Ss. Gregory and Martin, Wye, Kent
I am currently trying to revisit all the churches photographed in the first few years of the Kent Churches Project, which means seeing some great and humble buildings, and sometimes surprise that some did not make more of an impact on me first time time round.
Why sits in the shadow of the downs, Wye down being nearest, of course, and also beside the Stour. The chuch sits beside the old main road and beside the old college, with the village spread to its south side.
All I remembered from my first time was the glass outer porch door, but my overwhelming feeling this time was of space and light in the mighty high nave.
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A very strange church, the result of the collapse of a tall central tower in 1686. The nave of the medieval church survives almost intact, while the chancel has been constructed from the remains of the central crossing of the thirteenth-century church, and a new tower built. The nave is tall and light, and contrasts well with the short narrow apsed chancel that now contains mural tablets to the Sawbridge and Drax families who lived at Olantigh. The reredos is plain early eighteenth-century work and ties in nicely with the dark oak panelling. The choir stalls which stand in the nave were a thanksgiving memorial for the life of President Kennedy. The west window, which represents Christ in Majesty, is set into plain glass and was designed by Gerald Smith in the 1950s. It is an object lesson in how good glass of this period could be.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Wye
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WYE
LIES the next parish eastward from Challock. It is spelt in Domesday, and other antient records, Wy.
¶THE PARISH lies in a healthy country, great part of it being in the fertile Ashford vale; the fine pasture down hills of Wye and Braborne bound the eastern side of it, as does another range of hills on the opposite side, the tops of which are skirted by the large extent of woodland, called King's and Challock woods, over which, for near two miles, this parish reaches westward almost to the church and village of Molash. It contains about two hundred and thirteen houses, and fourteen hundred inhabitants; the rents of it are about 4500l. per annum. The soil of it is various, the hills above mentioned, as well as the vale between in the northern part of it, are mostly chalk; the rest of it a red cludgy earth, much intermixed with slints, a wet unpleasant soil; the meadows near the river are very sertile and rich. The town of Wye, in which the fine tower of the church is a conspicuous object, stands in the vale on the river Stour, which directs its course throught the parish in its way to Canterbury; over it here is a stone bridge of five arches, built in 1630, in the room of the former wooden one, at the charge of the county; the river is plentifully stowed hereabouts with pikes. The town, which stands low and damp, and from that and its soil an unpleasant situation, is a neat well-built town, consisting of two parallel and two cross streets, the whole unpaved. There is a large green in it, built round, on one side of which is the church and college close to it, and on the other a house, which was once the gaol to the manor-court, but long since disused.
There is a tradition, that the town once stood in the valley, which lies between Wye-down and Crundal, where the hamlet of Pett-street now is, about which there are still remaining several deep disused wells, and this place is still called Town borough, where as that in which Wye town stands is called Bewbridge-borough. About half a mile westward from the town is a pleasant seat, called Spring-grove, built by Thomas Brett, esq. of this parish, in 1674, who afterwards resided in it.
The south part of the parish below the town, is full of small inclosures, and the soil deeper. In it is a hamlet, called Withersden, formerly accounted a manor, in which there is a well, which was once famous, being called St. Eustace's well, taking its name from Eustachius, abbot of Flai, who is mentioned by Matt. Paris, p. 169, an. 1200, to have been a man of learning and sanctity, and to have come and preached at Wye, and to have blessed a fountain there, so that afterwards its waters were endowed, by such miraculous power, that by it all diseases were cured. Hence the parish extends itself further southward by a narrow slip, between Brook and Braborne, to Nacolt-wood, once reputed likewise a manor, and the tile-kiln of that name.
