The Origins of Plaxtol Church
The Origins of Plaxtol Church
Plaxtol Church is the only Commonwealth church in Kent. It was built in 1648 by ordinance of the House of Lords which found the "little old chapel not able to contain the parishioners" who were "necessitated to build a new church there". Ten years earlier Archbishop Laud had received a petition from the parishioners to restore the chapel saying that they were prevented from "age and other hindrances" attending their parish church at Wrotham four miles away "without great inconvenience and weariness". Laud gave his permission for the restoration of the "old ruinous chapel" but whether an attempt to do this was ever made we do not know. Laud was shortly to be in trouble and to lose his head and perhaps the local Puritans took the opportunity to establish a new Puritan church in an area of mainly Royalist sympathisers.
The church has no dedication and this must be due to the Puritan sympathies of Sir Henry Vane II of Fairlawne, one of the principal property owners in Plaxtol. Sir Henry contributed generously to the new church supplying timber, loads of stones, alder poles for scaffolding and money. The tower was added to the church in 1655.
We know surprisingly little about the preceding Plaxtol chapel. Historians describe it as a "chapel of ease" to Wrotham, with a burial ground but no baptismal or tithing rights but we have found no record of its establishment. Could it have originated as a roadside shrine or a manorial chapel? It was certainly annexed to Wrotham by the 14th century when Archbishop Islipp decreed that the vicar should have the tithe of hay growing at Hale, Roughway and Winfield (the three boroughs which late comprise Plaxtol parish) and provide bread, wine and lights for his celebrations there. From 1495 it is mentioned regularly as a landmark in Wrotham manor rentals and surveys and from this source we know that the chapel stood on the same site as the present church. Despite years of research consulting Domesday Book, the taxation of Pope Nicholas IV, Valor Ecclesiasticus, Charter Rolls, Close Rolls, Inquisitions post mortem, State Papers of Henry VIII and the Commonwealth material at Lambeth Palace Library the only other information to emerge about the pre-Cromwellian chapel came from the Patent Rolls for 1575/7.
Plaxtol chapel was described as "all that one small dwelling ... formerly being a chapel with appurtenances and the chapel yard" with a yearly rent of 4d. It is among a long list of concealed lands which had escaped Henry VIII's commissioners at the Dissolution when the manor of Wrotham was taken from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Crown now took the chapel from its occupiers and granted it to a London jeweller, a gentleman pensioner. No record has been found in the Kent Archives Office or any other archive recording the sale of the land from the London jeweller to whoever built the new church.
It is difficult not to feel there must be some evidence lurking somewhere to resolve this frustrating search. Can anyone suggest any other sources to consult for the history of the pre-Cromwellian church?
M. Lewis
Notes on Plaxtol Church Roof
Plaxtol church is distinguished by its false hammer beam roof of 1648.
In 1989 decorators' scaffolding was put up in the church and this allowed close inspection of the roof timbers, helped on one occasion by our President, Mr Ken Gravett.
The 1648 church was of four bays. The five trusses bear a complete set of carpenter's marks, truss no. 1 being at the chancel end and running in sequence to truss no. 5 at the tower end. The Victorian extensions to the church of 1852 and 1894 seem to have left the 1648 roof structure alone. It may have been at this time that the roof timbers were stained dark brown to cover the remains of bright blue paint which once covered them.
The hammer beams and hammer posts appear to be made of new (1648) timber as no redundant mortices or other marks of medieval carpentry were found. The king posts, arch braces, struts and many rafters have old mortices, some empty, some containing cut-off tenons which indicate a previous use. From the siting of the redundant mortices close to the ends of the arch braces it was deduced that the arch braces were 'cut-down' from larger arch braces. The mortices, with two peg holes, must once have supported further braces or struts of considerable size.
The western king post against the tower was found to be decayed due to beetle infestation and was removed. It was a re-used timber showing a redundant mortice for a rail and a wedge-shaped hollow used to house a shoring post during erection. From this, one could see that in its second use as a king post the timber was reversed and the head of the king post was fashioned from the base of the original post. The fashioning of the head of the king post was crudely done with an adze. Two rafters showed redundant mortices near the apex whose purpose has yet to be explained.
I should like to hear from anyone who can explain the function of this mortice.
There is nothing to indicate whether or not the second-hand timbers in the church formed part of an earlier hammer beam roof. The new (1648) timber used for the hammer beams and posts would seem to indicate that they did not.
There are three possible local sources for this second-hand timber. Fairlawne, Oxenhoath and Old Soar Manor are among the principal local houses known to have undergone modernisation in the mid-seventeenth century and all three owners were involved in the church building at this time.
Fairlawne is 900 yards from the church. In the first half of the seventeenth century the Sir Henry Vanes I and II spent large sums of money beautifying and possibly modernising the house. Sir Henry Vane II took a principal part in building the 1648 church. (see Origins of Plaxtol church, M. Lewis.)
Oxenhoath is 2½ miles by road from Plaxtol church. There is a drawing of Oxenhoath on a map of 1621 (KAO U31 P3) which shows it to have been a large, late medieval courtyard house with a gatehouse. Oxenhoath was rebuilt by Sir Nicholas Miller II in the 1650s. No medieval timberwork survives.
Old Soar Manor (c.1290) is 1 mile from the church. All that remains is the solar wing. The site of the hall is occupied by a brick farmhouse of 1780. The medieval hall at Old Soar was 33 ft. 9 inches wide and probably aisled. Therefore, the roof, whatever form the construction took, would have required substantial timbers. An estate map of 1711 shows a drawing of Old Soar with a large central chimney stack indicating that the hall had been floored over if not entirely rebuilt. The tenant farmers of Old Soar for most of the seventeenth century were the Fumers, a prosperous family of yeoman farmers. The churchwarden from 1654 to 1656 when the church tower was being built was William Furner. During the building of the church, he appears frequently in the accounts transporting Lime, alder poles and stone. It is difficult not to speculate that some of the roof timbers in Plaxtol church may have come from the great hall of Old Soar Manor but Fairlawne and Oxenhoath are equally likely candidates.
An attempt was made at a dendrochronology dating. There were not enough samples with sufficient rings to produce a firm dating but the tentative datings produced were all medieval, ranging from the late thirteenth century through to 1400. A further dendro survey of the church would be interesting but could never be conclusive in determining where the timbers came from due to the shortage of timbers for matching in the three 'source' houses. The present Fairlawne is entirely eighteenth and nineteenth century. Oxenhoath is seventeenth and nineteenth. Old Soar still has its late thirteenth solar wing but the thorough restoration in 1949 replaced and reinforced many of the timbers.
J. Semple