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I like Bridge, I like the name, even if the bridge over the Nailbourne takes some finding.
Again, the main road between Dover and London used to pass through the village, but the A2 now curves pass it, so the long main street is quiet, if jammed with parked cars. It is also blessed with two good pubs and a fine country butcher.
St Peter stands on the hill to the east of the town, as the old road heads up to the downs on its way to the coast.
St Peter was Vicotianised, but the work did preserve much of what was old including a trimpium and a oddly truncated tomb where the middle section of the body is missing.
Windows seems to be in threes, echoing the Holy Trinity I guess, and the church has a fine rose window in the south chapel.
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LOCATION: Situated on Upper Chalk (just above the Nailbourne floodplain) at about 90 feet above O.D. with the main Roman road to Dover immediately to the north-east. Bridge Place is about a ¼ mile to the south-west, and its mother-church of Patrixbourne is about ¾ miles to the north-east. Canterbury is just under 3 miles to the north-west.
DESCRIPTION: Unfortunately the church was disastrously over-restored in 1859 by Scott (John Newman, B.O.E. (N.E. and Kent 3rd ed. 1983), 159, says it was 'done with grotesque insensitivity'). However, with the help of Glynne's description (of 1846), and various early 19th century views, as well as the few surviving medieval features, it is possible to work out something of the architectural history. Externally it has been completely refaced with heavy knapped flint, and Bathstone dressings, but the core of all the main walls, except the Vestry on the north-east and the tower stair-turret must be medieval. The west end of the north aisle also appears to have been extended westwards in 1859.
There had been an earlier small-scale repewing in 1836, followed by a restoration by Scott in 1857. The complete rebuilding took place in 1859-60, with most of the money coming from Mrs Gregory of Bridge Hill.
From the surviving remains, there is no doubt that the nave, chancel, south aisle and tower-base all date from the 12th century. It is also possible that the nave itself dates from the late 11th century, but there is no visible evidence for this. The west doorway to the nave is of a mid- to later 12th century date, and unlike virtually everything else on the outside of the church was not totally renewed in 1859. There is a decorated round-headed archway with water-leaf capitals, and much original Caenstone survives. The internal north jamb to the doorway is also mostly of original diagonally-tooled Caenstone blocks. On the north-east side of the chancel is a round-headed (c. mid-12th century) window, which was unblocked in 1859. Glynne in 1846 refers to two 'closed' windows on the north side of the chancel, and 'on the south a fine doorway and two windows, now closed; the former has fine chevron mouldings'. This doorway was reset on the east side of the north-east vestry in 1859, but its fine chevroned arch, over scalloped capitals, is still visible as an entrance to the vestry lobby. The south aisle and south-west tower seem to have been added in the later 12th century. The arcade had already gone by 1846, but part of a respond (with nook-shafts) still survives at the extreme east end. Just beyond this, in the east wall, a fragment of the north jamb of a 12th century window survives. This south aisle had a low southwall until 1859, and its steep-pitched roof continued the line of the main nave roof. The tower at the west end of this aisle has 1859 round-headed arches, on the north and east in a 'decorated Romanesque' style (? designed by Scott). Glynne tells us that originally they were 'very rude semicircular arches'. The south and east windows into the ground floor of the tower may be based on earlier 12th century ones.
During the earlier 13th century, a north transept chapel and north aisle were added. Glynne tells us that 'the north aisle is very low and narrow, divided from the nave by three rude pointed arches with large wall piers having no capitals or impost mouldings'. The pointed arches survive, though a fourth has been added on the west, as well as three extraordinary double piers. The eastern respond is mostly original, however, with bar-stopped chamfers. Another original arch (with bar-stopped chamfers) divides the north aisle from the north-east transept chapel. Glynne also says that there was a lancet at the west end of this aisle. The north-east chapel still has a pair of original lancets on the north (restored externally), and earlier there was apparently a hagioscope from this chapel into the chancel. The upper stage of the tower may be 13th century.
The one later medieval feature that survives is the 3-light early perpendicular window in the west wall of the nave. This too still contains quite a lot of original masonry, and may date from the late 14th century. The 2-light east window, now rebuilt, was probably early 14th century ('poor Middle Pointed' according to Glynne). The early 19th century views show a pair of two-light late perpendicular windows with square hoods on the south side of the chancel.
The chancel still contains some early 16th century fittings, and a roodloft was documented as being made in 1522 (see below). On the north side of the sanctuary are two low rectangular niches which contain the two halves of the effigy for Macobus Kasey (ob. 1512). Above and just to the west of this is some relief sculpture (also ? early 16th century) in a tympanum panel. Was this set originally inside a 12th century doorway? Above this is an early 17th century painting of Robert Bargrave (ob. 1649). On the chancel south wall (at the west end) are fragments of a relief memorial to a vicar, Malcolm Ramsey (ob. 1538). He was vicar of Patrixbourne and Bridge for 44 years. These include part of an inscription.
The tower appears to have been given brick south-east and south-west buttresses in the 17th or 18th century. These were removed in 1859 when a south-east stair-turret was added to the tower. This was apparently restored in 1891.
BUILDING MATERIALS: (Incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.): Virtually the whole of the church has Bathstone dressings, with heavy knapped flint on the exterior. Some 12th century and later Caenstone does, however, survive.
EXCEPTIONAL MONUMENTS IN CHURCH: - see above
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size, Shape: Large Rectangular area around with church, but with the north-east side cut off by the main (Roman) road to Dover (Bridge Hill). Large new extension to the south - ? Late 19th century.
Condition: Good
Apparent extent of burial: Burial in churchyard from at least 1474.
Boundary walls: To road on north-east, with gateway with brick piers and iron arch.
Ecological potential: ? Yes - many fastigiate yews (and other trees) in southern part of churchyard.
HISTORICAL RECORD (where known):
Earliest ref. to church: 13th century.
Late med. status: Vicarage (with Patrixbourne).
Patron: Goes with Patrixbourne church to which it was a chapel. After the Reformation, the patron was the owner of nearby Bifrons.
Other documentary sources: Hasted IX (1800), 289-290. Test. Cant. (E. Kent, 1907), 35-6 mentions the Holy Cross (Rood) light, as well as lights of Our Lady, St. Nicholas, St. Erasmus, the Trinity, St. Loye, St. Trunion, as well as St. Peter (? in the chancel). The Eastern Sepulchre mentioned in 1535, and 'the painting of the High Cross in the Roodloft in 1504 - also 'to the making of the Roodloft, 1522'.
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS:
Inside present church: ? Good, except under east end of south aisle, where there is a sunken boiler house.
Outside present church: Good, but perhaps disturbed by the 1859 refacing and rebuilding.
Quinquennial inspection (date\architect): MAY 1993 A. CLAGUE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: A 12th century nave, chancel, south aisle and south-west tower base, with an added earlier 13th century north aisle and north-east transept chapel, which was very heavily restored and refaced externally in 1859-60.
The wider context: One of a group of medieval parish churches, which was technically only a chapel-of-ease (to Patrixbourne, in this case).
REFERENCES: For the vicars, see W.A. Scott Roberton 'Patricksbourne church, and Bifrons' Arch. Cant. 14 (1882), 169-184. (A list of vicars, by T.S. Frampton (1900) is on the S.W. side of the nave). S.R. Glynne Churches of Kent (1877), 131-2 (he visited in 1846).
Plans and early drawings: Petrie view from S.W. in 1807, and views from S.W. and S. in 1828 in Victoria and Albert Museum. Also view of church from S.W. in oil (? early 19th cent.) and Watercolour of church from S.E. (June 1869) in the vestry and plan of graveyard (new part) in 1942 (also in vestry).
DATE VISITED: 21st February 1994 REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown
www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/BRI.htm
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BRIDGE
LIES the next adjoining parish to Patrixborne southward, being written in old deeds, Bregge, and taking its name from the bridge, which was antiently over the stream which crosses it. This parish was in early times so considerable, as to give name both to the hundred and deanry in which it is situated.
IT IS SITUATED about two miles and an half eastward of Canterbury, on the high Dover road, formerly the Roman Watling-street way, which appears high and entire almost throughout it; in the valley on this road stands the village of Bridge, with the church and vicarage in it, a low moist situation, the bourn or stream of the Little Stour crossing it under a stone bridge, built a few years ago by the contributions of the neighbouring gentlemen. At a small distance southward is Bridge place, now inhabited by lady Yates, widow of the late judge Yates, and of Dr. Thomas, late bishop of Rochester. The hills, form which there is a most pleasing prospect, are wholly chalk, as are in general the other upland parts of it, towards the south especially, where the country is very barren, with heathy ground and woodland, and much covered with stones. In this part of the parish is Gosley wood, once belonging to St. Augustine's monastery, afterwards granted to Thomas Colepeper, esq. It belongs now to Mr. Beckingham.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, claims over the greatest part of it, and the manor of Patrixborne over that part of this parish on the north side of the Dover road. There are two boroughs in it, viz. of Blackmansbury and of Bridge.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, was parcel of the possessions of the abbey of St. Augustine, belonging to the sacristie, as appears by the registers of it, in which frequent mention is made of this manor, with the free tenants belonging to it, in Honpit, Rede, and Blackmansbury. In which state this manor continued till the suppression of the abbey in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, (fn. 1) where it remained till the 36th year of that reign, when this manor, with divers lands in Houndpit and Blackmanbury, was granted to Henry Laurence, to hold in capite by knight's service, and he that year held a court here; and in his descendants it continued till the 18th of queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was alienated by fine levied, by John Laurence, to William Partherich, esq. whose arms were, Vaire, argent and sable, on a chief of the second, three roses of the first. His grandson Sir Edward Partherich, of this place, passed it away in 1638 to Sir Arnold Braems, descended of a family originally out of Flanders, where his ancestors were opulent merchants. Jacob Braems, his ancestor, was of Dover, merchant, and built the great house now the Custom house there, where he resided. Sir Arnold Braems above-mentioned, bore for his arms, Sable, on a chief, argent, a demi lion Tampant, gules. He built a spacious and magnificent mansion on the scite of the antient court-lodge here, which he named BRIDGE-PLACE, in which he afterwards resided, as did his son Walter Braems, esq. till his death in 1692; but the great cost of building this seat so impoverished the estate, that his heirs, about the year 1704, were obliged to part with it, which they did by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, who soon afterwards pulled down the greatest part of this mansion, leaving only one wing of it standing, the size and stateliness of which being of itself full sufficient for a gentleman's residence, cannot but give an idea of the grandeur of the whole building when entire. He died in 1729, since which this manor and seat has continued in his descendants, in like manner as Bisrons abovedescribed, down to his great-grandson Edward Taylor, esq. the present possessor of them. There is not any court held for this manor.
BEREACRE, now called Greatand Little Barakers is another manor in this parish, which in the 21st year of king Edward I. was in the possession of Walter de Kancia, as appears by an inquisition taken that year, at his decease; not long after which it has passed into a family of its own name. After this name was become extinct here, it came into the possession of the Litchfields, who owned much land about Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Betshanger, and in this name it continued till the 22d year of Edward IV. and then Roger Litchfield passed it away to Richard Haut, whose only daughter and heir Margery carried it in marriage to William Isaac, esq. of Patrixborne, from whose descendant Edward Isaac, about the latter end of king Henry VIII. it was sold to Petyt and Weekes, who joined in the sale of it to Naylor, of Renville, from which name it was alienated to Smith and Watkins; after which it was conveyed by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, in whose descendants it has continued down to Edward Taylor, esq. the present owner of it.
Charities.
SIR HENRY PALMER, of Bekesborne, by will in 1611, gave 10s. to be yearly paid out of his manor of Well-court, towards the relief of the poor of it.
The poor constantly relieved are about eighteen, casually the same.
BRIDGE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of its own name.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of three isles, a high chancel, and a north sept or chancel in the middle of the north isle. It has a spire steeple at the south-east corner, in which are three bells. In the high chancel, within the altar-rails, is a monument for Jane, second daughter of Walter Harslete, of Bekesborne, first wife of Sir Arnold Braems, ob 1635, and lies buried in St. Mary's church, in Dover; and for Elizabeth, (second daughter of Sir Dudley Diggs) his second wife, obt. 1645, and lies in the middle of this chancel. Against the north wall is a painted portrait of Robert Bargrave, gent. of Bridge, obt. 1649. Under a circular arch in the same wall are two rows of small imagery, carved in stone, the uppermost repre santing God the Father, with several figures on each side; the lower one, figures taken from the history of the Old Testament. Underneath these, in the hollow of the wall, is the figure of a man lying at full length, in robes, with his two hands joined and uplifted, having on his head seemingly a full perriwig. A memorial for John Hardy, esq. of Bridge-place, obt. 1779. On the east side of the south window is a hollow in the wall, and under it an inscription for Macobus Kasey, vicar of Patrixborne, obt. m.v.c.i.xii. and of his being vicar there xxi years. On the opposite side of the window is carved the figure of a scull, with a snake entering in at one eye, and the end of it out at the other, and a hand with a finger pointing up to it, as if it had been the cause of the person's death, and several bones are interspersed about it. The north chancel is made use of for a school, by voluntary contributions. On the south side of the chancel is a circular arched door-way, with Saxon ornaments. In the register are many entries, from the year 1580 to 1660, of the family of Bargrave, alias Bargar, residents in this parish, and one for Thomas, son of John Cheney, gent. who died in 1620.
The church of Bridge, which is a vicarage, was always esteemed as a chapel to the church of Patrixborne, and as such is included in the valuation of that vicarage in the king's books, the vicar of which is instituted and inducted into that vicarage, with the chapel of Bridge annexed to it. (fn. 2)
The parsonage of this parish therefore, as an appendage to that of Patrixborne, is the property of Edward Taylor, esq. of Bifrons. In 1588 here were eightynine communicants, in 1640 one hundred and twenty.
After many years than three attempts to see inside this year alone, finally, the door did open for me.
But, not at first, as the loack had two settings, the first did not work, a little bit of ompf and I was in.
A pleasantly small and simple church, with remains of wall paintings a simple rood screen.
My eye was taken by the roof and support beams, very nice.
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St Peter's is in a windswept location, in open farmland, with ancient yew trees and a patina of great antiquity. Abutting the north side of the tower, and entered from the church, is a rare medieval priest's house. The nave has a distinctly unusual atmosphere. It is lofty and plain, with much light flooding in from the large south windows. While there is no chancel arch there is a horizontal beam which carries the Royal Arms of George III. The three-crownpost roof is beautifully set off by whitewashed walls which are almost devoid of monuments. After the nave the chancel is something of an anti-climax, although there are traces of medieval wall paintings on the south wall.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Molash
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MOLASH
Is the next parish westward from Chilham; it is a parish which lies very obscurely among the hills, being little known, and having very little traffic through it. The village, which is straggling, is situated near the western boundaries of it, the parish of Wye joining close up to it. The church stands close on the north side of the village; there are about fifty houses, and two hundred and sixty-five inhabitants, the whole is much covered with coppice wood, mostly beech, with some little oak interspersed among it; the country is very hilly, and the soil of it very poor, being mostly an unsertile red earth, mixed with abundance of slints.
There is a fair held here on the 16th of July yearly, formerly on the Monday after St. Peter and St. Paul.
The Honor of Chilham claims paramount over this parish, subordinate to which is The Manor Of Bower, alias Flemings, which is situated in the bo rough of Godsole, northward from the church, it took the latter of those names from the family of Fleming, who were once the possessors of it; one of whom, John de Fleming, appears by a very antient courtroll of this manor, to have been owner of it, and in his descendants it probably continued for some time; but they were extinct here in the reign of Henry VI. in the 24th year of which, as appears by another antient court-roll, it was in the possession of John Trewonnalle, in which name it continued down to the reign of King Henry VIII. and then another John Trewonnalle alienated it to Thomas Moyle, esq. afterwards Knighted, and he owned it in the 30th year of that reign; and in his descendants it remained till the reign of Kings James I. when it was alienated to Mr. Henry Chapman; at length his delcendant Mr. Edward Chapman leaving three sons, Edward, Thomas, and James Chapman, they became possessed of it as coheirs in gavelkind, and afterwards joined in the sale of it to Christopher Vane, lord Barnard, who died in 1723, leaving two sons, Gilbert, who succeeded him in the north of England; and William, who possessed his father's seat at Fairlawn, and the rest of his estates in this county, having been in his father's life-time created viscount Vane, of the Kingdom of Ireland. He died in 1734, as did his only son and heir William, viscount Vane, in 1789.s. p. (fn. 1) who devised this manor, among the rest of his estates in this county and elsewhere, to David Papillon, esq. late of Acrise, the present possessor of it.
