St Botolphs Church in the Adur Valley is now in the hands of the Church Conservation Trust, the church will be closed later in the year for major restoration work, so now would be a good time to visit this ancient church.
Adjacent to the church on the site of the now modern burial ground ,where once stood the medieval village of Botolphs,the site is still littered with medieval pottery etc.Opposite the church in the fields you can still see the remains of the medieval salt industry,salt mounds are still visible. At a later date i will be undertaking tours of the church and surroundings area associated with the village and church.
Meanwhile do visit this summer, it is open every day from early till late.

The Grade I listed Saxon church of St Botolph's at Botolphs, West Sussex, England, is situated in the valley of the River Adur and is now part of the Church of England parish of Beeding and Bramber with Botolphs. An earlier dedication to St Peter de Vetere Ponte (St Peter of the Old Bridge) is now lost, like the bridge over the Adur from which it took this ancient name. The church serves the mostly depopulated hamlet of Botolphs in the Horsham district of West Sussex. The church has fragments of medieval wall paintings. Architectural historian Ian Nairn comments that the Jacobean pulpit is "notable in a county which is poor in 17th century fittings".

Exciting finds in Slindon House.

A visit to the cellars has unearthed some early Medieval building work, dated to circa 1200s.Vaulting , medieval floor tiles, possible very early chapel.

Slindon was a important deer park at this time, and on the list of, circa 12 Summer residency's of the Archbishops of Canterbury.

It was an occasional residence of Stephen Langton, who died here in 1228, and Archbishop John Pecham spent much time here, holding ordinations in the chapel in 1288 and 1291.

  Archbishop Chicheley confirmed the election of Thomas Ludlowe as Abbot of Battle in 1421 in the chapel.

Now this shows us this was a high statues building, as we can see from the remains.
Lots more to show, this just a taster.    Double click photos to enlarge.

Stephen Langton

Stephen Langton,  (died July 9, 1228, Slindon, Sussex, Eng.), English cardinal whose appointment as archbishop of Canterbury precipitated King John’s quarrel with Pope Innocent III and played an important part in the Magna Carta crisis.

Langton, son of a lord of a manor in Lincolnshire, became early in his career a prebendary of York. He then (c. 1181) went to Paris and, having graduated from that university, he served there for 25 years and established a reputation as a great preacher and a major scholar and theologian. Pope Innocent III then summoned him to Rome and in 1206 created him cardinal-priest of St. Chrysogonus. Immediately afterward Langton was drawn into the vortex of English politics.
After the death of Hubert Walter (1205), a dispute immediately arose as to who should be the new archbishop of Canterbury; but after two years of political turmoil involving king and clergy, the Pope suggested that the suffragans of Canterbury elect Langton, who was consecrated at Viterbo on June 17, 1207. King John, however, refused to allow the new archbishop access to his province, seized the revenues of Canterbury, and banished the monks; Innocent replied by laying England under an interdict (March 1208). Langton crossed to Dover (October 1209) in an attempt to achieve negotiation with the king, but John would go no nearer than Chilham, Kent, and after a week the archbishop left the country, and John’s excommunication was published (November 1209).
By 1212 John was seriously planning the recovery of the French territories lost to Philip II in 1204. The need to embark on this enterprise unhampered by ecclesiastical censure, Innocent’s threat of deposing him, and the news that Philip was planning (April 1213) an invasion of England finally caused John to submit. He at once agreed to receive the archbishop, and Langton, who had been residing mainly at the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, crossed to England (July 1213) and absolved the king.
Langton was not only associated with the baronial opposition against King John; he advised and supported it, suggesting that the barons take their stand on the coronation oath and the charter of Henry I. Later he withdrew, disapproving violent means, and at Runnymede (June 1215) appeared as one of the king’s commissioners. He therefore probably influenced such “non baronial” clauses of Magna Carta as the one confirming ecclesiastical liberties. During 1218–28 he supported Henry III’s party, being responsible for the 1225 reissue of Magna Carta, and that year convened a clerics’ council to determine a grant to the king. He was responsible for the recall of the papal legate, and during his life no other one resided in England, thus strengthening the archbishop of Canterbury’s claim to be legatus natus (a legate in his own right). In 1222 he also promulgated some important constitutions.

Peckham, John (C. 1225–1292)

John Peckham, or Peckham, the English philosopher and theologian, and defender of Augustinian doctrines, was born in Patcham, near Brighton, Sussex. Educated at the monastery at Lewes, he continued his studies at Oxford and Paris, and sometime during the 1250s he joined the Franciscan friars at Oxford. Subsequently he became a master of theology in Paris in 1269 and returned to Oxford in 1272. Peckham was provincial of the English Franciscans from 1275 to 1277 and then lectured at the papal court for two years. In 1279 he was appointed archbishop of Canterbury and held this office until his death.