It is a fairly rare thing to be able to reach 1250 years old – and imagine how much of the past would have been seen, but for the church of St Peter’s, Bexhill-On-Sea; 2022 marks this milestone of more than a millennium of history at your doorstep.

In the year 772 the King Offa of Mercia built a church in a place he overtook called South Anglia, which in today’s society is referred to as Sussex. Back then, times were very what we would call primitive in comparison to the lifestyle lead today. It has gone from sophisticated Roman theatres to wrecks and ruins, wooden huts to mansions, and although it has been rebuilt twice, St Peter’s church has stood there strong and absolute over the centuries.

Over the past year, the community of this church and Bexhill have been celebrating their charter year in various different ways: summer carnivals through the town, special service settings, composed pieces, suppers, commemorative benches and that is only to name a few. Chorister of the church, Florence, has given her opinions on the events over the past year: ”I loved the carnival. It was very entertaining - I wished it would have gone on longer”.

She also added: “The costumes were very clever and realistic, and the atmosphere was a very happy and excited one. I went with my grandparents, my parents and my sister and they enjoyed it too.”

To conclude the year’s festivities, author Dr Marc Morris came to the parish to give a talk on his new book, ‘The Anglo-Saxons’ last Friday. This was an interesting talk on how society has changed since the 500s or so. The author’s presentation lasted about an hour, but the hour whizzed by – it hardly felt like 600 centuries’ worth of history at all! The authors speech made Bexhill’s past come alive from retelling and relating how the church got there. 

This finale to the fun left the community of the town in high spirits and left them pondering on what might happen in another 1250 years.