Clunch Decoration, Church of St Mary The Virgin, Upchurch, Kent
14th century blind arcade, executed in hard chalk, or clunch, now very worn but once of great status and beauty.
There has been a Church in Upchurch since about 1100 although the current building dates mainly to the 13th & 14th century. Sir Francis Drake's father was vicar here in the sixteenth century. The church is known for its odd shingled spire, a little like that at Bexley. It is four-sided to start with and suddenly changes into an octagon a third of the way up. It was once believed that the distinctive shape was chosen to serve as a navigational aid for shipping on the river, but as similar shaped spires are known elsewhere, far from rivers or other places requiring navigation aids, this is no longer thought to be true. There seems to be no structural reason for this change and it may purely be for decorative purposes.
Inside the church there is much work of the thirteenth century including three sedilia which, unusually, stand under the arch to the south chapel. The arch is finished by a very crisply carved head (possibly too crisp - it may result from Blomfield`s restoration of the church in 1875). Behind the sedilia, separating the seats from the chapel, is a charming wooden screen, with nine tall ogee-headed arches and a panel of pierced trefoils and quatrefoils. Both north and south chapels contain fragments of medieval glass while in the north chapel you may find a collection of medieval tiles, including one that shows a hunched figure with a staff and hat - possibly representing a pilgrim.
Under the church is a small crypt (a charnel house) where bones were kept when the churchyard was full. It was discovered in the late 19th century and the bones re-interred.
Clunch Decoration, Church of St Mary The Virgin, Upchurch, Kent
14th century blind arcade, executed in hard chalk, or clunch, now very worn but once of great status and beauty.
There has been a Church in Upchurch since about 1100 although the current building dates mainly to the 13th & 14th century. Sir Francis Drake's father was vicar here in the sixteenth century. The church is known for its odd shingled spire, a little like that at Bexley. It is four-sided to start with and suddenly changes into an octagon a third of the way up. It was once believed that the distinctive shape was chosen to serve as a navigational aid for shipping on the river, but as similar shaped spires are known elsewhere, far from rivers or other places requiring navigation aids, this is no longer thought to be true. There seems to be no structural reason for this change and it may purely be for decorative purposes.
Inside the church there is much work of the thirteenth century including three sedilia which, unusually, stand under the arch to the south chapel. The arch is finished by a very crisply carved head (possibly too crisp - it may result from Blomfield`s restoration of the church in 1875). Behind the sedilia, separating the seats from the chapel, is a charming wooden screen, with nine tall ogee-headed arches and a panel of pierced trefoils and quatrefoils. Both north and south chapels contain fragments of medieval glass while in the north chapel you may find a collection of medieval tiles, including one that shows a hunched figure with a staff and hat - possibly representing a pilgrim.
Under the church is a small crypt (a charnel house) where bones were kept when the churchyard was full. It was discovered in the late 19th century and the bones re-interred.