Kent churches - Some new architectural notes (contd.)

KENT CHURCHES - SOME NEW ARCHITECTURAL NOTES (contd.) CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY TIM TATTON-BROWN INTRODUCTION During the last few years, the author has surveyed all the churches in and around Canterbury where there are surviving fabric remains. Some of these surveys have already been published, for example the full series of measured drawings of St. Mary, N orthgate.1 The documentary and pictorial evidence2 has also been studied, and several of the sites of demolished churches have been investigated by excavation by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. These include St. Mary Bredin,3 All Saints,4 St. Margaret's,s and St. George.6 1 S.S. Frere, S. Stow and P. Bennett, Excavations on the Roman and medieval defences of Canterbury, The Archaeology of Canterbury II (1982), 88-91 and figs. 44-9. 2 A good example of pictorial evidence supplying useful information is Francis Grose's 1788 drawing of St. Mary, Bredman, showing an early fourteenth-century splitcusped tracery window on the north side of the chancel, which was removed during the rebuilding of 1822 (Fig. 1). 3 Excavations in the Marlowe Car Park area, full report in The Archaeology of Canterbury V in (forthcoming); see also K. and P. Blockley and Marion Day, 'St. Mary Bredin, Canterbury,' CBA Churches Bulletin 19 (winter 1983), 1-4. 4 See interim note and plan of 1986 excavation in Arch. Cant., civ (1987), 308-11. 5 See interim note and plan of 1986 excavation in Arch. Cant., ciii (1986), 199-202. 6 See documentary survey in Arch. Cant., cix (1991), 311-17 and interim note (and plan of early phases) of 1991-92 excavation in Arch. Cant., ex (1992), 359-61. 189 TIM TATTON-BROWN The fourteen churches surveyed here are: 1. St. Mildred 8. St. Martin 2. St. Paul 9. St. Nicholas, Thanington 3. St. Dunstan 10. St. Mary, Nackington 4. St. Alphege 11. St. Mary, Fordwich 5. St. Peter 12. St. Nicholas, Sturry 6. St. Mary Magdalene 13. St. Stephen, Hackington 7. Holy Cross 14. St. Michael and All Angels, Harbledown l. ST. MILDRED, CANTERBURY (Fig. 2) Built just inside the south-west comer of the city walls with a large parish extending outside the walls to the south, the river Stour runs along the north-west side of the large churchyard. The church is at Fig. I. 190 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY about 36 ft. above O.D. and the Norman castle on higher ground lies just to the south. 7 The shell of the nave (and probably the whole of the chancel) almost certainly date from before the Norman conquest. The church was perhaps built here in the mid-eleventh century, soon after the relics (body) of St. Mildred had been brought from Minster-in-Thanet to St. Augustine's Abbey.8 The south-west and south-east quoins of the nave are made of very large blocks of Marquise oolite (with some Hythe stone) that are almost certainly re-used from Roman buildings. The nave and south-west chancel walls also contain many re-used Roman bricks. 9 No original windows or doors survive, even in fragmentary form, as much of the south wall of the nave was refaced when larger windows were inserted in the early fourteenth century. The first addition to the original nave and chancel was probably the tower added to the north side of the nave in the later thirteenth century.10 It was demolished in 1836, but earlier drawings show it as a low structure with only one stage projecting above the nave ridge.11 The lower north wall of the tower still survives with two lancets in it (both totally restored in Bath stone externally). Three further lancets (also heavily restored externally) in the north wall, running east from the tower north wall, suggest that a north-east chapel was also built in the thirteenth century. The next alterations were the insertion in the early fourteenth century of the three fine tall square-headed windows with hood-moulds in the 7 The earliest reference to the church is in the account of a dispute between Archbishop Lanfranc and the monks of St. Augustine's Abbey, which occurred just after the death of Abbot Scolland (September, 1087). The monks are recorded as having gone off to St. Mildred's Church, 'sitting under the castle wall.' See W. Urry, Canterbury under the Angevin Kings (1967), 208. St. Augustine's Abbey was the patron until its dissolution in 1538 when the patronage of the church went to the crown. 8 G. Ward, 'The age of St. Mildred's Church, Canterbury,' Arch. Cant., !iv (1941), 62-8, and R.V. Potts, 'St. Mildred's Church, Canterbury - further notes on the site,' Arch. Cant., lvi (1943), 19-22. The latter article shows convincingly that St. Mildred's is not the site of the early ninth century 'refuge' church of St. Mary. 9 B.C. Worssam and T.W.T. Tatton-Brown, 'The stone of the Reculver columns and the Reculver Cross,' in (Ed.) D. Parsons, Stone Quarrying and Building in England AD 43-1525 (1990), 61-2. 10 Both Somner and Hasted record Stow as saying that the church and this area of the city were burnt in a major fire in c. 1246. 11 See H. Petrie's drawing 1801 from the south-west (in the K.A.S. Scrapbook of photos of Petrie's watercolours of Kent churches); also J. Buckler's two views from the north-east and south-west of the same date (now at Canterbury Museums). The original drawings are at the British Library, Add. Ms. 36367-8. There is also a late eighteenthcentury wash drawing by F. Grose taken from the north-west (also at Canterbury Museums). 191 ...... \0 N 'megalithic' ljJOITTS 0 I I I I NOOTH AISLE : : TMR . ---- C. 1486 I I defOOlis,ed 1836 􀀛-----􀀜9, •----------􀀝-;t; II -r------- ----􀀠􀀡---- ________ ),.. .. --􀀢􀀣 c c mnb, j i !i&: m 􀀣 «--- 1 i NAVE 1· I I · (!Sawn I . I [X)S t rmf i I ; . I ST. MILDRED' S CHlRCH, CANTERBLRY, KENT CC11th 􀀶early C13th i,:a1ater (13th fflC151h ■c.1512 me 19th ? 1 􀀇 􀀈 ': ?ITT Fig. 2. 􀀉 􀀊 􀀋 f 􀀌 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY south wall of the nave and one in the south-west wall of the chancel. At the same time, the nave wall was refaced in much of its upper sections and a buttress (with a plinth) was added. Of these four windows, that at the east end of the nave (which was originally all made out of Rags tone) is perhaps a little earlier with its simpler trefoiled heads to the main lights and elongated quatrefoils above. The other windows have a hexafoil in the centre and half-hexafoils on either side, all above two ogee-headed cinquefoils at the top of the main lights. 12 In the fifteenth century, the north-east chapel may have been rebuilt and enlarged to the east with a new three-light perpendicular east window (unfortunately, all of this work has been renewed externally in Bath stone and with new flint facing). A new four-light east window may also have been built at this time, but it too is almost entirely nineteenth-century work externally as is the surrounding flint face, the high plinth and the flanking buttresses. The three-light perpendicular window at the west end of the nave is also of about the same date. The enlarged north-east chapel, which was probably dedicated to St. John the Baptist (to infer from the evidence of wills), is connected with the chancel by two arches on the south. That to the east is now almost entirely nineteenth-century, while that on the west has semi-octagonal responds and an arch over of the thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century. All of this chapel area is now taken up with modem vestries. In the chancel were some fifteenth-century stalls, of which some of the poppy-head ends are now at the extreme west end of the nineteenthcentury stalls; they have an eagle with a scroll - the sy mbol of St. John the Evangelist. Both the nave and chancel have separate fifteenth-century crownpost roofs; that in the nave is on moulded tie-beams which are mostly on wall-posts with braces. The chancel roof has a crenellated wallplate. A will of 1486 tells us that reparations were going on in the nave at that time, and that a new vestry was being built. 13 This must relate to the building of the surviving vestry on the north-east, and probably to the construction of the new north-west aisle. The vestry has a single round-headed light (with square hood-mould) on the north (with five surviving original glazing bars) and a two-light window on the east. The vestry has a plinth all around and an external door on the north- 12 These windows can be roughly compared with those inserted in the south wall of the nave of Fordwich church at about the same date (see below). There is another single-light window shown in the early nineteenth-century drawings at the east end of the nave south wall. It may have had a trefoiled head and is also probably early fourteenth-century. A refaced area in the present wall shows its position. 13 See Testamenta Cantiana (East Kent, 1907), 60-1, which also mentions the chapel of St. John the Baptist. 193 TIM TATTON-BROWN west. The buttress at the north-east corner of the earlier chapel was probably added at the same time, and the southern ends of the two vestry walls are continued up as north buttresses to the chapel. There is a fine original door (with a heavily burnt face) and doorway (in Caen stone) from this vestry into the north-east chapel. The north gable of the vestry displays the end of a queen-strut truss with clasped sidepurlins. This may be the original roof, but it is perhaps a little later (sixteenth-century). There is a fine external moulded string course around the upper vestry wall, and the mortice holes in the tie-beam inside the vestry suggest that it originally had an upper part. The north-west aisle also has a continuous plinth around it, and the buttress at the north-west comer of the nave seems to be of the same date. All the quoins (as well as those on the vestry) are of large sidealternate blocks of Hythe stone. The two buttresses on the north side of the north aisle are both nineteenth-century. The north-west aisle is lit from the north by a three-light window with round heads under a square hood-mould. There are fine carved heads externally in the spandrels of this window. The west window to this aisle now has nineteenth-century perpendicular tracery in it, but the 1801 watercolour just shows a c. eighteenth-century wooden frame, 14 while Jewitt (c. 1857) shows Y-tracery.15 The gable above this window is entirely of red-brick (behind peeling plaster), and may just possibly be late fifteenth-century work. It is more likely, however, to be later in date. The north doorway into the new north-west aisle is a fine four-centred one made of Caen stone. It still contains its original pair of doors (though repaired at the bottom).16 Connecting the new north-west aisle with the nave is a pair of late fifteenth-century four-centred arches. They sit on finely carved ragstone octagonal and semi-octagonal piers with concave faces.17 On the west face of the central octagonal pier, at the top, is an original canopied niche (now containing a c. 1910 figure of St. Mildred). Under the east side of the eastern arch is a fine late fifteenth-century font with its original oak cover with crocketed angles and finial (and pulley cable).18 The font, which stands on a decorated pedestal with moulded plinth, has 14 See the watercolour by Petrie op. cit. (note 11). 1s 0. Jewitt's engraving in Arch. Cant., i (1858), 143, illustrating R. Hussey's brief article on St. Mildred's church. 16 There is a fine eighteenth-century inner lobby to this doorway with a benefaction board above it. 11 Compare this arcade with the similar and contemporary arcade in St. Alphege's church, Canterbury. 1s Late medieval font covers have also survived at Holy Cross, St. Alphege and St. Dunstan's churches in Canterbury. This font and cover is illustrated in H.R. Pratt Boorman and V.S. Torr, Kent Churches 1954, 126. 194 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY quatrefoils with rosettes on its upper faces. Glynne also records an aperture for the rood-loft between the nave and chancel.19 On the south-east side of the chancel is a fine Chantry chapel for the local Atwood family, said to have been built in 1512. It has much attractive chequer work externally, of knapped flint and Caen stone with an original consecration cross on a panel at the south end of the east wall. Another cross may have been on the now worn-away panel above the south-west doorway into the chapel. The south and west windows of this chapel are of three lights with round heads under square hood-moulds. The east window is of three lights with perpendicular tracery (no doubt to match the existing east windows), and to the north of this the base of an earlier buttress to the south corner of the chancel can be seen.20 The upper east and west gables of this chapel were rebuilt with knapped flint faces in the nineteenth century each with a cross on it. The west gable also contains the chimney for the nineteenth-century fireplace in the west wall of the chapel. The early nineteenth-century drawings show small lancets in the east and west gables of this chapel. There may, therefore, have been a small upper chamber here. The wide four-centred arch from the chancel into this chapel was reopened when the chapel was restored in 1905. This chapel now has a five-canted nineteenth-century ceiling below its roof. A major restoration of the church was carried out by Butterfield in 1861 when the west gallery (with organ) and all earlier pews were removed. The organ was then put on the north side of the choir.21 The north porch, replacing an earlier porch, was added on in c. 1900. Another restoration was done in 1973 after a serious fire in the choir vestry in December 1972.22 The main original building materials are whole rounded flints and large Tertiary sandstone boulders with re-used Roman bricks for the rubblework of the nave and chancel. There are also very large re-used Roman blocks for quoins made of Hythe stone and Marquise.23 Later medieval features use Kentish ragstone (from the Hythe area) and Caen stone as well as knapped flint facework. Some red bricks can be found in the north-west aisle (late fifteenth-century) as well as red brickwork 19 S. Glynne, The Churches of Kent (1877), 20. 