Witherling is a manor in this parish, situated likewise in the borough of Godsole. In the antient records of Dover castle, this manor is numbered among those estates which made up the barony of Fobert, and was held of Fulbert de Dover, as of that barony, by knight's service, by a family of its own name. Robert de Witherling appears to have held it in the reign of king John, as one knight's see, by the same tenure; in whose descendants it continued down to the reign of King Henry VI. When Joane Witherling was become heir to it, and then carried it in marriage to William Keneworth, whose son, of the same name, passed it away in the reign of Henry VII. to John Moile, of Buckwell, who died possessed of it in the 15th year of that reign, as appears by the inquisition taken after his death, and that it was held of Dover castle. His son John Moyle sold this manor, in the 4th year of Henry VIII. to Hamo Videan, descended of a family of good note in this county. There is mention made of them in the Parish Register, from the first year of it, 1557, to the present time; but they have been decayed a long time, and their possessions dispersed among other owners; but there is still a green in this neighbourhood, called from them Videan's, (by the common people Vidgeon's) forstal. In his descendants it continued till the reign of King Charles II. when it was conveyed, by a joint conveyance, from that name to Mr. Tho. Thatcher, whose daughter Mary carried it in marriage to Mr. Henry Bing, of Wickhambreux, whose son John Bing (fn. 2) sold it to Mr. Edward Baker, for the satisfying his sister's fortune, whom the latter had married; and on his dying intestate, this manor descended to his four sons, Thomas Baker, clerk, Edward, Henry, and Bing Baker, who joined in alienating it, about 1771, to Thomas Knight, esq. of Godmersham, whose only son and heir of the same name died possessed of it in 1794, s. p. and by will devised this manor to Edward Austen, esq. then of Rowling, but now of Godmersham, who is the present owner of it. A court baron is held for this manor.
Chiles, alias Slow-Court, is a small manor in this parish, which some years since belonged to the family of Goatley, which had been settled here from the time of queen Mary. One of them, Laurence Goatley, died possessed of it in 1608. He then dwelt at his house in this parish, called Bedles, and was lessee of the parsonage. Searles Goatley, esq the last of this family, was brought from Maidstone a few years ago, and buried in this church. Laurence Goatley devised this manor to his third son Laurence, one of whose descendants passed it away to Moter, and in 1661 Alice Moter, alias Mother, of Bethersden, sold it to John Franklyn, gent. of this parish, whose daughter carried it in marriage to Thomas Benson, of Maidstone, and he in 1676, by fine and conveyance, passed it away to Robert Saunders, gent. of that town, as he again did in 1703 to Esther Yates, widow, of Mereworth, whose executors in 1716 conveyed it to David Fuller, gent. of Maidstone, who dying s. p. devised it in 1751 by will to his widow Mary, who at her death in 1775, gave it to her relation, William Stacy Coast, esq. now of Sevenoke, the present proprietor of it.
Charities.
Simon Ruck, gent. of Stalisfield, and Sarah his wife, by indenture in 1672, in consideration of 35l. granted to Thomas Chapman, gent. and John Thatcher, both of Molash, a piece of land containing three acres, called Stonebridge, in this parish, for the use, maintenance, and relief of the poor of this parish for ever.
Thomas Amos, yeoman, of Ospringe, by will in 1769 gave 100l. in trust, to be laid out in the public funds, and the dividends to be yearly paid, on the day of St. Thomas the Apostle, to the churchwardens, to be distributed to the most necessitous poor of Molash; which, with other money of the parish was laid out in the purchase of 125l. three per cent. reduced Bank Annuities.
The poor constantly relieved are about nine, casually twenty. five.
This Parish is within the Ecclesiastical Juris diction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small mean building, consisting of one isle and one chancel, having a pointed turret, shingled, at the west end, in which are three bells. There are several memorials of the Chapmans in this church, and in the isle is a stone, inscribed Pulvis Chapmannorum, under which is a vault, wherein several of them lie. In the chancel there is an antient gravestone, cossin-shaped, with an inscription round, in old French capitals, now, through time, illegible. The font is antient, having on it, Gules, three right hands couped, argent; a crescent for difference. In the Parish Register, which begins in 1558, are continual entries of the Videans, Goatleys, Franklyns, Thatchers, Chapmans, Moyles, and Wildish's, from that year almost to the present time. It is esteemed only as a chapel of ease to Chilham, and as such is not rated separately in the king's books.
¶The great tithes or parsonage of this parish were formerly a part of the rectory or parsonage of Chilham, and as such belonged to the alien priory of Throwley, on the suppression of which, anno 2 king Henry V. they were given to the monastery of Sion, which being dissolved by the act of 31 Henry VIII. they came, with the rest of the possessions of that house, into the king's hands, whence the parsonage of Chilham, which included this of Molash, was granted next year, together with the honor and castle, and other premises, to Sir Thomas Cheney, whose son Henry, lord Cheney, alienated the whole of them in the 10th year of queen Elizabeth, to Sir Thomas Kempe, of Wye, who in the 21st year of that reign alienated the parsonage or great tithes of this parish to William Walch, who held the same in capite, and he that year sold it to John Martyn, who as quickly passed it away to Richard Tooke, whose descendant Nicholas Tooke, in the 25th year of that reign, conveyed it in 1633, by the description of the manor of Molash, and all the glebes and tithes of this parish, to Sir James Hales, in which name it continued some time, till it was at length sold to Sir Dudley Diggs. who devised it to his nephew Anthony Palmer, esq. whose brother Dudley Palmer, esq. of Gray's Inn, in 1653, was become owner of it. It afterwards belonged to the Meads, and from them came to Sir Thomas Alston, bart. of Odell, in Bedfordshire, who lately died possessed of it, and his devisees are now entitled to it.
This church being a chapel of ease to that of Chilham, constitutes a part of that vicarage, the vicar of it being presented and institued to the vicarage of the church of Chilham, with the chapel of Molash annexed.
In 1585 here were communicants one hundred and twenty-six. In 1640 there were only forty communicants here.
It is the weekend. Again.
And with Jools suffering a relapse in her chesty cough, we slept late and I said I'd go to Tesco first thing, before coffee, and she could get dressed in her own time.
So I grabbed my coat, the shopping bags and shopping list, put them in the car and drove to Tesco. First up was to fill the car with petrol, then drive round to park up, get a trolley and head into the store, grabbing a scanner on the way in.
Apart from the weekly things, I got some stuffing mix and more blocks of butter for Christmas. Meaning that apart from the fruit and veg and milk, we are all abut done here.
Yay us.
Back home for coffee, unload the car and put shopping away, before finally having breakfast 1 of fruit then bacon butties and brews for breakfast 2.
That's better.
The plan for the day was for some local churchcrawling. After some internet research I had the name of the keyholder at Bekesbourne, I called but was told she was out but would be back "soon". OK, in which case we would visit some other nearby churches and go there last.
Not far to Barham from Chez Jelltex, just along the A2, overtaking lorries and slow cars until we turned off at Wootton, down past the filling station and into Barham, stopping on the road beside the church.
Barham is always open, I thought, no worries here. As I got out all my camera gear and lugged it over the road and through the churchyard.
Round on the north side, we arrive at the porch and I find the door is locked after all. No news of a keyholder, but next week there is a coffee morning. If we feel OK after our COVID booster, we might go along.
Its a short drive along the Elham Valley to Bridge. And yes there is really a place called Bridge, and it does have a bridge. A bridge in Bridge, which takes the old Watling Street and high road over the bed of the Nailbourne.
Bridge never lets us down. And indeed it was open, door ajar, and soon a warden came and put all the lights on so snapping was easier. I'd not missed much on previous visits, but with a new-ish lens, it was always worth in redoing shots. I did have the big lens with me, great for details of carvings and in stained glass windows, which I photograph enthusiastically.
From Bridge, its a five minute drive to Patrixbourne.
I wanted to come back here to take close up details of the Tympanum and rose window from the outside, so it wasn't too much of a loss that the door was locked after all.
So, I set about getting my shots and rattle off a couple of hundred.
Back to the car, and next village along is Bekesbourne, where I had called earlier. The keyholder lives in a "large while building opposite the church", the website said. Yes, it's a palace.
An actual palace.
So, there was scruffy me shambling up the large door, ringing the bell and asking if the church keyholder was in.
She wasn't.
And her husband wasn't too keen on letting me have it.
Now I know how to get it, there'll be plenty of other times.
I leave, but on the way back to the main road, a large Audi passes us, and pretty much the only place she could be going was the palace: should we go back?
No, there'll be other times.
We head home, back along the A2, but calling in at Jen's to do some admin. That done it was back home, all back by one, and ready for some more World Cup action from the sofa.
Lunch was pizza and beer, done in ten minutes and easy as anything, so the main task of the day was to fight my heavy eyelids that threatened to send me to sleep.
Argentina beat Mexico in a bad tempered game, then France beat Denmark 2-1, by which time it was nine and time for bed.
Phew.
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LOCATION: Situated on Upper Chalk (just above the Nailbourne floodplain) at about 90 feet above O.D. with the main Roman road to Dover immediately to the north-east. Bridge Place is about a ¼ mile to the south-west, and its mother-church of Patrixbourne is about ¾ miles to the north-east. Canterbury is just under 3 miles to the north-west.
DESCRIPTION: Unfortunately the church was disastrously over-restored in 1859 by Scott (John Newman, B.O.E. (N.E. and Kent 3rd ed. 1983), 159, says it was 'done with grotesque insensitivity'). However, with the help of Glynne's description (of 1846), and various early 19th century views, as well as the few surviving medieval features, it is possible to work out something of the architectural history. Externally it has been completely refaced with heavy knapped flint, and Bathstone dressings, but the core of all the main walls, except the Vestry on the north-east and the tower stair-turret must be medieval. The west end of the north aisle also appears to have been extended westwards in 1859.
There had been an earlier small-scale repewing in 1836, followed by a restoration by Scott in 1857. The complete rebuilding took place in 1859-60, with most of the money coming from Mrs Gregory of Bridge Hill.
From the surviving remains, there is no doubt that the nave, chancel, south aisle and tower-base all date from the 12th century. It is also possible that the nave itself dates from the late 11th century, but there is no visible evidence for this. The west doorway to the nave is of a mid- to later 12th century date, and unlike virtually everything else on the outside of the church was not totally renewed in 1859. There is a decorated round-headed archway with water-leaf capitals, and much original Caenstone survives. The internal north jamb to the doorway is also mostly of original diagonally-tooled Caenstone blocks. On the north-east side of the chancel is a round-headed (c. mid-12th century) window, which was unblocked in 1859. Glynne in 1846 refers to two 'closed' windows on the north side of the chancel, and 'on the south a fine doorway and two windows, now closed; the former has fine chevron mouldings'. This doorway was reset on the east side of the north-east vestry in 1859, but its fine chevroned arch, over scalloped capitals, is still visible as an entrance to the vestry lobby. The south aisle and south-west tower seem to have been added in the later 12th century. The arcade had already gone by 1846, but part of a respond (with nook-shafts) still survives at the extreme east end. Just beyond this, in the east wall, a fragment of the north jamb of a 12th century window survives. This south aisle had a low southwall until 1859, and its steep-pitched roof continued the line of the main nave roof. The tower at the west end of this aisle has 1859 round-headed arches, on the north and east in a 'decorated Romanesque' style (? designed by Scott). Glynne tells us that originally they were 'very rude semicircular arches'. The south and east windows into the ground floor of the tower may be based on earlier 12th century ones.
During the earlier 13th century, a north transept chapel and north aisle were added. Glynne tells us that 'the north aisle is very low and narrow, divided from the nave by three rude pointed arches with large wall piers having no capitals or impost mouldings'. The pointed arches survive, though a fourth has been added on the west, as well as three extraordinary double piers. The eastern respond is mostly original, however, with bar-stopped chamfers. Another original arch (with bar-stopped chamfers) divides the north aisle from the north-east transept chapel. Glynne also says that there was a lancet at the west end of this aisle. The north-east chapel still has a pair of original lancets on the north (restored externally), and earlier there was apparently a hagioscope from this chapel into the chancel. The upper stage of the tower may be 13th century.
The one later medieval feature that survives is the 3-light early perpendicular window in the west wall of the nave. This too still contains quite a lot of original masonry, and may date from the late 14th century. The 2-light east window, now rebuilt, was probably early 14th century ('poor Middle Pointed' according to Glynne). The early 19th century views show a pair of two-light late perpendicular windows with square hoods on the south side of the chancel.
The chancel still contains some early 16th century fittings, and a roodloft was documented as being made in 1522 (see below). On the north side of the sanctuary are two low rectangular niches which contain the two halves of the effigy for Macobus Kasey (ob. 1512). Above and just to the west of this is some relief sculpture (also ? early 16th century) in a tympanum panel. Was this set originally inside a 12th century doorway? Above this is an early 17th century painting of Robert Bargrave (ob. 1649). On the chancel south wall (at the west end) are fragments of a relief memorial to a vicar, Malcolm Ramsey (ob. 1538). He was vicar of Patrixbourne and Bridge for 44 years. These include part of an inscription.
The tower appears to have been given brick south-east and south-west buttresses in the 17th or 18th century. These were removed in 1859 when a south-east stair-turret was added to the tower. This was apparently restored in 1891.
BUILDING MATERIALS: (Incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.): Virtually the whole of the church has Bathstone dressings, with heavy knapped flint on the exterior. Some 12th century and later Caenstone does, however, survive.
EXCEPTIONAL MONUMENTS IN CHURCH: - see above
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size, Shape: Large Rectangular area around with church, but with the north-east side cut off by the main (Roman) road to Dover (Bridge Hill). Large new extension to the south - ? Late 19th century.
Condition: Good
Apparent extent of burial: Burial in churchyard from at least 1474.
Boundary walls: To road on north-east, with gateway with brick piers and iron arch.
Ecological potential: ? Yes - many fastigiate yews (and other trees) in southern part of churchyard.
HISTORICAL RECORD (where known):
Earliest ref. to church: 13th century.
Late med. status: Vicarage (with Patrixbourne).
Patron: Goes with Patrixbourne church to which it was a chapel. After the Reformation, the patron was the owner of nearby Bifrons.
Other documentary sources: Hasted IX (1800), 289-290. Test. Cant. (E. Kent, 1907), 35-6 mentions the Holy Cross (Rood) light, as well as lights of Our Lady, St. Nicholas, St. Erasmus, the Trinity, St. Loye, St. Trunion, as well as St. Peter (? in the chancel). The Eastern Sepulchre mentioned in 1535, and 'the painting of the High Cross in the Roodloft in 1504 - also 'to the making of the Roodloft, 1522'.
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS:
Inside present church: ? Good, except under east end of south aisle, where there is a sunken boiler house.
Outside present church: Good, but perhaps disturbed by the 1859 refacing and rebuilding.
Quinquennial inspection (date\architect): MAY 1993 A. CLAGUE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: A 12th century nave, chancel, south aisle and south-west tower base, with an added earlier 13th century north aisle and north-east transept chapel, which was very heavily restored and refaced externally in 1859-60.
The wider context: One of a group of medieval parish churches, which was technically only a chapel-of-ease (to Patrixbourne, in this case).
REFERENCES: For the vicars, see W.A. Scott Roberton 'Patricksbourne church, and Bifrons' Arch. Cant. 14 (1882), 169-184. (A list of vicars, by T.S. Frampton (1900) is on the S.W. side of the nave). S.R. Glynne Churches of Kent (1877), 131-2 (he visited in 1846).
Plans and early drawings: Petrie view from S.W. in 1807, and views from S.W. and S. in 1828 in Victoria and Albert Museum. Also view of church from S.W. in oil (? early 19th cent.) and Watercolour of church from S.E. (June 1869) in the vestry and plan of graveyard (new part) in 1942 (also in vestry).
DATE VISITED: 21st February 1994 REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown
www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/BRI.htm
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BRIDGE
LIES the next adjoining parish to Patrixborne southward, being written in old deeds, Bregge, and taking its name from the bridge, which was antiently over the stream which crosses it. This parish was in early times so considerable, as to give name both to the hundred and deanry in which it is situated.
