St Mary The Virgin, Eastry, Kent
St Mary has been that I have tried to get into several times. Eastry lies on my route to work, although the Sandwich road goes round the village, I can see it's tower and I often wondered what delights would lay inside.
So after getting into Minster, I thought, lets try Eastry, not really holding out much hope. But, after parking up and walking down a narrow path, we came to the church and entered the unusual porch. I tried the main door and it swung open.
Revealing a warden vacuuming. She was very kind, stopped working so i could get my shots, and filled us in with the details, and especially about the Dominical Circle, a carving used to calculate the date of easter, and very rare as well as being 13th century.
Most noticeable were the wall paintings over the naive, a description of which should appear below:
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Set away from the main street but on one of the earliest sites in the village, flint-built Eastry church has an over restored appearance externally but this gives way to a noteworthy interior. Built in the early thirteenth century by its patrons, Christ Church Canterbury, it was always designed to be a statement of both faith and power. The nave has a clerestory above round piers whilst the east nave wall has a pair of quatrefoils pierced through into the chancel. However this feature pales into insignificance when one sees what stands between them - a square panel containing 35 round paintings in medallions. There are four deigns including the Lily for Our Lady; a dove; Lion; Griffin. They would have formed a backdrop to the Rood which would have been supported on a beam the corbels of which survive below the paintings. On the centre pier of the south aisle is a very rare feature - a beautifully inscribed perpetual calendar or `Dominical Circle` to help find the Dominical letter of the year. Dating from the fourteenth century it divides the calendar into a sequence of 28 years. The reredos is an alabaster structure dating from the Edwardian period - a rather out of place object in a church of this form, but a good piece of work in its own right. On the west wall is a good early 19th century Royal Arms with hatchments on either side and there are many good monuments both ledger slabs and hanging tablets. Of the latter the finest commemorates John Harvey who died in 1794. It shows his ship the Brunswick fighting with all guns blazing with the French ship the Vengeur. John Bacon carved the Elder this detailed piece of work.
kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Eastry
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Eastry is a large and interesting village situated just off the A256 approximately 2 miles from Sandwich, 9 miles from Dover and 12 miles from Canterbury.
The name, meaning Eastern district, originated in the 7th Century, when the village was the capital of the most easterly of the provinces of the Kingdom of Kent, the Lathe of Eastry.
Here the Saxon kings had a Royal Hall on the site north of the Church, now occupied by Eastry Court, which was reputedly the scene of the murder in 665 of the two young princes, Etheldred and Ethelbert. Two Saxon burial sites in the village date from this period.
On the south side of the Church lies the former Tithe Barn (rebuilt 1832), now Aumbry Cottages, and the Parsonage Farm now known as the Aumbry (rebuilt 1825) from its having belonged to the Almonry of the Prior and Convent at Canterbury from the 12th Century.
The village was the birthplace of Henry of Eastry, Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury 1285-1333, in whose honour the Cathedral tower bears the name Bell Harry.
In Lower Street on the west side is Fairfield a 15th century aisled hall house, and in Mill Lane, the former Union Workhouse (1835) which became Eastry Hospital and which is now closed.
Beneath the garden of Beckets on the west side of Woodnesborough Lane are the Caves (now closed), a long series of galleries excavated in the last century by the Foord family in the course of extracting chalk for lime burning.
The Old Vicarage in Church Street was in use as the Vicarage until 1980 and stands on a site appropriated to that purpose in 1367.
In the 19th century the village possessed four windmills, only one of which now remains, as a private residence.
The Church dates from c.1230. It was built lavishly in the early English style of architecture by the monks of Christ Church Abbey, Canterbury who owned the Eastry Manor at that time.
This Norman church almost certainly replaced a Saxon building, since Eastry boasted a Royal Palace for the Kings of Kent as early as 660 AD. The origins of Christian worship on this site are lost in antiquity.
The beautiful church of St. Mary's Eastry, a place associated with the notable Prior of Canterbury, Henry of Eastry (after whom the "Bell Harry Tower" of Canterbury Cathedral is named), contains a most unique feature, restored during 1987.
Above the Chancel Arch, enclosed within a rectangular frame, are rows of seven "medallion" wall paintings; the lower group was discovered in 1857 and the rest in 1903. They remained in a rather dilapidated state until the Canterbury Cathedral Wall Paintings Department brought them back to life.
The medallions are evidently of the 13th Century, having been painted while the mortar was still wet. Each medallion contains one of four motifs:
The trefoil flower, pictured left, is perhaps a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom the church is dedicated; or symbolic of Christ.
The lion; symbolic of the Resurrection.
Doves, either singly, or in pairs, represent the Holy Spirit.
The Griffin represents evil, over which victory is won by the power of the Resurrection and the courage of the Christian.