Almost one half of the parish now belongs to Mr. Sawbridge, his estate here being greatly increased by his father's late purchase of the estates of Bond Hopkins, esq. which consist of Wye-court, Harvile, Coldharbour, Wye-downs, and Nacolt, in this parish; they formerly, I conjecture, belonged to Wye college, and afterwards to the Kempes; they were bought in chancery by John Hopkins. esq. commonly called from his rapacity, Vulture Hopkins, who died immensely rich in 1732, and devised his estates so as not to be inherited till after the second generation, then unborn; but the court of chancery set the will aside, and gave his estates to his heir-at-law, from whom they descended to the above-mentioned Bond Hopkins, esq. In the northern part of it stands the stately mansion of Ollantigh, close to the river, which is here beautifully formed by art to ornament it. Adjoining are the park-grounds, containing near six hundred acres, which extend almost as far as Wye town; and the eastern part of the ridge of hills called Wye-downs, the chain of which reaches to the sea-shore at Folkestone. On the summit of the hill, at the eastern extremity of this parish, is Fanscomb-beech, a tree visible to all the country round, to a great distance; near it was formerly a cottage, of the same name, now pulled down, and the lands laid into Mr. Sawbridge's park grounds. Also near it is Fannes wood, now a cottage, and belonging to him likewise. Both these were formerly esteemed manors of good account. The manor of Fannes, alias Fanscombe, formerly belonged to the master of the Savoy, now to St. Thomas's hospital, in Southwark, and that of Fannes wood, formerly the property of the Kempes, to Mr. Sawbridge.
The high road from Canterbury to Ashford leads along this parish, about half a mile distance westward from Ollantigh, on higher ground from whence there is a fine view over the vale beneath and the opposite downs, including the mansion and grounds of Ollantigh, and the town and church of Wye, which it leaves in its course at the same distance.
It is by some supposed that the Romans had a highway through this parish, which went on towards Lenham, and so to Aylesford; and the several remains of that nation dug up on Tremworth-down, in the adjoining parish of Crundal, on the side of it next to this parish, will serve to strengthen this conjecture. Wye had formerly a market on a Thursday, granted to the abbot of Battell, which was held in the time of king Henry VIII. It was held in Leland's time, who calls it a pratie market townelet; but it has been for some time disused. The two fairs formerly held here on St. Gregories day, March 23, and on All Souls day, Nov. 2, are now held on May 29 and Sept. 3, yearly, for Welch cattle, stock, &c.
There were formerly several families of good account resident in this town and parish, the Finch's, lived at Wye-court, descended from those of Sewards, in Linsted, a younger branch of the Finch's, of Eastwell; the Swans, removed hither from Lyd. Francis Swan, esq. resided here, his house being in the town of Wye, at the latter end of Henry VIII.'s reign. They bore for their arms, Azure, a chevron, ermine, between three swans, proper; the Twisdens, one of whom, Roger Twisden, gent. was of Wye, had a lease of the scite of the manor of Wye, and other premises here, from the abbot of Battel, anno 25 Henry VIII. and the Haules, who were antiently written De Aula five Haule, in Latin deeds, likewise resided here for several generations, till they removed to Maidstone in king James the 1st.'s reign, where George Haule, esq. of Maidstone, died in 1652. Elizabeth his daughter, and at length sole heir, married Sir Thomas Taylor, bart. of that parish. They bore for their arms, Or, on a saltier, five mulets of the field.
In this parish Major George Somner, brother to the antiquary, was killed in an engagement with the rebels, in 1648.
ON THE PLACE where the famous and decisive battle between king Harold and William, duke of Normandy, was fought in 1066, the Conqueror in the next year began to build a noble abbey, named from that event, Battell abbev; in Latin records, Abbatia de Bello; the royal founder endowing it with exemptions and privileges of a very extraordinary nature, and with many manors and good estates; among which was this Royal manor of Wye, with all its appendages, being of the demesnes of his crown, as the grant expresses it, with all liberties and royal customs, as well here as in Dengemarsh, which belonged to the court of Wye, (fn. 1) as freely as he himself held it, or as a king could grant it. Accordingly it is thus entered in the record of Domesday, under the title of land of the church of Battell, or De Labatailge, as there spelt.
¶The abbot of St. Martin, of the place of Battle, holds the manor which is called Wi, which in the time of king Edward the Confessor, and now, was and is taxed at seven sulings. The arable land is fifty-two carucates. In demesne there are nine carucates, and one hundred and fourteen villeins, with twenty-two borderers, having seventeen carucates. There is a church, and seven servants, and four mills of twenty-three shillings and eight pence, and one hundred and thirty three acres of meadow, and wood for the pannage of three hundred bogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth no more than twenty pounds and one hundred shillings, and six shillings and eight pence; when be received it, one hundred and twenty-five pounds, and ten shilling of the twenty in ore; (fn. 2) now one hundred pounds by tale; and if the abbot bad had sac and soc, it would have been worth twenty pounds more.