IT IS SITUATED about two miles and an half eastward of Canterbury, on the high Dover road, formerly the Roman Watling-street way, which appears high and entire almost throughout it; in the valley on this road stands the village of Bridge, with the church and vicarage in it, a low moist situation, the bourn or stream of the Little Stour crossing it under a stone bridge, built a few years ago by the contributions of the neighbouring gentlemen. At a small distance southward is Bridge place, now inhabited by lady Yates, widow of the late judge Yates, and of Dr. Thomas, late bishop of Rochester. The hills, form which there is a most pleasing prospect, are wholly chalk, as are in general the other upland parts of it, towards the south especially, where the country is very barren, with heathy ground and woodland, and much covered with stones. In this part of the parish is Gosley wood, once belonging to St. Augustine's monastery, afterwards granted to Thomas Colepeper, esq. It belongs now to Mr. Beckingham.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, claims over the greatest part of it, and the manor of Patrixborne over that part of this parish on the north side of the Dover road. There are two boroughs in it, viz. of Blackmansbury and of Bridge.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, was parcel of the possessions of the abbey of St. Augustine, belonging to the sacristie, as appears by the registers of it, in which frequent mention is made of this manor, with the free tenants belonging to it, in Honpit, Rede, and Blackmansbury. In which state this manor continued till the suppression of the abbey in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, (fn. 1) where it remained till the 36th year of that reign, when this manor, with divers lands in Houndpit and Blackmanbury, was granted to Henry Laurence, to hold in capite by knight's service, and he that year held a court here; and in his descendants it continued till the 18th of queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was alienated by fine levied, by John Laurence, to William Partherich, esq. whose arms were, Vaire, argent and sable, on a chief of the second, three roses of the first. His grandson Sir Edward Partherich, of this place, passed it away in 1638 to Sir Arnold Braems, descended of a family originally out of Flanders, where his ancestors were opulent merchants. Jacob Braems, his ancestor, was of Dover, merchant, and built the great house now the Custom house there, where he resided. Sir Arnold Braems above-mentioned, bore for his arms, Sable, on a chief, argent, a demi lion Tampant, gules. He built a spacious and magnificent mansion on the scite of the antient court-lodge here, which he named BRIDGE-PLACE, in which he afterwards resided, as did his son Walter Braems, esq. till his death in 1692; but the great cost of building this seat so impoverished the estate, that his heirs, about the year 1704, were obliged to part with it, which they did by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, who soon afterwards pulled down the greatest part of this mansion, leaving only one wing of it standing, the size and stateliness of which being of itself full sufficient for a gentleman's residence, cannot but give an idea of the grandeur of the whole building when entire. He died in 1729, since which this manor and seat has continued in his descendants, in like manner as Bisrons abovedescribed, down to his great-grandson Edward Taylor, esq. the present possessor of them. There is not any court held for this manor.
BEREACRE, now called Greatand Little Barakers is another manor in this parish, which in the 21st year of king Edward I. was in the possession of Walter de Kancia, as appears by an inquisition taken that year, at his decease; not long after which it has passed into a family of its own name. After this name was become extinct here, it came into the possession of the Litchfields, who owned much land about Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Betshanger, and in this name it continued till the 22d year of Edward IV. and then Roger Litchfield passed it away to Richard Haut, whose only daughter and heir Margery carried it in marriage to William Isaac, esq. of Patrixborne, from whose descendant Edward Isaac, about the latter end of king Henry VIII. it was sold to Petyt and Weekes, who joined in the sale of it to Naylor, of Renville, from which name it was alienated to Smith and Watkins; after which it was conveyed by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, in whose descendants it has continued down to Edward Taylor, esq. the present owner of it.
Charities.
SIR HENRY PALMER, of Bekesborne, by will in 1611, gave 10s. to be yearly paid out of his manor of Well-court, towards the relief of the poor of it.
The poor constantly relieved are about eighteen, casually the same.
BRIDGE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of its own name.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of three isles, a high chancel, and a north sept or chancel in the middle of the north isle. It has a spire steeple at the south-east corner, in which are three bells. In the high chancel, within the altar-rails, is a monument for Jane, second daughter of Walter Harslete, of Bekesborne, first wife of Sir Arnold Braems, ob 1635, and lies buried in St. Mary's church, in Dover; and for Elizabeth, (second daughter of Sir Dudley Diggs) his second wife, obt. 1645, and lies in the middle of this chancel. Against the north wall is a painted portrait of Robert Bargrave, gent. of Bridge, obt. 1649. Under a circular arch in the same wall are two rows of small imagery, carved in stone, the uppermost repre santing God the Father, with several figures on each side; the lower one, figures taken from the history of the Old Testament. Underneath these, in the hollow of the wall, is the figure of a man lying at full length, in robes, with his two hands joined and uplifted, having on his head seemingly a full perriwig. A memorial for John Hardy, esq. of Bridge-place, obt. 1779. On the east side of the south window is a hollow in the wall, and under it an inscription for Macobus Kasey, vicar of Patrixborne, obt. m.v.c.i.xii. and of his being vicar there xxi years. On the opposite side of the window is carved the figure of a scull, with a snake entering in at one eye, and the end of it out at the other, and a hand with a finger pointing up to it, as if it had been the cause of the person's death, and several bones are interspersed about it. The north chancel is made use of for a school, by voluntary contributions. On the south side of the chancel is a circular arched door-way, with Saxon ornaments. In the register are many entries, from the year 1580 to 1660, of the family of Bargrave, alias Bargar, residents in this parish, and one for Thomas, son of John Cheney, gent. who died in 1620.
The church of Bridge, which is a vicarage, was always esteemed as a chapel to the church of Patrixborne, and as such is included in the valuation of that vicarage in the king's books, the vicar of which is instituted and inducted into that vicarage, with the chapel of Bridge annexed to it. (fn. 2)
The parsonage of this parish therefore, as an appendage to that of Patrixborne, is the property of Edward Taylor, esq. of Bifrons. In 1588 here were eightynine communicants, in 1640 one hundred and twenty.
St Peter, Wolverhampton, West Midlands.
Memorial Window, c1913.
By Archibald John Davies (1877-1953), Bromsgrove Guild.
To the Glory of God & in affectionate memory of Sarah Eliza Brevett died 16 March 1912. This window was erected by her husband and her children.
Archibald John Davies was born in London but the family moved to Moseley, Birmingham in 1884. He studied under Henry Payne at the Birmingham Municipal Central School of Art and set up his own studio in Moseley in about 1900. In 1906 Davies moved to Bromsgrove, Worcestershire and established his studio in the premises of the Bromsgrove Guild.
St Peter Hungate sits at the southern end of the historic Elmhill which curves away forth, and the churchyard looks over it.
As before, I had noticed St Peter many times, and when visiting the city for the beer festival, I would hope to find it open. I don't think I tried hard enough, but it was made for a day like this.
I had walked past it twice already that day, but was not going to be open before time, a sandwich board was outside tempting the passerby in.
It is a redundant church, and has been thus since the first world war. Simon Knott tells it used to be a unique museum, which has sadly now closed, but now is open three days a week as a museum to the Norwich stained glass industry.
A young lady sat on watch as visitors milled around, admonishing anyone who said they remembered this being a church or even worshiping here, they would have to have been over 100 years old that to make that claim.
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At the time of the 16th Century protestant Reformation, Norwich had 36 parish churches, and many of these buildings survive today. A handful are still in use for the congregational worship of the Church of England, for which they were never designed of course. Others have found uses as concert venues, artist workshops, day centres and offices. One houses the Norwich Probation Servce, another is even a Pregnancy Advisory Centre. Some stand empty, but far more are in use now than were ten years ago. It is the largest collection of urban medieval buildings in any one city north of the Alps.
Although St Peter Hungate is right in the heart of the urban area, its setting is idyllic; 16th and 17th century cottages flank the north and east sides, and then beautiful Elm Hill drops away below it. To the west is the magnificent chancel window of the Blackfriars church, while to the south are grand 19th century commercial buildings, full of Victorian confidence. Hungate itself no longer exists, but was formerly 'houndsgate', the street of dogs. In this conservation area the roads are cobbled, and it is an oasis of charm in the middle of East Anglia's biggest city. St Peter is that rare beast in Norwich: a cruciform church. It looks older than it actually is; the primitive capped tower is actually a tall 15th century one that was truncated in 1906 for safety reasons. In fact, the whole church was completely rebuilt during the middle thirty years of the 15th century. The chancel collapsed after the Reformation, and was rebuilt by the Laudians in the early 17th century. It is a blessing that they reused the 15th century windows, and in fact most of the window tracery in the church is still original.
In the 19th century, St Peter Hungate was one of the highest of Norwich's many Anglo-catholic churches; it was the first to use vestments, the first to use incense, the first to use candles on the altar. However, as with St Simon and St Jude at the other end of Elm Hill, St Peter has long been redundant, last being used as a church before the First World War. When, in the 1930s, the Norwich Society went on their pioneering crusade to save this area of the city, there was a renewal of interest in finding appropriate uses for the old churches, and in 1936 St Peter Hungate became a museum of church furnishings. The fixtures and fittings from other redundant churches were brought here for display, and the collection was augmented by items from the Norwich and Norfolk museums, as well as by other churches wanting to find a safe home for their treasures.
It was a superb museum, the only one of its kind in England. From a church explorer's point of view, it was a priceless resource; you could read about things, and then go and see them in real life, all in one place: rood screens, bench ends, reredoses, corbels, pyxes and pyx cloths, all at first hand. St Peter Hungate Museum of Church Art lasted until the late 1990s, when a reorganisation of the museum service in Norwich killed it off. All the exhibits were removed, and most went into storage under the Castle. For nearly ten years, the building was completely empty, and can be seen as it was in 2005 in these photographs.
St Peter Hungate, Norwich
angel At the time of the 16th Century protestant Reformation, Norwich had 36 parish churches, and many of these buildings survive today. A handful are still in use for the congregational worship of the Church of England, for which they were never designed of course. Others have found uses as concert venues, artist workshops, day centres and offices. One houses the Norwich Probation Servce, another is even a Pregnancy Advisory Centre. Some stand empty, but far more are in use now than were ten years ago. It is the largest collection of urban medieval buildings in any one city north of the Alps.
Although St Peter Hungate is right in the heart of the urban area, its setting is idyllic; 16th and 17th century cottages flank the north and east sides, and then beautiful Elm Hill drops away below it. To the west is the magnificent chancel window of the Blackfriars church, while to the south are grand 19th century commercial buildings, full of Victorian confidence. Hungate itself no longer exists, but was formerly 'houndsgate', the street of dogs. In this conservation area the roads are cobbled, and it is an oasis of charm in the middle of East Anglia's biggest city. St Peter is that rare beast in Norwich: a cruciform church. It looks older than it actually is; the primitive capped tower is actually a tall 15th century one that was truncated in 1906 for safety reasons. In fact, the whole church was completely rebuilt during the middle thirty years of the 15th century. The chancel collapsed after the Reformation, and was rebuilt by the Laudians in the early 17th century. It is a blessing that they reused the 15th century windows, and in fact most of the window tracery in the church is still original.
In the 19th century, St Peter Hungate was one of the highest of Norwich's many Anglo-catholic churches; it was the first to use vestments, the first to use incense, the first to use candles on the altar. However, as with St Simon and St Jude at the other end of Elm Hill, St Peter has long been redundant, last being used as a church before the First World War. When, in the 1930s, the Norwich Society went on their pioneering crusade to save this area of the city, there was a renewal of interest in finding appropriate uses for the old churches, and in 1936 St Peter Hungate became a museum of church furnishings. The fixtures and fittings from other redundant churches were brought here for display, and the collection was augmented by items from the Norwich and Norfolk museums, as well as by other churches wanting to find a safe home for their treasures.
It was a superb museum, the only one of its kind in England. From a church explorer's point of view, it was a priceless resource; you could read about things, and then go and see them in real life, all in one place: rood screens, bench ends, reredoses, corbels, pyxes and pyx cloths, all at first hand. St Peter Hungate Museum of Church Art lasted until the late 1990s, when a reorganisation of the museum service in Norwich killed it off. All the exhibits were removed, and most went into storage under the Castle. For nearly ten years, the building was completely empty, and can be seen as it was in 2005 in these photographs.
ewg empty view out of the south door
In 2006, a small group of people came together in an attempt to get Hungate open and in use again. Their plan was to use it as an interpretation centre for Norfolk's medieval heritage, with a particular emphasis on the medieval stained glass artists of the city of Norwich. St Peter Hungate is a good place to do this, as it has the best collection outside of the cathedral in the whole city. This glass, largely of the 15th century, is partly from St Peter Hungate originally, and partly a consequence of the medievalist enthusiasms of the 19th Century, when much was collected and brought here. It includes a sequence of the Order of Angels, other angels holding scrolls, the Evangelists, the Apostles, and much else besides. Here are some highlights.
There are squints into the transepts, and image niches in the east walls of both; the south transept, which was a chapel for the guild of St John the Baptist, was the burial place of Sir John Paston. High above, the corbels to the roof are finely gilded; they depict the four evangelists, St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke and St John, and the four Latin Doctors of the Church, St Augustine, St Ambrose, St Gregory and St Jerome. This is the only known example of these eight Saints as roofpost stops. There is a central boss of Christ in Judgement.
The fixtures and fittings of the new Hungate Centre are much less intrusive than those of the old museum, allowing a sense of space and light. Display cases down the sides of the nave explain and interpret the history of Norwich's stained glass industry, and between them are the lovely benches from Tottington, which I had last seen marooned within the fences of the Battle Training Area. There are temporary exhibitions which use the transepts and chancel, and regular activities for adults and children. The Centre is currently open three days a week, and you can read more about it on its website.
If you go out through the north door, you find yourself in the former graveyard, now a pleasant garden overlooking the rooftops of Elm Hill. The 15th century building immediately to the north, now a restaurant, was once a beguinage, a retreat house for nuns. The lawn is surrounded by lavender and rosemary, and it is all very well kept. All in all, this beautiful space, now once again in safe hands, is much to be celebrated.
Simon Knott, November 2005, revised and updated February 2011
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichpeterhungate/norwichpete...
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The tower is square, and built of black flints in 1431, by Thomas Ingham. Its unusual pyramid cap was put on in 1906, when the tower had become so unsafe that the battlemented belfry stage was demolished.
The south porch was added in 1497, by Nicholas Ingham, who is buried in it. It has angle buttresses and a niche for a statue over the door. Its ceiling has four bosses –one for each Evangelist.
The nave and transepts were totally rebuilt, as ‘a neat building of black flint’, by John and Margaret Paston in 1458, after they had acquired the advowson from St Mary’s College. A stone in a buttress near the north door records this – it shows a tree trunk without branches (= decay of the old church) with a new shoot (= the new building), together with the date of completion – 1460. The windows are uniformly Perpendicular, and allow much light into the building.
The chancel had been rebuilt in 1431 by Thomas Ingham and was rebuilt again in 1604 after it had collapsed: it is of rough rubble, plastered over, contrasting with the nave and transepts. Its windows are of an older pattern and have trefoil tracery in the heads. It is covered with peg-tiles, which date from the 1604 rebuilding.
Both the north and the south doors are original – of about 1460 – and have tracery which is similar to that in the windows.
The nave has wall - arcading, to frame each window. The nave roof is of low pitch, and angels with scrolls adorn it. There is a central boss, of Christ in Judgment.
The font is fifteenth-century, and its cover, with an open-work steeple, is dated 1605.
There are two squints which give a view from the nave into the transepts. In the south transept is a niche for a statue of St John the Baptist, and John Paston was buried in front of it. The headstops on the window in the south transept are supposed to represent him and his wife
In the north transept the doors to the rood-stair can be seen. The collapse of the chancel in 1604 demolished the rood-screen, and it was never replaced.
The east window is filled with pieces of mediæval glass. Blomefield, writing in 1741, says that much of the original glass survived in the chancel, but much was later lost through neglect. What remains has been assembled in this window.
There is one monument – on the west wall, to Matthew Goss, who died in 1779.
The church was one of the earliest to be affected by the Oxford Movement. The square pews were replaced by chairs, and the services took on a very ritualistic character, with candles, incense, and banners, and was ‘one of the most fashionable places of worship in Norwich’.
By the end of the century it was again in a bad way: in 1888, the tower was so dangerous an order was served on the churchwardens. In 1897, a large hole in the chancel roof was covered only by a tarpaulin.
Although restored in 1906, the church was in bad state again by 1931, and was threatened with demolition. The Norfolk Archæological Trust raised money to repair it, and it was used as a museum of church art from 1936 until 1995
The church contains beautiful stained glass. To see magnified pictures and information on all the stained glass in this and other churches across Norfolk visit www.norfolkstainedglass.co.uk
www.norwich-churches.org/St Peter Hungate/home.shtm
My friend, Simon, has 909 churches in Norfolk listed, which means that along any road or lane you might just stumble on a flint-built church, nesting at the edge of farmland or in the lea of a wood. Signposts pointing to a village or town is likely to have a church of interest.
