History

Standing in the Sussex Parish furthest from the sea and at 406 feet above sea level Rusper Church is at the highest point in West Sussex. You can almost smell the prayers that have ascended from this place of Christian worship over the centuries.

An outstanding modern East Window and pre Reformation brass memorials of note adorn an otherwise plain interior, and where else can you see Morris Men dance in church on May 1st?

Just over fifty years ago a fascinating document came into the hands of the then Rector. It was a medieval charter confirming the rights granted by local lord Reginald de Braose to a small group of Benedictine nuns who had been settled here since the 1100s, and gives us perhaps our first written hint to the history of this place, for unlike many ancient villages we cannot claim to have made our mark with an entry in the Domesday Book of 1086.