St Mary The Virgin, Eastry, Kent
St Mary has been that I have tried to get into several times. Eastry lies on my route to work, although the Sandwich road goes round the village, I can see it's tower and I often wondered what delights would lay inside.
So after getting into Minster, I thought, lets try Eastry, not really holding out much hope. But, after parking up and walking down a narrow path, we came to the church and entered the unusual porch. I tried the main door and it swung open.
Revealing a warden vacuuming. She was very kind, stopped working so i could get my shots, and filled us in with the details, and especially about the Dominical Circle, a carving used to calculate the date of easter, and very rare as well as being 13th century.
Most noticeable were the wall paintings over the naive, a description of which should appear below:
------------------------------------------
Set away from the main street but on one of the earliest sites in the village, flint-built Eastry church has an over restored appearance externally but this gives way to a noteworthy interior. Built in the early thirteenth century by its patrons, Christ Church Canterbury, it was always designed to be a statement of both faith and power. The nave has a clerestory above round piers whilst the east nave wall has a pair of quatrefoils pierced through into the chancel. However this feature pales into insignificance when one sees what stands between them - a square panel containing 35 round paintings in medallions. There are four deigns including the Lily for Our Lady; a dove; Lion; Griffin. They would have formed a backdrop to the Rood which would have been supported on a beam the corbels of which survive below the paintings. On the centre pier of the south aisle is a very rare feature - a beautifully inscribed perpetual calendar or `Dominical Circle` to help find the Dominical letter of the year. Dating from the fourteenth century it divides the calendar into a sequence of 28 years. The reredos is an alabaster structure dating from the Edwardian period - a rather out of place object in a church of this form, but a good piece of work in its own right. On the west wall is a good early 19th century Royal Arms with hatchments on either side and there are many good monuments both ledger slabs and hanging tablets. Of the latter the finest commemorates John Harvey who died in 1794. It shows his ship the Brunswick fighting with all guns blazing with the French ship the Vengeur. John Bacon carved the Elder this detailed piece of work.
kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Eastry
------------------------------------------------
Eastry is a large and interesting village situated just off the A256 approximately 2 miles from Sandwich, 9 miles from Dover and 12 miles from Canterbury.
The name, meaning Eastern district, originated in the 7th Century, when the village was the capital of the most easterly of the provinces of the Kingdom of Kent, the Lathe of Eastry.
Here the Saxon kings had a Royal Hall on the site north of the Church, now occupied by Eastry Court, which was reputedly the scene of the murder in 665 of the two young princes, Etheldred and Ethelbert. Two Saxon burial sites in the village date from this period.
On the south side of the Church lies the former Tithe Barn (rebuilt 1832), now Aumbry Cottages, and the Parsonage Farm now known as the Aumbry (rebuilt 1825) from its having belonged to the Almonry of the Prior and Convent at Canterbury from the 12th Century.
The village was the birthplace of Henry of Eastry, Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury 1285-1333, in whose honour the Cathedral tower bears the name Bell Harry.
In Lower Street on the west side is Fairfield a 15th century aisled hall house, and in Mill Lane, the former Union Workhouse (1835) which became Eastry Hospital and which is now closed.
Beneath the garden of Beckets on the west side of Woodnesborough Lane are the Caves (now closed), a long series of galleries excavated in the last century by the Foord family in the course of extracting chalk for lime burning.
The Old Vicarage in Church Street was in use as the Vicarage until 1980 and stands on a site appropriated to that purpose in 1367.
In the 19th century the village possessed four windmills, only one of which now remains, as a private residence.
The Church dates from c.1230. It was built lavishly in the early English style of architecture by the monks of Christ Church Abbey, Canterbury who owned the Eastry Manor at that time.
This Norman church almost certainly replaced a Saxon building, since Eastry boasted a Royal Palace for the Kings of Kent as early as 660 AD. The origins of Christian worship on this site are lost in antiquity.
The beautiful church of St. Mary's Eastry, a place associated with the notable Prior of Canterbury, Henry of Eastry (after whom the "Bell Harry Tower" of Canterbury Cathedral is named), contains a most unique feature, restored during 1987.
Above the Chancel Arch, enclosed within a rectangular frame, are rows of seven "medallion" wall paintings; the lower group was discovered in 1857 and the rest in 1903. They remained in a rather dilapidated state until the Canterbury Cathedral Wall Paintings Department brought them back to life.
The medallions are evidently of the 13th Century, having been painted while the mortar was still wet. Each medallion contains one of four motifs:
The trefoil flower, pictured left, is perhaps a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom the church is dedicated; or symbolic of Christ.
The lion; symbolic of the Resurrection.
Doves, either singly, or in pairs, represent the Holy Spirit.
The Griffin represents evil, over which victory is won by the power of the Resurrection and the courage of the Christian.