St George's Church

About

St George's Church is a Roman Catholic church of the parish of Hailsham and Polegate serving the town of Polegate in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. Consideration was first given to "bringing the Mass to Polegate" in the late 19th century, when it was a rapidly growing village within the vast Catholic parish of the seaside resort of Eastbourne to the south. Only with the arrival of a new priest at Eastbourne in 1936 was any action taken; but within two years construction work was underway and by the end of 1938 the simple but "very dignified" flint- and stone-built Gothic Revival church was opened.

Structural problems occurred after World War II as expenditure was concentrated on other churches in the parish, and remedial work had to be carried out in the 1950s and 1960s. St George's Church has experienced five changes to the composition of its parish. It was initially a chapel of ease within Eastbourne parish, but in 1958 it became a separate district within Eastbourne with its own priest and two years later became independent of Eastbourne when the new parish of Polegate with Hampden Park was created.

Five years later Polegate was separated from Hampden Park, but the...