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The Friends of Steyning Parish Church: Steyning’s ‘Lost’ & ‘Found’

Saturday 30th November - 16:00 - 18:45The Friends of Steyning Parish ChurchVicarage Lane, Steyning BN44 3YQSaturday 30 November 2024 is the revised date for this event (originally planned for 13 October 2024)

Discover the intriguing stories and historical context that led to a revision of local history


A dedicated team of researchers, including Sarah Leigh, Brian Hanson, Chris Tod and Christopher Whittick, together with the Revd Mark Heather, will present the surprising results of their extensive work into local history.

A board in Steyning Parish Church has, for approximately the last century, displayed the names of Steyning’s vicars. But a few years ago, doubt about the accuracy of this board crept in.

And so began the idea of a local history project.
What began as a quick and easy bit of fact-checking grew into a painstaking analysis of many hundreds of local records going back to the thirteenth century and covering Steyning and the whole county. The team pored over documents spanning Victorian years, the Reformation, the Black Death and much more.

“We found that eight of the previously listed vicars had never actually been vicars of Steyning and we will explain why we ‘expelled’ them - (we hope people will not be too shocked by what we tell them!). We also identified five new names and substantiated our findings with robust historical evidence,” says Sarah.

She continues: “As part of the presentation, we will outline our path of discovery and fact-checking so it should be of interest to history students, all those who enjoy local history and anyone intrigued by the research process.”

So come along to discover the fascinating stories and historical context behind this re-evaluation of Steyning’s Vicars’ Board.

For further info: https://friendsofspc.org/events/
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Drinks and nibbles will be available during a half hour interval.

The evening should finish around 6.45pm including Q&As and interval.

No charge and no tickets for this event, although donations for the upkeep of the church will be welcome.

Everyone from the community is welcome to hear about Steyning’s local history

The Friends of Steyning Parish Church had originally planned to have their AGM just before the presentation of ‘The Lost & Found Vicars of Steyning’. However, the AGM will now be held separately on Monday 18 November at 2pm at Rosebank, Jarvis Lane, Steyning BN44 3GL
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