St. Augustine Church, Brookland, Kent
The church of St.Augustine at Brookland, Romney Marsh, is both distinctive and idiosyncratic featuring - as it does - a separate wooden belfry of a size and type not found anywhere else in Britain, nave arcades leaning at a bizarre angle away from each other and a 12th century font made of solid lead and decorated with the signs of the Zodiac.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/sets/72157594387684536/ to see the full set.
Looking first at the bell tower, its core is thought to be late 12th century and was originally open to the elements but was clad with shingles in the 15th century and doubled to its present height of 60 feet. One suggestion is that instablity in the ground may have made building a conventional church tower impractical and certainly the nave arcades demonstrate there is a stability problem on this site. The strange tower was the subject of an 80 page poem in 1786.
An examination in 1900 suggested the tower may have been an open campanile with only the ringers' stage enclosed at first.
Once again the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust guide and the church guide differ on dates - the trust suggest the site was first occupied around 1200, the church guide suggests circa 1250 but it concedes that a Norman church may have pre-existed as some worked stone is found in the south aisle.
The nave arcades are unsymmetrical - six bays on the north side and seven bays on the south side - and these lean outwards due to poor quality subsoil. Part of the south arcade is 'out' one foot in a height of 14 feet which one church architect has noted is beyond the theoretical point of collapse. Truly this is Romney Marsh's 'Leaning Tower of Pisa'. Movement has continued this century and half an inch has been registed in 80 years.
A medieval wall painting [not photographed by me] of the Martyrdom of St Thomas Becket was found as recently as 1964.
The 12th century lead font, one of only 30 to survive in Britain, is 12th century and may be Norman or Flemish in origin. It is ornamented in two tiers of arcading with the Signs of the Zodiac and the Labours of the Months.
On display near the door is a surviving 'hud' - a wooden sentry box-like structure which was reserved for the minister to stand inside at the grave and deliver the funeral service in the pouring rain in the days before umberellas were invented. Designed to protect his wig this is thought to be 18th century in origin.
Special mention should also be made of 'The Battle of Brookland' fought on the night of February 11, 1821, between Coast Blockade [Revenue] officers and a party of smugglers. In a running battle from Camber beach where the contraband had been landed, a gang called 'The Blues' lost four dead and 16 wounded while two midshipmen from the Coast Blockade were wounded and their leader Mr McKenzie was killed. The Old Bailey trial of captured smugglers saw one man executed and another acquited.
Brookland village surgeon, Ralph Hougham, was often called out to treat wounded from both sides in these encounters but he would be led blindfolded on horseback to the smugglers to prevent him giving them away or being asked to appear in court and give evidence on oath.
Special mention should also be made of the grave in the nave floor of Capatin George Snoad aged 12 years, of the 19th Lancers, who died in 1829 in unrecorded circumstances. In those days army commissions were still purchased but I was unaware that a 12-year-old could make captain. There is a 'finger grease' mark on his tombstone where clearly everyone else has wiped the '1' to check it really is 12 and not 22!
St. Augustine Church, Brookland, Kent
The church of St.Augustine at Brookland, Romney Marsh, is both distinctive and idiosyncratic featuring - as it does - a separate wooden belfry of a size and type not found anywhere else in Britain, nave arcades leaning at a bizarre angle away from each other and a 12th century font made of solid lead and decorated with the signs of the Zodiac.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/sets/72157594387684536/ to see the full set.
Looking first at the bell tower, its core is thought to be late 12th century and was originally open to the elements but was clad with shingles in the 15th century and doubled to its present height of 60 feet. One suggestion is that instablity in the ground may have made building a conventional church tower impractical and certainly the nave arcades demonstrate there is a stability problem on this site. The strange tower was the subject of an 80 page poem in 1786.
An examination in 1900 suggested the tower may have been an open campanile with only the ringers' stage enclosed at first.
Once again the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust guide and the church guide differ on dates - the trust suggest the site was first occupied around 1200, the church guide suggests circa 1250 but it concedes that a Norman church may have pre-existed as some worked stone is found in the south aisle.
The nave arcades are unsymmetrical - six bays on the north side and seven bays on the south side - and these lean outwards due to poor quality subsoil. Part of the south arcade is 'out' one foot in a height of 14 feet which one church architect has noted is beyond the theoretical point of collapse. Truly this is Romney Marsh's 'Leaning Tower of Pisa'. Movement has continued this century and half an inch has been registed in 80 years.
A medieval wall painting [not photographed by me] of the Martyrdom of St Thomas Becket was found as recently as 1964.
The 12th century lead font, one of only 30 to survive in Britain, is 12th century and may be Norman or Flemish in origin. It is ornamented in two tiers of arcading with the Signs of the Zodiac and the Labours of the Months.
On display near the door is a surviving 'hud' - a wooden sentry box-like structure which was reserved for the minister to stand inside at the grave and deliver the funeral service in the pouring rain in the days before umberellas were invented. Designed to protect his wig this is thought to be 18th century in origin.
Special mention should also be made of 'The Battle of Brookland' fought on the night of February 11, 1821, between Coast Blockade [Revenue] officers and a party of smugglers. In a running battle from Camber beach where the contraband had been landed, a gang called 'The Blues' lost four dead and 16 wounded while two midshipmen from the Coast Blockade were wounded and their leader Mr McKenzie was killed. The Old Bailey trial of captured smugglers saw one man executed and another acquited.
Brookland village surgeon, Ralph Hougham, was often called out to treat wounded from both sides in these encounters but he would be led blindfolded on horseback to the smugglers to prevent him giving them away or being asked to appear in court and give evidence on oath.
Special mention should also be made of the grave in the nave floor of Capatin George Snoad aged 12 years, of the 19th Lancers, who died in 1829 in unrecorded circumstances. In those days army commissions were still purchased but I was unaware that a 12-year-old could make captain. There is a 'finger grease' mark on his tombstone where clearly everyone else has wiped the '1' to check it really is 12 and not 22!