20 The buttress supported the south side of the south-east quoin of the chancel. Its projecting plinth has a re-used block of Marquise stone, probably from the original southeast quoin. 21 In 1973 the organ was moved to the west end of the north aisle. 22 The eight fine hatchments in the church and the Royal Arms ( of George III) were also restored in 1973. 23 Op. cit. (note 9). 195 TIM TATTON-BROWN in the west gable and cornice area (of a later date). All of the outside walls were plastered originally. The south-east chantry chapel is faced in chequer-work of knapped flint and (?re-used) Caen stone blockwork. Nineteenth-century restorations are in Bath stone. There is a fifteenthcentury stained glass figure of St. Mildred in the west window of the Atwood Chantry, and some fine seventeenth- and eighteenth-century memorials in the church and churchyard.24 2. ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY (Fig. 3) Immediately outside the Burgate on the east side of Canterbury, St. Paul's is situated on the south side of Church Street between Burgate and the cemetery gate of St. Augustine's Abbey at 50 ft. above O.D. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the church consisted of a nave and chancel on the north, with a small tower to the west, and a large south aisle and chapel (wider than the nave) which was probably dedicated to St. John the Baptist. It served, perhaps from the beginning, as Hamo Doge's chantry chapel (though his house in Chantry Lane was also part of the chantry).25 By the later fifteenth century, this south chapel is called, in wills, the chancel of St. Mary. An altar of All Saints is also mentioned in a will of 1498, as well as an altar of St. John the Evangelist (1480), and various lights. In 1490, a new pair of organs was bought 'to serve God in the church,'26 There is no evidence, from the remaining fabric, of anything here earlier than about the middle of the thirteenth century, and it is clear that the church was extensively rebuilt at this time. It seems highly likely that this was during and just after Hamo Doge's time as Rector, when he was handing over the patronage of the church to St. Augustine's Abbey, and was endowing a new vicarage (in the 1260s). He was also creating a chantry here for himself (and his friend, Abbot Roger of Chichester).27 We also have documentary evidence for the rebuilding of the north wall of the church 3½ ft. further north (into the street) in 1264.28 Permission was given for a new wall 60 ft. long, 24 The parish registers also tell us that the well-known fisherman, 'Isaack Walton and Rachel Floudd were maryed the 27th day of December Ao. 1626.' (Ed.) C.E. Woodruff, An Inventory of the Parish Registers and other Records in the Diocese of Canterbury (1922), 47. 25 For Doge's chantry, see (Ed.) A. Hussey, Kent Records xii, 'Kent Chantries' part I (1932), 60-2. 26 (Ed.) A. Hussey, Testamenta Cantiana (East Kent, 1907), 61-2. 27 Op. cit. (note 25) and W. Urry, 'Master Hamo Doge, founder of the Chantry' in (Ed.) M. Sparks, The Parish of St. Martin and St. Paul (1980), 36-40. 2s Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1258-66, 380. 196 -'° --.J ,1500 '-North wall be(on 1264- r-------: piscin11 I I PORCH : N A. V [ l CHANCEL 1------ : : i ----- 􀀋-------- CJ :::::::_-_-3􀀒 _________ :􀀆=----------- 1 SOUTH AISLE (NAVE FROM 18:if) 1 Cl/APEL or 5T.JOI/N•TI/E-8APTIST (LATER ST.f RY) ! 1/P 􀀇 ,r -------􀀉-------------􀀊maJ--..---.?/4 / V/-1 0ri9inal outer wall lint NEW SOUTH AISLE 185􀀱 LJ l3"'century 􀀈 t9"'century .< St Paul's, Canterbury Men5 T T·B et de/ DD Apri/􀀕3 10mctra 1,;a;,;e;,;,2==$=ee!=S-=,=======i=' 0 10 20 30 '"' Fig. 3. () I (/) z 􀀁 I () I TIM TATTON-BROWN and the present north wall is about 69 ft. long. Though this has been rebuilt (in knapped flint) at its east end (c. 1847-48), there can be little doubt that the rest of the wall is of c. 1264 with flint, local sandstone, etc. The one original window here was probably inserted a little later (in the early fourteenth century). It has two lights with ogee cusped trefoil heads. Above is a cusped quatrefoil with an external two-centred hood-mould. The pre-Restoration drawing of the north wall of the church29 shows two slightly earlier (later thirteenth century) windows west of it in the nave (now with renewed tracery). To the east of it are a slim two-light window (now removed and filled in), and another late thirteenth-century two-light window. Two new windows were put in here in the old chancel after the rebuilding of 1847-48. The two east windows with their fine examples of early 'Decorated' tracery must also date from the later thirteenth-century and could be as early as the 1270s (i.e. at the end of Hamo Doge's life). Inside the church, the original arcade with three shafts and moulded capitals and bases probably also dates to Doge's time of rebuilding (1260s). The eastern shaft (between the two chancels) is more elaborately moulded and, unusually, is made entirely of Purbeck marble. The arches above are simple two-centred affairs with chamfered edges. In the north wall between the old chancel and nave division is a trefoil-headed piscina (later thirteenth-century also) which must mark the site of an altar (possibly the earlier high altar). The lowest part of the tower has simple openings to east and south with stopped chamfers, having bulbous stops (also thirteenth-century). The quatrefoil window on the north side of the tower is perhaps of the late fourteenth century.3o By the late fifteenth century, there was clearly a rood screen across both chancels and each screen must have had a cross above it. For example, Richard Barnes' will of 1461 requests that he is 'buried in the Church of St. Paul in the yle before the Cross in the south part of the church.' He gave money 'to the two Lights of the Cross, the small cross on the south part of the church'. Many other lights, and images, are mentioned.31 A major restoration was carried out under G.G. Scott between 1847 and 1856, after which the church was reconsecrated by the archbishop. This was undertaken at the Reverend William Chesshyre's expense. In 184 7, work started on the rebuilding of the north-east side of the church (north wall of the original chancel). Then the upper stage of the tower 29 Published in C. Donaldson, A Short History and Guide of St. Paul's Church, Canterbury (1975), 8. 30 Compare this quatrefoil with the windows at the top of the nave aisle walls in Canterbury Cathedral. 31 Test. Cant. (E. Kent, 1907), 61-2. 198 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY was rebuilt (earlier it was of stuccoed brickwork), with a new flint face. Because the population of the parish was increasing, it was decided to build a new south aisle (and vestry), and possibly to extend the original south aisle (now the nave) westwards.32 The old south and west walls were demolished and a new arcade, matching the north one but in Bath stone, was created. The whole of the west wall was rebuilt (including a refacing of the west wall of the tower), and a pointed roof was put on the tower. Almost all the window jambs, tracery, etc., were renewed, and only the two east windows and one in the north wall of the church are largely original. New pews and other fittings were then installed, and then in 1880 the sanctuary was refurnished with mosaic work, tiles, reredos, etc.33 A new organ was installed in the north-east corner of the church in 1900. Before the Scott restoration it had been in a west gallery. New stained glass was also added at various later dates, and all the roofs were reconstructed during the nineteenth-century restoration. The old font, described by Glynne as having 'a square bowl panelled, with three-foiled arches, on a square pedestal with the angles cut off,' was replaced during the Scott restoration.34 During the bombing in the last war much damage was done in the surrounding area and the glass was blown in. New east and west window glass was installed in 1951.35 3. ST. DUNSTAN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY (Fig. 4) The church lies beside the important junction between the London and Whitstable roads outside the west side of the city. Until the nineteenth century it was in Kent and not in the county borough. Situated on slightly higher ground above the main road, at about 50-60 ft. above O.D., the church is oriented well south of east. Probably the earliest visible remains are the large 'megalithic quoins' at the north-west corner of the nave which are probably re-used Roman blocks and may suggest a date in the first half of the eleventh century.36 32 The original thirteenth-century arch in the south side of the tower seems to suggest, however, that the earlier south aisle already extended as far west as at present. 33 The reredos was removed a few years ago. 34 See description in 1846 by Glynne (op. cit. note 19), 134. For many years the broken fragments of this original font lay in the church. They seem now to have disappeared. 35 Op. cit. (note 29). 36 See discussion in T. Tatton-Brown, 'The city and diocese of Canterbury in St. Dunstan's time' in (Eds.) N. Ramsay, M. Sparks and T. Tatton-Brown, St. Dunstan, His Life, Times and Cult (1992), 80. 199 TIM TATTON-BROWN NAVE D 11,. century 􀀲 Latert4"'/IS"'c. 􀀲 Early 14"' century 􀀳 16,.century 􀀴 £ 1330 ii 17"century llfil 19'"century CHANCEL """"7m,----.z77#'􀀬---------􀀭􀀮-􀀯􀀰􀀱=-􀀲=-􀀳􀀴-------·-@'::·::::::􀀵-=;.=··--:-;:􀀶.::::·:: __ :::: CHAPEL OF SOUTH AISLE /: :: St. NICHOLAS Alf ! 11 J ( Over Rop1r vau/􀀯 10 1.0 Fig. 4. ' I 30 /ttt Men,.rr-8 etdtl. PP.Ja"91 The blocks, which are in the lower half of the corner only, are of Hythe and Marquise stone.37 On the other hand, the whole of the nave and chancel may only have been built soon after the Norman Conquest. There is 'herringbone work' on the north side and small Caen stone (as well as the Marquise and Hythe stone) quoins. Local flint and sandstone rubble is used, and both the nave and chancel are an original feature, though no late eleventh- or twelfth-century architectural details remain. This rebuilding may have taken place at about the time the patronage of the church was given by the archbishop to St. Gregory's Priory in c. 1085.38 Unusually, there is no evidence for a subsequent enlargement of the church until the early fourteenth century, when the south aisle and south arcade were built.39 There are three fine two-light windows 37 There are also some smaller blocks of Marquise stone in the north-eastern quoins of the nave and chancel. For the early use of Marquise stone, which is also found in the early quoins of St. Mildred's church, see op. cit. (note 9), above. 38 This donation is recorded in the foundation charter for the Priory, see (Ed.) A.M. Woodcock, Cartulary of the Priory of St. Gregory, Canterbury (Camden 3rd series lxxxviii 1956), I, but Dr Martin Brett (pers. comm.) points out that this charter was probably only made in the thirteenth century. 39 This may suggest no major expansion in population outside the West Gate until quite a little later. 200 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY in the south aisle wall with big octofoils (really split-cusping) at the head. A similar window was inserted into the nave north wall. The big lancet to the west of the latter has a rere-arch which suggests it is also early fourteenth-century in date. The inserted trefoil headed window on the north-east side of the chapel is also probably early fourteenth-century, though without a rere-arch, and the original east window was probably of the same date.40 In 1330, a roadside chapel (with a door from the street) was added to the north-west corner of the church. Dedicated to the Holy Trinity, it was founded by Henry of Canterbury, the king's chaplain, and in the care of the Poor Priests' Hospital. 41 The east window of this chapel has been blocked up perhaps in c. 1685 when the porch roof was rebuilt.42 The west window of the Trinity Chapel has new later nineteenth-century tracery. Earlier nineteenth-century views show the window empty and blocked, though a Grose drawing of 1758 apparently shows a three-light window. There is also a small north window (square-headed) and a north doorway (now blocked). Inside the chapel (a vestry since at least the eighteenth century), there is a piscina and blocked up squint window in the south wall (now a cupboard). The main addition of the fifteenth century is the tall thin tower, added to the west end of the south aisle. The tower arch is of the same date as is the low round stair-turret on the south. The external door to this was inserted in the late nineteenth century. 