Tortington

Tortington
Sussex
St Mary Magdalene, Tortington
Location
Grid reference:	TQ003049
Location:	50°50’7"N, 0°34’36"W
Data
Post town:	Arundel
Postcode:	BN18
Dialling code:	01903
Local Government
Council:	Arun
Parliamentary constituency:	Arundel and South Downs

Tortington is a small village in Sussex, sitting a mile and a half south-west of Arundel, between the roads from Arundel to Ford and to Chichester.

Parish church

The Church of St Mary Magdalene stands in the heart of Tortington. Its nave and chancel have been dated to the 1140s but many alterations have been made to the church subsequently. A south aisle and chapel were added in the 13th century only to be demolished at some time between the 16th and 18th centuries.

A major restoration was undertaken in 1867: the south aisle was rebuilt causing the 12th century doorway to be re-sited for a third time. The south chapel was not rebuilt, an aumbry or recess used to house vessels and items for the sacrament being all that remains of the original chapel, now visible in the exterior wall.

Interior of St Mary Magdalene's Church

During the 19th century restoration, funded by local farmer George Coote, the roofs were stripped and the chancel roof probably completely rebuilt. But the rafters and the beams of the nave are of mediæval origin. The vestry was added in 1892 and the bellcote was rebuilt once again in 1904 by Philip Mainwaring Johnston, the architect and historian, to whose scholarship we owe much of our knowledge of this and other local churches.

The chancel arch dates from the mid-12th century and is of an unusual design for south-eastern counties: it is adorned on the west side by grotesque 'beakhead' carvings, some bird-like, one certainly a rabbit, many topped with feathers, foliage or tentacles. The nook shafts of the arch carry capitals decorated with foliage. Not quite perpendicular, there is evidence that the entire arch has been reconstructed to some degree at least once.

Amalgamation with the benefice of St Nicholas' in Arundel in 1897 and a dwindling congregation in the mid-20th century led to the church being declared redundant in 1978. And though it is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, supported locally by the Friends of Tortington Church, St Mary Magdalene is still consecrated and several services are held here every year.

History

The Domesday Book of 1086 records that before the Norman Conquest the manor belonged to Leofwine. By 1086 it was held by Ernucion, a tenant of Earl Roger de Montgomery. The manor had three hides, enough to support two plough teams, six villeins and two cottagers. In addition, the manor also had 30 acres of meadow and woodland grazing for six hogs., Earl Roger had been rewarded by the granting of huge tracts of land throughout England, which included manors near Arundel in Sussex.

A church was built here at some time after the Domesday Survey and certainly before 1150 when a church was first recorded. By 1290 the church was recorded as a vicarage, the incumbents from this date onwards, with only a few exceptions, being described as vicars. In 1380 the nearby Augustine Priory acquired the benefice and the right to appoint clergy to the parish church and like the Priory, it was dedicated to St Mary Magdalene.

In the struggle between the Conqueror's sons, Robert and Henry, Robert de Bellême picked the wrong side and after Robert's defeat, King Henry I stripped him de Bellême of his title and lands. Then, around 1105, Henry ennobled William d'Aubigny as 1st Earl of Arundel and gave him Robert's Sussex lands, including the manor of Tortington. Hugh d'Aubigny, the 5th Earl, died without issue in 1243 and the king allowed the earldom and title to lapse; the lands passed to Hugh's sister who had married John FitzAlan, and so the honours of the Rape of Arundel passed to the FitzAlan family. Richard FitzAlan became 1st Earl of Arundel when Edward I revived the earldom and its title; the title and lands remain in the FitzAlan-Howard family, the Dukes of Norfolk, to this day. The manor of Tortington has however been divided and passed through many hands in the subsequent centuries.

In 1415 on the death of Thomas FitzAlan, the 5th Earl, Tortington manor was bequeathed to Holy Trinity Hospital, Arundel and there it remained until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 when once again it became the property of the Crown, before being reaquired by the FitzAlan family, only to be sold soon after to Roger Gratwick.

An Augustinian priory was founded at Tortington in the late-12th century on land held by the Norman Abbey of Sées. The living of St Mary Magdalene was by 1389 in the gift of Tortington Priory.

Successive visitations in the 15th and early 16th centuries reported a house in decay, lacking in books and whose servants were incompetent and unskilled. It gained a reputation as a house where errant monks were sent who were undeserving of a more prestigious or venerated establishment.It was finally dissolved under Henry VIII, after 1536.

A view from Tortington across the Arun Valley towards Arundel

Tortington village population, now in the region of 150, has grown largely by the conversion of Tortington House, formerly Tortington Park School, and later New England College, to residential dwellings in 2001 when it was renamed 'Tortington Manor'.

Woodland and wildlife

A view across Tortington farmland

Around one-third of Tortington parish is designated ancient woodland.

It is here that one will find some rare and some endangered species such as the dormouse, the nightingale, the bee fly, the birds-nest orchid and the purple emperor butterfly. Tortington has a wide variety of habitats - woodland, open farmland, water meadows, river banks, ponds - and all have some wildlife classed as rare or even as endangered species. In the woods of Tortington the hazel dormouse population is being monitored by the Mid Arun Valley Environmental Survey (MAVES) who are also monitoring owls and bats in this, Areas 5 and 6 in the survey area. The woodland understorey has a variety of smaller floral species - early-purple and common spotted orchids, primrose, bluebell, wood anemones, wood sorrel and snakeshead fritillaries. Many of Tortington's numerous bluebell woods are beside public footpaths so can be viewed in April and May. A protected species, the common bluebell is also an indicator of ancient woodland.

Before the 15th century Tortington Common was an area of heathland which was then planted with mainly broad-leaved deciduous trees - oak, beech, elm, ash, and later with some conifers in the northern woods. By the 16th century it had become part of Arundel Great Park, a vast enclosed deer park, the southern gate of which existed where Knowle's Barn now is.

On the woodland fringes many deer emerge at dusk. Bats such as the common pipistrelle and the noctule also emerge to feed and later tawny owls can be heard and barn owls seen swooping on their prey. Over the farmland and the meadows down by the river a huge variety of birdlife is present. Buzzards can often be see soaring high above, kestrels hover above the hedgerows, and skylarks can be heard in summer months. Closer to the ground little egrets are recent visitors to Tortington and in the water meadows by the river, swans, Canada geese, Brent geese, lapwings, pochards or shelducks visit. Fieldfares may be seen on farmland in winter, returning swallows in summer, and of course the cuckoo in spring. Common residents include blackcaps, nuthatches, green as well as great spotted woodpeckers and goldfinches.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Tortington)

References

• Boxgrove History Group and Luffingham, John (ed.). Tortington and the Black Canons, Philimore, 2002.
• Henderson, John. 'Tortington and the Great War', Friends of Tortington Church, 2014.
• Johnston, Philip M. (1909). "Tortington Church and Priory". Sussex Archaeological Collections 52: 163–177. doi:10.5284/1086447.