Ralf de Curbespina holds one denne and one yoke of the land, of the sockmen of this manor, and pays by custom six pence. Adelulf two parts of one suling, and pays twelve pence; and Hugo de Montfort has two yoke, and pays three hundred eels and two shillings; and in the time of king Edward the Confessor, they paid both sac and soc.
Of the twenty-two hundreds, there belonged to this manor, sac and soc, and all forfeitures, which of right belonged to the king.
For such was the dignity of this manor, which then consisted of seven sulings, or hides of land, that, as the antient book of this abbey expressed it, with its own hundred, it had jurisdiction over twenty-two hundreds and an half, which belonged to its court.
WYE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Gregory and St. Martin, stands at the north-west corner of the town of Wye, and was built by cardinal Kempe, when he founded the college of Wye in the reign of king Henry VI. being a handsome, large building, with three isles and as many chancels, and a high spire steeple in the middle, which stood on four lofty arches, supported by a like number of large pillars. The great chancel was made choir fashion, wainscotted, and seated round for the members of the new col lege. The north chancel was appointed for the burying-place of the Kempes, owners of Ollantigh; and in the south chancel the parishioners of the better sort were interred. According to tradition, it stood antiently on a little hill just at the entrance into the town from the river, and which is now called Boltshill, but was removed to this place, where it now stands, by the cardinal. In 1572, the steeple was burnt by lightning, and though it was soon afterwards rebuilt, under the care of Gregory Brett, then churchwarden, who was a great contributor to the expence of it; for which the parishioners granted to him and his heirs, a vault, in the middle isle, for their burial; yet in 1685 it fell, and beat down the greatest part of the middle chancel, almost all the two side ones, and the east end of the body of the church, by which all the monuments in the north chancel, of the Kempes, and Thornhills, of Ollantigh, were wholly destroyed, and the tombstone which lay over the cardinal's father and mother, broken to pieces, whose epitaph is preserved by Weever, p. 274. The fragments of several of the old tombstones lay for several years afterwards seattered about the church-yard, and some statues and parts of monuments lay at the lower end of the church; but they have since been removed and there are now none remaining. After this, the remaining part was inclosed with boards, at the east end, to make it fit for divine service, and the rest lay in ruins till the year 1701, when a brief was procured for the rebuilding of it, and within a year or two afterwards it was begun, the remainder of the old chancels was taken down, and only the present small chancel built up at the east end, in the room of that where the choir was, and a tower steeple on the south side, between the chancel and the body of the church, with battlements, and four pinnacles with gilt vanes on them. The present building is small, but neat. It consists, of three isles, the middle one having an upper story and range of windows. There is only one small chancel, new built, circular at the east end, which does not reach near so far as the old one, which extended several feet further, Mr. Chamberlain Godfrey's monument, in the church yard standing, as is said, where the altar formerly did. Towards building the steeple and chancel, the lady Joanna Thornhill, the prebendaries of Canterbury, and others, were contributors, and Richard Thornhill, esq. gave the pavement of the chancel. In the steeple are eight bells and a clock, which were completed in 1774. The only memorials of any time remaining, are three in the body of the church, viz. two for the Bretts, and one having the figures, in brass, of a woman between her two husbands, and underneath of several children, and at bottom an inscription, beginning John Andrew Justus, Thomas Palmer q; venustus, &c. In the chancel is a memorial for Mrs. Catherine Matchem, daughter of George Finch, gent. of this parish, obt. 1713; a monument over a vault, in which lie Agnes and Mary Johnton; the former died in 1763, the latter in 1767, they were descended from Sir Robert Moyle, of Buckwell; and a monument for lady Joanna Thornhill, daughter of Sir Bevill Granville, second wife of Richard Thornhill, esq. of Ollantigh, commander of a regiment of horse raised at his own charge, obt. 1708.
This church, appurtenant to the manor of Wye, was given, with it, to the abbey of Battel at its foundation by the Conqueror, and was appropriated to it before the year 1384, being the 8th year of king Richard II. In which state it continued till the reign of king Henry VI. when cardinal Kempe obtained the king's licence to purchase the advowson of the vicarage of the abbot of Battel, and settled it on his newfounded college here, as will be further mentioned hereafter; but the rectory appropriate of Wye remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, where this rectory staid till king Edward VI. in his 5th year, granted it and the manor of the vicarage, together with the two tithebarns and the tithes themselves, all parcel of the late monastery of Battel, to Edward, lord Clinton and Saye, who reconveyed them back again to the king, within a month afterwards.