43 A vault under the tower seems to have been intended, but was never built. The present slender timber 'ribs' and boss are presumably nineteenth-century. Nearby rope-marks can be seen on the north-east and west internal faces. A few fragments of ancient glass remain in the west window under the tower. There are six bells in the tower, which hang in a new (1936) frame. The top portion of the tower has had considerable repair internally with concrete and tile courses being added. Following the completion of the tower in the fifteenth century, the south aisle was re-roofed, and a new south parapet was built. The wall posts on corbels in the south aisle wall perhaps date from this time, though the almost flat roof and ceiling has been restored. A new west 40 As can be seen in a drawing of the church interior (now in the vestry) made before the major 1880 restoration. 41 See W. Somner, The Antiquities of Canterbury (1703 edition), 168-9. 42 See elevation drawing in T. Tatton-Brown, 'The Trinity Chapel, St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury,' Arch. Cant., xcviii (1982), 234-5. 43 At the same time, as early nineteenth-century drawings show, the parapet to the stair-turret was removed and replaced by the still-existing conical roof. 201 TIM TATTON-BROWN doorway (with square hood-mould) and the three-light perpendicular west window to the nave above it (with restored tracery) was also built in the fifteenth century, as was the surviving four-bay crownpost roof (and probably the two-bay chancel roof - which now has a Victorian boarded ceiling). There is also a square-headed fifteenthcentury two-light window on the north side of the chancel (replacing an earlier window - see external knapped flint infill above the later window), and it also seems likely that a stone porch was added at this time immediately east of the Trinity Chapel (the east window of which could still obtain light from above a steep-pitched porch roof). The porch was re-roofed and given new barge-boards in 1685 (the date is at the apex), perhaps at the time when the Trinity Chapel east window was blocked. Inside the church, under the tower, are the remains of a fifteenthcentury font and pinnacled wooden cover. The final addition to the church is the well-known early sixteenth-century brick Roper chantry chapel.44 The chapel of St. Nicholas was first established here in 1402,45 but no fifteenth-century remains appear to survive. The engaged columns for the arches to the south aisle and chancel are probably of brick with a plaster facing and of the sixteenth century. They have no bases. The stone column on the north (with a base) may be a later restoration. Under this chapel are the sixteenth-century and later brick burial vaults.46 The main restoration of the church was in 188047 when two lancets were inserted on either side of the west door and new tracery was put into the vestry west window. Much other external restoration and refacing was also carried out at this time, and a new floor was laid in the church. The organ was put into the Roper Chapel (removed from here to the west gallery in c. 1932) and new pews were made. The east window was completely rebuilt and raised so that a new reredos behind the high altar could be put in. A drawing in the vestry shows the interior of the church before this restoration with box pews and a small organ in the south aisle. There is a large pulpit ( on the same site as the present one), and a row of hatchments on the south upper wall of the chancel and nave. The main original building material was coursed whole flints and local sandstone with some re-used Roman bricks. The north-west quoin 44 This is fully drawn and described in T. Tatton-Brown, 'The Roper Chantry in St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury,' Antiq. Journ., Ix (1980), 227-46. 45 See A. Hussey, Kent Chantries pt. 1 (1932), 56-9. 46 For details, see op. cit. supra (note 44). 47 This date can also be found on the hoppers for the external drainpipes. 202 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY has large, probably re-used, Hythe stone and Marquise stone blocks. Also Marquise stone and Caen stone have been used for the nave and chancel north-east quoins. Some Reigate stone blocks in the west gable of the nave may suggest some thirteenth-century repairs. Then Caen stone was used for the early fourteenth-century work as well as much Kentish Rag for the late medieval quoins. Red bricks were used for the early sixteenth-century Roper Chapel (and Caen stone quoins), while the 1880 restoration made much use of Bath stone; Lepine stone was used in 1990 to replace externally the central window of the south aisle. There seems to have always been quite a large churchyard around the church, and burials here are recorded in wills from the mid-fifteenth century.48 4. ST. ALPHEGE, CANTERBURY (Fig. 5) This church is situated on the corner of Palace Street and St. Alphege Lane immediately across the street from the early thirteenth-century Great Hall of the archbishop's palace in the centre of Canterbury.49 It is about 35 ft. above O.D., and is aligned south of east, like most Canterbury churches. The earliest visible remains of this church date from the twelfth century. They consist of the original short north wall of the chancel with the north-east quoin ( of small blocks of Caen stone with diagonal tooling), and probably of the south-west corner of the nave, which is incorporated into the later tower. The core of the north wall of the nave may be twelfth-century as well, but it was refaced and largely rebuilt with a new plinth in the later fifteenth century. In the thirteenth century, the whole church was greatly enlarged bringing it up to its present size by making a new nave and chancel to the south, and a new tower to the west of the old nave. The old chancel became a Lady Chapel, and also had its east end extended up the Palace Street frontage. In the north wall of the extended Lady Chapel chancel there is a vertical line of Caen stone blocks which is probably the jamb of an original thirteenth-century window. Inside this north chancel is a trefoil-headed piscina in the south-east corner. Immediately west of it is 48 Testamenta Cantiana (E. Kent 1907), 49. The churchwardens' accounts of 1485-1580 are published in Arch. Cant. xvi (1886), 289-321, and xvii (1887), 77-149. See also (Ed.) J.M. Cowper, The Registers of St. Dunstan 's Canterbury (1887). 49 See J. Rady, T. Ta tton-Brown and J.A. Bowen, 'The Archbishop's P a l ace, Canterbury,' JBAA, cxliv (1991), 1-60. 203 TIM TATTON-BROWN Sr. Alphe9e's, Canterbury NORTH AISLE LAVY CHAPEL 􀀈 piscina _ ---------fJ;f ®-::-..-::::::::::::=-= =· n;/i;􀀏--=====-=--=-·:-:􀀅 ----------􀀎==-- N A V E ... ... "' CHANCEL 01=;,;:;! f -"==i="'"=='=-====if='10 mdru fO 20 30 tut LJ?f2,.century 􀀜 13,.century liill 14,. century R /!!"'century Fig. 5. a two-light early Decorated window without an external hood-mould (unlike the other fourteenth-century windows - see below). Then, west again, and set in the twelfth-century chancel wall, is a later thirteenthcentury lancet. There is another lancet at the west end of the south wall of the new nave. There are also two lancets on the north side of the tower, one above the doorway and another in the first stage of the tower; the latter is completely restored. There is aniother restored window on the west side of the tower. At the east end of the new chancel, a triple lancet was constructed and, though replaced by a perpendicular window, the two blocked lancets on either side of the later window can still be seen internally. The tower also dates from the thirteenth century and is without any buttresses. Originally it was entirely of stone with an upper parapet and small spirelet on top.50 In the later nineteenth-century restoration (see below) the upper stage was so The original tower with its spirelet is just visible in Petrie's 1801 view of the church from the north-east (copy in Petrie scrapbook in the K.A.S. library). 204 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY rebuilt with a brick lining and the top stage was tile-hung on a timber frame with an elongated pyramidal roof on top. There is also a simple pointed thirteenth-century arch into the tower from the west end of the original nave. Early in the fourteenth century a new two-light window was inserted into the north wall of the Lady Chapel at the east end, as we have seen. A little later four more two-light windows were inserted, one at the west end of the north wall of the Lady Chapel and three in the south wall of the church. All these windows have a moulded rere-arch, as does the three-light window at the west end of the main church. This west window is probably fourteenth-century, while the four-light east window is Perpendicular and probably late fifteenth-century in date. It may be the new window mentioned in a will as being made 'in the high chancel' in 1504.51 Externally, however, it has entirely new nineteenthcentury tracery, and is shown blind in Petrie's early nineteenth-century view. The three-light east window of the Lady Chapel is probably later fourteenth-century (from the tracery). The final major changes to the church came in the later fifteenth century. The whole of the old arcade between the nave and chancel and the Lady Chapel and north aisle was demolished and a completely new five-bay arcade was erected with octagonal pillars with concave faces and arches with hollow mouldings on either side. At the east end the arcade terminates in a small semi-octagonal corbel set in the earlier walling, while at the west end is another moulded respond. Most unusually this arcade can be dated closely to c. 1468. This is the date of Thomas Prowde's will in which he gives 'to the building of a column in the church, as much money as necessary to build the same.'52 The column in question (the second from the west end) is marked on its west face with a brass tablet inscribed 'Gaude Prude Thoma per quern fit ista columna' with his arms. Above the brass is a small statue niche set into the west face of the top of the column. It has a four-centred arch and a projecting hood which terminates below in a rose and a knot. There is an almost identical niche at St. Mildred's (see above). At about the same time the north wall of the north aisle was rebuilt with an external double-moulded plinth. Set in this wall are three new three-light windows. They all have square hood-moulds, but 51 See Arch. Cant., lxxxi (1915), 26. 52 Test. Cant. (E. Kent 1907), 42-4. Other wills mention burials in the chancel (1401), choir (1487) and in the church 'on the north side' (1503), as well as in the nave (1485), buried 'before the altar of St. James and St. Erasmus' (1497), and 'in the chancel of St. Mary' (1523). There does not seem to have been a churchyard at this time. 205 TIM TATTON-BROWN each window head is slightly different from the others. At the west end of this north wall is a contemporary buttress, and just beyond this a new north doorway was inserted into the tower.53 At the east end of the new north aisle wall a spiral staircase was built into the angle to give access to the rood loft. It has a doorway with an ogee canopy with a finial, crockets and head stops. As has already been mentioned, the four-light east window of the chancel was also probably made at this time, as were the crown-post roofs in the nave and chancel and the simple trussed rafter roofs in the north aisle and Lady Chapel. There is also a fine late fifteenth century octagonal font with a pair of roses flanking a shield on each face of the bowl (one face has E. REX on it); the font has a late seventeenth-century cover, which is raised by a pulley attached to an elaborate wrought-iron bracket. In 1887-88 a major restoration of the church was carried out by R.H. Carpenter. This included the total rebuilding of the whole of the upper part of the tower, as we have seen. A doorway was made through the west wall of the nave to a new low vestry and into the tower on the north. Before the restoration, there was a western gallery with an organ in it.54 The outer walls were heavily refaced in flint in 1887-88, but this was also the main original material along with local Tertiary sandstone and some re-used Roman bricks, The original quoins are Caen stone with some Reigate. Nineteenth-century repairs are, as usual, in Bath stone.55 5. ST. PETER, CANTERBURY (Fig. 6) This church is situated in the centre of Canterbury, just off the High Street (St. Peter's Street), and only a short distance east of the West Gate. It is about 30 ft. above O.D. The earliest visible part of this church is the round-headed arch at the west end of the north arcade.56 This has Caen stone voussoirs and sits 53 The new wall was given a render at this time, and all this is mentioned in another will of 1503, 'that the steeple of the church be overcast with sand and lime, forwith a boterace.' See Arch. Cant., xxxi (1915), 26. 54 See the description of the church in 1861 by S.R. Glynne, Notes on the Churches of Kent (1877), 182-3. 