The Rector retires
Our Rector, the Revd Jonathan Meyer, retired at the beginning of February 2025.
Please check our home page for information on parish contacts during the vacancy.
St Richard’s Winchelsea Beach
Worship at St Richard’s came to an end during the Covid 19 lockdown in 2020. A final Service of Thanksgiving was held in June 2023 and the building was then sold.
After extensive efforts to contact next of kin, we obtained permission to re-inter the cremated remains that had been buried in the grounds of St Richard’s, and these have been placed in Winchelsea churchyard.
Services at Winchelsea Beach began in the 1930s as the new community developed, but paused with the wartime evacuation of the whole area. Worship resumed in 1949. The 1930s church had been created in a group of lock-up garages. A new building was proposed.
Designed by Duncan Wylson of Rye and built by Padden and Durrant, the new St Richard’s opened in 1962. The original concrete altar was brought from the garages, and the electronic organ came from Rochester Cathedral. The new church might have been allocated to Rye Harbour or to Pett but in 1966 it was agreed to combine Winchelsea Beach with Winchelsea parish, recognizing the role that Winchelsea had taken in supporting the building of the new church.
Wildflower Circles
We have created three wildflower areas to increase the biodiversity of Winchelsea churchyard.
They encourage insect life which, in turn, helps give a food source to our colony of Swifts, which return each year to their nest sites in the walls of the church.
Here, among the yellow rattle, a spotted orchid.