Ss. Gregory and Martin, Wye, Kent
I am currently trying to revisit all the churches photographed in the first few years of the Kent Churches Project, which means seeing some great and humble buildings, and sometimes surprise that some did not make more of an impact on me first time time round.
Why sits in the shadow of the downs, Wye down being nearest, of course, and also beside the Stour. The chuch sits beside the old main road and beside the old college, with the village spread to its south side.
All I remembered from my first time was the glass outer porch door, but my overwhelming feeling this time was of space and light in the mighty high nave.
-------------------------------------------
A very strange church, the result of the collapse of a tall central tower in 1686. The nave of the medieval church survives almost intact, while the chancel has been constructed from the remains of the central crossing of the thirteenth-century church, and a new tower built. The nave is tall and light, and contrasts well with the short narrow apsed chancel that now contains mural tablets to the Sawbridge and Drax families who lived at Olantigh. The reredos is plain early eighteenth-century work and ties in nicely with the dark oak panelling. The choir stalls which stand in the nave were a thanksgiving memorial for the life of President Kennedy. The west window, which represents Christ in Majesty, is set into plain glass and was designed by Gerald Smith in the 1950s. It is an object lesson in how good glass of this period could be.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Wye
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WYE
LIES the next parish eastward from Challock. It is spelt in Domesday, and other antient records, Wy.
¶THE PARISH lies in a healthy country, great part of it being in the fertile Ashford vale; the fine pasture down hills of Wye and Braborne bound the eastern side of it, as does another range of hills on the opposite side, the tops of which are skirted by the large extent of woodland, called King's and Challock woods, over which, for near two miles, this parish reaches westward almost to the church and village of Molash. It contains about two hundred and thirteen houses, and fourteen hundred inhabitants; the rents of it are about 4500l. per annum. The soil of it is various, the hills above mentioned, as well as the vale between in the northern part of it, are mostly chalk; the rest of it a red cludgy earth, much intermixed with slints, a wet unpleasant soil; the meadows near the river are very sertile and rich. The town of Wye, in which the fine tower of the church is a conspicuous object, stands in the vale on the river Stour, which directs its course throught the parish in its way to Canterbury; over it here is a stone bridge of five arches, built in 1630, in the room of the former wooden one, at the charge of the county; the river is plentifully stowed hereabouts with pikes. The town, which stands low and damp, and from that and its soil an unpleasant situation, is a neat well-built town, consisting of two parallel and two cross streets, the whole unpaved. There is a large green in it, built round, on one side of which is the church and college close to it, and on the other a house, which was once the gaol to the manor-court, but long since disused.
There is a tradition, that the town once stood in the valley, which lies between Wye-down and Crundal, where the hamlet of Pett-street now is, about which there are still remaining several deep disused wells, and this place is still called Town borough, where as that in which Wye town stands is called Bewbridge-borough. About half a mile westward from the town is a pleasant seat, called Spring-grove, built by Thomas Brett, esq. of this parish, in 1674, who afterwards resided in it.
The south part of the parish below the town, is full of small inclosures, and the soil deeper. In it is a hamlet, called Withersden, formerly accounted a manor, in which there is a well, which was once famous, being called St. Eustace's well, taking its name from Eustachius, abbot of Flai, who is mentioned by Matt. Paris, p. 169, an. 1200, to have been a man of learning and sanctity, and to have come and preached at Wye, and to have blessed a fountain there, so that afterwards its waters were endowed, by such miraculous power, that by it all diseases were cured. Hence the parish extends itself further southward by a narrow slip, between Brook and Braborne, to Nacolt-wood, once reputed likewise a manor, and the tile-kiln of that name.