55 There is a useful plan, and some brief notes on the architectural history of the church (by A .W. Clapham) in Arch. Journ., lxxxvi (1930), 247-78. The plan, however, shows a spiral stair at the southern end of the rood screen which does not exist. 56 See Fig. 3 in T.P. Smith, 'The church of St. Peter, Canterbury' with an appendix by S.E. Rigold, in Arch. Cant., lxxxvi (1971), 99-108. This is a useful study, though the present writer cannot agree that the tower is any earlier than the late twelfth-century (see below). 206 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY [Sjearly C12tt, []]!late C14tti lil!]ecriy C1ltti l!IC15th 􀁆late Clltt, [!llearly C14tt, I I I I I I RN 1 \ / JN 􀀝-------_􀀞􀀟􀀠􀀡􀀢======----􀀣==========􀀤c====== SOUTH AISLE ST. PETER' S CHURCH, CANTEREUlY, KENT tf"j)., 0 1 2 l 4 Sm VC) Fig, 6, on plain rectangular piers with side-alternate Caen stone jambs, at the top of which are plain square imposts with a plain chamfer below. The masonry is diagonally tooled and must date from the first half of the twelfth century. Rather later in date is the small tower on the south-west. This was rebuilt and largely refaced externally in the early fourteenth century, but inside its east arch into the south aisle is similar to the north arcade arch, but is pointed and has some Reigate stone among its Caen stone quoins. The very large and long external quoins to the tower, which have been called 'Saxo-Norman' are surely a mixture of re-used Roman blocks and new Ragstone long-ties of the fourteenth century (compare the 'long and short' on the north-west quoin of the fourteenth century Lady Chapel). Soon after the tower was constructed, probably in the early thirteenth-century, the south door was built. This has jambs largely of Reigate stone, and on its east side a very worn capital and base indicate a missing shaft (no doubt a Purbeck marble column). The beginning of the moulded archway over the door (also in Reigate 207 TIM TATTON-BROWN stone) can be seen on the east, but the rest of it has been restored with plain Caen stone voussoirs. Inside the original hooks for the double doors still survive. There is a plain font of about 1200 with a square bowl of Bethersden marble at the west end of the nave. It has a seventeenth-century cover and iron crane for lifting it. During the thirteenth century, as is commonly found, a longer new chancel was built.57 The most obvious evidence for this is the wide lancet on the south-east side of the chancel which shows that the south aisle was only extended eastwards at a later date. The two wide, but plain, arches on the north side of the chancel have chamfers with bar stops and comb-tooling which also suggest a thirteenth-century date. The narrower western arch in the south arcade (opposite the south door) is also a plain thirteenth-century arch. In the early fourteenth century, the tower and west wall of the church was rebuilt. The west wall was slightly realigned, presumably to allow St. Peter's Lane, which bifurcated immediately north of the church, more room. At the same time a new three-light east window was built that has similar 'Decorated' tracery to the new west window. The tower has small single-light early fourteenth-century ogee-headed windows in its upper stage, and a probably contemporary (but now restored) crenellated parapet. Inside the top stage of the tower is a (probably fourteenth-century) timber bell-frame. The frame was heightened and enlarged for three bells in the early seventeenth century and restored in 1968 when four bells were hung there for chiming only.58 There are still two medieval bells in the tower, one of which, the tenor, was cast by William le Belyetere in the early fourteenth century. The other, by William Wodewarde, is a bit later (c. 1400). Also probably of the first half of the fourteenth century is the new Lady Chapel on the north-east, which must have replaced a much narrower thirteenth-century chapel. It has one original twolight window on the north, but unfortunately the east window has its tracery removed and replaced with timber Y-tracery perhaps of the eighteenth or earlier nineteenth century. Between the Lady Chapel and Chancel, a fine Easter Sepulchre (with cusped and subcusped arches on both sides) was inserted. Some time afterwards, perhaps later in the fourteenth century, a new wide, but irregularly 57 This is confirmed by documentary evidence, the Christ Church rental D. of c. 1200, which shows that the eastern part of the area now occupied by the chancel was still in secular hands at that date. See W. Urry, Canterbury under the Angevin kings (1967), 209 and 304. 59 Including a new treble (recast in 1903), from St. Margaret's church, Canterbury. 208 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY shaped north aisle was created west of the Lady Chapel and a new crown-post roof was erected over the whole north aisle and Lady Chapel. There is a three-light window with hexafoils over at the west end of the enlarged north aisle with a square hood-mould externally.59 Also perhaps of the first half of the fourteenth century is the rebuilt south aisle which terminated in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist.60 The east window is of the reticulated variety, whilst in the south wall are two-light, three-light and two-light windows, all under square hood-moulds. They have all been heavily restored externally in Bath stone. There is a piscina under the eastern twolight window with a small shelf over the damaged bowl. Between this aisle and the chancel are two contemporary plain arches with simple chamfers and (now worn) brooch-stops at the base. At about the same time the old Romanesque piers were probably demolished at the east end of the nave, and two very wide but plain arches (each spanning two old bays) were inserted instead.61 The crown-post roof over the new south aisle may also be fourteenth century, but that over the nave is perhaps of the fifteenth century. There is also a double piscina on the south-east side of the chancel with a Perpendicular head over it, and a small window at the extreme west end of the north aisle on the north side (under the sloping roof) with simple cinquefoiled head. 62 The only late fifteenth-century additions to the church were probably the rood screen and loft. A high doorway through the south pier between the nave and chancel still survives to mark its position. The extra tie-beam above has filled-in holes on its underside which probably relate to the rood loft. A doorway from the north chapel now leads into the late nineteenth century parish hall bey ond. This small doorway dates from c. 1500, and presumably led originally into a contemporary vestry. 59 This must date from the first half of the fourteenth century, though H. Petrie's drawing (made in 1801) shows only a two-light window without the upper lights. 60 See will in Testamenta Cantiana (E. Kent, 1907), 63 which mentions burials in the chancel (1495) and chapels of St. Mary (1504) and St. John the Baptist (1505). Another particularly interesting will of Constance Martyn (1514) asks for her to be 'buried in the Quier of the church before the Image of Our Lady; my executors to place over my grave a stone of five foot with a scripture of my name thereupon to be graven in Laten [i.e. brass], without any image thereupon to be fixed.' She also gave a silver goblet 'towards making the new rood loft.' 61 S.E. Rigold in op. cit. (note 57) suggests, very plausibly, that this was to make a more open preaching space. 62 This now lights the small vestry there. 209 TIM TATTON-BROWN The major restoration of the church was in 1882, when a new parish hall to the north was also built, as we have seen. Much of the external parts of the windows was restored at this time in Bath stone. 63 6. ST. MARY MAGDALENE, CANTERBURY The church lies on the south side of Burgate Street, about 100 yds. north-west of the Burgate. It is about 40 ft. above O.D. and faces well south of east. This church was unfortunately demolished in 1871 except for the tower. At the time parts of the late twelfth-century arcade that divided the nave from the south aisle were taken to St. George's church which was being enlarged, with a new chancel, aisle and arcade. 64 Documentary evidence shows the church was in existence by the mid-twelfth century65 and the now-demolished capitals and arcade seem to be of this date. However, all the surviving above-ground remains, the tower and wall-fragments to the south and east, are much later in date and probably relate to the documented rebuilding of the tower in 1501.66 The tower itself was built with large blocks of Ragstone ashlar facing where it could be seen, that is on the whole of the north side, and above the roof-line of the east side, but only at the very top on the west side. The upper wall on the south side is all of knapped flint. Since the bombing of the last war, the whole of the west face of the tower has been exposed, and this shows rougher facing with much re-used materials. Before this it was covered by a timberframed building. The top stage of the tower, holding three bells originally, has flat cinquefoil-headed windows in all four faces covered by a square hood-mould (much worn in places). On the north face there is another cinquefoil-headed window, below the string-course, which lit a ringing chamber that was entered from a still visible door on the south (there are traces of a spiral stair here). There was then a two- 63 As usual for Canterbury, the main earlier walling material is flint and Tertiary sandstone with re-used Roman bricks. All the twelfth-century quoins are of Caen with Reigate stone being introduced at the end of that century and Ragstone coming in by the later thirteenth century. 64 For St. George's church, see my notes in Arch. Cant., cix (1991), 311-17. 65 Urry, op. cit. (note 58) 232 - rental B71 and charters XXI and XXIII, where it is called 'fismanne cherichi' i.e. Fishman church. 66 Wills of 1501 mention 'the making of the steeple' and 'the restoration of the bell tower' Test. Cant. (E. Kent 1907), 57-9. 210 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY light cinquefoil headed window above a contemporary doorway, both having square hood-moulds. These open into the ground floor porch area with above it a contemporary moulded beam ceiling. On the east and south sides are two-centred arches with deep hollowed mouldings leading into the nave and south aisle. The tower now contains the Whitfield monument and several other (now very dirty ) wall monuments.67 The north wall of the church seems also to have been rebuilt in the early sixteenth century. It abuts the tower wall and had, from east to west (and shown in pre-1871 photographs and drawings), a two-light, another two-light and then a three-light window, all under square hoodmoulds. A much smaller cinquefoil-headed window still survives, though blocked, at the extreme west end of the wall, abutting the tower. There was also a continuous plinth along the north side of the church and a dormer window above the west end of the nave. 68 There seems to have been a single-pitched roof over both the nave and south aisle - the scar for this is still visible in the tower east wall. Apart from the large well-cut (but worn) Ragstone ashlar blocks in the tower, its west wall contains a mixture of materials including knapped flint, a few tiles and some local sandstone. 69 There are also reused materials including Roman bricks, Rag and occasional Caen and Reigate stone small blocks. 7. HOLY CROSS, CANTERBURY (Fig. 7) Since about 1380, this church has been situated immediately south of the Westgate, just inside the city walls. It is also not far from the river Stour and at about 35 ft. above O.D. The earliest mention of the church (in c. 1085)70 suggests that it may already have been built just before the Norman Conquest. Its original situation was on top of the Roman gateway at Westgate. Nothing else is known about it until it was rebuilt on its new site in the 1380s. This 67 These were all moved here in 1871, immediately before the demolition of the rest of the church. The Whitfield monument of 1691 was apparently moved from the west end of the south aisle. The Whitfield monument, which was restored in 1977, is very similar to the Oxenden monument in Wingham church and may have been made by Arnold Quellin or his pupil, Grinling Gibbons, see John Newman B.O.E. North-East and East Kent (3rd edition 1983), 257 and 500. 68 Also shown in Petrie's views of the church from the north-east made in 1801. He also appears to show no hood-mould on the eastern two-light window. 69 It contains boring mollusc holes, so must come from the foreshore in the Reculver area. 70 In the foundation charter of St. Gregory's Priory, op. cit. supra (note 38). 211 ro ,--.J' '" '--- L-11 rI --- I I ! I TIM TATTON-BROWN f7 __ . 1..-, ---, r-J ' ' ''I 'II PORCH I '? SITE DF ROOP 5TAJR ,.., NORTH AISLE ... "' ?ALTAR OF ST.MARY Holy cross, Canterbury c: ___ -:.--___ :-:o--:::_--:_:􀀴:o :::::::_-:o:-----------__ -L..