So, driving down the main road, passing the sign for Smallburgh, I wonder if it might have a church, then I see it don a lane a hundred metres away, so, stop again.
A small and simple church, but blocked rood stairs show it is much older than it looks.
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Like many East Anglian towers, St Peter's was in a state of disrepair by the late 17th century; flint is a fairly high maintenance material, and lavishing money upon the buildings was frowned upon by the puritans, an attitude reflected in much of the Anglican church itself. And so, it collapsed, taking the western half of the nave with it, to be patched up with the mean-looking tower that Bloomfield saw in the early 19th century.
It was not until 1902 that Walter Tapper's west end was built; Pevsner called it ugly, but I think this is unfair. It is certainly austere, and perhaps sits a little uncomfortably in the rambling graveyard; in truth, there is an urban quality about it.
But if not wholly in keeping it is seemly and imparts a certain amount of gravitas not typical of the period. I rather liked it, especially the crossed keys below the bells. No doubt about the patron Saint here.
More curious are the windows to south and north of the nave. No aisles here, no clerestory; the walls were heightened, presumably in one campaign, but the windows are a mixture of Perpendicular and Decorated. There is a symmetry to them, the earlier style in the middle flanked by two of the later on both sides of the church. I wondered if the Decorated windows were actually a Victorian conceit, although they appear to be genuine, unlike the tracery of the great east window, which is Victorian.
Entering the church, there is a spartan austerity about the interior that matches the west front. This contrasts greatly with the vividly painted roof, which is contemporary with the rebuilt west end, but was painted in the 1920s under the direction of the Rector's wife. The interior is certainly unlike other Norfolk village churches. I'd guess it is something of an acquired taste.
Actually, I found the roof quite interesting. In the style of a traditional Norfolk hammerbeam roof (though I assume that the hammerbeams are false) it is painted with texts rather than images - the Te Deum Laudamus to south and north, and Psalm 150 forming a canopy of honour at the east end. I thought this showed that the Rector's wife must have had a good understanding of medieval liturgical dynamics, because general thinking nowadays is that the angel roofs of medieval churches were exactly this; not mere decoration, but a hymn of praise reflecting the devotional activities in the space below. Interestingly, the hammerbeam ends stick out into the air, and ache to have angels on the end of them, but there are none. I wonder if they were ever intended?
Despite all this modern rebuilding and redecoration, there are some interesting medieval survivals here. The rood screen dado is painted with eight Saints; they are in very poor condition, but enough survives to make identification of some of them possible. On the north side are St Anthony with his little pig, a King (possibly Henry VI), St Benedict and what must have been a fine St George. On the south side, in rather better condition, are St Giles with a fine leaping hart, St Lawrence with his grid iron and two figures that are almost entirely lost, except that they appear to be the ghosts of bishops.
Intriguingly, there are three more panels reset on the east wall. The panels themselves are of different sizes, but they may have come from either the rood loft or from the doors in the screen. One of the figures is certainly St Peter. The other two are Bishops, and it has been conjectured that these two, along with the two faded figures on the screen, might make up the four Latin Doctors: Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose and Gregory, a popular foursome on late medieval Norfolk screens. However, it must be said that one of the figures appears to have the word 'Martin' lettered at the bottom.
I was pleased to find the church open, and the nice lady hoovering inside told me that it always is on a Saturday. She was extremely knowledgeable about the building, which is reassuring, since people who understand a building are more likely to exercise a proper duty of care towards it. And St Peter is not an easy building to love, but it is full of interest. As I said, something of an acquired taste.
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/smallburgh/smallburgh.htm
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The chief lordship of this town was at the survey in the abbot of Holm, and held of him by a socman, who had a carucate of free land, and gave it to that abbey in the time of King Edward, and held it after of the abbot: there belonged to it 2 villains, with a carucate and an half, and 2 acres of meadow, valued at 20s. The whole was 10 furlongs long and 12 perches broad, and the gelt was 8d. (fn. 1)
The abbot's temporalities in 1428 were valued at 25s. and 7s. in rent at the Dissolution.
The family of De Smalburgh were enfeoffed of the greatest part of it soon after the conquest, and claimed the right of patronage belonging to it. In the 12th of Henry III. John de Smalburgh granted to Peter de Brompton and Maud his wife, lands claimed as part of her dower from Henry de Smalburgh, her late husband.
In the 5th of Edward I. William, son of Reginald de Smalburgh, was petent, and Bartholomew de Corston and Maud his wife, deforcients, of 3 messuages, lands and rents here, and in Barton; and in the 8th of that King, Thomas de Smalburgh conveyed with Beatrice his wife, to John, son of Walter de Smalburgh, eight messuages, a mill, with several parcels of land here and in Berton.
Of this family was Sir William de Smalburgh, who died about the 48th of Edward III.
Catt's Manor
Was held of the abbot by fealty, and the rent of 4s. per ann. Edmund Bokenham, Esq. who died in 1479, and had lands and a tenement in Smalburgh, called Baxter's, purchased this lordship of the executors of Henry Catt.
John Wychingham, Esq. son of John, settled it on Ann his wife in the reign of Henry VII. and came to his daughters and ceheirs. In the 33d of Henry VIII. Christopher Coote. Esq. and Elizabeth his wife, passed it to William Arnold. In 1575, Thomas Pettus, alderman of Norwich, possessed it; and by an inquisition taken at Worsted, January 21, in the 19th of James I. Sir Francis Jones was found to be seised of it in right of his wife, with Trusbut's in this town, and of a fishery called Eale-Set, in Barton Water, and Sutton, valued at 12l. 6s. 8d. per ann.
Roger Bigot, ancestor of the Earls of Norfolk, had, on the conquest, the grant of a lordship of which 3 freemen were deprived, who had a carucate of land, with 12 borderers, and 3 socmen who possessed then 3 carucates of meadow, 2 of them were accounted for in Antingham, and the 3d was valued at 10s. (fn. 2) One of them was under the protection of the predecessour of Robert Malet, and the other of St. Bennet of Holm, which abbey had the soc.
In the 3d year of Henry III. William de Stalham granted by fine to Robert de Bosco, a carucate of land in this town, Bertham and Dilham, who regranted it to William, to be held of Robert and his heirs, by one knight's fee.
This came in the next reign to Sir Jeffrey Withe, by the marriage of Isabel, daughter and coheir of Sir William de Stalham; he was found to hold one fee here and in Dilham, of Sir Robert de Boys; and Sir Robert of Sir Richard de Rokele, who held it of the Earl Marshal. Sir Jeffrey lived at Hepperuth in Suffolk, and was father of Sir Olyver Wythe, who was living in the 16th of Edward I.
Jeffrey Wythe, the prior of Norwich, John de Smalburgh, Roger de Gyney, were returned to have lordships here, in the 9th of Edward II. and in the 9th of Edward III. John de Hederset and Elizabeth his wife, convey to Olyver Wythe and Wynesia his wife, 12s. 6d. rent, with the homage and services of Isabel Wyche, William de Felburgh, &c.
In 1373, Sir Jeffrey Wythe of Smalburgh gives his body to be buried in the churchyard of the brethren of Mount Carmel, (the White Friars) of Norwich; (fn. 3) his will was proved the last day of February, in the said year; and Alice his wife was executrix; and in 1361, Dame Alice Wythe was buried in that convent, as was Sir Oliver Wythe her husband.
Sir John Wythe, by his will, dated on Monday before the feast of St. Peter in Cathedra, (February 22,) desires to be buried in the chancel of Beeston church; names Sibilla his wife; and was proved in the said year, September 30, 1387: he left a daughter and heiress, Amy, or Anne, married to Sir John Calthorp. Sibilla her mother, was daughter and heir of Sir Edmund de Omer, and after the death of Sir John Wythe, was married to Sir William Calthorp. father of Sir John, and surviving Sir William, was buried by her first husband Withe, in the chancel of Beeston on the south side, to which church she was a benefactress, as may be seen in Calthorp.
In this family it continued, Sir Philip Calthorp dying lord in 1535; Elizabeth his daughter, being heir to her brother Philip, who died s. p. brought it to Sir Henry Parker by marriage, who had livery of it in the 3d of Edward VI. and was sold by Sir Philip Parker in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to Charles Cornwallis, Esq. who about the 37th of that reign, conveyed it to Thomas Gross, Esq. and Sir Charles le Gross, presented to the rectory in 1620, and Charles le Gross, Esq. in 1693, was lord: he sold it to Giles Cutling, an attorney at Norwich.
The heir of Cutling married James Smith, a mercer of Norwich. In 1713, Catherine Smith, widow, presented, as her right, it being an alternate presentation, and is now in Mr. Aufrere.
The prior and convent of Norwich had also a lordship here. Gunnora, sister of Hugh Bigot Earl of Norfolk gave them Elstan de Bac, a freeman, for an exchange of whom the said Earl, by deed, sans date, in the reign of King Steven, or Henry II. gave them Godwin de Smalburgh and Alfer, both freemen, (fn. 4) with their lands, to be held as freely of the prior, as they had been of him, and that they might honourably perform yearly his father's anniversary, and for his own soul and of his brothers and sisters, all his ancestors and successors. Richard de Turbeville, Robert de Reymes, Gilbert de Coleville, &c. are witnesses.
Pope Alexander III. in 1176, confirmed to John Bishop of Norwich, lands here and in Dilham, of the fee of Earl Hugh.
The Earl Warren had an interest here, his manor of Witton, probably extending into this town.
William de Heggs and his parceners held the 10th part of a fee of Richard de Berningham, and he of the Earl Warren, about the 20th of Henry III. and John de Hemmesby, and Adam Tucker, held it in the 20th of Edward III. of Oliver Wythe, and he of the Earl. In the 3d of Henry IV. Richard Kirope, and his parceners were in possession of it, held of the heirs of Wythe, and they of the Earl of Arundel.
The tenths were 5l.—Deducted 13s. 4d.—Temporalities of the prior of Hickling 11s.
The Church is dedicated to St. Peter and is a rectory. By an inquisition taken before the archdeacon of Norfolk, it was found that the church of Smalberge was vacant, and that the abbot of St. Bennet presented last, and that Robert de Smalbergh, Reginald, son of Hugh, Hubert, John and Theobald, sons of William de Smalberge, freemen of the said abbot, say they are the true patrons; (fn. 5) also Jeffrey son of Ralph, William son of Simon, and John son of William de Smalberge, say they are true patrons.
But all these by several deeds, sans date, about the time of King John, as I take it, released all their right to the abbot.—Witnesses, Sir Fulk de Baynard, Sir Bryan de Hickling, Sir Richard de Butler, &c.
In the reign of Edward I. the abbot was patron. The rector had a manse and 8 acres of land, valued at 13 marks. Peter-pence 10d. The prior of Norwich is said to have a portion of tithe valued at 6s.— The present valor is 10l. 14s. 2d. and is discharged.
The Bishop of Norwich has an alternate right of presentation.
Rectors.
In 1305, Henry Hemenburgh instituted, presented by the abbot of Holm.
1316, Robert de Bardelby, junior.
1318, Thomas de Bardelby occurs rector in 1326.
1346, John de Ludham.
1347, Robert de Morton, presented by the King, in the vacancy of an abbot.
1349, Roger de Barneburgh, by the King.
1365, Robert Druel, by the abbot.
1365, Thomas Rand.
1367, John de la Walle.
1371, Robert Spencer.
1409, Oliver Mendham.
1438, Richard Palmer.
1475, John Keving, late abbot of St. Bennet's.
1500, Richard Jordan, on Keving's death.
1525, Mr. Christopher Bland, A. M.
1525, Mr. William Pay, A.M.
1526, John Tacolneston, alias Brown.
William Ugge, rector.
1557, Mr. Robert Rugge, archdeacon of Suffolk, by the assignees of the Bishop of Norwich.
1559, John Rydley, by the Queen.
John Fenton occurs in 1596.
1602, Henry Woodhouse, LL.D. by the Queen, the see being void; in his return in 1603, he says that the Bishop and Sir Philip Parker, late lord, were patrons alternately.
1629, Thomas Hennant, A.M. by Sir Charles le Gross.
1659, Edmund Shilling, by Thomas Gross, Esq.
1681, Andrew Thexton, by Charles le Gross, Esq.
1713, Richard Oram, on Thexton's cession, by Catherine Smith, widow.
1762, Richard Humphreys, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, his option.
Here was the guild of Jesus, and in the church the picture of Edward the Confessor, in his regalia, and his arms, and the arms of Wythe, azure, three griffins, passant, in pale, or,—and those of Calthorp.
In 1677, the steeple fell down, and defaced part of the church; 2 bells were sold to build up a gable, and one left.
The Bishop of Norwich is said to have the patronage, on the exchange of the lands (in King Henry VIII.) of the abbot of Holm with the Bishop.
¶The church of Smalburgh in Edward the Fourth's time, is said to be 42 paces long and 18 broad.
www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol1...
The grand interior of the St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Wish it were more sharper in my opinion.
Pretty much had to dial up the ISO to capture the somewhat darkened interiors, save for some light rays that manage to seep in from outside the dome. Only basic manipulation done -adjusting exposure, contrast, and 'fill light' - the light rays shown are as is.
Thanks for the kind visits, my friends!
I like Bridge, I like the name, even if the bridge over the Nailbourne takes some finding.
Again, the main road between Dover and London used to pass through the village, but the A2 now curves pass it, so the long main street is quiet, if jammed with parked cars. It is also blessed with two good pubs and a fine country butcher.
St Peter stands on the hill to the east of the town, as the old road heads up to the downs on its way to the coast.
St Peter was Vicotianised, but the work did preserve much of what was old including a trimpium and a oddly truncated tomb where the middle section of the body is missing.
Windows seems to be in threes, echoing the Holy Trinity I guess, and the church has a fine rose window in the south chapel.
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LOCATION: Situated on Upper Chalk (just above the Nailbourne floodplain) at about 90 feet above O.D. with the main Roman road to Dover immediately to the north-east. Bridge Place is about a ¼ mile to the south-west, and its mother-church of Patrixbourne is about ¾ miles to the north-east. Canterbury is just under 3 miles to the north-west.
DESCRIPTION: Unfortunately the church was disastrously over-restored in 1859 by Scott (John Newman, B.O.E. (N.E. and Kent 3rd ed. 1983), 159, says it was 'done with grotesque insensitivity'). However, with the help of Glynne's description (of 1846), and various early 19th century views, as well as the few surviving medieval features, it is possible to work out something of the architectural history. Externally it has been completely refaced with heavy knapped flint, and Bathstone dressings, but the core of all the main walls, except the Vestry on the north-east and the tower stair-turret must be medieval. The west end of the north aisle also appears to have been extended westwards in 1859.
There had been an earlier small-scale repewing in 1836, followed by a restoration by Scott in 1857. The complete rebuilding took place in 1859-60, with most of the money coming from Mrs Gregory of Bridge Hill.
From the surviving remains, there is no doubt that the nave, chancel, south aisle and tower-base all date from the 12th century. It is also possible that the nave itself dates from the late 11th century, but there is no visible evidence for this. The west doorway to the nave is of a mid- to later 12th century date, and unlike virtually everything else on the outside of the church was not totally renewed in 1859. There is a decorated round-headed archway with water-leaf capitals, and much original Caenstone survives. The internal north jamb to the doorway is also mostly of original diagonally-tooled Caenstone blocks. On the north-east side of the chancel is a round-headed (c. mid-12th century) window, which was unblocked in 1859. Glynne in 1846 refers to two 'closed' windows on the north side of the chancel, and 'on the south a fine doorway and two windows, now closed; the former has fine chevron mouldings'. This doorway was reset on the east side of the north-east vestry in 1859, but its fine chevroned arch, over scalloped capitals, is still visible as an entrance to the vestry lobby. The south aisle and south-west tower seem to have been added in the later 12th century. The arcade had already gone by 1846, but part of a respond (with nook-shafts) still survives at the extreme east end. Just beyond this, in the east wall, a fragment of the north jamb of a 12th century window survives. This south aisle had a low southwall until 1859, and its steep-pitched roof continued the line of the main nave roof. The tower at the west end of this aisle has 1859 round-headed arches, on the north and east in a 'decorated Romanesque' style (? designed by Scott). Glynne tells us that originally they were 'very rude semicircular arches'. The south and east windows into the ground floor of the tower may be based on earlier 12th century ones.
