church |West Chiltington Common |Horsham |Free church | | |Residential |Originally a mission hall and latterly registered as a Free church, this had its worship registration cancelled on 9 December 1970. | |- ! scope="row"|Second Church of Christ, Scientist |West Worthing |Worthing |Christian Scientist |1960 |2015 |Religious (Kingdom Hall) |The Church of Christ, Scientist established a presence in West Worthing in 1938. Its reading room was replaced by a church—a modern brick structure—in 1960 after many years of planning. The congregation from the First Church of Christ, Scientist elsewhere in Worthing joined in 1987 when that church closed. In September 2010 the West Worthing church (picture) was also closed; houses were planned for the site in April 2011, but in 2013 a planning application for a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses was approved, and construction took place in 2015. The Second Church of Christ, Scientist's registration for worship was formally cancelled in October 2015. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Cuckfield Methodist Chapel |Whiteman's Green |Mid Sussex |Methodist | | |Residential |This chapel, on the London Road north of Cuckfield village, served the area's Wesleyan Methodist population. It was one of six places of worship in the parish (three Anglican, one Baptist and one Congregationalist). The building was sold in the early 1950s. | |- ! scope="row"|Wick Primitive Methodist Chapel |Wick |Arun |Methodist |1876 |1968 |Commercial (Wick Parade) |This was built in the northern suburbs of Littlehampton in 1876 and was originally Primitive Methodist. After the Methodist Union of 1932, it was linked to the formerly Wesleyan Littlehampton Methodist Church in New Road. The Gothic Revival building had flint and brick walls. | |- ! scope="row"|Wyndham Mission Room |Wineham |Horsham |Anglican |1891 | |Residential |Wineham (usually called Wyndham until the 20th century) is a village in the east of Shermanbury parish, distant from its church. An iron-walled chapel of ease was erected near the Royal Oak inn on Wineham Lane in 1891. It was used for worship until around 1938 and still stood for some years afterwards. | |- ! scope="row"|Church of the Good Shepherd |Worthing |Worthing |Anglican |1906 |1973 |Charitable organisation (Methold House) |F.C. Cook's Early English Gothic Revival-style chapel of ease to the nearby St Paul's Church opened in 1906 and fell out of use in 1963. It had stone-dressed stuccoed walls. The Worthing Area Guild for Voluntary Services, a charity with wide-ranging activities, has been based in the vicinity since 1933; in 1975, after the church was demolished, they built a new headquarters on the site. |〔〔 |- ! scope="row"|Brighton Road Meeting Room |Worthing |Worthing |Baptist |1886 |1965 |Commercial (The Bike Store) |Used by Calvinistic Baptists, this stood at 65 Brighton Road. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Gospel Hall |Worthing |Worthing |Plymouth Brethren |1887 | |Commercial |This was registered as a Brethren meeting hall in 1892, five years after its construction. It stood at 12 Chapel Road for about 30 years, but was demolished after its closure in 1918. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Independent Congregational Chapel |Worthing |Worthing |Congregational |1839 |1978 |Commercial (Boots) |Local architect Charles Hide rebuilt the Independent chapel of 1804 on Montague Street which had been Worthing's first place of worship, pre-dating even St Paul's Anglican Church. The new building was used by Congregationalists led by Rev. George E. Rees. The Christian Literary Institute was opened in 1862 next to the church, but when a new Congregational church was built on Shelley Road in 1898 the chapel fell out of religious use: it was converted into a hall and, later, shops. A Boots store now occupies the site. |〔 |- ! scope="row"|Evangelical Protestants' Hall |Worthing |Worthing |Evangelical |1906 |1969 |Commercial (Guildbourne Centre) |James E. Lund, who also designed Worthing Tabernacle and West Worthing Evangelical Free Church, was responsible for the free-style Queen Anne Revival chapel on Chatsworth Road which was used by displaced members of the former New Street Chapel. Its pastor served for 51 years, but in 1957 it was sold and became a factory. Its marriage registration, which dated from 1909, was cancelled in May of that year. |〔〔 |- ! scope="row"|Primitive Methodist Chapel |Worthing |Worthing |Methodist |1892 |1958 |Commercial (Worthing Bedding Centre) |A tin tabernacle of 1880 at the junction of Wenban Road and Chapel Road was later replaced by R.S. Hyde's Decorated Gothic Revival church of red brick, flint and stone. Architectural features included a flèche and an apse. It closed in 1955 or 1956. |〔 |- |} 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of demolished places of worship in West Sussex」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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