Newlands Chapel, Charing
Newlands Chapel, Charing by David Carder
In 1911 H. Bensted of Bearsted wrote a short account of Newlands Chapel near Charing (Arch. Cant. 29, pp. 85-6), with plan and drawings of internal elevations. 100 years later the author and Roger Cockett visited the chapel to review Bensted’s account and to record changes made since his time.
This was presumably the manorial chapel of an adjacent manor house, but is now in secular use and ownership, and has probably been so for centuries. It comprises nave and chancel with a blocked two-bay arcade, presumably opening originally into a lost south aisle. The fabric has been much altered and rebuilt, the last major restoration apparently being in 1967/8, but sufficient detail survives for the building to be dated with reasonable confidence.
Although the walls have been shortened, destroying the window-heads, the springing points of the arcade arches remain, apparently in situ, allowing the original wall heights to be estimated at about 5.3 metres, 1.3 metres higher than at present.
Bensted’s plan and drawings are reasonably accurate, but his description and analysis must be challenged, although some details now visible may then have been covered. He tries to attribute an early 13th century date to the building, but this cannot be justified.
The building materials are accurately described, except that some of the internal jambs of the east windows are apparently of Caen stone rather than
chalk. Caen stone quoins survive in the north-west and north-east corners, but much of the fabric is now brick.
The chancel contains a piscina with a very slightly pointed head, probably 13th century and almost certainly not an original feature. There is a later aumbry on the north side.
There is no clear evidence for a chancel arch - the “destroyed arch” shown on Bensted’s plan does not seem to correspond to any extant feature.
The inside and outside wall surfaces contain much graffiti, including pilgrim’s crosses, one or two red wall paintings, and possibly some apotropaic symbols (to ward off evil spirits).
Various items of carved stonework are not mentioned by Bensted, so were probably added after his time. These include a Caen-stone shaft and capital, in the north-east corner of the nave, and a re-set capital with leaf decoration in the nave north wall. Their detail does not match anything else in the building, so they may have come from elsewhere.
Some of the window jambs shown on Bensted’s plan no longer exist, and it is not clear that Bensted actually saw the south chancel window (dotted on his plan) - he may simply have assumed there was one opposite that in the north wall.
The most notable features, which provide good dating evidence, are the pillars and responds of the arcade and the north doorway. Rather elaborate for a small, remote manorial chapel, they perhaps were re-used from another site.
The arcade east-west responds have keel mouldings, not the round mouldings shown on Bensted’s plan. Keel mouldings appear after about 1150. The capitals appear to have been re-cut and/or added in modern times.
The north doorway is clearly Norman, the semi-circular head having a roll moulding with bobbin ornamentation. In Bensted’s account and in the 1952 listing description it was blocked, but is now open. It is remarkably unweathered, so its authenticity is in doubt, but perhaps it was in store for a long period before re-assembly in its present location.
Bobbin ornamentation is rare - the author does not know of any in Kent - but St Albans Cathedral has a similar example. Originally in the monastic slype, it is now in the south transept and has been dated c. 1155-60. I understand that it also appears in the west facade of Ely Cathedral, and in the parish churches at Hellingly (Sussex) and Kirton-in-Holland (Lincolnshire).
Overall, a date of c.1180 for Newlands Chapel would fit the evidence of the arcade and north doorway, but it could be later if these were re-used.
My thanks to the owner, for providing access; to Mary Berg, for helpful suggestions; and to Ron Baxter of the CRSBI (Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland) and Sarah Pearson, for the locations of bobbin ornament.