-,,,.,,.. ,., N A V £ " .., ,, " " " CHANCEL 􀀞􀀟􀀠􀀠􀀡􀀢􀀣=======:::::_--o: _ ::::::::::::?::::::::::::::::: " SOUTH AISLE " ,, "'... :z Fig. 7. ?ALTAR OF ST.JO/IN □ 􀀅1380 - 19 ,.century Mens T.T-􀀝- etdel l)D.March􀀞J church is a rare example, in Kent, of a totally new church of the late fourteenth century. This new church still survives, though mutilated and heavily restored in the nineteenth century (see below). It consists of a nave with four-bay aisles on either side (the tower is built in the west bay of the south aisle), and an unaisled chancel of two bays with no chancel arch. There are doorways on the north, south and west, and a small priests' door into the chancel. There was also a contemporary stone north porch, but this was cut off and reduced to a very shallow porch when the road was widened around the south side of the Westgate in the early nineteenth century. The early nineteenth-century views of the church from the north-east71 show 71 See W. Gostling, A Walk in and about the City of Canterbury (1825 edition), plate op. p. 12. The best of these is, however, by Buckler, who also did a view from the southwest. The originals of these are in the collections of Canterbury Museums. 212 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY the original porch with a continuous string-course (continuing from the north aisle) and a small chamber above the porch. It acquired a 'Dutch' north gable in the late seventeenth century. All the windows in the church, which were very heavily restored in the last century, are Perpendicular in style, but are a mixture of two-light pointed windows (in the aisles), two-light windows with nearly flat heads (in the chancel) and three-light flat-headed windows with square hood-moulds above (at the east end of the aisles, the west end of the north aisle and above the south doorway). The latter windows were restored in the nineteenth century with slightly curved heads.72 The arcades have octagonal piers with fine moulded capitals and arches over with double hollow chamfers and deep hollows in between. The main nave roof was an ordinary crown-post roof, but the lower parts of the crown-posts were cut off, and the central sections of the tie-beams were removed (probably in the late sixteenth century) and very long braces were inserted on either side of each crown-post. The south aisle roof is nearly flat, while the north aisle roof is pitched, but it may well have been rebuilt in the late fifteenth century when the upper string-course and gables were renewed (the gables were again renewed in the nineteenth century). A large square projection from the north aisle (now removed) is shown in the early nineteenth-century views. This must be for a new rood-stair (perhaps created, as wills indicate, as late as 1517). The tower, containing five bells (one an original of 1381 inscribed 'Stephanus Nortone de Kent me fecit'), was heavily restored in the late nineteenth century when a new pyramid roof was put on. Earlier it had a turret on top with a small pyramid roof. It has two trefoiled windows one above the other on the south and west sides, and another single-light on the upper east wall (and door onto the flat roof below). There is a two-light window in the upper north side of the tower. There was a plain octagonal font in the church with an elaborate latemedieval cover - restored in the seventeenth century, when an ironwork crane was added - but this was all taken to Minster-in-Thanet church, after Holy Cross became redundant in 1973.73 A series of exceptionally heavy restorations was carried out on the church in c. 1860, 1870, 1895 and 1908. An editorial footnote in Glynne says 'This church has been thoroughly repaired, restored and rearranged; 72 The original quoins were in Kent Rag with Caen used for some of the jambs. All the restored quoins, of the later nineteenth century, are in Bath stone, while the shortened porch is of re-used Ragstone. 73 The font and cover are depicted in Kent Churches 1954, 126. 213 TIM TATTON-BROWN the tower, more recently, has been rebuilt. A new organ has been placed in the south aisle (it was earlier at the west end).' 74 The major restoration of 1870 saw the removal of the buttresses at the west end of the north aisle and at the east end of the chancel, and the inserting in the east wall of a new east window. Much refacing in heavy knappedflintwork was also done. The tower was also rebuilt at this time with a completely new flint face and, at intervals up the faces, thin courses of red tiles. In 1973, the church was declared redundant and, in 1978, it was converted into a new Council Chamber. 8. ST. MARTIN, CANTERBURY (Fig. 8) Situated on the east side of Canterbury, about a third of a mile beyond the city wall, just north of the Sandwich Road (as described by Bede),75 St. Martin's church lies in its own 'Soke' , a detached portion of the Archbishop's manor of Westgate. The church is on a sloping hillside at c. 90 ft. above O.D. This exceptionally famous church can justifiably claim to have the longest continuous use of any church in Britain. Much has been written about its very early fabric (the nave and western half of the chancel), and this need only be summarised briefly here. The later medieval fabric of the church has, however, only been discussed very briefly. The fabric of the whole church was first studied in detail in 1896 when limited excavation and much plaster stripping was carried out.76 The earliest part of the church is the western half of the chancel, which was probably built before the arrival in A.D. 597 of St. Augustine and his followers. Only further excavation will reveal whether it is late-Roman in date, or early Anglo-Saxon. The walls are built of large broken Roman bricks, and in the south wall is an original doorway covered by a large flat lintel, which is just possibly a re-used Roman gravestone.77 The 1896 excavation revealed that this doorway communicated with a small 'porticus on the south which had an opus 74 See Glynne, op. cit. (note 58), 18. 75 Bede Historia Ecclesiastica, 1.26. 76 C.F. Routledge, 'St. Martin's church, Canterbury,' Arch. Cant., xxii (1897), 1-28. Brief observations were also made below the chancel steps in January 1954, F. Jenkins, 'St. Martin's church at Canterbury: a survey of the earliest structural features,' Med. Arch., ix ( 1965), 11-15. See also H.M. and J. Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture (1965), 143-5. 11 The lower face is absolutely flat, but it appears to have a low relief carving in it. 214 N ..... Ut 􀀁 ?5"'-6"century D ? .. century Site of North Porch ,----, ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' NA V £ 0 I 5 IOm 0 10 30 ft - 1111 􀀃 t3"'century Early 14"century Late t4"century Fig. 8. - t9"'/Z0"century (") :i:: 􀀄 (") 􀀂 z 􀀅 >􀀆 􀀇 (") I 􀀈 TIM TATTON-BROWN signinum floor.78 This porticus' was probably demolished, and the doorway blocked, when the nave was built. Cut through the south wall of the chancel, a little to the east of the porticus, is another round-headed doorway which is clearly a later insertion, perhaps of the time of the nave. It, too, has a later blocking, and on the western external jamb is a re-used block on which is a Middle Anglo-Saxon inscription. The nave of the church, which survives to what is probably its full height, was probably added in the seventh century.79 It is of distinctive masonry with small blockwork of local sandstone, etc., and stringcourses of Roman brick. Original windows only survive in the west wall where they can still be seen inside. They were enlarged upwards, perhaps in the later Anglo-Saxon period, and then blocked in the late fourteenth century by the tower walls. Externally the nave probably had pilaster buttresses at each of its corners, but many of these have been knocked off. In the centre of the south side is a small original semicircular pilaster buttress, and there may have been another on the north, but this would have been removed by the later north doorway. Many of the original quoins' stones are of Calcaire Grossier (from the Paris Basin), but these are probably re-used from a Roman building.80 There may have been an original west doorway, but this was rebuilt in the late fourteenth century. The small round-headed piscina on the south-east side of the nave is perhaps early to mid-twelfth century. No further additions were made to the fabric until, in the very late twelfth or early thirteenth century, the chancel was doubled in length to the east. G.M. Livett suggested two stages of extension, twelfth and thirteenth century.81 At this time, at least two of the three lancets in the south wall were added (the central one was unblocked and restored in c. 1845) as well as another in the new north wall. An early nineteenth century drawing also apparently shows a double lancet further west, which may here date from as late as the fourteenth century (now obliterated by the c . 1845 vestry opening). 78 Routledge, op. cit. (note 77), and C.F. Routledge, The History of St. Martin's Church, C anterbury (1891), and idem, The Church of St. Martin, C anterbury: an illustrated account of its fabric (1898). 79 T. Tatton-Brown, 'St. Martin's church in the 6th and 7th centuries' in (Ed.) M.J. Sparks, The Parish of St. Martin and St. Paul (1980), 12-18. 80 B.C. Worssam and T. Tatton-Brown, 'The stone of the Reculver Columns and the Reculver Cross' in (Ed.) D. Parsons, Stone Quarrying and Building in England AD 43-1525 (1990), 58-61. 81 See his plan in Routledge, op. cit. (note 79, 1898), 42. There is also a discussion by Livett on the original termination in Appendix C of the same book, 99-101. 216 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY Unfortunately, the chancel is heavily covered in fairly recent pointing and the eastern quoins and south pilaster buttress are all heavily restored. The east wall of the chancel was virtually rebuilt and perhaps slightly lengthened in the mid-nineteenth century. It now contains a nineteenth-century triple lancet, but this replaced a threelight c. 1300 window that is shown in the 1839 view of the interior of the church by William Burgess as well as various external views. On the north side of the extended chancel is a tomb (opened in 1844) under a semicircular arch. On the south side is a so-called 'sedile' also under a semicircular arch of Roman bricks. Perhaps in the twelfth century a new doorway was put into the middle of the north side of the nave, but, when this was blocked up in the mid-nineteenth century (and the later porch destroyed),83 all traces of the external architecture were destroyed, although parts of the small block internal jambs are visible. The doorway on the south-west side of the nave was probably inserted in the thirteenth century, but only the pointed relieving arch above the now-blocked opening survives. It is cut through by an early fourteenth century lancet with a trefoiled head (and curiously other tracery fragments above), and this is presumably the date of the blocking of the doorway after only a short period of use. All the other windows that survive in the nave are also early fourteenth-century. They consist of a pair of trefoil-headed lancets which flank the now-blocked doorway on the north side, and two two-light windows with quatrefoils above (both completely restored in the nineteenth century), which are found at the east end of the nave on the north and south sides. It is interesting to note that no aisles were added to the nave in the twelfth, thirteenth or early fourteenth centuries, showing that the population of the 'Soke' or 'Ville of St. Martins' remained quite small during this period of population growth (the nave is, however, about 25 ft. wider than the Norman naves of other churches in Canterbury).83 The north-east buttress to the nave (now incorporated into the vestry) is also perhaps of the fourteenth century. The final addition to the church is of the small western tower and porch. This was perhaps being erected at the very end of the fourteenth 82 There is a useful pair of pencil drawings made in 1804, by Buckler in B.L. Add. Ms. 36, 367 (water-colour versions are in Canterbury Museums). They show the church from the north-west and south-east before the restoration. H. Petrie's view of c. 1801 is also from the north-west and shows the north porch, and north side of the chancel before the vestry was added. 83 For a fuller discussion of the soke, see M. Sparks and T. Tatton-Brown, 'The history of the Ville at St. Martin's, Canterbury' in J. Rady, 'Excavations at St. Martin's Hill, 1984-5,' Arch. Cant., civ (1987), 123-218. 217 TIM TATTON-BROWN century (the will of the Rector, John Vagge, of 1397 gives 6s. 8d. to the 'work of the bell tower').84 The tower is square in plan (10 ft. square internally) and has an external plinth. A simple pointed west doorway was also inserted into the west wall of the nave at this time, and this is a smaller version of the pointed west arch in the tower which must have become a main doorway of the church at this time with a porch on the ground floor of the tower (also used by the bell-ringers). Because of the very steep slope upwards to the east, four steps up had to be made into the church under the eastern part of the tower. Three further steps led up into the chancel and a whole flight of steps led up to the church from the west. The tower, which is only just over 40 ft. high, has small windows in its upper (bell) chamber, and one window (restored) over the west doorway. It has two large west-facing buttresses, a simple crenellated top and a small pyramid roof. The upper wall at the west end of the nave, and probably the simple collar-and-rafter roof of the nave, is the same date as the tower. The chancel arch may also be c. 1400, though perhaps a rebuilding of a thirteenth-century arch. On either side of the nave at its extreme east end are holes for the later medieval rood beam. A major restoration was carried out in 1844-45, and new panelling and pews were inserted by Daniel Finch.85 The chancel was also rebuilt with a new roof (and new vestry and organ chamber on the north side).86 9. ST. NICHOLAS, THANINGTON (Fig. 9) Thanington church is about a mile south-west of Canterbury beside the main Ashford Road (A28), at about 28 ft. above O.D. However, 84 John Vagge's will, mentioning the operi campanilis, is illustrated in the Guide to the Kent County Archives office (1958), Plate XI, with a transcription on p. 234. Other wills, which mention 'the high cross in the nave' (1482), and the 'Light of the cross in the Roodloft' (1504), are listed in Testamenta Cantiana (E. Kent, 1907), 53-4. 