St James the Great

The village of Ewhurst Green enjoys commanding views over the Rother valley and Bodiam Castle to the north.

The church stands at the eastern end of the village opposite The White Dog inn, welcoming walkers along the Kent-Sussex border path. This Grade I listed place of worship is dedicated to St James the Great and built almost entirely of Wealden sandstone, with two major construction periods in the late 12th and early 14th century. From a distance the church can be identified by its unusual bullet shaped spire, the result of a shorter rebuild after a lightning strike in the 18th century.

The font dates from the 12th or 13th century, behind which there is a memorial window dedicated to the memory of young William Jacobson who drowned nearby. Artwork of note includes an Arts & Crafts corona light fitting in the centre of the nave and an attractive painted board adjacent to the font. Clerestory windows in the nave display more contemporary stained glass from the 1970s in memory of the local Daws family. In the Lady Chapel hangs a 19th century painting of the Madonna and Child, thought to be Bavarian and in a similar style to the preRaphaelites.

At the west end of the north aisle is a carved corbel bearing a grinning head, embraced with a pair of folded arms, providing the stonemason’s only exuberant touch. Beneath is a brass commemorating the death in 1520 of William Crysford, a member of an important landowning family. Dr EC Hawtrey, rector of Ewhurst and headmaster of Eton College (1835-1854), presented the organ to the church, which was moved in 1935 to its current position between nave and tower. Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, lived in the village around the start of WWI and two of his children were baptised at St James’s, Arthur Robert Peter and Heather Grace. A tea station was fitted in 2020 in the north aisle and a prayer station is set up in St Stephen’s chapel.

The church is open daily in daylight hours for quiet contemplation and prayer. Dogs welcome.