Almost one half of the parish now belongs to Mr. Sawbridge, his estate here being greatly increased by his father's late purchase of the estates of Bond Hopkins, esq. which consist of Wye-court, Harvile, Coldharbour, Wye-downs, and Nacolt, in this parish; they formerly, I conjecture, belonged to Wye college, and afterwards to the Kempes; they were bought in chancery by John Hopkins. esq. commonly called from his rapacity, Vulture Hopkins, who died immensely rich in 1732, and devised his estates so as not to be inherited till after the second generation, then unborn; but the court of chancery set the will aside, and gave his estates to his heir-at-law, from whom they descended to the above-mentioned Bond Hopkins, esq. In the northern part of it stands the stately mansion of Ollantigh, close to the river, which is here beautifully formed by art to ornament it. Adjoining are the park-grounds, containing near six hundred acres, which extend almost as far as Wye town; and the eastern part of the ridge of hills called Wye-downs, the chain of which reaches to the sea-shore at Folkestone. On the summit of the hill, at the eastern extremity of this parish, is Fanscomb-beech, a tree visible to all the country round, to a great distance; near it was formerly a cottage, of the same name, now pulled down, and the lands laid into Mr. Sawbridge's park grounds. Also near it is Fannes wood, now a cottage, and belonging to him likewise. Both these were formerly esteemed manors of good account. The manor of Fannes, alias Fanscombe, formerly belonged to the master of the Savoy, now to St. Thomas's hospital, in Southwark, and that of Fannes wood, formerly the property of the Kempes, to Mr. Sawbridge.
The high road from Canterbury to Ashford leads along this parish, about half a mile distance westward from Ollantigh, on higher ground from whence there is a fine view over the vale beneath and the opposite downs, including the mansion and grounds of Ollantigh, and the town and church of Wye, which it leaves in its course at the same distance.
It is by some supposed that the Romans had a highway through this parish, which went on towards Lenham, and so to Aylesford; and the several remains of that nation dug up on Tremworth-down, in the adjoining parish of Crundal, on the side of it next to this parish, will serve to strengthen this conjecture. Wye had formerly a market on a Thursday, granted to the abbot of Battell, which was held in the time of king Henry VIII. It was held in Leland's time, who calls it a pratie market townelet; but it has been for some time disused. The two fairs formerly held here on St. Gregories day, March 23, and on All Souls day, Nov. 2, are now held on May 29 and Sept. 3, yearly, for Welch cattle, stock, &c.
There were formerly several families of good account resident in this town and parish, the Finch's, lived at Wye-court, descended from those of Sewards, in Linsted, a younger branch of the Finch's, of Eastwell; the Swans, removed hither from Lyd. Francis Swan, esq. resided here, his house being in the town of Wye, at the latter end of Henry VIII.'s reign. They bore for their arms, Azure, a chevron, ermine, between three swans, proper; the Twisdens, one of whom, Roger Twisden, gent. was of Wye, had a lease of the scite of the manor of Wye, and other premises here, from the abbot of Battel, anno 25 Henry VIII. and the Haules, who were antiently written De Aula five Haule, in Latin deeds, likewise resided here for several generations, till they removed to Maidstone in king James the 1st.'s reign, where George Haule, esq. of Maidstone, died in 1652. Elizabeth his daughter, and at length sole heir, married Sir Thomas Taylor, bart. of that parish. They bore for their arms, Or, on a saltier, five mulets of the field.
In this parish Major George Somner, brother to the antiquary, was killed in an engagement with the rebels, in 1648.
ON THE PLACE where the famous and decisive battle between king Harold and William, duke of Normandy, was fought in 1066, the Conqueror in the next year began to build a noble abbey, named from that event, Battell abbev; in Latin records, Abbatia de Bello; the royal founder endowing it with exemptions and privileges of a very extraordinary nature, and with many manors and good estates; among which was this Royal manor of Wye, with all its appendages, being of the demesnes of his crown, as the grant expresses it, with all liberties and royal customs, as well here as in Dengemarsh, which belonged to the court of Wye, (fn. 1) as freely as he himself held it, or as a king could grant it. Accordingly it is thus entered in the record of Domesday, under the title of land of the church of Battell, or De Labatailge, as there spelt.
¶The abbot of St. Martin, of the place of Battle, holds the manor which is called Wi, which in the time of king Edward the Confessor, and now, was and is taxed at seven sulings. The arable land is fifty-two carucates. In demesne there are nine carucates, and one hundred and fourteen villeins, with twenty-two borderers, having seventeen carucates. There is a church, and seven servants, and four mills of twenty-three shillings and eight pence, and one hundred and thirty three acres of meadow, and wood for the pannage of three hundred bogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth no more than twenty pounds and one hundred shillings, and six shillings and eight pence; when be received it, one hundred and twenty-five pounds, and ten shilling of the twenty in ore; (fn. 2) now one hundred pounds by tale; and if the abbot bad had sac and soc, it would have been worth twenty pounds more.
