Only most of the late C12 chancel, remodelled in the C14, is left.  The belfry and west wall are early C19.

Lullington, often described as one of the smallest churches in England, is in fact only most of the chancel of a more normally sized one.  The village lay to the west (2 p104), but few houses remain.  It was in the parish of Alciston (Lower II p35), but by 1356 had its own vicar (3 p9).  The benefices were later re-united, but payment of tithes remained separate (TNA IR 104/68).  The original dedication is lost (the present one is recent), though in 1521 there was a bequest to an image or altar to St Siths or Zita, venerated by housewives (3 p8).

Excavations in 1965-66 (1 passim) revealed a church of about 1180, with a tower, nave and chancel.  The chancel walls of this still stand, including the lancets, though all except one to the north were altered in the C14.  The concentric rere-arch of the single survivor confirms it is late C12 and the east pair follows the C12 arrangement.  The chancel was formerly longer to the west and the western side-walls now form buttresses.  The north one is neatly finished off in brick.  In the south one is a trefoiled lowside; there is only the outline of one on the north side.

The excavations showed that, probably about 1350, the nave and tower spaces were made into one, with a new porch.  The tower was not necessarily removed – at Heybridge, Essex where something similar happened, the tower remains.  Also at this time, most chancel lancets acquired trefoiled heads and the rere-arches were altered – those of the east lancets are almost round.  In the early C16 the walls were made thicker with brick, probably after a fire and before the Reformation, as the lowside was kept.

The bishop's visitation of 1686 records that 'the church and steeple were down' (SRS 78 p50).  Thus, their collapse can be fairly closely dated, since a reference in 1674 implies the church was complete (1 p2).  The visitation of 1724 (SRS 78 p177) reports that only the chancel stood, but it was said to be in good repair and was presumably already as it was to be shown on the Burrell Collection drawing (1788), which is mostly as today.  The cause of the disappearance of the rest of the church can only be guessed at.  If the tower had fallen, the damage caused could have been too great for the tiny population to repair.  Alternatively, the presence of heavy Horsham slabs in the debris of the nave (further east in the county than most) might suggest the roof collapsed.

The Sharpe Collection drawing (1803) shows clearly that there was then no belfry.  A traditional boarded one with a shingled broach spirelet was added after that date and before Nibbs’s etching of 1860 (in his 1874 volume).  Probably on the same occasion, the west wall was rebuilt with a segment-headed doorway.  Worship never ceased, but in 1893 a letter in Building News (65 p265) deplored ‘the scandalous state of neglect’.  In 1895 L W Ridge restored it (CDG 9 p144), replacing the roof and rebuilding much of the north wall.

Fittings

Font: C12. Plain square bowl, with a chamfered underside on a later base.
Piscina: (South side) Plain pointed, more likely late C12 than C14.

Sources

1.  A Barr-Hamilton: Excavations at Lullington Church, SAC 108 (1970) pp1-22
2.  H Clarke and P Leach: The Medieval Churches of the Cuckmere Valley, SAC 123 (1985) pp95-108
3.  W H Godfrey: Guide to the Church of St Andrew, Alfriston (with Lullington) (Sussex Churches no 5), 1930

Plan

Plan of whole church as revealed by excavation in 2. p103

My thanks to Nick Wiseman who made the photographs available