During the earlier 13th century, a north transept chapel and north aisle were added. Glynne tells us that 'the north aisle is very low and narrow, divided from the nave by three rude pointed arches with large wall piers having no capitals or impost mouldings'. The pointed arches survive, though a fourth has been added on the west, as well as three extraordinary double piers. The eastern respond is mostly original, however, with bar-stopped chamfers. Another original arch (with bar-stopped chamfers) divides the north aisle from the north-east transept chapel. Glynne also says that there was a lancet at the west end of this aisle. The north-east chapel still has a pair of original lancets on the north (restored externally), and earlier there was apparently a hagioscope from this chapel into the chancel. The upper stage of the tower may be 13th century.
The one later medieval feature that survives is the 3-light early perpendicular window in the west wall of the nave. This too still contains quite a lot of original masonry, and may date from the late 14th century. The 2-light east window, now rebuilt, was probably early 14th century ('poor Middle Pointed' according to Glynne). The early 19th century views show a pair of two-light late perpendicular windows with square hoods on the south side of the chancel.
The chancel still contains some early 16th century fittings, and a roodloft was documented as being made in 1522 (see below). On the north side of the sanctuary are two low rectangular niches which contain the two halves of the effigy for Macobus Kasey (ob. 1512). Above and just to the west of this is some relief sculpture (also ? early 16th century) in a tympanum panel. Was this set originally inside a 12th century doorway? Above this is an early 17th century painting of Robert Bargrave (ob. 1649). On the chancel south wall (at the west end) are fragments of a relief memorial to a vicar, Malcolm Ramsey (ob. 1538). He was vicar of Patrixbourne and Bridge for 44 years. These include part of an inscription.
The tower appears to have been given brick south-east and south-west buttresses in the 17th or 18th century. These were removed in 1859 when a south-east stair-turret was added to the tower. This was apparently restored in 1891.
BUILDING MATERIALS: (Incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.): Virtually the whole of the church has Bathstone dressings, with heavy knapped flint on the exterior. Some 12th century and later Caenstone does, however, survive.
EXCEPTIONAL MONUMENTS IN CHURCH: - see above
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size, Shape: Large Rectangular area around with church, but with the north-east side cut off by the main (Roman) road to Dover (Bridge Hill). Large new extension to the south - ? Late 19th century.
Condition: Good
Apparent extent of burial: Burial in churchyard from at least 1474.
Boundary walls: To road on north-east, with gateway with brick piers and iron arch.
Ecological potential: ? Yes - many fastigiate yews (and other trees) in southern part of churchyard.
HISTORICAL RECORD (where known):
Earliest ref. to church: 13th century.
Late med. status: Vicarage (with Patrixbourne).
Patron: Goes with Patrixbourne church to which it was a chapel. After the Reformation, the patron was the owner of nearby Bifrons.
Other documentary sources: Hasted IX (1800), 289-290. Test. Cant. (E. Kent, 1907), 35-6 mentions the Holy Cross (Rood) light, as well as lights of Our Lady, St. Nicholas, St. Erasmus, the Trinity, St. Loye, St. Trunion, as well as St. Peter (? in the chancel). The Eastern Sepulchre mentioned in 1535, and 'the painting of the High Cross in the Roodloft in 1504 - also 'to the making of the Roodloft, 1522'.
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS:
Inside present church: ? Good, except under east end of south aisle, where there is a sunken boiler house.
Outside present church: Good, but perhaps disturbed by the 1859 refacing and rebuilding.
Quinquennial inspection (date\architect): MAY 1993 A. CLAGUE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: A 12th century nave, chancel, south aisle and south-west tower base, with an added earlier 13th century north aisle and north-east transept chapel, which was very heavily restored and refaced externally in 1859-60.
The wider context: One of a group of medieval parish churches, which was technically only a chapel-of-ease (to Patrixbourne, in this case).
REFERENCES: For the vicars, see W.A. Scott Roberton 'Patricksbourne church, and Bifrons' Arch. Cant. 14 (1882), 169-184. (A list of vicars, by T.S. Frampton (1900) is on the S.W. side of the nave). S.R. Glynne Churches of Kent (1877), 131-2 (he visited in 1846).
Plans and early drawings: Petrie view from S.W. in 1807, and views from S.W. and S. in 1828 in Victoria and Albert Museum. Also view of church from S.W. in oil (? early 19th cent.) and Watercolour of church from S.E. (June 1869) in the vestry and plan of graveyard (new part) in 1942 (also in vestry).
DATE VISITED: 21st February 1994 REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown
www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/BRI.htm
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BRIDGE
LIES the next adjoining parish to Patrixborne southward, being written in old deeds, Bregge, and taking its name from the bridge, which was antiently over the stream which crosses it. This parish was in early times so considerable, as to give name both to the hundred and deanry in which it is situated.
IT IS SITUATED about two miles and an half eastward of Canterbury, on the high Dover road, formerly the Roman Watling-street way, which appears high and entire almost throughout it; in the valley on this road stands the village of Bridge, with the church and vicarage in it, a low moist situation, the bourn or stream of the Little Stour crossing it under a stone bridge, built a few years ago by the contributions of the neighbouring gentlemen. At a small distance southward is Bridge place, now inhabited by lady Yates, widow of the late judge Yates, and of Dr. Thomas, late bishop of Rochester. The hills, form which there is a most pleasing prospect, are wholly chalk, as are in general the other upland parts of it, towards the south especially, where the country is very barren, with heathy ground and woodland, and much covered with stones. In this part of the parish is Gosley wood, once belonging to St. Augustine's monastery, afterwards granted to Thomas Colepeper, esq. It belongs now to Mr. Beckingham.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, claims over the greatest part of it, and the manor of Patrixborne over that part of this parish on the north side of the Dover road. There are two boroughs in it, viz. of Blackmansbury and of Bridge.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, was parcel of the possessions of the abbey of St. Augustine, belonging to the sacristie, as appears by the registers of it, in which frequent mention is made of this manor, with the free tenants belonging to it, in Honpit, Rede, and Blackmansbury. In which state this manor continued till the suppression of the abbey in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, (fn. 1) where it remained till the 36th year of that reign, when this manor, with divers lands in Houndpit and Blackmanbury, was granted to Henry Laurence, to hold in capite by knight's service, and he that year held a court here; and in his descendants it continued till the 18th of queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was alienated by fine levied, by John Laurence, to William Partherich, esq. whose arms were, Vaire, argent and sable, on a chief of the second, three roses of the first. His grandson Sir Edward Partherich, of this place, passed it away in 1638 to Sir Arnold Braems, descended of a family originally out of Flanders, where his ancestors were opulent merchants. Jacob Braems, his ancestor, was of Dover, merchant, and built the great house now the Custom house there, where he resided. Sir Arnold Braems above-mentioned, bore for his arms, Sable, on a chief, argent, a demi lion Tampant, gules. He built a spacious and magnificent mansion on the scite of the antient court-lodge here, which he named BRIDGE-PLACE, in which he afterwards resided, as did his son Walter Braems, esq. till his death in 1692; but the great cost of building this seat so impoverished the estate, that his heirs, about the year 1704, were obliged to part with it, which they did by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, who soon afterwards pulled down the greatest part of this mansion, leaving only one wing of it standing, the size and stateliness of which being of itself full sufficient for a gentleman's residence, cannot but give an idea of the grandeur of the whole building when entire. He died in 1729, since which this manor and seat has continued in his descendants, in like manner as Bisrons abovedescribed, down to his great-grandson Edward Taylor, esq. the present possessor of them. There is not any court held for this manor.
BEREACRE, now called Greatand Little Barakers is another manor in this parish, which in the 21st year of king Edward I. was in the possession of Walter de Kancia, as appears by an inquisition taken that year, at his decease; not long after which it has passed into a family of its own name. After this name was become extinct here, it came into the possession of the Litchfields, who owned much land about Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Betshanger, and in this name it continued till the 22d year of Edward IV. and then Roger Litchfield passed it away to Richard Haut, whose only daughter and heir Margery carried it in marriage to William Isaac, esq. of Patrixborne, from whose descendant Edward Isaac, about the latter end of king Henry VIII. it was sold to Petyt and Weekes, who joined in the sale of it to Naylor, of Renville, from which name it was alienated to Smith and Watkins; after which it was conveyed by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, in whose descendants it has continued down to Edward Taylor, esq. the present owner of it.
Charities.
SIR HENRY PALMER, of Bekesborne, by will in 1611, gave 10s. to be yearly paid out of his manor of Well-court, towards the relief of the poor of it.
The poor constantly relieved are about eighteen, casually the same.
BRIDGE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of its own name.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of three isles, a high chancel, and a north sept or chancel in the middle of the north isle. It has a spire steeple at the south-east corner, in which are three bells. In the high chancel, within the altar-rails, is a monument for Jane, second daughter of Walter Harslete, of Bekesborne, first wife of Sir Arnold Braems, ob 1635, and lies buried in St. Mary's church, in Dover; and for Elizabeth, (second daughter of Sir Dudley Diggs) his second wife, obt. 1645, and lies in the middle of this chancel. Against the north wall is a painted portrait of Robert Bargrave, gent. of Bridge, obt. 1649. Under a circular arch in the same wall are two rows of small imagery, carved in stone, the uppermost repre santing God the Father, with several figures on each side; the lower one, figures taken from the history of the Old Testament. Underneath these, in the hollow of the wall, is the figure of a man lying at full length, in robes, with his two hands joined and uplifted, having on his head seemingly a full perriwig. A memorial for John Hardy, esq. of Bridge-place, obt. 1779. On the east side of the south window is a hollow in the wall, and under it an inscription for Macobus Kasey, vicar of Patrixborne, obt. m.v.c.i.xii. and of his being vicar there xxi years. On the opposite side of the window is carved the figure of a scull, with a snake entering in at one eye, and the end of it out at the other, and a hand with a finger pointing up to it, as if it had been the cause of the person's death, and several bones are interspersed about it. The north chancel is made use of for a school, by voluntary contributions. On the south side of the chancel is a circular arched door-way, with Saxon ornaments. In the register are many entries, from the year 1580 to 1660, of the family of Bargrave, alias Bargar, residents in this parish, and one for Thomas, son of John Cheney, gent. who died in 1620.
The church of Bridge, which is a vicarage, was always esteemed as a chapel to the church of Patrixborne, and as such is included in the valuation of that vicarage in the king's books, the vicar of which is instituted and inducted into that vicarage, with the chapel of Bridge annexed to it. (fn. 2)
The parsonage of this parish therefore, as an appendage to that of Patrixborne, is the property of Edward Taylor, esq. of Bifrons. In 1588 here were eightynine communicants, in 1640 one hundred and twenty.
Set outside a neighbouiring village close to my home. I took Pup for a walk this afternoon and decided on a local walk which passes in front of this lovely old church, originally 15th Century, and couldn't resist taking a quick photograph in passing!
Creeting St Peter church was derelict by the 18th century, so we have the Victorians to thank for its survival. Their's is the roof, the furnishings, windows and sanctuary, and it is all well done. The east window is particularly interesting, as it predates the Victorian stained glass industry. It was made by a Rector of the church. It shows St Peter, so we may assume that this is one of the county's earliest responses to the Oxford Movement-inspired revival of interest in Catholic theology and sacramental art. The pulpit is slightly older than the other furnishings, and if you climb up into it you will see that it is heptagonal, the only one I know in Suffolk.
I am told that inside the church, above the font, the 19th century gallery now contains the organ, which was rescued from a London church bombed in the Second World War.
It is the weekend. Again.
And with Jools suffering a relapse in her chesty cough, we slept late and I said I'd go to Tesco first thing, before coffee, and she could get dressed in her own time.
So I grabbed my coat, the shopping bags and shopping list, put them in the car and drove to Tesco. First up was to fill the car with petrol, then drive round to park up, get a trolley and head into the store, grabbing a scanner on the way in.
Apart from the weekly things, I got some stuffing mix and more blocks of butter for Christmas. Meaning that apart from the fruit and veg and milk, we are all abut done here.
Yay us.
Back home for coffee, unload the car and put shopping away, before finally having breakfast 1 of fruit then bacon butties and brews for breakfast 2.
That's better.
The plan for the day was for some local churchcrawling. After some internet research I had the name of the keyholder at Bekesbourne, I called but was told she was out but would be back "soon". OK, in which case we would visit some other nearby churches and go there last.
Not far to Barham from Chez Jelltex, just along the A2, overtaking lorries and slow cars until we turned off at Wootton, down past the filling station and into Barham, stopping on the road beside the church.
Barham is always open, I thought, no worries here. As I got out all my camera gear and lugged it over the road and through the churchyard.
Round on the north side, we arrive at the porch and I find the door is locked after all. No news of a keyholder, but next week there is a coffee morning. If we feel OK after our COVID booster, we might go along.
Its a short drive along the Elham Valley to Bridge. And yes there is really a place called Bridge, and it does have a bridge. A bridge in Bridge, which takes the old Watling Street and high road over the bed of the Nailbourne.
Bridge never lets us down. And indeed it was open, door ajar, and soon a warden came and put all the lights on so snapping was easier. I'd not missed much on previous visits, but with a new-ish lens, it was always worth in redoing shots. I did have the big lens with me, great for details of carvings and in stained glass windows, which I photograph enthusiastically.
From Bridge, its a five minute drive to Patrixbourne.
I wanted to come back here to take close up details of the Tympanum and rose window from the outside, so it wasn't too much of a loss that the door was locked after all.
So, I set about getting my shots and rattle off a couple of hundred.
Back to the car, and next village along is Bekesbourne, where I had called earlier. The keyholder lives in a "large while building opposite the church", the website said. Yes, it's a palace.
An actual palace.
So, there was scruffy me shambling up the large door, ringing the bell and asking if the church keyholder was in.
She wasn't.
And her husband wasn't too keen on letting me have it.
Now I know how to get it, there'll be plenty of other times.
I leave, but on the way back to the main road, a large Audi passes us, and pretty much the only place she could be going was the palace: should we go back?
No, there'll be other times.
We head home, back along the A2, but calling in at Jen's to do some admin. That done it was back home, all back by one, and ready for some more World Cup action from the sofa.
Lunch was pizza and beer, done in ten minutes and easy as anything, so the main task of the day was to fight my heavy eyelids that threatened to send me to sleep.
Argentina beat Mexico in a bad tempered game, then France beat Denmark 2-1, by which time it was nine and time for bed.
Phew.
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LOCATION: Situated on Upper Chalk (just above the Nailbourne floodplain) at about 90 feet above O.D. with the main Roman road to Dover immediately to the north-east. Bridge Place is about a ¼ mile to the south-west, and its mother-church of Patrixbourne is about ¾ miles to the north-east. Canterbury is just under 3 miles to the north-west.
DESCRIPTION: Unfortunately the church was disastrously over-restored in 1859 by Scott (John Newman, B.O.E. (N.E. and Kent 3rd ed. 1983), 159, says it was 'done with grotesque insensitivity'). However, with the help of Glynne's description (of 1846), and various early 19th century views, as well as the few surviving medieval features, it is possible to work out something of the architectural history. Externally it has been completely refaced with heavy knapped flint, and Bathstone dressings, but the core of all the main walls, except the Vestry on the north-east and the tower stair-turret must be medieval. The west end of the north aisle also appears to have been extended westwards in 1859.
There had been an earlier small-scale repewing in 1836, followed by a restoration by Scott in 1857. The complete rebuilding took place in 1859-60, with most of the money coming from Mrs Gregory of Bridge Hill.
From the surviving remains, there is no doubt that the nave, chancel, south aisle and tower-base all date from the 12th century. It is also possible that the nave itself dates from the late 11th century, but there is no visible evidence for this. The west doorway to the nave is of a mid- to later 12th century date, and unlike virtually everything else on the outside of the church was not totally renewed in 1859. There is a decorated round-headed archway with water-leaf capitals, and much original Caenstone survives. The internal north jamb to the doorway is also mostly of original diagonally-tooled Caenstone blocks. On the north-east side of the chancel is a round-headed (c. mid-12th century) window, which was unblocked in 1859. Glynne in 1846 refers to two 'closed' windows on the north side of the chancel, and 'on the south a fine doorway and two windows, now closed; the former has fine chevron mouldings'. This doorway was reset on the east side of the north-east vestry in 1859, but its fine chevroned arch, over scalloped capitals, is still visible as an entrance to the vestry lobby. The south aisle and south-west tower seem to have been added in the later 12th century. The arcade had already gone by 1846, but part of a respond (with nook-shafts) still survives at the extreme east end. Just beyond this, in the east wall, a fragment of the north jamb of a 12th century window survives. This south aisle had a low southwall until 1859, and its steep-pitched roof continued the line of the main nave roof. The tower at the west end of this aisle has 1859 round-headed arches, on the north and east in a 'decorated Romanesque' style (? designed by Scott). Glynne tells us that originally they were 'very rude semicircular arches'. The south and east windows into the ground floor of the tower may be based on earlier 12th century ones.
