Notes on the Architecture of Aldington Church, Kent, and the Chapel at Court-at-Street, called "Bellirica"

( 143 ) NOTES ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF ALDINGTON CHURCH, KENT, AND THE CHAPEL AT COURT-AT-STREET, CALLED " BELLIRICA." F. C. ELLISTON ERWOOD, F.S.A. THESE two buildings, the one intimately connected with Erasmus (who was presented to the living of Aldington by Archbishop Warham), the other the scene of several incidents in the tragic hfe of the holy Maid of Kent, Elizabeth Barton, have, naturally, an interest beyond their architectural appeal, but from this latter point alone they are well worth a visit. The church is situated on the northern slope of the hill range on the borders of Romney Marsh, its fine recentlycompleted tower dominating the country around, and being a landmark from the sea. The building itself is simple in plan, consisting of a western tower, nave, south aisle, chancel, south chapel and the lower stages of an earlier tower, now used as a vestry. The earliest church of which there are any remains was Norman, of the twehth century. It consisted of a plain aisleless nave, twenty-one feet by forty-three feet internally, with a small square chancel of about nineteen feet internal measurement. To the nave was attached at its south-west corner a massive tower, nearly nineteen feet square externally, with walls six feet thick, its west wall projecting some two feet beyond the west wall of the nave. The original length of the chancel is indicated by the old quoins still remaining in the exterior of the north wall, nineteen feet nine inches from the north-east angle of the nave. There are similar indications in the south wall, but these are only discernible from within the chancel. There is also, in the middle of the north chancel waU, a blocked, round-headed tweUth century window, showing that the first chancel was lit by a single light in each of the lateral walls. The original east wall has been entirely removed, 144 NOTES ON THE ARCHITECTURE and the chancel arch replaced by a later one. Several of these features, especially those noted on the north wall, have been described as " Saxon," but their post-conquest date is unquestionable. The internal length of the old nave is indicated by a slight irregularity in the wall near its north-west end, a position confirmed by the situation of the fifteenth century diagonal buttress, built as a support to its north-west angle before the erection of the second tower (see plan). The north wall of the nave contains a blocked tweKth century doorway, and there are indications of roundheaded windows to the east of it. The early tower is pierced on the ground stage by two deeply splayed narrow windows in the south and west walls respectively. There is a doorway on the east face, now opening into a thirteenth century aisle ; but originally this was the entrance from the churchyard. There does not seem to be any direct communication between the church and this tower, unless there is a blockedup door, of which there is no apparent evidence, concealed beneath the plaster of the north wall. There was, therefore, most likely another doorway to the nave on the south wall opposite to that on the north, pierced through a now destroyed wall, that stood on the line of the nave arcade. There was an upper story to this tower, but even with this addition it would scarcely attain to the fuU height of a normal Norman tower. Whether it was higher it is difficult to say, but in all probability it was. It has no structural stairway, a wooden ladder being the means of access to the upper floor. On the east waU of this tower, seen from the inside of the aisle, is a narrow window, with, apparently, a pointed head. Above it is the weather-mold of the earlier aisle roof. Quite clearly a thirteenth century window would not open into the roof of an aisle, and a careful examination of this window shows that it is not a thhteenth century window at all, but one of the narrow slits of the Norman tower, with a recently repahed head in cement. It is clear therefore that, as there are no signs of a roof-mold below this window, the original church was aisleless, and this window lit the upper floor of the tower. > • •! si s«g OF ALDINGTON CHURCH, KENT. 145 f 3 ?Aogv moyxxun of 12 cent lUiJst UJBXC 1 * <