PARISH OF EASTBOURNE ALL SOULS

The church was founded by Lady Victoria Tylney Long Wellesley, a great-niece of the Duke of Wellington, who lived with her aunts, the Misses Tylney Long, in the parish of Holy Trinity, Eastbourne. The aunts were wealthy and decided to found a church to serve the artisans who lived in the part of the parish known as The Marsh; their wishes were carried out by Lady Victoria. The design, by Alfred P Strong, was copied from a church in the Lombardy district of Italy, in the Byzantine style. The Duke of Devonshire gave the site, and built the parish room at his own expense.

The foundation stone was laid by the Bishop of Chichester on 14 June 1881, and the church was consecrated on 6 July 1882. Services were held in a room known as Waverley House School in Susans Road, Eastbourne, while the church was being built.

The church was extensively damaged during the Second World War, and was closed from early 1941 to the summer of 1946. Further major restoration works were carried out in the 1960s. The foundations of the main walls had been sunk to a depth of twenty feet to overcome the swampy nature of the soil. The flooring was largely independent of the main structure, however, and the chancel floor subsided. A brass corona which hung in the chancel was taken down during church repairs and modernisation in 1962, and not replaced.

All Souls' CE Infants' School opened in the parish room on 16 Apr 1883. The mixed school was opened in 1890 on the corner of Bourne Street and Longstone Road; the site was donated by the Duke of Devonshire. The infants' school closed in 1907, but All Souls' Mixed School continued until 1922; All Souls' School then continued as a boys' school, and Holy Trinity CE School became an infants and girls' school. All Souls' Boys' School did not receive pupils after 1940, and the premises were requisitioned during the war. The school was officially closed around 1949.

Summary of contents:

INCUMBENT

PAR311/1/2 Baptism registers; 1882-1958

PAR311/1/3 Marriage registers; 1882-1959

PAR311/1/4 Banns registers; 1882-1987

PAR311/2 Records elating to registers; 1915-1957

PAR311/3 Service registers; 1893-1993

PAR311/4 Buildings; [1876] - c1998

PAR311/5 Institutions, licences and inductions; 19136-1962

PAR311/7 Other records; 1880s - 2001

CHURCHWARDENS

PAR311/9 Accounts; 1882-1918

PAR311/10 Property records; 1972-1980

PAR311/11 Other records; 1968-1973

PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL

PAR311/14 Minutes; 1920-1978

PAR311/15 Accounts; 1929-1961

SCHOOLS

PAR311/25 Managers' minutes of All Souls' School; 1916-1940

OTHER

PAR311/26 British Legion; 1966

SPECIAL COMMITTEES

PAR311/43 Pathfinders and Church of England Men's Society; 1915-1968

<p>For Board of Education returns for All Souls' School, 1883-1904, see ESC 51/1/1.; for records concerning the history of All Soul's Church, see PAR 311/7/2/3-4, 13</p>

Deposited by the incumbent and PCC, 10 August 1994 (ACC 6406), 16 October 1996 (ACC 6925), 16 January 1997 (ACC 6963), and 14 December 1999 (ACC 8028)