St Nicolas Church, Portslade is the second oldest church in the City and has the distinction of being the only church that has been consistently used for worship throughout its 850 year history.
The neighbouring Parish Church of St Helen, Hangleton, is the oldest in the City, but was only ever used occasionally between the 17th and 19th centuries due to its gradual decay and declining population. The commissioners reported in a Chichester Diocese Survey of 1724, “the sacrament of Holy Communion had not been celebrated within living memory at Hangleton”
At various times throughout history since 1523, St Helen’s was held by the Vicar of Portslade as one of two livings. From 1864 to 1955 the two parishes were united by Order of Council. In the 1870's, the children from both Portslade and Hangleton were educated at the Brakenbury School (St Nicolas Church School) in Locks Hill which was built for the poor of the united parishes of Portslade and Hangleton.
In the1950's a massive house building programme was undertaken in Hangleton and once again St Helen Church became the Parish Church of Hangleton and was no longer united with St Nicolas Portslade in a single parish.

St Nicolas Church  c.1150

About 900 years ago, the people of Portslade decided to build their own church. It was a little Norman church situated on a hill on the eastern side of the Old Village, overlooking the Channel. It became a landmark to sailors and was appropriately dedicated to St Nicolas, Patron Saint of Sailors.
It was built of rubble with stone dressing and the church now consists of a nave of three bays with north and south aisles, a chancel with modern north vestry, and western tower. At the west end of the north aisle is the Brakenbury Chapel which was built in 1869, and under the tower is the baptistery. There is also a south porch of uncertain date.
The oldest portion of the church is Norman, erected probably about the year 1150. The two southern pillars and the walls of the south aisle are of this period; the pillars were made of limestone imported from France. About 100 years later, the church was improved and enlarged. The old Norman apse was taken down and the present chancel (Early English) erected, but there still is a small portion of the Norman chancel arches left in the wall behind the pulpit. Thus the greater part of the building, including the tower, dates back to about 1250
The church is on ground, that slopes from west to east, and the chancel is not in line with the nave. By standing at the west end of the nave one notices that the chancel is inclined towards the south. It may have been the intentional that the chancel was built out of line so as to represent Our Lord's head leaning to one side when he was crucified, hence the term "Weeping Chancel". Situated in the south wall of the sanctuary is the sedilia and piscina, which are 13th century. The seats rise from west to east, below arch hood moulding which terminates at either end in mask-stops of crude design.
The seats in the sedilia were designed for the use of the Celebrant and his Assistants at Mass and the piscina is a stone dish with basin used for the ablutions at Mass, a ceremony when the Priest washes his hands, after the offertory (very necessary centuries ago when the faithful offered goods or poultry instead of money) and the used water is drained from the piscina to the ground. There are two fine lancet windows at the east end, good examples of 13th Century architecture.

The Calendar of Charter Rolls of 1312, now held in London, shows that the Lord of the Manor of Portslade, John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, was granted a charter by King Edward II to hold a Fair at Portslade annually on the 6th December, The Feast Day of Saint Nicolas.

Early records show that in the 12th century, St Nicolas Church was paying a tithe of 40s to the Priory of St Pancras at Lewes, the first Clunic House to be built in England. The petition below, from the Priory to St Peters, Rome requested that tithes should also be collected in the 13th century .

The Calendar of Papal Registers "Lateran Regista" records a letter received in St Peters, Rome on the 7th September 1401 from John Oke  the Prior of St Pancras. :-

"dated in the chapter-house of Lewes 26 Nov. 1400, which recapitaulate and confirm the grant by his predecessors as pittance to the sub-prior and convent of the following: all the fruits etc. of the churches-appropriate to the monastery by papal authority, portions for vicarages being alone excepted" the papal letter goes on to list the tithes required from 20 churches in the south of England, Portslade is named and was required to pay 20 shillings a year to the Priory.
 

In 1847 this ancient "Doom Painting" was found when the south nave wall was being repaired, the walls were lime-washed in the same year and the paintings were lost. The fresco extended for 22 feet and from the abaci towards the roof it was 12 feet.
Doom Paintings depict:- "The Day of Judgement"
See also the article by Rev. Hoper entitled:-
"Ancient Mural Paintings in a Portslade Church" which was submitted to the Sussex Archaeological Collection in 1847.
 

Historians in recent years have coined the phrase "Lewes Group", which refers to wall paintings in the churches of Clayton, Coombes, Hardham, Westmeston and Plumpton. It is believed a workshop or school of Clunic monks at St.Pancras Priory was responsible for these paintings. The use of the term "Lewes Group" cannot be positively proved by historians, as the Priory and its paintings were destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII.
Clayton is 6 miles to the north and Coombes, is 6 miles to the west of Portslade. A traveller in medieval times walking from Clayton would have passed through Portslade via the Roman Road "Port's Road" to reach Coombes. During St Nicolas' association with the Priory, the Parish would have been subjected to many visits by the monks for assessment and collection of tithes. St Nicolas' Last Judgement Painting has a similar overall composition and the same posture of "Christ Enthroned", surrounded by the Apostles and Virgin Mary as in the Clayton paintings. At St Nicolas there was also evidence of an earlier wall painting under the "Last Judgement" fresco, another painting that could be distinguished on the south wall was the "Adoration of the Magi".
Unfortunately we do not know how representative the above drawing was to the actual St. Nicolas "Doom Paintings", the fresco's were not subjected to detailed scientific investigation before they were lime washed over in 1847, to establish if their style and age was contemporary to the "Lewes Group".
The origins of the Doom Paintings at St Nicolas Church will probably remain a mystery

See Parish Diary for the times of weekday, and Sunday Services at St Nicolas.

 

St Nicolas Church in 1851
etching by R.H.Nibbs
 

St Nicolas Church in 1900

St Nicolas Church in 1939

St Nicolas Church in 2005

Vicars of St Nicolas Church, Portslade

St Helen Church Hangleton, Hove


St Julian Kingston Buci
Shoreham


St Michael & All Angels
Southwick












St Helen Church
Hangleton, Hove











Good Shepherd
“Tin Church” (1936)
Mile Oak Portslade







Church of the
Good Shepherd (1967)
Mile Oak.


St Andrew Church
Portslade by Sea