Keith now in Wiltshire
Hamsey Old Church
There is evidence to indicate there was a settlement at Hamsey in Saxon times with King Athelstan having held a court of enquiry to settle local disputes, then called a Gemotte, in the year 925 at Ham near Lewes. A later family named 'de Say' owned the manor of Ham for 200 years and is thought to have given rise to the name of Hamsey for the village.
It is known from the records of the Domesday Book that there was a church at Hamsey at that time (1080). It is probable that in Saxon times there was a wooden church that was demolished and rebuilt in stone by the de Cheyney family that owned the lands at the time of the Domesday Book. The lands passed to the de Says by marriage in 1189. The church tower was added in the fourteenth century.
The parish now has two churches. Most of the houses of the old village have vanished over the years so a new church was built closer to the village houses in Offham that was consecrated in 1860. Fortunately in time the old church was restored and without modernisation in the 1920s. It has no electricity supply or heating. There are only monthy services in the summer and a candlelit carol service at Christmas.
The church stands in an isolated position between a loop of the River Ouse and a dismantled railway and is a Grade I listed building.
Hamsey Old Church
There is evidence to indicate there was a settlement at Hamsey in Saxon times with King Athelstan having held a court of enquiry to settle local disputes, then called a Gemotte, in the year 925 at Ham near Lewes. A later family named 'de Say' owned the manor of Ham for 200 years and is thought to have given rise to the name of Hamsey for the village.
It is known from the records of the Domesday Book that there was a church at Hamsey at that time (1080). It is probable that in Saxon times there was a wooden church that was demolished and rebuilt in stone by the de Cheyney family that owned the lands at the time of the Domesday Book. The lands passed to the de Says by marriage in 1189. The church tower was added in the fourteenth century.
The parish now has two churches. Most of the houses of the old village have vanished over the years so a new church was built closer to the village houses in Offham that was consecrated in 1860. Fortunately in time the old church was restored and without modernisation in the 1920s. It has no electricity supply or heating. There are only monthy services in the summer and a candlelit carol service at Christmas.
The church stands in an isolated position between a loop of the River Ouse and a dismantled railway and is a Grade I listed building.