Plans of, and Brief Architectural Notes on, Kent Churches. Second Series. Part II

PLANS OF, AND BRIEF ARCHITECTURAL NOTES ON, KENT CHURCHES SECOND SERIES. PART II By F. C. ELLISTON-ERWOOD, F.S.A. THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN, BEXLEY THIS church is of ancient foundation, probably of pre-conquest date,, but nothing remains to give any proof for such an assumption. Indeed,, restoration has played such havoc with rehcs of an earher epoch (and this is particularly the case in the 1883 works) that evidence that might have contributed to the formulation of a coherent architectural story has been almost enthely obhterated. It is next to impossible to give a date to the various buttresses, though one or two are shown on pre- 1883 photographs and sketches, and windows have only been given a period on the none too certain grounds that they reproduce, more or less faithfully, those they have supplanted. Printed accounts of the church say that the screen and stahs are copied from fragments of original woodwork, but one looks in vain for these sources, and no one appears to know what has become of them. Similarly the rood staircase is claimed to be a reconstruction of that pre-existing, but there is very little architectural eyidence in support of that statement. Nevertheless, because the development of the buhding has been simple and straightforward, without any abnormahties, it is possible to say, with some assurance, that the Norman buhding consisted of a nave, coterminous with the existing one, and a chancel of the same width as that of to-day, but only half its length. Whether the tower, which is a large one without any constructional approach to the upper stages, is of the same date, is not so easy to determine. The two hghts in the west wall and serving the vestry now placed here, were, in their original form, insertions, for the corbels that supported the floor of the second stage sthl remain and clearly show that this floor would have crossed these windows at hah theh height. As these windows are of thirteenth century type it fohows that the tower must be earlier. I suggest, therefore, a transitional addition, without prejudice to the possibility that it may be somewhat earlier and contemporaneous with the remainder of the Norman buhding. In the thirteenth century normal extensions took place : the chancel was doubled in length and an aisle added with an arcade of four bays, inserted in the north wah. The fourteenth century saw the addition of the north-east chapel, 140 NOTES ON KENT CHURCHES ID ti 141 10 NOTES ON KENT CHURCHES (? St. Katherine, though a chapel of St. Nicholas is mentioned in the records) and the arch between this chapel and the main chancel was opened out. This is in the main, the line of development. Subsequent additions were almost entirely confined to windows and roof work and, of course, restorations. Evidence for this scheme is to be found in the following architectural details sthl surviving. Twelfth Century Head of a Norman doorway stih in situ above the present entrance, with, inside the church, the original rere-arch, somewhat restored. The south-east coin of the nave has several courses of tufa sthl in position, though at the base of this corner a worked piece of twelfth-century Caen stone has been inserted, seemingly a later repah. The junction of the west wah of the twelfth-century church and the aisle extension shows very clearly a few feet north of the north face of the tower, and a simhar break in the character of the walling is discernible on the south wah of the chancel, indicating the position of the early chancel east end. The south-west coins of the tower of Reigate stone are probably original though much weathered. Thirteenth Century The nave arcade is in part original, but there are many signs of repair and rebuilding. The eastern bay may have been rebuilt later to provide head room for the rood screen ; it is somewhat wider than the rest. Windows were probably inserted during this period and the north and south doorways are likewise to be attributed to this century. Fourteenth Century The junction of the aisle and the added chapel is indicated by a break in the wah structure, and the arch of this period, continuing the line of the earher arcade, does so in a broken line, a pronounced bend being clearly visible. It was in this period that the original chancel arch was taken down. A matter not quite clear, and possibly now incapable of explanation, is to be found in the detahs of the north aisle. This is rather wide for the thirteenth century and one might look for some evidence of a later widening, though there are Early Enghsh detahs sthl remaining in the north wah. On the other hand, a continuous string course of fourteenth-century type runs along the north, east and west walls of 142 NOTES ON KENT CHURCHES both aisle and chapel. Much of this is obviously recent, but the question must be asked, is this a part of the 1883 restoration which is known to have been " thorough ", or was the aisle indeed widened when the chapel was added in the fourteenth century, earlier details being salved -from the destroyed wall ? It seems impossible to answer this query. The base of the font (the bowl of classic type) is clearly of fifteenthcentury date, but details of the triple sedilia and the piscina are obscured by recent repah and stench mural decoration, and the existing rood stahcase is likewise suspect, though, of course, it may represent a much repaired original feature. The wooden shingled broach spire to the tower always excites comment, with its upper octagonal half placed oddly overlapping the square lower portion, but this feature, reminiscent of the better known Brookland campanile, is merely a device to ensure proper ventilation to the timber framing and thus tend to prevent dry rot. • The so-called " mass dials " on the south-east coin of the nave, the Castelyn " Horn " brass, and the series of hatchments are other features of note in this interesting church. THE CHURCH (R.C.) OF ST. MARY, DENTON NEAR GRAVESEND A commendable hobby of the late G. M. Arnold of Gravesend, in his time a valuable member and officer of the Kent Archaeological Society, was the purchase and restoration of derelict churches of which there are many in Kent. Thus he obtained possession of the ancient church of Dode, remotely hidden among the woods of the North Downs, the ruined chapel of St. Katherine at Shorne and this, the subject of this note, the old parish church of .Denton. St. Katherine, Shorne, a chantry chapel, is described in two papers by Mr. Arnold in Arch. Cant., XX, pp. 195-202 and Vol. XXIII, pp. 78-85, but no plan is given of what appears to be a fourteenth-century building. Dode is the subject of a separate book, also by Mr. Arnold, but the most valuable account is that of the late Canon Livett in Arch. Cant., XXI, pp. 260-72, with, as one would expect from Mr. Livett, a careful plan. St. Mary, Denton, is described in another pubhcation by Mr. Arnold, and there is a small plan as a frontispiece, as weh as a number of hlustrations showing the church in its decay. But there is not a concise account of its architecture, and a recent visit to the building gave an opportunity to repah this omission. Mr. Arnold acquhed the ruins of the church about 1900 and restored them in the years following. In 1928 they were made over to the Roman Catholic community by Miss Irene Arnold, his daughter. The buhding was a parish church and not a chapel, and was seemingly in decay in the fifteenth century, though the hving was held as a sinecure by various vicars. But no services appear to have been said and it 143 NOTES ON KENT CHURCHES would seem probable that the reformed rite has never been heard within these wahs. Architecturally the building is exceptional for Kent, and not very common elsewhere. As it stands at present it would appear just another little Norman church of nave and chancel such as that of Dode • Denton, twjct QtavesenxC, Kent.S:(LWu. ft* GxxnctC frcix If X l}lfi c. mlAracmciiL of ITfitfArefi °pcfy| j into A ItUK&ni. i c&zpcC. » 5oii. -£r- •>"(<• L l2tll<:.stAiu£uujBS i£o: jourufaiions.1 I