85 For the more recent history of the church see Routledge, op. cit. (notes 77 and 79). At this time the uniquely early (late sixth century) 'St. Martin's Hoard' was found in the churchyard. See P. Grierson. 'The Canterbury (St. Martin's) Hoard of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon coin-ornaments,' British Numismatic Journal, 27 (1952-4), 39-51. Another rare find was a fourteenth-century Chrismatory, which was discovered on the nave walltop during the restoration; see note by Marian Campbell in (Eds.) J. Alexander and P. Binski, The Age of Chivalry (1987), 241-2. 86 The font, which is mid-twelfth-century in style, was probably not a font originally (possibly a well-head from Canterbury Cathedral Priory). It perhaps came to the church after the Dissolution. See T. Tatton-Brown, 'The font in St. Martin's Church' in (Ed.) M. Sparks, op. cit. (note 80), 19-20. 218 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY before the Turnpike was built here, the main road was further south, and the church was near the old lane leading to the ford across the Stour at Tonford. The Court Lodge is adjacent to the church on the north-west side. Originally part of the great manor of Westgate, the patronage of the church was given to St. Gregory's Priory by Archbishop William in c. 1130.87 This church was very heavily restored in 1846 by William Butterfield and externally there is very little medieval work to be seen as most of the masonry (both ashlar quoins, jambs, etc. , and flint facework) has been renewed. New buttresses have also been added.ss On either side of the chancel, however, there are small Norman windows (that on the south is more renewed than the northern one) - probably of the early twelfth century, and the outer chancel walls still seem to contain much original coursed flintwork. The north tower, on the other hand, has been totally rebuilt and refaced externally. All the quoins and all the knapped flintwork are of the nineteenth century and brick is used internally. The west window, which is now a Victorian 'Decorated' three-light window was, according to Sir Stephen Glynne (who visited the church in 1851) 'a late one of 2 lights.' He also tells us that there were 'no windows on the north of the nave.'89 Two new wide lancets were put in after the schoolroom was removed from the west end of the nave in 1846. The two tall, early thirteenth-century lancets in the east wall of the chancel seem to be largely original, and the south chapel (probably the Lady Chapel) has original (but partly restored) windows in the east and west walls. The twin south windows, on either side of the buttress are entirely new, with Bath stone jambs and a sill of a shelly limestone (and granite voussoirs to the relieving arches over them). The gables and roof of the south chapel have also been raised, and all the roofs in the church were replaced by Butterfield in 1846 (the earlier low ceilings had covered the tops of the pointed thirteenth-century windows). He also put choir stalls into the chancel and a new pulpit in the nave. Butterfield's most notable new architectural features are, however, the new chancel arch and the double arch and central four-shafted pier to the south chapel. He also added buttresses to the east end of the chancel and the north side of the tower.90 87 Op. cit. supra (note 38), 3 - charter no. 3 of between 1126 and 1136. 88 See notes in The Ecclesiologist, 7 (January 1847), 37. 89 Op. cit. supra (note 19), 168-9. 90 Petrie's view of the church from the south-east in 1806 shows no buttresses on the church (see H. Petrie's scrapbook in the K.A.S. Library). 219 TIM TATTON-BROWN St. Nicholas, Thaninqton 0 I to NAVE LAOV CHAP£L [IJIAl 19"century Mens T. T-8 et de/ 1)1). Fig. 9. Very little can be said of the form of the original church, except that it had quite a large chancel in the twelfth century. All other features in the building, including the chancel east wall, date from the later thirteenth century. The north tower and south chapel were probably new additions at this time. The shell of the nave must, however, date from at least the twelfth century. There must also have been a short south aisle to the nave where the modern porch is situated, as shown by the blocked up arch in the northern part of the west wall of the south chapel. Only excavation (and possibly internal plaster removal) are likely to shed more light on the fabric.91 The state of the church before the 1846-47 restoration is graphically described in The Ecclesiologist.92 Architecturally, the early fourteenth century piscina, in the south-east comer of the south chapel is the finest medieval feature surviving in the church. It has an unusual 'pointed horseshoe' hood-mould, and a shelf above the bowl. 91 Recently, for example, two small niches were found in the east wall of the church. Also in October 1990 a stone coffin with a Purbeck marble cover was found inside the tower against the north wall; see Arch. Cant., cix (1991), 308-11. 92 Op. cit. supra (note 89). 220 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY 10. ST. MARY, NACKINGTON (Fig. 10) Nackington church is situated about two miles south-east of the centre of Canterbury just beyond the County Borough boundary at c. 260 ft. above O.D. The Court Lodge is immediately to the south-west of the church and Sextries Farm to the north-east. The church is situated in open arable country on the Upper Chalk. The earliest visible remains are the early twelfth-century rectangular nave and also probably the chancel north wall. There are three surviving original plain round-headed windows (two on the north side, and one on the south-west side of the nave) with external jambs and voussoirs of Caen stone. There also appears to be a blocked twelfthcentury window in the west gable of the nave. Only the north-east quoin of the nave (also of Caen stone) is original. The main masonry is of coursed whole flints, which was originally covered by a render externally, as well as by an internal plaster face. As with the nearby Thanington church, this church was perhaps rebuilt ( or else erected for the first time) in the early twelfth century by St. Gregory's Priory in Canterbury after it had acquired the patronage.93 In the middle of the thirteenth century two lancets were inserted into the north wall of the chancel. There is also an aumbry on the north side of the chancel and a piscina on the south. A small tower was added to the west end of the nave (on the north side), and a slightly larger lancet was also put into the west wall of the nave at the same time (the roundheaded window in the gable wall above had been blocked by the south wall of the tower). New opposing doorways were also put into the north and south sides of the nave. The tower also has thirteenth-century lancets in its north, south and west faces. At perhaps a slightly later date in the thirteenth century, a large chapel was added to the south side of the chancel. It is connected with the nave by a wide two-centred arch, and has a wide doorway from the churchyard on its north-west side (this required the cutting away of much of the south-east quoin of the nave). This chapel appears originally to have had two lancets in its south side,94 and a further pair of lancets in its east wall. Hasted tells us that 'in the two east windows of this chancel [i.e. the Milles family's 'South Chancel'] are good remains of painted glass.'95 This fine glass is now in the two north windows of the chancel, 93 Op. cit. supra (note 38). Other churches belonging to St. Gregory's Priory were St. Mary Northgate, St. Dunstan and Holy Cross in Canterbury, and Waltham, Bekesbourne, Oare, Stalisfield and Bethersden churches. 94 See Petrie's 1808 view from the south-west in the K.A.S. Library scrapbook. 95 E. Hasted, T he History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, IX (2nd edition, 1800), 297. 221 TIM TATTON-BROWN S! MARY'S CHURCH, NACKINGTON, KENT ■ C1Sth EIC19th ? l 1 I 1 􀀆m ...,," ... 􀀉􀀊􀀋;(2:􀀌􀀍::::;m􀀎 Fig. 10. and, despite some restoration in 1935, is mainly of a thirteenth-century date. There is apparently a double piscina in the south wall, perhaps suggesting that the chapel originally contained two altars. St. Gregory's Priory acquired much land in Nackington in the thirteenth century,96 but there is no mention of the new chapel. The church seems to have suffered a great deal from settlement problems (various open cracks are still visible in the walls), and when the nave was given a new crown-post (two-bay ) roof in the fifteenth century, large buttresses were added to the north and south sides of the west wall, as well as to the middle of the south nave wall. (A new stone porch on the north may have also acted as a buttress). At some later stage the top of the west tower seems to have been taken down (perhaps after becoming unstable). Two stone corbels in the north-east and south-east corners of the nave were perhaps inserted in the fifteenth century to support the rood beam. In Archbishop Parker's Visitation of 1573, we hear that 'the parsonage howse and channcell is like to fall downe.' (Also 'the parson is not Residente').97 This was also perhaps partly due to settlement which was finally dealt with in a major mid-nineteenth century restoration when the east walls of the chancel and south chapel (and the south wall of the south chapel) were completely rebuilt. A new two-light east window was created in the chancel, but no windows were put in the south chapel east wall. It was, however, given a new two-light south window (in a 'Decorated' style). The 96 Op. cit. supra (note 38), 178. 97 See Arch. Cant., xxix (1911), 275. 222 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY north wall of the chancel was heightened in brick,98 and a new roof was put on the chancel. The south chapel contains burial vaults of the Milles family, and there are smaller vaults for the Faussetts in the chancel and the Foxes on the north side of the nave. At about the same time, the west tower was given a new brick upper stage with a small spire on top. The tower contains one bell which was perhaps moved from a bellcote in the nave roof above the north door.99 Hasted says that the church had 'at the north-west comer a low wooden pointed turret, in which hangs one bell.' 100 The tower contains an internal north to south tie-bar (on the west) and also a west facing altar and a nineteenth-century font in the south-east comer. The boiler room (with steps down) is immediately south of the tower, and there is also an oil tank south of the nave. The north porch was completely rebuilt in the later nineteenth century. There is an iron tie from the porch west to the north-west buttress, and a new vestry with lobby was built west of the south chapel. It has flint facing and a 'perpendicular' three-light west window. The south-east nave window was also restored at this time in Bath stone with bricks above a round-headed arch. The chancel screen and panelling around the chancel walls were added in 1909 by W.D. Caroe and a pulpit was made in 1924. The earlier organ, recently restored, is now at the north-east corner of the nave. The panelling in the tower was also added by Caroe in 1909. Flint rubble (with occasional Roman bricks) with Caen stone quoins, jambs, etc., are used for the twelfth- and thirteenth-century walls. The fifteenth-century buttresses have large Ragstone quoins and chamfered plinth blocks, with later brick (perhaps eighteenthcentury) repairs. The rebuilt east and south ( chapel) walls are of coursed brick bands and heavy knapped flintwork, with Bath stone window jambs (Bath stone is also used in the new vestry). The fine thirteenth-century glass in the two north lancets of the chancel was restored by Caldwell in 1935, 101 and traces of wall paintings can be seen on the north side of the nave, by the door. 98 The outer jambs and arch to the lancets were restored in Bath stone at the same time. 99 See the rubbing marks on the rere-arch of the north door. 100 Op. cit. supra (note 96). 101 See note in Arch. Cant., I (1939), 161-2. 