St Alban’s is about a ten-minute walk from the Martins Farm gate, on Church Lane at the end of Frant High Street. It makes an easy addition to a wander around the village: allow half an hour for a first look, longer if you enjoy following names on memorials.
Start outside, then step inside when the church is open to visitors. These are the details worth pausing over.
A newer church on an older site
The Gothic windows and battlemented tower suggest a medieval building. Much of what you see was actually built between 1819 and 1822, to designs by John Montier of Tunbridge Wells. Historic England lists St Alban’s at Grade II and records the later chancel addition in 1868.
The parish’s story reaches much further back. The church’s own history traces a chapel here to 1087, originally dependent on Rotherfield. A stone church gradually replaced the early building; centuries of repairs followed. During the nineteenth-century rebuilding, the lower part of the old tower was encased in new stone.
Look at the building with that in mind. Its history lies both in what was replaced and in what survived.
Look closely at the pillars
Inside, the surprise is iron. The pillars separating the nave from the aisles, the tracery dividing the windows and the surviving west gallery all use it. The gallery’s slender supports are particularly worth a look.
In a district so closely associated with ironworking, it is tempting to assume that everything came from a local furnace. The Sussex Parish Churches survey cautions against that conclusion: the last local forge had closed, and producing pieces of this size would have presented difficulties.
For the landscape behind that connection, read Iron under Frant.
Glass that survived the war
Some aisle windows contain pieces of fifteenth-century Flemish glass. A flying bomb damaged the church in 1944, destroying much of its glazing. The east window is a post-war replacement, made by J Powell and Sons in 1947.
The mixture of older fragments and later work is part of the building’s history. Take a moment to look at individual panels as well as the whole window.
A Sussex churchyard with a Canadian connection
Lieutenant-Colonel John By is buried here. The Royal Engineer supervised construction of the Rideau Canal and founded Bytown, the settlement later renamed Ottawa. He returned to Shernfold Park in Frant and died in 1836.
There is also a memorial to him inside the church, in the south aisle. It is an unexpectedly large story to encounter on a short village walk.
Our John By article follows the connection from Frant to Canada and back.
The church that helped the map-makers
Frant church also appears in the story of the surveys linking Greenwich and Paris in the late eighteenth century. Its position on the ridge made it useful to surveyors who needed long sightlines between their stations.
The distinction is worth remembering: those surveyors used the earlier church, before the rebuilding of 1819–22. The present tower belongs to a later chapter.
The day Frant helped measure London to Paris explains how the work contributed to the beginnings of the Ordnance Survey. A churchyard, a canal and a chain of triangles: Frant has kept itself reasonably occupied.
The lead theft and its aftermath
In June 2022, lead was stolen from part of the church roof. The parish’s review of that year described how the theft dominated the months that followed.
Its effects lasted well beyond the initial loss. Writing in September–October 2025, the rector linked interior staining to water damage after the theft. Redecoration was estimated at more than £36,000, within a wider programme of improvements. That figure covered the redecoration, rather than a final bill for the theft alone.
It is a recent reminder of the work involved in caring for the church that visitors see today.
Planning your visit
Address: St Alban’s Church, Church Lane, Frant, East Sussex TN3 9DX.
From Martins Farm: approximately ten minutes on foot or three minutes by car, before parking. Part of the lane has no pavement; choose daylight for a first walk.
Inside the church: for a visit outside services, contact the church office to arrange access.
Sunday worship: the church’s own website currently lists its main service at 10.30–11.30am. The first Sunday of the month is an all-age service. Check the church’s Sunday services page below for your visit.
Church office: 01892 752261 · office@frantanderidgechurches.org.uk.
Access: the church advertises wheelchair access for services. Contact the office about the entrance and any particular requirements.
St Alban’s is a working parish church. Give services and funerals their space, and treat the churchyard with the same consideration you would hope for at home.
You can combine the visit with the village green and The George, then wander back to the farm. Our Around Martins Farm guide has more nearby ideas. To make a weekend of it, explore The Oast and check dates and book.