About Us

Welcome to the Churches of the Mid Downland Parish. 

Nestling behind the South Downs, our four churches all date back to the 13th century or beyond, and are a joy to visit – places of calm and quiet in a busy world. Yet the buildings are not our only treasure.

The Mid Downland Churches are places where you will find a worshipping congregation that is warm and welcoming, and worship that is straightforward but uplifting.

Whether you are interested in the history of our lovely churches, planning a wedding or looking for a place of worship, we can guarantee a warm welcome.

Holy Trinity, Poynings dates from the fourteenth century, although there was almost certainly a Saxon place of worship on the site as well as a Norman church which was noted in the Doomsday Survey of 1087, and stood for 300 years.  This was a rectangular windowless stone building and the tiles at the base of the altar of the current church are from this Norman building.

The church we see today dates from shortly after 1369, when the then Lord of the Manor - Michael of Poynings - died at the age of 51, and left some money for a new church to be built on the site of this existing Norman Church. The building was supervised by Michael’s eldest son Thomas.