Rustington Museum launches fascinating exhibition about village churches and the people behind them

She said: "This is about the history of all the churches in the village and the people involved. We present what we have got and we love to hear what people can add to it. I do the exhibitions and I want people to add to it with their own stories. I love having people involved."

One cabinet has a collection of five images representing the churches in Rustington – the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Rustington Methodist Church, St Andrew's United Reformed Church, St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church and Arun Church, which is now based in Littlehampton but was founded in Rustington in 1972 and still runs a playcentre in The Street, as well as a youth club in association with Rustington Parish Council.

Claire said: "The churches in the village have supported each other over the years, offering spaces for services and holding celebrations together. The Tell Rustington Campaign was held in 1961 with the Methodist Church, St Andrew's and the Parish Church. Services, meetings and film nights were held during the week of March 18 to 26."

Claire is thrilled to have a pair of church gates that are made from wood that is nearly 1,000 years old. These are from the lych-gate at St Peter and St Paul and they were made in 1860 from old roof timbers from the church. The church is believed to date from 1170, with other parts added in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Rev Henry John Rush was overseeing restoration at the church in the 19th century and some of the original wood was saved to make the gates, with a plaque noting their provenance. Claire said: "The damaged gates were recently removed to be replaced with new ones by Cooper Joinery of Rustington and after the exhibition, they will be preserved by Constructive Heritage."

This collection-based exhibition will be running until summer and Claire has done a lot of work to research past rectors and vicars at the parish church. Thomas Kirkland from 1941, for example, may have had Kirkland Close named after him, and Simon de Bredon, rector in 1348, was a prominent mathematician and physicist.

The Rev Edmund Stansfield was vicar from 1871 to 1908 and lived at The Vicarage, in The Street, with his family. He was very interested in music and composed his own tunes, named after Saints. His image was used as part of the Rustington organ screen, made up of seven panels and five shields. This once covered the organ pipes at St Peter and St Paul Church and was presented by churchwarden John Edward Parry in memory of his late wife, Constance Hasebridge Parry.

Claire said: "The organ screen has probably not been seen for quite some years. We're not sure when it was taken down, possibly in the 1970s during the refurbishment but definitely before 1994. Does anybody know for sure? We'd love to find out." The painting of St Peter, holding keys, is based on the Rev Stansfield, while St Paul is based on Hubert Parry, composer of the hymn Jerusalem. The screen was designed by Carruthers Corfield, who ran Shaftesbury House for diabetic children, and painted by Edwin Arthur Morrow.

Carruthers was also a churchwarden and some of his books are on display. He wrote Epitaphs, an anthology of tributes from the Parish News dating from May 1951 to March 1953, to raise funds for the building of the new vestry in 1957. He was a keen historian and researched the families connected to Rustington, producing the first guidebook in 1946 and his last in 1960. There are also later guidebooks by Morris Heynes, a gold one published in 1983 and silver one from 2000, updated to include information on the Mensa Stone that was found in 1994. The front cover illustrations for these are by Charles Vincent, another churchwarden, who is buried in the churchyard.

Two of Charles' paintings are also on show among a selection of paintings of St Peter and St Paul by artists with a connection to the parish church. Claire has hung his two paintings together and said what is interesting about them is that they are of the same view but done in a different style. Another of the paintings is by William George Sinclair Snow, who was vicar at St Wilfrid's Church in Bognor Regis from 1952 to 1976. He came to Rustington in 1979 as curate and when he died in 1996, he was also buried in the churchyard.