St Martin's Church, Fifield Bavant

Services

• There is an evensong service held at 3pm every 2nd Sunday of the month, except November as it falls on Remembrance Day
• We have occasional special services, Sung Compline, quiet contemplative Compline, please keep an eye out in the local news and on the website
• We hold a very popular 'Midnight' 10pm Christmas Eve Service and are always welcoming weddings and baptisms

History

The church of St Martin was so called in 1496, and may have been so from, or before, the grant of a Martinmas fair at Fifield in 1267.

St Martin's is a Grade II* listed building dated by Pevsner to the 13th Century, and a good proportion of it is still original to that period but there are 15th Century and 17th Century features. The font is reputed to be of 12th Century and probably predates the present building. There is a blocked Tudor-arched chamfered priest's door (ibid). There have been rumours of a tunnel running from the church towards the Manor Farm House.

A chaplain of 'Fifield' is recorded perhaps in the mid 12th Century, and a rector in or before 1291.

Fifield Bavant is mentioned in the Domesday, and had roughly the same number of adult residents as now, 20. There is evidence in field contours of a medieval village, when there was reputed to be 67 residents, deserted due to the plague.

The church is reputed to be the smallest church in regular use in England, the village featured in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, and is often written about.

In 1923 the parish was united with Ebbesbourne Wake.