St Mary's Church Rebuilt in Stone

c. 1170

St Mary's Church in North Hayling was rebuilt in stone during the twelfth century, probably on the site of an earlier Saxon timber church. The present building retains Norman fabric, including the nave arcades and parts of the chancel. The church is the oldest surviving structure on Hayling Island and has served the community continuously for over eight hundred years. The building has been altered and repaired over the centuries, with additions in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and later centuries, but the basic plan of the Norman church remains legible. St Mary's churchyard contains graves spanning many centuries, and the church's isolated position among the fields of North Hayling gives it an atmosphere of deep antiquity.