Apple Down

Towards the Mardens.

North of Fernbeds Lane.

There is a jumping track around the edge.

A Neolithic (3000 - 2400 BC) long barrow. A scheduled ancient monument.

Towards Harting Downs.

A late wood, appearing on maps 1960s-70s.

Almost hidden, a sign talks about the church.

The track on the right is a public footpath (number 3005_1).

Some distance from any town.

On bridleway number 478 heading eastwards to Inholmes Wood. Underneath the tree ahead a leftover piece of a tree stump provided a suitable seat for a lunch break.

Up means up - because you're high on the South Downs here, at about 500 feet. And yet the site is well-sheltered, almost cosy - surrounded by old farm buildings and a huddle of trees. The interior is unrestored, the soul of simplicity. Ian Nairn - compiling the Sussex volume of Pevsner's 'The Buildings of England' - found himself at odds with his boss's detached, scholarly approach, and at Up Marden he came out in open revolt. Of the church interior he says: 'It must not be seen in antiquarian terms or even as an interesting specimen of an unrestored church, but as a visible loving testimony of the faith of successive generations'. He goes on to say that you don't have to be a believer to be touched by the place. Three of us, making our pilgrimage on a damp August evening, would say 'aye' to that. And yet - it saddens me to say this - Up Marden no longer feels as altogether remote as the place Nairn described half a century ago. How could it, after all? But earlier in the day we'd sat for a while in the low pews of Didling church, and there the sense of the vanished generations is inescapable. Link Link

The church is approached through a clump of trees, along a little grassy path a few feet wide. This is the east end of the church as you first glimpse it.

This is the approach by road from the north. The narrow roadway runs along a ridge, with the land falling away quite sharply to the east (left). The woodland is mainly beech.

Ian Nairn's praise of St Michael's Church at Up Marden in the Buildings of England: Sussex is frequently repeated. The church is proud of it as it is framed in the church. Part of it is as follows which describes the setting: "Church and farm only, the remotest place on the Downs, 500 ft up on top of the ridge. Although the surroundings are demurely leafy and rural, it is surprisingly inaccessible. The church itself, approached through a farmyard, is quite invisible from the road." Then describing the church itself: "One of the loveliest interiors in England. Atmosphere is perhaps something which ought not to have much to do with The Buildings of England, but at Up Marden the atmosphere is as tangible as any moulding, the slow, loving, gentle accretion century by century...It must not be seen in antiquarian terms but as a visible loving testimony of the faith of successive generations.. It is incredibly moving whether one is Anglican or not, whether one is religious or not. Clear glass and white or cream plaster, brick floors, candelabra all askew.. It is little used, but it and the unmown churchyard are the very reverse of neglected or desecrated. Up Marden is all 13th century, without a window altered... Unaisled nave and chancel, plain later 13th century tower." The only thing that seems to have changed from this description is that the churchyard had been recently mown.

Ian Nairn's praise of St Michael's Church at Up Marden in the Buildings of England: Sussex is frequently repeated. The church is proud of it as it is framed in the church. Part of it is as follows which describes the setting: "Church and farm only, the remotest place on the Downs, 500 ft up on top of the ridge. Although the surroundings are demurely leafy and rural, it is surprisingly inaccessible. The church itself, approached through a farmyard, is quite invisible from the road." Then describing the church itself: "One of the loveliest interiors in England. Atmosphere is perhaps something which ought not to have much to do with The Buildings of England, but at Up Marden the atmosphere is as tangible as any moulding, the slow, loving, gentle accretion century by century...It must not be seen in antiquarian terms but as a visible loving testimony of the faith of successive generations.. It is incredibly moving whether one is Anglican or not, whether one is religious or not. Clear glass and white or cream plaster, brick floors, candelabra all askew.. It is little used, but it and the unmown churchyard are the very reverse of neglected or desecrated. Up Marden is all 13th century, without a window altered.. Unaisled nave and chancel, plain later 13th century tower. The triangular chancel arch is not, as it looks, Saxon, but an emergency 16th century repair to the 13th century arch which can be seen above it. The pulpit is Victorian but fits in perfectly." This view looks from the nave towards the chancel. The pulpit and the two stages of the chancel arch are clearly visible.