Plan submitted to covert former Sussex village church into a home

Wealden District Council received the plan for The Holy Rood Catholic Church in Castle Drive, Pevensey Bay, on July 24.

The application is for a ‘residential conversion of an existing former church building to form a single dwellinghouse with associated access and landscaping works’.

If approved, the home would have a total internal area of 249.6 square metres.

The site, which has been deconsecrated and vacant since January 2014, currently has spaces for 20 cars but the plan suggests that this should be cut down to four.

This application follows a previous refusal in December 2020 to convert the existing building to two four-bed homes and to build an additional two four-bedroom homes in the car park.

On the application it says: “At [the] ground floor there would be a generous entrance hall leading to a centrally-placed staircase atrium located within the central part of the nave of the former church, with generously-sized reception rooms located in each of the single storey wings of the building.

"Within the former altar and sacristy areas there would be [a] kitchen and dining rooms, respectively. At [the] first floor there would be three double bedrooms, one with en-suite, plus a family bathroom."

Externally, established window and door openings would generally be retained and there would be a number of new window openings, with the windows and surround treatments in keeping with the existing openings, according to the plan.

The application states that all windows to the former church would be replaced with clear glazed aluminium units of a style sympathetic to the character of the building.

On the plan it says: “Externally, a courtyard-style patio area would be situated to the rear of the church, adjacent the south-west site boundary with the remainder becoming [a] garden.”

As part of the proposals it says the plan, if approved, could assist in securing the future use of the vacant building and would result in the ‘visual enhancement of the site’ – while also providing a contribution towards housing supply.