During the earlier 13th century, a north transept chapel and north aisle were added. Glynne tells us that 'the north aisle is very low and narrow, divided from the nave by three rude pointed arches with large wall piers having no capitals or impost mouldings'. The pointed arches survive, though a fourth has been added on the west, as well as three extraordinary double piers. The eastern respond is mostly original, however, with bar-stopped chamfers. Another original arch (with bar-stopped chamfers) divides the north aisle from the north-east transept chapel. Glynne also says that there was a lancet at the west end of this aisle. The north-east chapel still has a pair of original lancets on the north (restored externally), and earlier there was apparently a hagioscope from this chapel into the chancel. The upper stage of the tower may be 13th century.
The one later medieval feature that survives is the 3-light early perpendicular window in the west wall of the nave. This too still contains quite a lot of original masonry, and may date from the late 14th century. The 2-light east window, now rebuilt, was probably early 14th century ('poor Middle Pointed' according to Glynne). The early 19th century views show a pair of two-light late perpendicular windows with square hoods on the south side of the chancel.
The chancel still contains some early 16th century fittings, and a roodloft was documented as being made in 1522 (see below). On the north side of the sanctuary are two low rectangular niches which contain the two halves of the effigy for Macobus Kasey (ob. 1512). Above and just to the west of this is some relief sculpture (also ? early 16th century) in a tympanum panel. Was this set originally inside a 12th century doorway? Above this is an early 17th century painting of Robert Bargrave (ob. 1649). On the chancel south wall (at the west end) are fragments of a relief memorial to a vicar, Malcolm Ramsey (ob. 1538). He was vicar of Patrixbourne and Bridge for 44 years. These include part of an inscription.
The tower appears to have been given brick south-east and south-west buttresses in the 17th or 18th century. These were removed in 1859 when a south-east stair-turret was added to the tower. This was apparently restored in 1891.
BUILDING MATERIALS: (Incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.): Virtually the whole of the church has Bathstone dressings, with heavy knapped flint on the exterior. Some 12th century and later Caenstone does, however, survive.
EXCEPTIONAL MONUMENTS IN CHURCH: - see above
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size, Shape: Large Rectangular area around with church, but with the north-east side cut off by the main (Roman) road to Dover (Bridge Hill). Large new extension to the south - ? Late 19th century.
Condition: Good
Apparent extent of burial: Burial in churchyard from at least 1474.
Boundary walls: To road on north-east, with gateway with brick piers and iron arch.
Ecological potential: ? Yes - many fastigiate yews (and other trees) in southern part of churchyard.
HISTORICAL RECORD (where known):
Earliest ref. to church: 13th century.
Late med. status: Vicarage (with Patrixbourne).
Patron: Goes with Patrixbourne church to which it was a chapel. After the Reformation, the patron was the owner of nearby Bifrons.
Other documentary sources: Hasted IX (1800), 289-290. Test. Cant. (E. Kent, 1907), 35-6 mentions the Holy Cross (Rood) light, as well as lights of Our Lady, St. Nicholas, St. Erasmus, the Trinity, St. Loye, St. Trunion, as well as St. Peter (? in the chancel). The Eastern Sepulchre mentioned in 1535, and 'the painting of the High Cross in the Roodloft in 1504 - also 'to the making of the Roodloft, 1522'.
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS:
Inside present church: ? Good, except under east end of south aisle, where there is a sunken boiler house.
Outside present church: Good, but perhaps disturbed by the 1859 refacing and rebuilding.
Quinquennial inspection (date\architect): MAY 1993 A. CLAGUE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: A 12th century nave, chancel, south aisle and south-west tower base, with an added earlier 13th century north aisle and north-east transept chapel, which was very heavily restored and refaced externally in 1859-60.
The wider context: One of a group of medieval parish churches, which was technically only a chapel-of-ease (to Patrixbourne, in this case).
REFERENCES: For the vicars, see W.A. Scott Roberton 'Patricksbourne church, and Bifrons' Arch. Cant. 14 (1882), 169-184. (A list of vicars, by T.S. Frampton (1900) is on the S.W. side of the nave). S.R. Glynne Churches of Kent (1877), 131-2 (he visited in 1846).
Plans and early drawings: Petrie view from S.W. in 1807, and views from S.W. and S. in 1828 in Victoria and Albert Museum. Also view of church from S.W. in oil (? early 19th cent.) and Watercolour of church from S.E. (June 1869) in the vestry and plan of graveyard (new part) in 1942 (also in vestry).
DATE VISITED: 21st February 1994 REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown
www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/BRI.htm
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BRIDGE
LIES the next adjoining parish to Patrixborne southward, being written in old deeds, Bregge, and taking its name from the bridge, which was antiently over the stream which crosses it. This parish was in early times so considerable, as to give name both to the hundred and deanry in which it is situated.
IT IS SITUATED about two miles and an half eastward of Canterbury, on the high Dover road, formerly the Roman Watling-street way, which appears high and entire almost throughout it; in the valley on this road stands the village of Bridge, with the church and vicarage in it, a low moist situation, the bourn or stream of the Little Stour crossing it under a stone bridge, built a few years ago by the contributions of the neighbouring gentlemen. At a small distance southward is Bridge place, now inhabited by lady Yates, widow of the late judge Yates, and of Dr. Thomas, late bishop of Rochester. The hills, form which there is a most pleasing prospect, are wholly chalk, as are in general the other upland parts of it, towards the south especially, where the country is very barren, with heathy ground and woodland, and much covered with stones. In this part of the parish is Gosley wood, once belonging to St. Augustine's monastery, afterwards granted to Thomas Colepeper, esq. It belongs now to Mr. Beckingham.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, claims over the greatest part of it, and the manor of Patrixborne over that part of this parish on the north side of the Dover road. There are two boroughs in it, viz. of Blackmansbury and of Bridge.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, was parcel of the possessions of the abbey of St. Augustine, belonging to the sacristie, as appears by the registers of it, in which frequent mention is made of this manor, with the free tenants belonging to it, in Honpit, Rede, and Blackmansbury. In which state this manor continued till the suppression of the abbey in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, (fn. 1) where it remained till the 36th year of that reign, when this manor, with divers lands in Houndpit and Blackmanbury, was granted to Henry Laurence, to hold in capite by knight's service, and he that year held a court here; and in his descendants it continued till the 18th of queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was alienated by fine levied, by John Laurence, to William Partherich, esq. whose arms were, Vaire, argent and sable, on a chief of the second, three roses of the first. His grandson Sir Edward Partherich, of this place, passed it away in 1638 to Sir Arnold Braems, descended of a family originally out of Flanders, where his ancestors were opulent merchants. Jacob Braems, his ancestor, was of Dover, merchant, and built the great house now the Custom house there, where he resided. Sir Arnold Braems above-mentioned, bore for his arms, Sable, on a chief, argent, a demi lion Tampant, gules. He built a spacious and magnificent mansion on the scite of the antient court-lodge here, which he named BRIDGE-PLACE, in which he afterwards resided, as did his son Walter Braems, esq. till his death in 1692; but the great cost of building this seat so impoverished the estate, that his heirs, about the year 1704, were obliged to part with it, which they did by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, who soon afterwards pulled down the greatest part of this mansion, leaving only one wing of it standing, the size and stateliness of which being of itself full sufficient for a gentleman's residence, cannot but give an idea of the grandeur of the whole building when entire. He died in 1729, since which this manor and seat has continued in his descendants, in like manner as Bisrons abovedescribed, down to his great-grandson Edward Taylor, esq. the present possessor of them. There is not any court held for this manor.
BEREACRE, now called Greatand Little Barakers is another manor in this parish, which in the 21st year of king Edward I. was in the possession of Walter de Kancia, as appears by an inquisition taken that year, at his decease; not long after which it has passed into a family of its own name. After this name was become extinct here, it came into the possession of the Litchfields, who owned much land about Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Betshanger, and in this name it continued till the 22d year of Edward IV. and then Roger Litchfield passed it away to Richard Haut, whose only daughter and heir Margery carried it in marriage to William Isaac, esq. of Patrixborne, from whose descendant Edward Isaac, about the latter end of king Henry VIII. it was sold to Petyt and Weekes, who joined in the sale of it to Naylor, of Renville, from which name it was alienated to Smith and Watkins; after which it was conveyed by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, in whose descendants it has continued down to Edward Taylor, esq. the present owner of it.
Charities.
SIR HENRY PALMER, of Bekesborne, by will in 1611, gave 10s. to be yearly paid out of his manor of Well-court, towards the relief of the poor of it.
The poor constantly relieved are about eighteen, casually the same.
BRIDGE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of its own name.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of three isles, a high chancel, and a north sept or chancel in the middle of the north isle. It has a spire steeple at the south-east corner, in which are three bells. In the high chancel, within the altar-rails, is a monument for Jane, second daughter of Walter Harslete, of Bekesborne, first wife of Sir Arnold Braems, ob 1635, and lies buried in St. Mary's church, in Dover; and for Elizabeth, (second daughter of Sir Dudley Diggs) his second wife, obt. 1645, and lies in the middle of this chancel. Against the north wall is a painted portrait of Robert Bargrave, gent. of Bridge, obt. 1649. Under a circular arch in the same wall are two rows of small imagery, carved in stone, the uppermost repre santing God the Father, with several figures on each side; the lower one, figures taken from the history of the Old Testament. Underneath these, in the hollow of the wall, is the figure of a man lying at full length, in robes, with his two hands joined and uplifted, having on his head seemingly a full perriwig. A memorial for John Hardy, esq. of Bridge-place, obt. 1779. On the east side of the south window is a hollow in the wall, and under it an inscription for Macobus Kasey, vicar of Patrixborne, obt. m.v.c.i.xii. and of his being vicar there xxi years. On the opposite side of the window is carved the figure of a scull, with a snake entering in at one eye, and the end of it out at the other, and a hand with a finger pointing up to it, as if it had been the cause of the person's death, and several bones are interspersed about it. The north chancel is made use of for a school, by voluntary contributions. On the south side of the chancel is a circular arched door-way, with Saxon ornaments. In the register are many entries, from the year 1580 to 1660, of the family of Bargrave, alias Bargar, residents in this parish, and one for Thomas, son of John Cheney, gent. who died in 1620.
The church of Bridge, which is a vicarage, was always esteemed as a chapel to the church of Patrixborne, and as such is included in the valuation of that vicarage in the king's books, the vicar of which is instituted and inducted into that vicarage, with the chapel of Bridge annexed to it. (fn. 2)
The parsonage of this parish therefore, as an appendage to that of Patrixborne, is the property of Edward Taylor, esq. of Bifrons. In 1588 here were eightynine communicants, in 1640 one hundred and twenty.
St Peter and St Paul
Church of England
Abbey
South Choir Aisle
The Requiem Chapel
Green Man Corbel
So far I haven't found out the name of this piece of work nor the artist but there is a Reprezent Project tag on the white box.
In the 1970s, when I used to stay at my Grandparent's house when my Mum and Dad went disco dancing, or whatever they called it before disco dancing was a thing, there was a TV series they used to watch called "How Green was my Valley". I remember little of it, except Granddad saying the valley was go green because of all the rain.
So, on Sunday, the rain was due to fall in the valleys, the hills and all else between.
What to do when we had come away without coats and umbrella?
Churchcrawling.
And thanks to the Church Conservation Trust, you ban fairly reply on those under their care to be open. I made a list of their churches in Shropshire, and after breakfast we set off for the first one, passing through the village of Knockin.
I kid ye not.
Where the village shop is called, of course, The Knockin Shop.
I also kid ye not.
Rain fell, roads were nearly flooded, so we splish-splashed our way across the county, down valley and up hills until we came to the entrance of an estate.
Here be a church.
Not sure if we could drive to it, I got out and walked, getting damp as the rain fell through the trees.
But the church was there, and open, if poorly lit inside. And I was able to get shots before walking up the hill to the car.
Two more churches tried, but they were locked and no keyholder about. So onto Wroxter, where a large and imposing church towered over the road. And to get there we passed through a former Roman settlement from which the modern town too its name. Most impressive was a reconstruction of a villa.
But we did not stop.
The church was open, light and airy even on a gloomy and wet day. I got loads of shots, especially of the fine tombs.
The final church was one not under the CCC, but one I had seen shots of online earlier in the week.
It took half an hour to drive to Diddlebury.
I kid ye not. Again.
And up the hill was the church, with a huge squat Saxon, or early Norman tower, and insode both the north and west walls were Saxon, with the north wall being made of dressed stone laid in a herringbone style.
It is an incredible survivor, and glad that I made the effort to come, as the church is amazing.
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St. Peter’s church, known by this dedication since at least 1322, is one of four churches in Shropshire with substantial Anglo-Saxon remains. The original building consisted of a nave with a west tower which was subsequently rebuilt in Norman times. The north wall, with its characteristic small double-splayed window and blocked door is the most visible surviving feature and dates from the eleventh century. The combination of dressed square ashlar masonry on the outside with herringbone work on the interior is most unusual, and has been the subject of much academic controversy.
Other Anglo-Saxon work includes some herringbone work in the North West corner, and fragments of sculpture, one of which predates the building by a century.
The chancel was added in the twelfth century, and some of the original windows survive. The tower was rebuilt in Norman times, and the later buttresses show that the structure had been unstable from an early date. The large blocked western arch is unusual, and its original purpose is unclear. The tower also features animal heads on the west face, and two sheila-na-gigs (obscene female figures) on the south side.
The south aisle originally dated from the fourteenth century, but was rebuilt in 1860. Inside the church, few furnishings survived Nicholson’s restoration in 1883, but the Royal Arms of William III on the west wall, painted in 1700, are worthy of note, as are the Jacobean corbels retained when the old ceiling was replaced in 1860.
Monuments in the church are mostly small mural tablets commemorating local gentry families of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Note the two
fourteenth century tomb recesses in the chancel, one of which contains a later heraldic brass to Charles Baldwyn (1674), and also the small brass high on the north wall of the Vestry (formerly the Baldwyn family aisle of 1609). This commemorates Thomas Baldwyn (1614), who had earlier been imprisoned in the Tower of London for involvement with Mary Queen of Scots. There is good Victorian glass in the chancel.
www.diddleburychurch.com/history.html
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DIDDLEBURY
SO58NW Church of St Peter
1943-1/2/35
12/11/54
GV II*
Parish church. Saxon, restored C19. Dressed and rubble
sandstone; plain tile roofs. Nave, chancel, west tower, south
aisle and north transept.
EXTERIOR: long and short quoins to base of chancel; Decorated
east window; mid C19 south wall and porch; restored tower with
Norman superstructure over infilled Saxon arch; weather-vane.
Tall narrow north doorway, blocked C19, with semi-circular
arch on chamfered impost blocks.
INTERIOR: good herringbone masonry to north wall; fragments of
interlacing sculpture and piscina; 2 canopies with ballflower
ornament; font; tablets: Cornwall, d.1756; Powell, d.1769;
Fleming, d.1650; Bawdewyn, d.1674; Fleming, d.1761; some early
wood figure-head corbels to roof; funeral hatchments.
Listing NGR: SO5084385372
britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101269882-church-of-st-peter...
St Peter's is huge, imposing and, let's face it, grandiloquent. To me, it's an architectural masterpiece yet cold and unmoving at the same time
Just along from East Malling is Ditton, now just a part of the urban sprawl that is East and West Malling.
Pronounced Mauling, apparently.
Last January when we were here, people where here, but there was a "church closed" sign and clearly visitors were not welcome.
Come September, and the welcome could not have been warmer.
Four wardens / volunteers were cleaning the church, and they were only too happy to show me round, and the memorial to a member of the Golding family, after which the variety of hops is named, hence the hop motif in much of the carvings around the church.
I had seen the sign pointing to Ditton as I turned up to East Malling, so it seemed natural to go there next.
From the main road the sat nav took me through a housing estate, until I came to the familiar green with the school and parish offices opposite the church.
Would it be open?
It would, although that was not confirmed until I walked along the north side of the church to the west door, which was open and inside, a welcoming warm light.
