History

Church History

The beautiful church of St Thomas à Becket, Framfield was built in the early 13th century (although there has been a church on this site since Saxon times).

For 700 years successive generations have worshipped here and the church has been the focus of village life. Building on this heritage of tradition and progress, our worship at St Thomas à Becket combines the best of the old and the new. We extend a warm invitation to you and your family to join us.

Read the Church History by Herbert W Keef published by the Friends - printed copies available in church price £1.00. The printed version includes additional architectural illustrations not currently featured on this site.

View the Roll of Vicars here

Family History

Tracing your Family History

We know how passionate about your subject you Genealogists are and how quickly time passes when you are hot on the trail. However, if you have just discovered that there is a remote possibility that one of your ancestors may have been married or buried (or both) in the church two hundred years ago and you ring at eleven o’clock on a Saturday evening to enquire – the Vicar is unlikely to share your enthusiasm! It really does happen.

To help you we have listed below some dates you may find useful. All our old records are lodged with the County Archive Office at Lewes, East Sussex. We do have the following records in the Parish and are happy to deal with any written requests for information relating to those. We charge £31 for up to one hours searching – please make cheques payable to ‘Framfield PCC’ with your enquiry.

  • Baptism Register from 8 June 1976 to date
  • Marriage Registers from December 2004 to date
  • Burial Register from 4 November 1983 to the present time plus some copies of registers from 23 November 1936 to 27 October 1983, the actual register for the latter period being at Lewes.
  • Graveyard map/plan we do not have an accurate plan or inventory of all the graves at present. We are starting work on this – but it is a painstaking job!! Of the older graves, many now have illegible inscriptions, which is disappointing, as they are probably the ones you are most interested in. We do have records for the more recent burials. Also, the churchyard is very large and it is our policy to allow a section to remain in a ‘natural conservation’ state to encourage the butterflies and wild plants during the summer growing season. If you wish to hunt for old graves wintertime is probably best!

Have you ever considered that if it were not for the Christian inheritance of faith in this country and the record keeping of priests in the parish system of the established Church of England, how limited your sources of information would be? So please support your local church in the present era, wherever you are!

We do hope this information will be of help and happy ancestor hunting!