Ralf de Curbespina holds one denne and one yoke of the land, of the sockmen of this manor, and pays by custom six pence. Adelulf two parts of one suling, and pays twelve pence; and Hugo de Montfort has two yoke, and pays three hundred eels and two shillings; and in the time of king Edward the Confessor, they paid both sac and soc.
Of the twenty-two hundreds, there belonged to this manor, sac and soc, and all forfeitures, which of right belonged to the king.
For such was the dignity of this manor, which then consisted of seven sulings, or hides of land, that, as the antient book of this abbey expressed it, with its own hundred, it had jurisdiction over twenty-two hundreds and an half, which belonged to its court.
WYE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Gregory and St. Martin, stands at the north-west corner of the town of Wye, and was built by cardinal Kempe, when he founded the college of Wye in the reign of king Henry VI. being a handsome, large building, with three isles and as many chancels, and a high spire steeple in the middle, which stood on four lofty arches, supported by a like number of large pillars. The great chancel was made choir fashion, wainscotted, and seated round for the members of the new col lege. The north chancel was appointed for the burying-place of the Kempes, owners of Ollantigh; and in the south chancel the parishioners of the better sort were interred. According to tradition, it stood antiently on a little hill just at the entrance into the town from the river, and which is now called Boltshill, but was removed to this place, where it now stands, by the cardinal. In 1572, the steeple was burnt by lightning, and though it was soon afterwards rebuilt, under the care of Gregory Brett, then churchwarden, who was a great contributor to the expence of it; for which the parishioners granted to him and his heirs, a vault, in the middle isle, for their burial; yet in 1685 it fell, and beat down the greatest part of the middle chancel, almost all the two side ones, and the east end of the body of the church, by which all the monuments in the north chancel, of the Kempes, and Thornhills, of Ollantigh, were wholly destroyed, and the tombstone which lay over the cardinal's father and mother, broken to pieces, whose epitaph is preserved by Weever, p. 274. The fragments of several of the old tombstones lay for several years afterwards seattered about the church-yard, and some statues and parts of monuments lay at the lower end of the church; but they have since been removed and there are now none remaining. After this, the remaining part was inclosed with boards, at the east end, to make it fit for divine service, and the rest lay in ruins till the year 1701, when a brief was procured for the rebuilding of it, and within a year or two afterwards it was begun, the remainder of the old chancels was taken down, and only the present small chancel built up at the east end, in the room of that where the choir was, and a tower steeple on the south side, between the chancel and the body of the church, with battlements, and four pinnacles with gilt vanes on them. The present building is small, but neat. It consists, of three isles, the middle one having an upper story and range of windows. There is only one small chancel, new built, circular at the east end, which does not reach near so far as the old one, which extended several feet further, Mr. Chamberlain Godfrey's monument, in the church yard standing, as is said, where the altar formerly did. Towards building the steeple and chancel, the lady Joanna Thornhill, the prebendaries of Canterbury, and others, were contributors, and Richard Thornhill, esq. gave the pavement of the chancel. In the steeple are eight bells and a clock, which were completed in 1774. The only memorials of any time remaining, are three in the body of the church, viz. two for the Bretts, and one having the figures, in brass, of a woman between her two husbands, and underneath of several children, and at bottom an inscription, beginning John Andrew Justus, Thomas Palmer q; venustus, &c. In the chancel is a memorial for Mrs. Catherine Matchem, daughter of George Finch, gent. of this parish, obt. 1713; a monument over a vault, in which lie Agnes and Mary Johnton; the former died in 1763, the latter in 1767, they were descended from Sir Robert Moyle, of Buckwell; and a monument for lady Joanna Thornhill, daughter of Sir Bevill Granville, second wife of Richard Thornhill, esq. of Ollantigh, commander of a regiment of horse raised at his own charge, obt. 1708.
This church, appurtenant to the manor of Wye, was given, with it, to the abbey of Battel at its foundation by the Conqueror, and was appropriated to it before the year 1384, being the 8th year of king Richard II. In which state it continued till the reign of king Henry VI. when cardinal Kempe obtained the king's licence to purchase the advowson of the vicarage of the abbot of Battel, and settled it on his newfounded college here, as will be further mentioned hereafter; but the rectory appropriate of Wye remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, where this rectory staid till king Edward VI. in his 5th year, granted it and the manor of the vicarage, together with the two tithebarns and the tithes themselves, all parcel of the late monastery of Battel, to Edward, lord Clinton and Saye, who reconveyed them back again to the king, within a month afterwards.