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In a picturesque position to the west of a large green, this is a tiny two-cell church of twelfth-century date with a fourteenth-century tower. There is much use of tufa in the quoins and some very clear herringbone masonry on the south side. The church was restored in 1859 by Sir George Gilbert Scott which has given the building a distinctive 'cleaned out' feeling inside. The north nave window has fragments of fourteenth-century glass, including two very stilted angels swinging censers. The nave has a good selection of hanging wall monuments and a very elegant benefactions board. An unusual sight is the lead plaque on the nave wall that was removed from the tower roof in 1859. It has a picture of a ship of Nelson's time scratched on it - a very crude representation at that - and is probably not by a seaman returned home as local legend asserts. The good east window of 1910 is by C.E. Kempe and Co. Ltd.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Ditton
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Ditton
WESTWARD from Allington lies the parish of Ditton, called in antient records, Dictune. It takes its name from the Saxon words dic and tune, which signify the village situated on the dike, or trench of water.
THE SITUATION and soil of this parish is much the same as that of Allington, last described. The high road from London, through Wrotham, to Maidstone, crosses the middle of it, at the thirty-first mile stone; the village stands on it, and the church about a quarter of a mile further southward, on an ascent, beyond which, the parish reaches into the large tract of coppice woods, which extends as far as Teston and Barming. The stream, from Bradborne park runs through this parish and village, across the above road, and having turned two mills, one above and the other below it, runs on to the river Medway, which is the northern boundary of this parish, near the north-west extremity of which, on the road leading from Larkfield to Newhith, and not far distant from that hamlet and the river, is Borough court. This parish is rather an obscure place, and has nothing further worthy of notice in it.
This parish, among others, was antiently bound to contribute to the repair of the fifth pier of Rochester bridge.
IN THE WOODS, at the southern part of this parish, are many trees of the mountain ash, with berries, called in Gerarde, Sorbus silvestris, five fraxinus bubula, the quicken tree, wild ash, or service tree; (fn. 1) and by Miller, Sorbus aucuparea, the wild service, or quicken tree.
THIS PLACE, at the time of the taking of the survey of Domesday, in the reign of the Conqueror, was part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux and earl of Kent, the king's half brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus described in it.
Haimo the sheriff holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Dictune. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is four carucates. In demesne there are two, and 20 villeins, with five borderers, having three carucates. There is a church and 6 servants, and one mill of 10 shillings, and eight acres of meadow, and 35 acres of pasture. Wood for the pannage of six hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth 8 pounds, when he received it 100 shillings, now 8 pounds. Sbern held it of king Edward.
There was at the above time in this parish likewise another estate, called SIFLETONE, part of the possessions also of the bishop of Baieux, which is thus entered in the same book, immediately after that above described.
Vitalis holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Sifletone. It was taxed at three yokes. The arable land is one carucate. In demesne there is one caracate and an half, and six villeins, with one borderer, having half a carucate. There are six servants, and one mill of 10s. There are ten acres of meadow, and thirty acres of pasture. In the time of the Confessor it was worth 40 shillings, when he received it four pounds, now 100 shillings. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, two men, Leuuin and Uluuin, held this land in coparcenary, and could turn themselves over with this land to whomever they would.
The estate first described appears to have been what has since been known by the name of the MANOR of DITTON, with the appendant MANOR of BRAMPTON.
On the disgrace of the bishop of Baieux, Ditton became confiscated to the crown; after which it appears to have been held of the Clares, earls of Gloucester, by a family who assumed their surname from it.
In the reign of king Edward I. William de Ditton held the manor of Ditton of the earl of Gloucester, at which time the manor of Brampton, once part of it, was held by William de Brampton of the above Wm. de Ditton, and by him of the earl of Gloucester. (fn. 2) In the beginning of the next reign of king Edward II. Ralph de Ditton and Joan de Lewkenore were owners of these manors; after which they both passed into the name of Aldon, and Thomas de Aldon, in the 20th of king Edward III. paid aid for both of them, held in manner as above mentioned.
THE MANOR OF SIFLETONE came to the crown likewise on the disgrace of the bishop of Baieux, and was afterwards held by a family who took their name from it. In the reign of king Henry III. and beginning of that of king Edward I. William de Sifleston held it of Wm. Ditton above mentioned, as he again did of the earl of Gloucester; from which name it passed into that of Burghersh, and Robert de Burghersh, constable of Dover-castle, warden of the five ports, and a baron of this realm, died possessed of this manor, in the 34th year of king Edward I. anno 1305, (fn. 3) whose son and heir, Stephen, in the 1st year of Edward II. obtained a charter of free warren for all his demesne lands within it. He was succeeded, in the 3d year of king Edward II. by Bartholomew lord Burghersh, from whom this manor seems to have passed to Tho. de Aldon, who, in the 20th year of king Edward III. was likewise possessed of the manor of Ditton, with that of Brampton, as has been already mentioned. He died in the 35th year of that reign, anno 1360, and these manors came into the family of Paveley, from which they passed to that of Windlesor, or Windsor, in the 1st year of king Richard II. in which name they continued till the 15th year of that reign, when they were conveyed by sale to Sir Lewis Clifford, K.B. descended from the Cliffords, of Clifford castle, in Herefordshire, whose son, Wm. Clifford, of Bobbing, esq. in Kent, sold them in Henry V.'s reign to Sir Wm. Colepeper, whose son, Sir Rich. Colepeper, (fn. 4) of Oxenhoath, sheriff in the 11th year of king Edward IV. died possessed of these manors in the 2d year of king Richard III. and leaving no issue male, his three daughters, Margaret, married to William Cotton, of Oxenhoath; Joyce to Edmund lord Howard; and Elizabeth to Henry Barham, esq. became his coheirs. They, in the next reign of king Henry VII. joined in the sale of these manors to Thomas Leigh, of Sibton, in Liminge, who left a son and heir, John Leigh, alias a Legh, esq. of Addington, in Surry; (fn. 5) and he, in the 35th year of king Henry VIII. exchanged these manors with the king for other lands elsewhere, (fn. 6) who next year granted, among other premises, his lordships or manors of Dytton, Syfflyngton, and Brampton, with all their appurtenances, in Dytton, Syfflyngton, Est Malling, Maidstone, and Brampton, to Sir Thomas Wriothesley, lord Wriothesley, or Wriseley, as the name was usually pronounced, to hold for his life, without any rent or account whatsoever; and the year afterwards he granted to him the fee of these manors and their appurtenances, to hold in capite by knights service, and the next year he had a grant of the tenths reserved by it.
This nobleman was descended from John Wryothesley, commonly called Wrythe, garter king at arms in the reigns of king Edward IV. and king Henry VII. who left issue two sons, Thomas, likewise garter on his father's death; and William, York herald, whose son was Thomas, lord Wriothesley, above mentioned. He had been, in the 35th year of that reign, created a baron, by the title of lord Wriothesley, of Titchfield, in the county of Southampton, and next year made lord chancellor, in the room of lord Audley, deceased, and a privy counsellor, and shortly afterwards knight of the Garter; (fn. 7) and anno 1 Edward VI. being three days before the coronation, he was created earl of Southamp ton, bearing for his arms, Azure, a plain cross or, between four falcons closed, argent. Soon after which, that same year, he alienated these manors, with their appurtenances, to Sir Robert Southwell, of Mereworth, who in the 1st and 2d year of king Philip and queen Mary, conveyed them to Sir Tho. Pope, in which name they remained till the next reign of queen Elizabeth, when they were alienated to Wiseman; and in the 24th year of it, these manors were the joint property of William, George, and Philip, and John Wiseman, brothers, as I conjecture, which Philip, having purchased the shares of the others, appears the next year, to have been in the possession of the whole see of them. (fn. 8)
From the name of Wiseman these manors were conveyed, in the reign of king James I. to Sir Oliver Boteler, of Teston, knight, in this county, who died possessed of them in 1632. His eldest son, Sir John Boteler, of Teston, died without issue, upon which his next brother, Sir William Boteler, became his heir, and was created a baronet in 1640. His great grand son, Sir Philip Boteler, bart. of Teston, died in 1772, without surviving issue, (fn. 9) and by will gave one moiety of his estates to Mrs. Elizabeth Bouverie, of Chart Sutton, and the other moiety to Elizabeth, viscountess dowager of Folkestone, and William Bouverie, earl of Radnor, since deceased; and on a partition of these estates, the manor of Ditton, with Brampton and Sysleston, or Sifflington, as it is now called, and the appurtenances belonging to them, was allotted to the Rt. Hon. lady dowager Folkestone, who died in 1782, and was succeeded by her only son, the Hon. Philip Bouverie, the present possessor of them, who has since taken the name of Pusey, and is the present owner of this estate.
BOROUGH COURT, the proper name of which is Brooke-court, is a manor which lies at the northern extremity of this parish, at no great distance from New hith, and the river Medway. It was part of the possions of the eminent family of Colepeper, so early as the reign of Edward III. in the first year of which, Walter Colepeper, esq. was found to die possessed of it; in whose descendants it afterwards continued down to Richard Colepeper, esq. afterwards knighted, who was of Oxenhoath, in this county; and died possessed of this manor in the 2d year of king Richard III. anno 1484, leaving his three daughters his coheirs; Margaret, married to William Cotton, of Oxenhoath; Joice to Edmund lord Howard; and Elizabeth to Henry Barham, of Teston.
After which it was alienated to Francis Shakerly, of Lancashire, the second son of Peter Shakerly, of Shakerly, in that county, who bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron, vert between three tufts, or mounts of grass of the second; who upon this removed into Kent, and resided at Brooke-court. He had six sons, of whom Richard, the eldest, was his heir; Thomas, the second son, was of Wrotham; the third son was of Otham; and by Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Darel, of Scotney, left a son Francis, who was elected fellow of All Souls college, in 1620.
Rich. Shakerley, esq. the eldest son, was of Brookecourt, and had issue a son John, born about the year 1600; and a daughter Mary, who was married to Mr. Peter Bewley, descended from those of Bewley court, in Woldham; and she, on her brother's death, without issue, entitled her husband to this manor. They had two daughters, Elizabeth, who died unmarried, in 1638; and Mary, who became her father's heir, and carried this manor in marriage to Mr. Basse, of Suffolk, who, in the beginning of the reign of king Charles II. alienated it to Sir Thomas Twisden, one of the judges of the court of King's bench.
He was second son of Sir William Twysden, bart. of East Peckham, by Anne his second wife, daughter of the first countess of Winchelsea, and was created a baronet in 1666. He afterwards seated himself at Bradborne, in the adjoining parish of East Malling; and in his descendants it has continued down to Sir John Papillon Twisden, bart. of Bradborne, the present owner of it.
There is a court baron held for this manor.
DITTON-PLACE is a mansion in this parish, which was, in the beginning of king James I.'s reign, the residence of the family of Brewer, many of whom lie buried in this church, and it continued with them till the beginning of this century, when, by mortgage or purchase, it came into the possession of Thomas Golding, esq. of Leyborne, sheriff in 1703, who gave it by will to his nephew, Mr. Thomas Golding, of Ryarsh, who sold it to John Brewer, esq. counsellor at law, whose neice, Mrs. Carney, of West Farleigh, about 1735, reconveyed it back again to Mr. Tho. Golding, whose son, Mr. John Golding, is now in the possession of it.
CHARITIES.
THOMAS GOLDING, gent. by will in 1704, gave a rent charge of 10s. to be paid yearly out of a house vested in admiral Forbes, in St. Leonard's-street, in Town Malling, to be distributed to the poor on Easter and Christmas days, and now of that annual product.
THE REV. THOMAS TILSON, by will in 1750, gave 100l. in money; the yearly produce to be distributed annually on the feasts of All Saints and the Purification, in wood and wheat to the poor, vested in Sir John Twisden, and of the annual produce of 3l.
DITTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small building, with a square tower at the west end.
The church of Ditton was given, in the reign of king Henry II. by William, whose surname is not mentioned, though it appears that he was lord of this parish, in free and perpetual alms, to the canons of the priory of Ledes, which was confirmed by Hamo his son, likewise lord of Ditton, and by Gualeran, at that time bishop of Rochester.
¶Gilbert de Glanvill, the successor of bishop Gualeran, further granted to the prior and canons, the par sonage of this church, in perpetual alms, and assigned to them, in the name of the parsonage, one bezant. In Latin bezantus. This was a piece of money coined by the western emperors at Constantinople, or Byzantium; of this there were two sorts, gold and silver, both which passed in England; the latter was worth two shillings, of which kind was that above-mentioned. It was to be received yearly from this church for ever, by the hand of the vicar of it, to be presented by them, and instituted by the bishop. Bishop Richard de Wendover, in the reign of king Henry III. confirmed the same, and granted that the religious should possess the parsonage and two shillings per annum, as a pension to be paid by the vicar, who being by them presented to the bishop, should possess the residue of this church, in the name of the vicarage of it. (fn. 10) By which it appears that this church was a vicarage endowed with the parsonage of it, held of the religious, by the yearly pension of two shillings, how it came since to be esteemed a rectory I know not.
It is valued in the king's books at 11l. 15s. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 3s. 6d.
The patronage of this rectory, (for such it seems to have been accounted at the dissolution of the priory of Leeds, in the reign of king Henry VIII.) was, together with the pension of two shillings, and the rest of the possessions of that house surrendered into the king's hands, and became part of the possessions of the crown.
In the reign of king James I. Richard Shakerley, esq. was patron of this church. The present patron is the right hon. Heneage, earl of Aylesford, in whose family it has been some time.
The pension of two shillings yearly, payable to the priory of Leeds, as above-mentioned, was settled by king Henry VIII. in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, on his new-sounded dean and chapter of Rochester, who now enjoy it.
St. Peter and St. Paul, Teigngrace Grade 2*
Recently included in Todd Gray’s “Devon’s Fifty Best Churches”, St. Peter and St. Paul, Teigngrace is of some significance as a Georgian church designed in a style of Strawberry Hill Gothic. The external structure that you see now is very much as it would have appeared to the Templer family at the dedication service in March 1788. Originally the church was surrounded by fields, with a pathway to the Schoolroom that was built in 1873. Over the years the village has grown and the church is now surrounded by houses. However, it still has a feel of seclusion about it, sheltered by the drive from the road and the yew in front
Originally the church was part of Stover estate, serving the village, workers on the estate and, in time, workers on the canal built by James Templer.
The earliest definite record of a church at Teigngrace dates back to 1350, but by the late 18th century it was in a poor state of repair.
The estate was purchased in 1765 by James Templer, who subsequently built Stover Lodge. He died in 1782, his wife Mary in 1784, and their three sons, James, George & John rebuilt the parish church in 1787 dedicating it in memory of their parents. The Rev. John Templer was the first Rector of the new church. The first service in the new church was held on Sunday 30th March 1788. The 220th anniversary of this dedication was held in 2008.
Teigngrace Interior
The Templer family is commemorated by a number of wonderful memorials.
Pevsner (1952) notes that the monuments are “both interesting and varied. They have eloquent inscriptions, but are not of excessive size. The earliest are two wall-mounted monuments flanking the chancel arch, to James Templer †1782 and his wife, Mary †1784, the first with a mourning figure at an urn, in a roundel, the second with a similar theme in a lunette at the top.—Charles Templer †1786 has a delicate shipwreck relief; Captain William Templer †1805 and his brother, both also drowned at sea, have only the signed tablet, a fat weeping angel by an urn above a Gothic fan coving, by Coade and Sealy.—The Nelson memorial, of 1805, is also of Coade stone. It has the unusual form of a figure of Fame above a globe, inscribed “slain in battle”.—James Templer †1813 has another Coade monument: a female figure reclining on an urn, a standard type.—other simpler tablets include two naval associates, Cornwallis, Viscount Hawarden † 1803 and Captain Richard Dalling Dunn †1813 , both with chaste urns, and one to the Rev. John Templer † 1832 (the first of the two Templer rectors) with draped urn on sarcophagus.”
The picture of interest in the church is the large Pieta used as an Altar piece. This seems to have been in position since the church was rebuilt. Previously it has been attributed to James Barry, the Irish artist, and some sources have said it is a copy of Van Dyck’s Pieta found in the Antwerp museum. The first attribution dates to the publication of Lyson’s Magnus Brittanica in 1822, only 35 years after the rebuilding. The states that the painting is “ a painting of Our lady of Pity, by Barry”. No mention is made of it being a copy, and indeed, if you look at Van Dyck’s work it is completely different.
The organ was installed in the tower with the rebuilding of the church and is one of only two in the country in it’s very nearly original condition. It is attributed by the West Country Organ database to James Davis, with additions by George Hawkins in 1885. Its unique feature is its original “nag’s head shutter”.
It is the weekend. Again.
And with Jools suffering a relapse in her chesty cough, we slept late and I said I'd go to Tesco first thing, before coffee, and she could get dressed in her own time.
