Our Church Buildings

The Parish Church dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin is the third building to stand on this site.   The first church was erected in the early 12th century. It was a very simple square building with no aisles or tower. A chapel was added before the end of the 14th century and the church was further enlarged during the 15th century when a nave, aisles and wooden tower were added. As the population of Littlehampton grew in the early 19th century this first church was deemed to no longer  be large enough. The building had too fallen into a state of considerable disrepair and so it was demolished and replaced with a new church which was opened in 1825. In 1888 a faculty was obtained for the church to be extended eastwards. A new Chancel, Lady Chapel and Vestries were added. Within a few decades the structural condition of the church had become so serious that it was decided to rebuild the whole church with the exception of the tower. The present church therefore, designed by WH Randoll Blacking, was erected at a cost of approximately £20,000.  The foundation stone was laid by Lady Leconfield in 1933. The Lady Chapel and transepts were dedicated in 1934 and the completed church, which included the encasing in brick of the 19th century church`s tower, was dedicated by the Bishop of Chichester on 2nd February 1935. It is Grade 2 Listed.

The Church dedicated to St. James the Great stands on a site at the junction of Arundel Road and East Ham Road.  St. James` was established as a mission church within St. Mary`s parish towards the end of the 19th century to accommodate the growing population in the north of the parish. The initial temporary building was replaced with the current church which was opened in 1910. The church hall is a later mid 20th century addition.   St. James` became a parish church in 1929 before subsequently becoming one of the constituent parishes in the Littlehampton and Wick Team Ministry.  In 2018 the church was closed for worship and has since been designated a Chapel-Of-Ease within the new parish of Littlehampton St. Mary and St. James