223 TIM TATTON-BROWN 11. ST. M A RY, FORDWICH (Fig. 11) The church lies on the north-east side of the village close to the river Stour at only 13 ft. above O.D. (the river is tidal here). It is three miles north-east of Canterbury and was connected directly with the city by a track leading north-east from St. Martin's Church,102 and with Sturry by a ford at the tidal limit, whence its name. Later the crossing became a bridge. By the late Anglo-Saxon period, Fordwich had become an important small port for Canterbury at the tidal limit of the river Great Stour.103 It was perhaps formally created a borough (parvus burgus in Domesday Book) by Edward the Confessor in c. 1055 when he gave two-thirds of the town to St. Augustine's Abbey. They received the other third from Odo of Bay eux a decade or so after the conquest, and it was perhaps at this time that the first church was built.104 The earliest evidence of date from the fabric of the church is in the quoins at the eastern end of the nave. On the north-east are large 'long and short' blocks of Quarr stone (from the Isle of Wight)105 as well as local tertiary sandstone boulders. Similar quoins can be seen behind the later buttress on the south-east side of the nave. Though no other architectural details survive, it seems very likely that the shell of the nave and western part of the chancel, which are mostly made of coursed whole flints and sandstone boulders, 106 were built as a new church in the late eleventh century. The north aisle must have been added in the late twelfth century. Three very plain pointed arches on rectangular piers with only simple chamfered abaci were used to give access to the north aisle, and a round-headed window at the west end of the north aisle must also be of this date, as is the window on the north side of the aisle at the east end. This has an external round head of Reigate stone, though all the other original quoins and jambs of this phase are in Caen. The simple square Purbeck marble bowl of the font (with simple blank arcading on its sides) is also probably of the mid to late twelfth century. 102 J. Rady, 'Excavations at St. Martin's Hill, Canterbury 1984-85,' Arch. Cant., civ (I 987), 129-30 and fig. 2. 103 T. Tatton-Brown, 'The towns of Kent' in (Ed.) J. Haslam, Anglo-Saxon Towns in Southern England (Chichester, 1984), 21-2 and fig. 7. 104 C.E. Woodruff, A History of the Town and Port of Fordwich (Canterbury, 1895). See also (Ed.) K.H. McIntosh, Fordwich, the lost port (1975). 105 T. Tatton-Brown, 'The use of Quarr stone in London and East Kent,' Med. Arch., xxiv (1980), 213-5. 106 There are also a few tufa blocks, Roman bricks and granite boulders in the early fabric. The latter must be glacial erratics from the Stonar bank. See D. Baden-Powell, 'Report on erratics from Stonar, Kent,' Arch. Cant., Iv (1942), 50-2. 224 N N VI St Mary The Virqin, Fordwich, Canterbury D - 􀀂 􀀃 - - 11111 Late ff"'century Late 12"' century far/y 13'" century Later 13"'century forly 14"' century Lall 15,.-16"'ctntury 19"'century NORTH AISLE ==􀀇􀀈􀀈􀀇􀀈􀀇􀀉􀀊==en 􀀃nt 􀀄􀀅I:::..L _􀀈--- - -􀀉􀀊- N A V E 0 1 5 IOmdm 0 10 30 fut Fig. 11. Mens TT-Ii. etdel DD./11orch·93 () a 􀀄 51 z 􀀅 􀀆 􀀇 () TIM TATTON-BROWN In the early thirteenth century the chancel was enlarged to the east, and this still contains its original north and south lancets. Externally these were heavily restored in cement (?covering Reigate stone) in the nineteenth century. The tower was added in the later thirteenth century, and this has been built at a strange angle to, and off-centre from, the west end of the nave. It has an exceptionally tall tower arch with high up abaci. There is only one window in the whole of the tower, and that is a tall wide lancet (with rere-arch) in the west wall. The upper chamber of the tower is windowless, and on top is a fine broached, shingle-covered spire (the internal frame is perhaps of the early fourteenth century). There is an earlier slightly steeper-pitched roof-line in the east face of the tower above the present roof. Because of the strange way the tower was added to the nave, odd buttresses were added to the west end of the nave, that on the south is a large clasping affair (see plan). Early in the fourteenth century five fine two-light windows with a pair of quatrefoils above under square hood-moulds were inserted in the walls (three in the nave south wall and two in the north aisle).107 The buttresses on the north and south sides (with chamfered plinths) as well as a new south doorway were also added at this time. All are made of Caen and Hy the stone. The original east window as shown in Petrie's view is also fourteenth-century_Ios The crown-post roof over the nave may also be of this date, or a little later. The Perpendicular chancel arch is probably of the later fifteenth century, and the sawn-off ends of the rood beam can still be seen just above the moulded capitals. The painted board (tympanum), with the Royal Arms and W.R. 1688, that once filled the chancel arch has been put on the nave east wall above the arch. The inserted two-light windows on either side of the west end of the chancel must also be later fifteenth-century. A will of 1474 gives stained glass for the southern window.109 The timber-framed south porch (with unusual dragon-ties) is also perhaps fifteenth century,110 but with later repairs and brick casing and underbuilding. Wills also show that the east end of the north aisle (the area around the altar of St. Katherine) was being rebuilt in the late fifteenth and 107 These can be compared with the windows in St. Mildred's church, Canterbury - see above. The upper lights stiill contain some fine fourteenth- and fifteenth-century glass. 108 The view from the north-east was made in 1801. The reticulated tracery was removed later in the nineteenth century (see watercolour in scrapbook in K.A.S. Library). l09 This is the will of Hugo Egirle, Rector 1467-74, transcribed in Woodruff (op. cit. note 105), 142. 110 S.E. Rigold, 'The Fordwich stone and the church porch', in (Ed.) K.H. McIntosh, (op. cit. note 105), 131-2. 226 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY very early sixteenth centuries.111 The area over the altar was ceiled in in 1493 and a new east window was made in 1503. This window is a three-light one with a flat four-centred arch over it. In the gable above is early English-bond red brickwork (perhaps contemporary). The whole of the simple rafter and collar roof of the north aisle may be of the same date. The church still contains most of its box pews of c. 1800 (with some re-used decorative panelling). There was a scheme to reseat the church in 1852, but this was never carried out.1 12 The two pews at the west end of the chancel were, however, inserted in the late nineteenth century. The 'singers pew' is in the south-west corner of the nave, and the vestry is at the east end of the north aisle, with the organ under the arch to the south. The east end of the chancel was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, and the east window was only given simple Y-tracery. Other stonework repairs were carried out in Bath stone. A four-centred doorway with heavy knapped flint around it was also put into the south side of th'e tower at this time, but it clearly fills an earlier probably thirteenth-century doorway.113 12. ST. NICHOLAS, STURRY (Fig. 12) The church lies immediately east of Sturry Court (now Milner Court), with the main medieval road through Sturry (a diversion from the Roman road) not far to the south and east. The church is also not far from the river Stour (near its tidal limit), where a mill was situated, and is at only c. 15 ft. above O.D. Though a church is mentioned here in Domesday Book,114 there is nothing in the visible fabric to suggest a date as early as this for the present structure. The main walls of the chancel, nave and tower (eastern half) must, however, date from the earlier part of the twelfth century. At the eastern end of the chancel, round-headed windows survive in the north and south walls (restored externally on the south). 111 Test. Cant. (E. Kent, 1907), 133-4. 112 This is shown by a useful measured plan of the church made in 1852. It is in Canterbury Cathedral Archives, U3/78/6/21. 113 The well-known 'Fordwich stone' was brought to Fordwich from Canterbury in the mid-nineteenth century. Made of Marquise stone, it is perhaps an early twelfth-century 'hog-back' tomb-shrine cover from St. Augustine's Abbey. See Rigold in op. cit. (note 111) and also W. Derham, 'The Fordwich Stone and its Legend,' JBAA, (n.s.) xxiv (1918), 111-28. 114 For a useful summary of the history of the church by Margaret Sparks, see (Ed.) K.H. McIntosh, Sturry, the changing scene (1972), 15-17. This article also reproduces H. Petrie's view of the church from the south-east, showing the spire. 227 TIM TATTON-BROWN cnurch of 5t Nicholas, 5r-urry. PORCH NORTH A/SL£ N A V £ - ____ "'"'' n ___ fimtITT ______o _ ____ SOUTH A/SL£ CHAPEL OF THE HOLYTRINITY pl(Jcina CHANCtL 􀀌/fjj+ 11 [i77,i7,il 1h Clerestory window LJ 12,. century k:'LLLfLl Late 12•century 13 century --􀁣-- over nave arcades -Early 14􀁤century -Late 14•century fBj 19,. century Mens T.T-IJ. etdel 0/J. Apri/p3 Fig. 12. In the nave the tops of three now-blocked round-headed windows are visible above the later arcades. The gap in the second bay from the west shows that the original doorways were in this position, opposite where they are now in the later aisle walls. The lower part of engaged columns for the chancel arch are also probably twelfth century. In the western tower it is clear that the western part of it and the top stage (with four pointed arches) was built in the late twelfth-century after it had become unstable (and had probably collapsed). Internally at the lowest stage the eastern halves of large round-headed windows can be seen. In the stage above, both the internal and external jambs of two more windows (one north and one south) are also visible. Externally there is also a very clear break between the western and eastern halves of the tower, and it is certain that a larger (square in plan) tower was built in the first half of the twelfth century. Then, after the collapse, a new west wall was built with clasping buttresses. When this was put up, the remains of the earlier north and south windows were blocked. 228 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY These earlier windows must have been placed centrally in the north and south walls - hence the suggestion that the tower has been shortened on the west. Quite early in the thirteenth century three new windows were put into the chancel. These are unusual two-light windows on the east and south and a single-light trefoil-headed window on the north. They all have fine carved external jambs. At about the same date diagonal buttresses were added to the east end of the chancel and another buttress was put on the south side of the chancel. The east gable end was also rebuilt, and all this new work is characterised by the use of rubble-blocks of iron-cemented gravel-stone. The roof over the chancel is probably also of the same date. It is of spindly rafter, collar and soulace construction with one tie-beam in the centre and a single crown-strut (no collar purlin). Very shortly after this a small vestry was added to the north of the chancel, and connects with the latter by a small doorway with a continuous roll on its south side. The external doorway to the vestry (on the west) and the east window in it are, however, entirely of a nineteenth-century date. The walls of the vestry are almost all made of iron-cemented gravel-stone. Aisles were also added to the nave in the thirteenth century, but this is only now shown by the very plain arcades in the north and south walls of the nave. All the jambs have blocks with comb-chisel marks on them, and there is a plain chamfer on all the arrises which terminated at the bottom in a brooch stop. The wider arch into the west tower is of the same construction and date. The outer wall of the south aisle with its four two-light windows (one above a doorway), and three-light windows in the return walls, was probably built in the earlier fourteenth century. It has, however, many features in it (e.g. a continuous plinth and upper string-course) which suggest that it was rebuilt in the later fifteenth century (confirmed by Childmas's will of 1496 which gives lead for the roof).115 At the east end of this aisle was the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, and there is still an ogee-headed piscina on the south side of the site of the altar. There is a small fourteenth-century niche in the west wall of the first pier on the west to the south aisle. The outer wall of the north aisle must have been rebuilt in the later fourteenth century and has some fine 'Perpendicular' windows with carved figures on the external hood-mould stops. The wall-top and parapet here may also have been rebuilt in the late fifteenth century. The pitched roofs over both aisles, however, are of slate, and probably 115 Hasted, op. cit., ix (1800), 81--4 mentions the will of Thomas Childmas, giving lead to the covering of the church to the value of £40 in 1496. 