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The borough of Eastbourne, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex, has around 40 extant churches and other places of worship. Several other former places of worship are still in existence but are no longer in religious use. The borough is on the English Channel coast and encompasses the town of Eastbourne and its suburbs. Until the late 18th century, the area was mostly farmland punctuated by four well-spread hamlets; but a fashionable seaside resort gradually developed from about 1780, based on a combination of royal patronage, a good climate, railway connections and the demands of rich visitors. Church-building rapidly followed; and although the town lacks the range of "worthwhile Victorian churches" found in seaside resorts such as Brighton and Bournemouth, a wide variety of architectural themes and denominations are represented. Most residents of Eastbourne identify themselves as Christian, and churches representing many Christian denominations exist in the town. The largest number of these, including the town's oldest church, belong to the Church of England, the country's officially established church. Several Nonconformist and Roman Catholic churches were founded in the 19th century, while new churches were established on housing estates such as The Hydneye and Langney as the town grew inland. There are also Jewish and Muslim places of worship. English Heritage has awarded listed status to several current and former church buildings in Eastbourne. A building is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, a Government department, is responsible for this; English Heritage, a non-departmental public body, acts as an agency of the department to administer the process and advise the department on relevant issues. There are three grades of listing status. Grade I, the highest, is defined as being of "exceptional interest"; Grade II * is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and Grade II, the lowest, is used for buildings of "special interest". ==History of religious worship in Eastbourne== The borough of Eastbourne covers of the English Channel coast and its hinterland in southeast England. The district of Wealden surrounds it to the west and north; the English Channel is to the east and south.〔 〕 High cliffs, including Beachy Head, rise in the southwest corner. The area was inhabited in the Stone Age, and a large Roman villa stood near the present-day Eastbourne Pier. Four hamlets developed independently on the mainly agricultural land behind the cliffs: Meads, Seahouses, South Bourne and Bourne (also referred to as Old Town or East Bourne).〔 Farming, fishing and occasional smuggling were the main activities,〔 and religious worship was focused on Old Town's 12th-century St Mary the Virgin Church, a large flint and stone structure with later additions. Sea-bathing and drinking seawater for medicinal reasons, popularised by Dr Richard Russell in nearby Brighton, became popular in the late 18th century at Bourne's beach, and a visit by Prince Edward in 1780 encouraged tourism.〔 All the land in the area was owned by two rich families: the Davies-Gilberts and the Dukes of Devonshire. They oversaw the development of the town, ensured architectural harmony and encouraged the construction of a range of facilities appropriate to a growing, high-class town—from theatres and private schools to churches. Unlike at Brighton, Worthing and other Sussex seaside resorts, development was slow and steady with periods of stability and inactivity. Into this quiet, high-class environment, with its libraries and expensive lodging-houses, came Canon Thomas Pitman—Vicar of Eastbourne for 62 years from 1828. He recognised that the town needed a new Anglican church closer to the focus of seafront development, convinced William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire to donate land, and raised £2,500 (£ as of ) himself. The chapel of ease to St Mary the Virgin Church, designed by Decimus Burton and opened in 1838, later became Holy Trinity Church—modern Eastbourne's first Anglican church. More churches were built throughout the Victorian era, especially in the town centre: Benjamin Ferrey's Christ Church opened in 1859; St Saviour's Church was built eight years later on another tract of land donated by the Duke of Devonshire; London-based architect A.P. Strong's multicoloured All Souls Church, funded by Lady Victoria Wellesley, opened in 1882; and St Peter's Church (demolished in 1971) was built by Henry Currey in 1894 to replace a temporary church of 1878. The Meads and Upperton suburbs were served by St John the Evangelist's Church (1869) and St Anne's Church (1881) respectively. The architectural quality of these churches has been described—notably by Nairn and Pevsner in the ''Buildings of England'' series of books—as inferior to that of other southern English seaside resorts, in particular Brighton and Bournemouth.〔 George Edmund Street's St Saviour's Church is considered the best by most architectural historians (including Pevsner and Goodhart-Rendel),〔〔 in particular because of its dominance of the townscape and the Spanish-influenced narrowing of the interior towards the chancel in order to emphasise that part of the building.〔 All Souls Church is "one of the most striking Victorian churches in Sussex" because of its enormous campanile, brightly coloured brickwork, intricate terracotta work and Italianate/Romanesque/Byzantine architecture.〔 Eastbourne was ravaged by bombs during World War II—it was the worst hit town on the south coast of England—and several churches were damaged or destroyed. St Anne's Church in Upperton was wrecked, and demolished without replacement in 1955;〔 only the tower of St John the Evangelist's Church in Meads survived;〔 a Junkers Ju 88 destroyed St Mary's Church at Hampden Park (again, apart from its bell tower) in 1940; and the newly built St Elisabeth's Church on Victoria Drive was damaged.〔 After the English Reformation, Roman Catholicism in the Eastbourne area faded away. Censuses in 1603, 1676, 1724 and 1780 recorded no recusants in the area, although a few still lived in nearby villages. The Papists Act 1778 and Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 removed many restrictions on their worship, education and legal rights. A Mission was set up further along the coast at St Leonards in 1830 by three retired priests, and a permanent priest was put in charge of it in 1841. The Mission was responsible for Roman Catholic worship, pastoral care and administration across a large area of East Sussex, including Eastbourne. By 1862, the priest in charge stated that the town would soon needs its own Mission. Nevertheless, Eastbourne's 19th-century Roman Catholic community developed slowly: in 1867, when Father Charles King moved to the town and started celebrating Mass in his house in Ceylon Place, he said that around five or six worshippers typically attended. (Many coastguards based along the coast and soldiers passing through the town also practised the faith, though, so attendances may often have been higher.) Stella Maris Church on Junction Road, an Early English-style brick structure built in 1868–69 for £450 (£ as of ), became the congregation's first permanent place of worship.〔〔 The Early English-style brick building could hold 100 people, and was well-attended on its official opening day of 1 April 1869. It closed in 1890 and was demolished three years later.〔 In 1890, a former covered market in Grove Road became Eastbourne's new Roman Catholic church, but the building had some structural problems and the arrangement was intended to be temporary while land and funds for a permanent church were sought. This took more than a decade, but a site was bought from the Duke of Devonshire and the first stone of Our Lady of Ransom Church was laid on 12 December 1900. The parish was vast, covering the whole of Eastbourne and extending up to to Hailsham, Alfriston and Cuckmere Haven, and by the 1950s daughter churches had been established in the east (St Agnes) and northwest (St Gregory) of Eastbourne and at Polegate and Hailsham. Another church was built later in the northern suburb of Hampden Park. 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 places of worship in Eastbourne」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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