Digmerg et Wivelesfeld."—Ditchling has a cross church, consisting of nave with south aisle and south porch, north and south transepts, central tower with low shingled spire, chancel, and another on the south side. The nave and aisle, under the same roof, are Norm., or rather Tr. Norm., the arches between them being pointed. One small Norm. window remains at the west end of the aisle. The tower, transepts, and chancels exhibit rich E.E. work, but the beauty of it is now buried under a deep coating of whitewash. The piers of the eastern tower arch seem to have been altered, apparently by paring down the original stones, the mouldings being varied about five feet from the ground. Possibly all the piers have been so treated, but these alone left somewhat unfinished. The great east window is new, but copied from the old, of three lights, with foliated circles above. On each side of this window is a niche, nearly or quite the height of the window, the northern trefoil-headed, E.E., the other cinquefoil-headed, Perp., but most probably an alteration coeval with other work in that style. The chancel windows have shafts at the angles of the jambs. The north wall contains a trefoil-headed ambry; and in the south wall is a double piscina, the upper portion, now Perp., seeming to have been rebuilt over the E.E. basins, of which one is filled with plaster. A plain sedile adjoins. In the south chancel the east and the two south windows are Dec. under E.E. arches. The piscina here is trefoil-headed under an ogée arch. A door in each chancel, and another in the north wall of the nave have been closed. In the chancel was a tie-beam with the tooth moulding carved upon it, but it was recently removed by the lay-rector. The north wall of the chancel, or at least the outside facing, has been partially rebuilt. The exterior of the church proves, that it has been much repaired at various periods.—South of the church, on the opposite side of the street, is a picturesque old house, formerly a mansion, now converted into a shop and cottages.
Beside the parish church there was a chapel somewhere in Ditchling about A.D. 1200. See the latter part of the account of St. John sub castro in the Note on Lewes. Possibly however by the chapel "of Dicheninge" may have been intended the church of Street, a contiguous parish, of which the name does not appear in Bp. Seffrid's charter.—This place, "Diccalingum," is bequeathed by King Alfred's will. (Asser's Alfred, by Wise, 77.)