229 TIM TATTON-BROWN replaced nearly flat late fifteenth-century lead roofs in the nineteenth century (internally both aisle roofs are masked by a ceiling). There is also an inserted two-light Perpendicular window above the west doorway in the tower. The font has a late fifteenth-century octagonal top, but its base is probably earlier. It was moved one bay to the east this century. The side walls of the north porch are of brick and must be nineteenth-century. However, the remains of an early sixteenth-century two-bay porch still survive above them, and in the north elevation with its side-windows and projecting barge-boards. There is also an original tie-beam inside with its supports and braces below. Fragments of similar braces and the cut-off ends of another tie-beam can be seen to the south. Supports for a rood beam were put into the chancel-arch jambs with, no doubt, a rood-screen and loft being added in the fifteenth century. A gallery for singers was put into the west end of the nave in 1744 (it acquired an organ in 1816), but it was removed in 1855. There was also a fine timber spire on top of the west tower (perhaps fourteenthcentury) until its removal in the early nineteenth century (in c. 1812). After this a crenellated parapet was erected. This was rebuilt and the present tower roof was put in in 1878. The major restoration of the church took place in 1867-73, and much new Bath stone was put in (the north and west doorways are entirely of Bath stone). A new reredos was erected in 1865 (removed 1972) as well as a chancel screen (removed 1953) and many other fittings (pews, stalls, etc.). 13. ST. STEPHEN'S, HACKINGTON The church lies about ½ mile north of Canterbury on the head brickearth terrace at c. 50 ft. above O.D. Immediately to the west of it (until demolished in the late eighteenth century) was Place House, the principal residence from c. 1227 until 1540 of the Archdeacon of Canterbury, and, after the Reformation, of the Manwoods and Hales. 116 Earlier, it may have been the site of Archbishop Baldwin's abortive late twelfth-century college. The architectural history of this church has been very well surveyed by K.H. Jones, and this survey is accompanied by an excellent measured plan by G.M. Livett,117 so no new plan is included here. It is, 116 See Arch. Cant., xiv (1933), 2, and Arch. Cant., xlviii (1936), 238-40. 111 See Arch. Cant., xliv (1932), 253-63. 230 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY therefore, only necessary to summarise the earlier work and perhaps to amplify a few details where a different interpretation is offered. The earliest fabric surviving above-ground belongs to the nave, and must date from the very late eleventh or early twelfth century. These early walls are made with flint and re-used Roman brick set 'herringbone-wise' in thick layers of coarse lime mortar. The outer face was then lightly rendered all over. The finest original architectural feature is the south doorway (now in the later porch), which is made of Caen stone and has a 'chip-carved' diaper pattern in the tympanum over a timber-lintel. The side shafts have cushion capitals, and there was, perhaps, a similar, but slightly later, doorway in the west wall, though with more elaborate chevron-covered arches over it. There must also have been a doorway in the north wall. Two original windows survive above the south porch. They are round-headed and have quite large openings. That on the east was lengthened downwards in the thirteenth century. Another similar window, but at a lower level, is on the north side of the nave at the west end. It was perhaps reset in the nineteenth century from a higher-up position to the east. This window is shown blocked in an early nineteenth-century view.11s This church now has a cruciform plan, and the arches into the north and south transepts are semicircular (though slightly flattened) with roll-mouldings on the nave side of the arch, and with mainly plain (and in part restored) piers. The south-east pier has a more elaborate cushion capital at the top and chip-carved work on the abacus. Jones suggested in 1932 that these arches were reset in the early thirteenth century, reusing material from Archbishop Baldwin's college of the late 1180s. This is highly improbable, and it is much more likely that they are original early to mid-twelfth century arches ( on a large scale) still in situ. This suggests that there was already a prominent cruciform parish church here before Archbishop Baldwin started to construct his college on a neighbouring site. The surviving external quoins on the east and west sides (at the extreme north end) of the south transept are also probably mid-twelfth-century in date, though the outer walls of the twelfth-century transepts have totally disappeared. The west doorway was also perhaps rebuilt in the later twelfth century, though its inner arch has comb-chiselwork of a thirteenthcentury date. The lower part is heavily restored in Portland stone. During the early to mid-thirteenth century a tower was inserted at the 118 There are fine early nineteenth-century drawings of the church from various angles in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Copies of these were kindly shown to me by Dr John Physick. 231 TIM TATTON-BROWN west end of the nave by putting a north-south wall on its east side with a pointed arch in it. Large angle-buttresses were added on the northwest and south-west corners (containing much re-used masonry), and an upper stage was built with some large Hythe stone quoins (and some re-used Caen stone blocks). There is a thirteenth-century rectangular window halfway up the west wall. The upper windows were replaced in the fifteenth century, but still have thirteenth-century internal jambs. All the thirteenth-century work is characterised by the use of the combchisel. The internal heads of the upper tower windows are of tile voussoirs (they are probably fifteenth-century replacements). The lancet windows in the nave with rere-arches must date from the later thirteenth century, but the blocked lancet in the west wall of the south transept (with Caen jambs and a Reigate stone head) must be earlier. Also of a late thirteenth-century date is the chancel which is in three bays and has external buttresses. Jones's suggestion that the (outer) window tracery was inserted a few decades later in the early to mid-fourteenth century seems unlikely (there is no sign of windows being inserted into the fabric of the outer walls which are full of reused fragments and Roman bricks and thin tiles). Much of the external tracery has been restored in Bath stone, and the tracery in the upper quatrefoils may be a nineteenth-century insertion. 119 The original quoins to the buttresses and for the plinths (not made on the north) are of large blocks of dark green Hythe stone. The internal shafts in the chancel windows have been painted black to look like marble, but are in fact cut from the same blocks as the jambs. The north and south transepts were apparently rebuilt in the early fourteenth century, though the south transept was almost completely rebuilt again in the late sixteenth century. The north wall of the north transept with its diagonal buttresses and trio of trefoils at the head of its three-light north window must be early fourteenth-century, as is the two-light east window of the south transept. A pair of small early fourteenth-century ogee-headed windows were also added on either side of the chancel east window, though the east window itself is a fifteenth century (five-light Perpendicular) replacement. Also added in the fifteenth-century is the stone south porch, which is particularly distinctive having much dark brown ironstone in its south gable. The chancel arch is perhaps early fifteenth-century. Of unique importance to this church is the surviving indenture for the making of a new rood-screen in 1519-20.120 This screen still 119 See the early nineteenth century drawings referred to in note 119 supra. 120 See Aymer Vallance, 'The Rood-Screen at St. Stephen's, Hackington,' Arch. Cant., xliv (1932), 264-8. 232 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY survives, though its top was mutilated in the nineteenth century, and it was moved to the entrance of the south transept in 1966. Another early sixteenth-century feature is the three-light east window to the north transept. The simple three- and five-canted ceilings (with three tiebeams, visible in the nave and chancel) may also have been replaced in the sixteenth century. They all have painted lathe-and-plaster ceilings. The south transept was almost completely rebuilt in the late sixteenth century in brick (with the south plinth repaired in the nineteenth century in knapped flint) for the Manwood family pew (with a brick burial vault beneath). The low pyramid roof on the western tower (and unusual hexagonal spirelet over it) has a frame that may date from the late fifteenth or sixteenth century (with later repairs). The re-used fifteenth-century font was given by Sir Roger Manwood in 1591 as the inscription tells us. The unusual doorway and screen under the tower arch was put in in 1630, and a pillar alms-box provided in 1634.121 There was a major mid-nineteenth-century restoration when the church was restored and renewed. 14. ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS, HARBLEDOWN (Fig. 13) This small early Norman church is situated on the hill-top (c. 160 ft. above sea-level) in the centre of the small village immediately north of the sunken main road from London to Canterbury. It is one mile due west of Canterbury. The Blean forest on heavy clay is to the north, while Archbishop Lanfranc's Leper Hospital was only a short distance to the south-west below the church. Until 1825, there was only a simple nave and chancel. Then a 'north transept' was built. This was demolished when the architect, St. Aubyn, built a new chancel and nave (and north porch) along the north side of the old chancel and nave in 1880-81. The original nave is early Norman, with Quarr stone quoins on the south-west corner.122 Also Quarr stone voussoirs have been used in the round arch above the original doorway on the south-west side of the .... nave. The original extent of the nave to the east is marked by a 'megalithic' block of ragstone three-quarters of the way along the south wall. The coursed whole flintwork of the west wall of the original nave is also early, and there is a blocked round-headed window in the upper gable wall (also perhaps with Quarr stone quoins). Inside the church 121 See photos of these in H.R. Pratt-Boorman and V.J. Torr, Kent Churches 1954, 138 and 146. 122 See note 106 supra. 233 TIM TATTON-BROWN Norman wildow (blocked} □ late C11th ['] c.1880·1 0 12:J late (13th ST. MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS CIUlCH, HARELEOOWN, KENT 0 1 2 3 4 Sm Fig. 13. the remains of the rere-arch of another round-headed window has been uncovered in the south wall of the nave, and Petrie's early nineteenthcentury drawing appears to show another on the north side. There is the remains of a possible piscina in the south wall near the east end of the original nave. Nearby the so-called 'stone of Mithras' is set into the wall.123 The nave was lengthened eastwards and a new chancel was built perhaps in the thirteenth century. Only the rere-arch of the east window is medieval. The other windows and the chancel arch were all totally restored in 1880-81. There are the remains of a late medieval crown-post roof in the nave, and of a little timber bell-turret above the west end of the nave (probably late medieval, but supported internally in the roof by nineteenth-century timbers). It is now weather-boarded, but Hasted describes it as shingled.124 It contains four bells: Hatch, 1603; Palmer, 1670; and Henry Jordan (1442-68), the latter inscribed 'Sancta Katerina ora pro nobis.' A west gallery and timber porch outside the 123 It was discovered in 1881 and is perhaps medieval. H. Petrie's drawing is in the scrapbook in the K.A.S. Library. 124 Hasted, op. cit., ix (1800), 18-21. 234 CHURCHES IN AND AROUND CANTERBURY west doorway are said to have been demolished in 1879. Also a 'Tudor' arch is said to have been replaced as the earlier chancel arch by the present one in 1881. In 1979, the original chancel was partitioned off behind the arch and became the vestry with a W.C. and upper room. A new door was cut on the south-east. The north transept, built in 1825 in brick (with a slate roof and timber window-frames and a gallery) was cased in flint and stone in 1855. A new high tiled roof and gable were then built, and the windows were replaced in stone. These were swept away in 1880-81, when the new larger nave and chancel were built, with an arcade of three arches to connect with the old church. An organ was installed in the old chancel (moved to the west end of the south aisle in 1979). Despite all these later changes, the south-west side of the church still exhibits a rare survival of early Norman masonry, which is probably contemporary with the earliest part of the chapel (an apsidal east end) of the Leper Hospital on the other side of the main road. This Hospital of St. Nicholas was founded by Archbishop Lanfranc in c. 1087. 125 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am extremely grateful to my wife, Veronica, for word-processing several drafts of this text and to Margaret Sparks and Nigel Ramsay for commenting on earlier drafts. The plans for this article were made especially by David Dobson and Howard Jones, with the latter making his own measured plans and processing them on his computer. I am, however, responsible for the interpretations. Ken Reedie (of the Royal Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury) kindly allowed me to use Grose's drawing of St. Mary Bredin. 125 See Margaret Gibson, Lanfranc of Bee (1978), 185-6. 235