A large church, with a C13 nave and aisles and a late C14 or C15 chancel and tower.  There are C14 stalls and mosaics by W Butterfield.

West Tarring retains something of its village past.  The parish was a peculiar of the Archbishops of Canterbury, who had a palace here; the surviving part, now a parish hall, looks C15.  This connection probably explains the size of the church, which is mentioned as one of two in Domesday Book (2, 9), the other being almost certainly St Botolph, Heene, then a chapelry.  However, no part of the present one is older than the C13 nave.  Most aisle windows are lancets and though they are renewed, Nibbs shows that most follow old lines.  The internal sills are linked by a string-course and their segmental rere-arches appear later C13.   One north one is unusually close to the east wall, but this is not an error – André (1 p56) plausibly suggests it was placed there to give more light, primarily to an adjacent altar.  A C13 south doorway with stops now opens into a vestry and though mostly renewed, the shafted north doorway has a moulded head and head-stops.  Enough flintwork remains in the east wall of the north porch to suggest it too is C13.  The five-bay arcades have round piers and abaci on octagonal bases, a combination that points to the later C13.  The fine carved stops have foliage, except one head to the south.  The clerestory lancets are placed over the piers with tall rere-arches and steeply sloping sills.  A few timbers of the crownpost roof may date from this time.

All the detail of the chancel is later C14, but it is shorter and lower than usual for that date and may be on earlier foundations.  A single tiebeam of the roof appears to be contemporary.  The five-light east window of panelled tracery is related to that at Poynings, which is known to have been started after 1368 and which shared a parson.  Both have sexfoils over the centre light and at the apex and the uppermost lobes above the side-lights are shaped to fit.  The side-windows have simpler panelled tracery.

The tower was added last.  Its plain but good proportions, with battlements, angle-buttresses and a square stair-turret, recall Kent, though the tall broach spire is typical of Sussex.  It is early C15, but elements look back to the C14, notably the pointed north and west bell-openings with ogee heads; the others are square-headed.  The openings of the ringing chamber are trefoiled.  The west window of panelled tracery was renewed c1981 (vidi) and supplants a C19 replacement of a C18 wooden one (1 p55).   The C15 tower arch has a double-chamfered head with foliage stops and semi-octagonal shafts on the responds.  The north aisle had a two-light east window (Hussey p295), which went in the C19 – the south aisle may have had one too.

The Sharpe Collection drawing (1804) shows probably C18 timber windows in the tower and south aisle, which had a dormer for a gallery.  Adelaide Tracy drew the church in 1853 (II p127) in mid-restoration, for though the restoration had only started that year, the tower west window is as today.  The authorship of that restoration, which cost nearly £3000 (KD 1899), is in some doubt, for there are actual or near contemporary references to J Peacock (ICBS) and W White (Hunter p264, citing various sources) as architect.  On the whole, Peacock seems more likely, for not only did he have local connections, but he is named in the ICBS papers, which cover the actual period of work.  It may be that White provided estimates but was unsuccessful in obtaining the work.  At the restoration, most roofs were replaced, keeping the Horsham slabs on the chancel and porch, and also most external detail, including the east windows of both aisles.  Also dating from then are a vestry and the disproportionately low chancel arch (the nature of the previous one is unknown), which matches the height of the arcades.  The chancel was not done then (B 18 p517), though the presence of glass dating from 1878 (see below) shows that work started soon after Henry Bailey became rector in that year.  The architect was his friend, W Butterfield, though Paul Thompson (p450) suggests he started only in 1882.  He treated it gently, so that little is obviously his except the mosaics, which he placed in the nave (see below) in 1886. 

Fittings and monument

Altar rails: Early C17 with turned balusters and shallow carved decoration.
Chest: C13 iron-bound and dilapidated.
Font: C19 octagonal on shafts.  Its rather severe and massive appearance strongly suggests it is Butterfield's work.  It replaces one drawn by Adelaide Tracy in 1853 (II p28) which had lost its shafts.  This is said to have gone to Melbourne Cathedral (Peat and Halsted p159).  It is not mentioned on the cathedral's website, but as Butterfield was the architect and the foundation stone was laid in 1880, while he was working here, it is not impossible that he was involved in some kind of donation.
Glass:
1.  (East window) T Baillie and Co, 1860 (www.stainedglassrecords.org retrieved on 29/3/2013).
2.  (West window) T Baillie and Co, 1863 (B 21 p812).
3.  (South aisle, first to fourth windows) T Baillie and Co, 1864 (B 22 p551).  Like other glass in the church these have been subjected to the barbarous process of pickling, the removal of the backgrounds.
4.  (North and south chancel windows) Clayton and Bell, 1878-82 (CDK 1882 pt 2 p163). 
5.  (South aisle, east window) Lavers and Barraud, 1859 (www.stainedglassrecords.org retrieved on 29/3/2013).
6.  (South (sic) aisle, east window) T Willement, 1854, costing £31. (Lucas/Good Samaritan and Feeding of the Multitude) (Willement ledger).  This cannot be identified and it seems unlikely that this glass was replaced within five years (see immediately above) - some error is likely.
7.  (North aisle, first to third windows) T Baillie and Co, 1867 (KI), pickled.
8.  (North clerestory, second and third windows) T Baillie and Co, 1874 – also pickled.
9.  (Both aisle west windows) Cox and Barnard, designed by P O Chapman, 1958 (WSRO Fac 1849).
Monument: (Churchyard) Martha Chilvers (d1807).  By E Coade and Sealy in their artificial stone.  It consists of a square base with angels at each corner, surmounted by an urn (A Kelly p192).
Mosaics: (Nave) 1886, by W Butterfield (BN 51 p114), and inspired by S Appollinari, Ravenna.  Between the clerestory windows are the twelve Apostles, with heads of Old Testament Patriarchs in the spandrels.  Rediscovered cartoons show a Christ in Glory was intended for the space above the chancel arch (CT 12 March 1999 p28).  The makers were Burke and Co of London, using Italian craftsmen (Thompson p460).  Discoloured by dirt and decaying, renovation was completed in 2006.
Piscinae:
1.  (South aisle) Large late C13 with a trefoil head.  It has two drains, one trefoil-shaped, the other like a quatrefoil.
2.  (South chancel) Now used as a credence and thus invisible, but probably late C14 and said to be double (Mosse (ed) p18).
Royal Arms: (Aisle) Elizabeth II, dated 1953.
Screen: Late C14.  Unusually low, with traceried openings and doors and iron spikes on top.  If these are original, the screen was separate from the roodloft, but they could be post-Reformation.
Stalls: (Chancel, east side of screen) Late C14, arranged in collegiate fashion. Of the six misericords, two have heads and the remainder foliage.

Source

1. J L André: West Tarring Church, SAC 41 (1898) pp54-72

Plan

Measured plan by J L André (?) in 1 opp p56

My thanks to Richard Standing for the colour photographs