St George

St George’s, set in a rural landscape surrounded by farmland has a churchyard carpeted with snowdrops, bluebells and primroses in the spring with areas for wildflowers, bat tiles in the roofs, swift boxes under chancel eaves and an owl box, used by barn owls, in a tree.

St Wilfrid is believed to have landed at Selsey, in the 6th century, bringing Christianity to the Manhood Peninsular and Sussex. A church has been here since before AD966, the current Grade I listed building dating from 13thcentury when St Richard was Bishop of Chichester. The tower, added in the 16th century, contains three bells, two from 16th century on the Bells Preservation Register, the third cast 1858. The north chapel, built around the same time, was rebuilt in the 19thcentury commemorating General Crosbie contains the sarcophagus of John Page, MP for Chichester (1779) and his two wives. In the 19th century the church became Holy Trinity until 1950 when the vicar and a local archivist discovering the original dedication amongst papal papers of 1311 the Bishop restored the dedication to St George. Hence the chapel has several names, north chapel, Crosbie Chapel and Trinity Chapel!

Fire destroyed the medieval furniture in 1939 seriously damaging the nave. The Diocese wanted to close it and build a new one to the north where housing was being developed but the community resisted and the church was repaired, re-opening in 1942. By 2000 the list of repairs was growing and facilities lacking. To prevent ongoing distraction from Parish mission a rolling 10 year plan was prepared, fundraising commencing in earnest in 2001. The chancel and Northchapel were re-roofed (2003) and renovated internally by volunteers, the loss of the organ made way for a kitchenette (2011), water and drainage being installed for the first time followed by the magnificent new Vincent Woodstock pipe organ (2014). The nave was re-roofed (2015). In 2017 work commenced towards an extension for toilets, level access and a meeting room made possible by pump priming funding from the National Churches Trust. The extension won the 2021 Sussex Heritage Trust award for Ecclesiastical Building of the Year.