St Peter's Church, Shoreham-by-Sea

The name St Peter's Church has been borne by two Roman Catholic churches in the town of Shoreham-by-Sea in the district of Adur, in the English county of West Sussex. The original church with that dedication was the town's first permanent Roman Catholic place of worship; founded in 1875, it was paid for by Augusta, Duchess of Norfolk, a member of the most important Dukedom in England. After its closure, a new St Peter's Church was built nearby. The old building, which still stands and is in residential use, has been listed by English Heritage at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.The former St Peter's ChurchHistoryThe settlement of Old Shoreham developed inland from the English Channel and next to the east bank of the River Adur. Its focus was the 10th-century St Nicolas' Church. Later development filled the gap between the village and the sea, and the growth of trade from its harbour in the 18th and 19th centuries brought prosperity to what was by then a small town.By the mid-19th century, two large Anglican churches were supported—St Nicolas' Church had been joined by the substantial St Mary de Haura Church—but Roman Catholics had no place of worship. Around that time, a priest began to travel in from nearby Worthing to celebrate Mass at a house in Surry Street; in 1870 this arrangement moved to a former schoolroom on a site between John Street and Ship Street. The land on which this stood had been acquired in the 1860s by the former Vicar of Shoreham, Reverend William Wheeler. He had left the Church of England and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1855, and donated the land to enable a permanent church to be built.