Ford, West Sussex

The Church of England parish church of Saint Andrew-by-the-Ford is near the River Arun, surrounded by a walled churchyard entered through a wrought iron gate. The Saxon church was built in about 1040, and substantially rebuilt by the Normans with a surviving early 12th-century Norman chancel arch with carved decoration.[4] There are Saxon and Norman lancet windows in the north wall of the nave, which survives from the original building. Over a north door in this wall, which leads to a vestry, there are fragments of Anglo-Saxon interlaced carving. The Decorated Gothic east window dates from about 1320 and the Perpendicular Gothic west window dates from about 1420. The brick-built Jacobean south porch is from about 1640 and has a pedimented Dutch gable. The wooden bell-turret, painted white as a navigational landmark for ships, has two bells, the smaller of which was cast by Robert Rider, who is known to have worked 1351 and 1386. The font, carved from a square limestone block, may be Saxon or Norman and stands on a modern Bath Stone plinth. The building is listed in the highest category of the national grading system at Grade I.[5]