Description of the attraction
Church-in-the-woods is located in Hollington, a suburb of Hastings, in the south of England. Officially, it is called the Church of St. Leonard, and originally it was the Church of St. Rumbold.
Hollington is now a large suburb of Hastings, consisting mainly of post-war residential buildings, but the church has stood here in the thicket of the forest since its construction - from the 13th century. It replaced the chapel that existed here in the 11th century. When the church of St. Leonard in the suburbs of Hastings ceased to exist in the early 15th century, the name was mistakenly applied to this church. The name "church-in-the-woods" has been known since the middle of the 19th century. At this time it was still a parish church, but it was in a terrible state. At one time it was believed that it would be easier to demolish it than to repair it, but the parishioners insisted on preserving the old church. The reconstruction took about 20 years and the church took on a very Victorian look. Very little has survived from the original Norman building. There is an old cemetery at the church. The first documented burials date back to 1606, and the oldest surviving monument dates back to 1678.
Now Hastings is expanding, the former outskirts are becoming part of the city, there is active housing construction, but the forest around the church remains intact. Many legends are associated with this church. For example, they talk about the conflict between the devil and the builders - every night all their day work was destroyed, and building materials disappeared. A disembodied voice told the builders that this place belongs to the devil, and the church needs to be built in another place. In the place indicated by the voice, the church was built without problems, and a dense forest immediately grew around it, hiding it either from the devil, or from the parishioners (here the legends say different things).
