When my parents, my brother and I first moved to Hove this was our parish church. Things were a little different then, more than 50 years ago. In those days the church stood almost on its own at the top of a hill with a farmyard next door. We had to walk along a footpath at the side of a field to get to church each Sunday. The road was tarmacked only as far as the church - after that it was just a stony, rutted cart track. Now the church is almost surrounded by houses. I say "almost" because there is a triangular-shaped, open expanse of grass (St Helen's park) in front of it.
Inside the church there have also been changes since we first worshipped there. In those days the vestry was in the base of the tower and it was a very tight fit for the vicar, the server and the choir to get robed and ready. Eventually a new vestry and porch were added on the north side with the old north door, previously blocked up, being re-opened and now used as the main door. The font used to stand at the back of the church, beside the door to the tower seen in the photo to the right, but has now been moved to stand in front of the chancel screen where the electric organ used to be. I saw no organ at all when I was in the church a couple of weeks ago.
I was pleased to see that the old pews were still in place and that the church retained its rather plain appearance - plain as opposed to unadorned rather than plain as opposed to beautiful. To me, this is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in.
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