Every year tens of thousands of visitors get off the bus at Exceat and head along the river to view Cuckmere Haven and the magnificent Seven Sisters. However if those visitors went in the opposite direction, a short walk up a hill and then down into a fold of the South Downs they would find a the tranquil village of West Dean.  The village has no shop or pub but it has some interesting buildings including the beautiful parish church of All Saints. 

Last weekend I went to West Dean to help with an Open Day arranged by Julian and Jo Martyr of the old Manor House.  I assisted with guided tours of the medieval dovecote but between tours I took time to visit the nearby All Saints Church.   The first thing that strikes you is its strange spire, long on the north and south sides – it is said to look like a monk’s cowl but to me it looks a bit like a 1960s haircut! 

Inside there are several interesting monuments – ancient and modern.  

On the left wall of the chancel are two decorative canopies which are believed to be the tombs of Sir John Heringaud (1250- 1325) and his wife Isabella. The Heringaud family  had held the Manor of West Dean since 1204 and John inherited the estate on the death of his father William in 1294. King Edward I visited West Dean on 25^th June 1305 and Sir John would have been his host. After his death, his will stated that candles were to be lit over Isabella’s tomb.  In order to pay for this he left instruction for two of his fields to be let to local farmers and these became known as ‘Taper Field’ and Lamp Field’.   The two tombs look very much like Easter Sepulchres and were almost certainly used as such every Easter when they represented the tomb of Christ.  

Opposite these is the largest memorial in the church.  This is the monument to William and Anne Thomas and luckily we can see both of them, facing each other as they kneel in prayer.  

Anne, on the right, died first (the plaque underneath tells us that she ‘paid the debt of nature on 29^th August 1625’. She looks rather surprised and has a splendid large Tudor ruff. The plaque beneath her tells us that she was devoted to divine worship as well as ‘exceptional conjugal love’ (lucky William!) 

Opposite her, with a thick head of black curly hair, is her husband William, once a Seaford Member of Parliament.  He has a more elaborate ruff and a jacket with large gold epaulettes. According his plaque, at the age of 60 he ‘laid down his sickly body in the hope of resurrection and gave his soul back to God on 19^thFebruary 1639’.  A further plaque tells us that the pair were taken by the same disease – burning fever. 

Above them and above a large black rectangle (presumably once intended for the epitaphs) is a momento-mori in the form a skull and twelve small and four large angelic heads gazing down through golden wings. At the very top of the monument is the Thomas coat-of-arms (a black cross with five crescents) surmounted by a helmet and what has been described as a cheetah although with its curly tail and friendly smile, he looks more like a friendly spotty dog! 

So was Anne Thomas the fairest lady of West Dean?  Oh no,  that was Anne’s daughter Susanna Tirrey who died in 1637 and whose monument is on the opposite wall, to the left of the Victorian pulpit. 

The monument is guarded but two golden haired, chubby cherubs, the one on the left is holding a grave-diggers spade with one hand and pointing heavenwards with the other.  His counterpart on the right looks a bit bored. He is resting his leg on a skull and is holding a gravity-defying upturned torch – another symbol of death. 

The memorial is in Latin but I did smile when I read the translation. After telling us that she was the wife of George Tirrey of Grays Inn it reads 

“HONOUR YOUR EYES ALL YOU WHO PASS BY”

It goes on to praise her in the most laudable terms, she was ‘A map of all praiseworthy women and the globe of virtue’ and wherever she lay was turned into a temple. She was so holy that even the angels envied her and on her own ‘could absolve all women and purify the whole of her sex’.  She was known for her ‘priceless beauty’ and was so attractive that she needed no veil but wore one anyway out of charity in case she enflamed men with her lovely face!  What a shame we have no photo of her !  Sadly this lovely lady died in childbirth in 1637. 

Please make a visit to West Dean Church it is just a short walk from Exceat but you will pleased you made the journey.

I will cover the more modern memorials in the church in a later item.