Bishop’s Palace, West Tarring

Will always hold special memories for me. performed here as part of St. Andrew’s Players. Had so much fun rehearsing. Also did my clown act here. Lovely old building that is well maintained. It has so many functions held in here throughout the year.

Nestled in the grounds of the local school, this mediaeval building is an oddity and a surprise to find in the suburbs of Worthing. West Tarring was once a village in its own right; as well as being older than Worthing, in mediaeval times it was more important, as the church was a peculiar of the Archbishop’s of Canterbury.
The building is the former Archbishop’s palace. The northern part of the building, running north-​south, was built as a grand two-​storied house on the site of St Thomas a Becket’s palace in the 13^th century, and a hall (running east-​west) added in the 14^th and early 15^th century.
Built of flint and rubble, with a Horsham slate roof, the walls betray the presence of earlier windows, and a single 13^th century lancet survives: in the 15^th century, a series of attractive Perpendicular twin-​light windows with stone transoms were inserted.
The composition is serene one, but would be better still if a horrible metal chain-​link fence wasn’t erected on its west side: this is not worthy of a Grade-​I listed building, and hopefully is not permanent.
The building is now used as the Parish Hall, and can be visited after Sunday services at nearby St Andrew’s. It also contains some office space, which is let commercially: how wonderful it must be to work in such an historic building!