Publications
History of the parish church of Battle dedicated to St Mary the Virgin: Battle Abbey's surviving chapel, by Clifford Braybrooke, published 2009 (published by the author) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16502] & The Keep [LIB/502487] & Battle & District Historical Society & East Sussex Libraries
Review by John Bleach in Sussex Past & Present no. 125, December 2011:During preparation for interior redecoration at Battle church in 1845, many medieval wall paintings were uncovered. They weren't exposed for very long - the churchwardens had them whitewashed over within a twelvemonth, but not before they had been recorded by the artist W. H. Brooke. He may be familiar to SAS members through a short article by Sue Farrant in Newsletter 40 (Aug 1983), 338-9; perhaps, also, as an assiduous recorder in watercolour of the streets and houses of Hastings in the 1830s to 50s. But it is his record of the wall paintings which delights here, and forms one of the strengths of the book. Half a dozen Brooke studies are reproduced in colour, along with other historic views and modern photographs.
Braybrooke's investigation of Battle church begins with a tour of the standing remains and follows up with a chronological survey of the history of the church. His excellently illustrated study joins others - Taylor on Seaford (1st ed., 1937), Bullock on Hollington (1949) and Foxell on Amberley (2005) come to mind - as a book-length guide to the history and architecture of a Sussex medieval church.
Braybrooke's investigation of Battle church begins with a tour of the standing remains and follows up with a chronological survey of the history of the church. His excellently illustrated study joins others - Taylor on Seaford (1st ed., 1937), Bullock on Hollington (1949) and Foxell on Amberley (2005) come to mind - as a book-length guide to the history and architecture of a Sussex medieval church.