In Wealden, the largest of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex, there are 50 former churches, chapels and places of worship which are now used for other purposes or are disused. The mostly rural district, with five towns and multiple villages, has a 1,200-year documented history of Christian worship—a Saxon leader founded a church at Rotherfield in 790—and by the 19th century nearly every settlement had at least one church, as formerly extensive parishes were split up. Some have since fallen out of use because of changing patterns of population or declining attendance, or because they have been superseded by other churches. Protestant Nonconformism, always strong in Sussex, flourished in the area now covered by the district: many Baptist, Methodist and Congr