St George

In about 1017, soon after his marriage to Emma of Normandy, King Cnut granted a land called ‘Rammesleah’ to the Abbey at Fécamp in Normandy. Construction of the present church in around 1180 was probably funded by the Abbot of Fécamp. Until 1415 Brede remained under the domination of the Abbey and the parish was served by its Benedictine monks until the last ‘alien’ (foreign) priories were dissolved during the reign of King Henry V.

The name of the village is first found in a charter of around 1030 and comes from Old English ‘bredu’ meaning breadth’ referring to the wide river to the south. The River Brede later took its name from the village. 

The church is dedicated to St George, probably a soldier martyred in Palestine in the early 4th century. Besides also being Patron Saint of England he is remembered above all for the legend of ‘St George and the Dragon’. There is a window dedicated to him at the west end of the north aisle and a statue near the altar in the church.

Very little of the late 12th century building remains and the structure of the church developed over a period of some 400 years from the 12th century onwards. From the exterior, much of what one sees is 15th century architecture. The walls were built of local sandstone and ironstone. High on a buttress near the porch is a brass sundial dated 1826.

The chapel also houses the thoughtful statue of the Virgin and Child by Clare Sheridan (artist, writer, and cousin of Sir Winston Churchill). Other notable treasures include the Stations of the Cross painted by Sir Thomas Monnington, fragments of reset medieval glass, and some good examples of glass painting from the 19th century.

The view of the Brede valley and the hills beyond is magnificent.