St Barnabas

St Barnabas stands proud at the edge of Bexhill town centre. It was built to serve a new parish for the expanding population of Bexhill, as the two older parish churches were over full.

It is worth taking a look at this unique space. Despite the noise and business outside the church, inside is found calmness, quietness and tranquility.

Designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield (1891),the outside is attractive flint pebble with limestone dressings, and red clay roof tiles. Red brick inside, with pitch pine block floor. The original narthex is no longer the main entrance. The church shows a variety of medieval styles. The tall nave has four bays, and clerestory windows. The north aisle walls are relatively low and each bay is demarcated by buttresses with offsets. The west window stained glass shows bible stories, and commemorates those who died in the Great War.

Step levels in the sanctuary are of Rust’s Mosaic, using techniques developed in ancient Rome. The east window is based on the Book of Revelation. An additional wide south aisle doubled the size of the church, and with a Lady Chapel with three windowed apse. The painted ceiling of the Lady Chapel shows a French influence.

The north and south aisles are linked by circulation space (the original south aisle) now with a flat roof. Both the nave and south aisle have fine pitched roofs lined with open timbered Memel fir. There are a number of other large and small stained glass windows in the building. Some other windows were destroyed by a nearby bomb blast in WWII.

There are commemoration plaques to the clerical benefactor of the church, and the first vicar, and an external blue plaque commemorating Canon Basil Davies, a past vicar who as Ixion was a longstanding journalist for The Motor Cycle magazine.

The uniqueness of St Barnabas is its vastness of internal space and the good acoustics. In its earlier life it was known to seat 600 to 700 congregants.

St Barnabas is a Grade II listed building, priority A on the At Risk register.