So I grabbed my coat, the shopping bags and shopping list, put them in the car and drove to Tesco. First up was to fill the car with petrol, then drive round to park up, get a trolley and head into the store, grabbing a scanner on the way in.
Apart from the weekly things, I got some stuffing mix and more blocks of butter for Christmas. Meaning that apart from the fruit and veg and milk, we are all abut done here.
Yay us.
Back home for coffee, unload the car and put shopping away, before finally having breakfast 1 of fruit then bacon butties and brews for breakfast 2.
That's better.
The plan for the day was for some local churchcrawling. After some internet research I had the name of the keyholder at Bekesbourne, I called but was told she was out but would be back "soon". OK, in which case we would visit some other nearby churches and go there last.
Not far to Barham from Chez Jelltex, just along the A2, overtaking lorries and slow cars until we turned off at Wootton, down past the filling station and into Barham, stopping on the road beside the church.
Barham is always open, I thought, no worries here. As I got out all my camera gear and lugged it over the road and through the churchyard.
Round on the north side, we arrive at the porch and I find the door is locked after all. No news of a keyholder, but next week there is a coffee morning. If we feel OK after our COVID booster, we might go along.
Its a short drive along the Elham Valley to Bridge. And yes there is really a place called Bridge, and it does have a bridge. A bridge in Bridge, which takes the old Watling Street and high road over the bed of the Nailbourne.
Bridge never lets us down. And indeed it was open, door ajar, and soon a warden came and put all the lights on so snapping was easier. I'd not missed much on previous visits, but with a new-ish lens, it was always worth in redoing shots. I did have the big lens with me, great for details of carvings and in stained glass windows, which I photograph enthusiastically.
From Bridge, its a five minute drive to Patrixbourne.
I wanted to come back here to take close up details of the Tympanum and rose window from the outside, so it wasn't too much of a loss that the door was locked after all.
So, I set about getting my shots and rattle off a couple of hundred.
Back to the car, and next village along is Bekesbourne, where I had called earlier. The keyholder lives in a "large while building opposite the church", the website said. Yes, it's a palace.
An actual palace.
So, there was scruffy me shambling up the large door, ringing the bell and asking if the church keyholder was in.
She wasn't.
And her husband wasn't too keen on letting me have it.
Now I know how to get it, there'll be plenty of other times.
I leave, but on the way back to the main road, a large Audi passes us, and pretty much the only place she could be going was the palace: should we go back?
No, there'll be other times.
We head home, back along the A2, but calling in at Jen's to do some admin. That done it was back home, all back by one, and ready for some more World Cup action from the sofa.
Lunch was pizza and beer, done in ten minutes and easy as anything, so the main task of the day was to fight my heavy eyelids that threatened to send me to sleep.
Argentina beat Mexico in a bad tempered game, then France beat Denmark 2-1, by which time it was nine and time for bed.
Phew.
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LOCATION: Situated on Upper Chalk (just above the Nailbourne floodplain) at about 90 feet above O.D. with the main Roman road to Dover immediately to the north-east. Bridge Place is about a ¼ mile to the south-west, and its mother-church of Patrixbourne is about ¾ miles to the north-east. Canterbury is just under 3 miles to the north-west.
DESCRIPTION: Unfortunately the church was disastrously over-restored in 1859 by Scott (John Newman, B.O.E. (N.E. and Kent 3rd ed. 1983), 159, says it was 'done with grotesque insensitivity'). However, with the help of Glynne's description (of 1846), and various early 19th century views, as well as the few surviving medieval features, it is possible to work out something of the architectural history. Externally it has been completely refaced with heavy knapped flint, and Bathstone dressings, but the core of all the main walls, except the Vestry on the north-east and the tower stair-turret must be medieval. The west end of the north aisle also appears to have been extended westwards in 1859.
There had been an earlier small-scale repewing in 1836, followed by a restoration by Scott in 1857. The complete rebuilding took place in 1859-60, with most of the money coming from Mrs Gregory of Bridge Hill.
From the surviving remains, there is no doubt that the nave, chancel, south aisle and tower-base all date from the 12th century. It is also possible that the nave itself dates from the late 11th century, but there is no visible evidence for this. The west doorway to the nave is of a mid- to later 12th century date, and unlike virtually everything else on the outside of the church was not totally renewed in 1859. There is a decorated round-headed archway with water-leaf capitals, and much original Caenstone survives. The internal north jamb to the doorway is also mostly of original diagonally-tooled Caenstone blocks. On the north-east side of the chancel is a round-headed (c. mid-12th century) window, which was unblocked in 1859. Glynne in 1846 refers to two 'closed' windows on the north side of the chancel, and 'on the south a fine doorway and two windows, now closed; the former has fine chevron mouldings'. This doorway was reset on the east side of the north-east vestry in 1859, but its fine chevroned arch, over scalloped capitals, is still visible as an entrance to the vestry lobby. The south aisle and south-west tower seem to have been added in the later 12th century. The arcade had already gone by 1846, but part of a respond (with nook-shafts) still survives at the extreme east end. Just beyond this, in the east wall, a fragment of the north jamb of a 12th century window survives. This south aisle had a low southwall until 1859, and its steep-pitched roof continued the line of the main nave roof. The tower at the west end of this aisle has 1859 round-headed arches, on the north and east in a 'decorated Romanesque' style (? designed by Scott). Glynne tells us that originally they were 'very rude semicircular arches'. The south and east windows into the ground floor of the tower may be based on earlier 12th century ones.
During the earlier 13th century, a north transept chapel and north aisle were added. Glynne tells us that 'the north aisle is very low and narrow, divided from the nave by three rude pointed arches with large wall piers having no capitals or impost mouldings'. The pointed arches survive, though a fourth has been added on the west, as well as three extraordinary double piers. The eastern respond is mostly original, however, with bar-stopped chamfers. Another original arch (with bar-stopped chamfers) divides the north aisle from the north-east transept chapel. Glynne also says that there was a lancet at the west end of this aisle. The north-east chapel still has a pair of original lancets on the north (restored externally), and earlier there was apparently a hagioscope from this chapel into the chancel. The upper stage of the tower may be 13th century.
The one later medieval feature that survives is the 3-light early perpendicular window in the west wall of the nave. This too still contains quite a lot of original masonry, and may date from the late 14th century. The 2-light east window, now rebuilt, was probably early 14th century ('poor Middle Pointed' according to Glynne). The early 19th century views show a pair of two-light late perpendicular windows with square hoods on the south side of the chancel.
The chancel still contains some early 16th century fittings, and a roodloft was documented as being made in 1522 (see below). On the north side of the sanctuary are two low rectangular niches which contain the two halves of the effigy for Macobus Kasey (ob. 1512). Above and just to the west of this is some relief sculpture (also ? early 16th century) in a tympanum panel. Was this set originally inside a 12th century doorway? Above this is an early 17th century painting of Robert Bargrave (ob. 1649). On the chancel south wall (at the west end) are fragments of a relief memorial to a vicar, Malcolm Ramsey (ob. 1538). He was vicar of Patrixbourne and Bridge for 44 years. These include part of an inscription.
The tower appears to have been given brick south-east and south-west buttresses in the 17th or 18th century. These were removed in 1859 when a south-east stair-turret was added to the tower. This was apparently restored in 1891.
BUILDING MATERIALS: (Incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.): Virtually the whole of the church has Bathstone dressings, with heavy knapped flint on the exterior. Some 12th century and later Caenstone does, however, survive.
EXCEPTIONAL MONUMENTS IN CHURCH: - see above
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size, Shape: Large Rectangular area around with church, but with the north-east side cut off by the main (Roman) road to Dover (Bridge Hill). Large new extension to the south - ? Late 19th century.
Condition: Good
Apparent extent of burial: Burial in churchyard from at least 1474.
Boundary walls: To road on north-east, with gateway with brick piers and iron arch.
Ecological potential: ? Yes - many fastigiate yews (and other trees) in southern part of churchyard.
HISTORICAL RECORD (where known):
Earliest ref. to church: 13th century.
Late med. status: Vicarage (with Patrixbourne).
Patron: Goes with Patrixbourne church to which it was a chapel. After the Reformation, the patron was the owner of nearby Bifrons.
Other documentary sources: Hasted IX (1800), 289-290. Test. Cant. (E. Kent, 1907), 35-6 mentions the Holy Cross (Rood) light, as well as lights of Our Lady, St. Nicholas, St. Erasmus, the Trinity, St. Loye, St. Trunion, as well as St. Peter (? in the chancel). The Eastern Sepulchre mentioned in 1535, and 'the painting of the High Cross in the Roodloft in 1504 - also 'to the making of the Roodloft, 1522'.
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS:
Inside present church: ? Good, except under east end of south aisle, where there is a sunken boiler house.
Outside present church: Good, but perhaps disturbed by the 1859 refacing and rebuilding.
Quinquennial inspection (date\architect): MAY 1993 A. CLAGUE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: A 12th century nave, chancel, south aisle and south-west tower base, with an added earlier 13th century north aisle and north-east transept chapel, which was very heavily restored and refaced externally in 1859-60.
The wider context: One of a group of medieval parish churches, which was technically only a chapel-of-ease (to Patrixbourne, in this case).
REFERENCES: For the vicars, see W.A. Scott Roberton 'Patricksbourne church, and Bifrons' Arch. Cant. 14 (1882), 169-184. (A list of vicars, by T.S. Frampton (1900) is on the S.W. side of the nave). S.R. Glynne Churches of Kent (1877), 131-2 (he visited in 1846).
Plans and early drawings: Petrie view from S.W. in 1807, and views from S.W. and S. in 1828 in Victoria and Albert Museum. Also view of church from S.W. in oil (? early 19th cent.) and Watercolour of church from S.E. (June 1869) in the vestry and plan of graveyard (new part) in 1942 (also in vestry).
DATE VISITED: 21st February 1994 REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown
www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/BRI.htm
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BRIDGE
LIES the next adjoining parish to Patrixborne southward, being written in old deeds, Bregge, and taking its name from the bridge, which was antiently over the stream which crosses it. This parish was in early times so considerable, as to give name both to the hundred and deanry in which it is situated.
IT IS SITUATED about two miles and an half eastward of Canterbury, on the high Dover road, formerly the Roman Watling-street way, which appears high and entire almost throughout it; in the valley on this road stands the village of Bridge, with the church and vicarage in it, a low moist situation, the bourn or stream of the Little Stour crossing it under a stone bridge, built a few years ago by the contributions of the neighbouring gentlemen. At a small distance southward is Bridge place, now inhabited by lady Yates, widow of the late judge Yates, and of Dr. Thomas, late bishop of Rochester. The hills, form which there is a most pleasing prospect, are wholly chalk, as are in general the other upland parts of it, towards the south especially, where the country is very barren, with heathy ground and woodland, and much covered with stones. In this part of the parish is Gosley wood, once belonging to St. Augustine's monastery, afterwards granted to Thomas Colepeper, esq. It belongs now to Mr. Beckingham.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, claims over the greatest part of it, and the manor of Patrixborne over that part of this parish on the north side of the Dover road. There are two boroughs in it, viz. of Blackmansbury and of Bridge.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, was parcel of the possessions of the abbey of St. Augustine, belonging to the sacristie, as appears by the registers of it, in which frequent mention is made of this manor, with the free tenants belonging to it, in Honpit, Rede, and Blackmansbury. In which state this manor continued till the suppression of the abbey in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, (fn. 1) where it remained till the 36th year of that reign, when this manor, with divers lands in Houndpit and Blackmanbury, was granted to Henry Laurence, to hold in capite by knight's service, and he that year held a court here; and in his descendants it continued till the 18th of queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was alienated by fine levied, by John Laurence, to William Partherich, esq. whose arms were, Vaire, argent and sable, on a chief of the second, three roses of the first. His grandson Sir Edward Partherich, of this place, passed it away in 1638 to Sir Arnold Braems, descended of a family originally out of Flanders, where his ancestors were opulent merchants. Jacob Braems, his ancestor, was of Dover, merchant, and built the great house now the Custom house there, where he resided. Sir Arnold Braems above-mentioned, bore for his arms, Sable, on a chief, argent, a demi lion Tampant, gules. He built a spacious and magnificent mansion on the scite of the antient court-lodge here, which he named BRIDGE-PLACE, in which he afterwards resided, as did his son Walter Braems, esq. till his death in 1692; but the great cost of building this seat so impoverished the estate, that his heirs, about the year 1704, were obliged to part with it, which they did by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, who soon afterwards pulled down the greatest part of this mansion, leaving only one wing of it standing, the size and stateliness of which being of itself full sufficient for a gentleman's residence, cannot but give an idea of the grandeur of the whole building when entire. He died in 1729, since which this manor and seat has continued in his descendants, in like manner as Bisrons abovedescribed, down to his great-grandson Edward Taylor, esq. the present possessor of them. There is not any court held for this manor.
BEREACRE, now called Greatand Little Barakers is another manor in this parish, which in the 21st year of king Edward I. was in the possession of Walter de Kancia, as appears by an inquisition taken that year, at his decease; not long after which it has passed into a family of its own name. After this name was become extinct here, it came into the possession of the Litchfields, who owned much land about Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Betshanger, and in this name it continued till the 22d year of Edward IV. and then Roger Litchfield passed it away to Richard Haut, whose only daughter and heir Margery carried it in marriage to William Isaac, esq. of Patrixborne, from whose descendant Edward Isaac, about the latter end of king Henry VIII. it was sold to Petyt and Weekes, who joined in the sale of it to Naylor, of Renville, from which name it was alienated to Smith and Watkins; after which it was conveyed by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, in whose descendants it has continued down to Edward Taylor, esq. the present owner of it.
Charities.
SIR HENRY PALMER, of Bekesborne, by will in 1611, gave 10s. to be yearly paid out of his manor of Well-court, towards the relief of the poor of it.
The poor constantly relieved are about eighteen, casually the same.
BRIDGE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of its own name.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of three isles, a high chancel, and a north sept or chancel in the middle of the north isle. It has a spire steeple at the south-east corner, in which are three bells. In the high chancel, within the altar-rails, is a monument for Jane, second daughter of Walter Harslete, of Bekesborne, first wife of Sir Arnold Braems, ob 1635, and lies buried in St. Mary's church, in Dover; and for Elizabeth, (second daughter of Sir Dudley Diggs) his second wife, obt. 1645, and lies in the middle of this chancel. Against the north wall is a painted portrait of Robert Bargrave, gent. of Bridge, obt. 1649. Under a circular arch in the same wall are two rows of small imagery, carved in stone, the uppermost repre santing God the Father, with several figures on each side; the lower one, figures taken from the history of the Old Testament. Underneath these, in the hollow of the wall, is the figure of a man lying at full length, in robes, with his two hands joined and uplifted, having on his head seemingly a full perriwig. A memorial for John Hardy, esq. of Bridge-place, obt. 1779. On the east side of the south window is a hollow in the wall, and under it an inscription for Macobus Kasey, vicar of Patrixborne, obt. m.v.c.i.xii. and of his being vicar there xxi years. On the opposite side of the window is carved the figure of a scull, with a snake entering in at one eye, and the end of it out at the other, and a hand with a finger pointing up to it, as if it had been the cause of the person's death, and several bones are interspersed about it. The north chancel is made use of for a school, by voluntary contributions. On the south side of the chancel is a circular arched door-way, with Saxon ornaments. In the register are many entries, from the year 1580 to 1660, of the family of Bargrave, alias Bargar, residents in this parish, and one for Thomas, son of John Cheney, gent. who died in 1620.
The church of Bridge, which is a vicarage, was always esteemed as a chapel to the church of Patrixborne, and as such is included in the valuation of that vicarage in the king's books, the vicar of which is instituted and inducted into that vicarage, with the chapel of Bridge annexed to it. (fn. 2)
The parsonage of this parish therefore, as an appendage to that of Patrixborne, is the property of Edward Taylor, esq. of Bifrons. In 1588 here were eightynine communicants, in 1640 one hundred and twenty.
St. Peter und Paul Temple, Novodevyatkovichy (1786—90), Slonimsky District, Hrodna region, Belarus 2017/ Церковь св. Петра и Павла, Новодевятковичи, Беларусь
A short drive from Leybourne is Ditton.
St Peter sits at the edge of the village green, with a school, Parish Office and historical centre (in the old schoolhouse) on the other side of the main road.
This was the day of the seven locked churches, although this was just the second visit of the day.
On a dull and cloudy day, not the most inviting building, the west door was open, but a "church closed" sign hung down. I thought of knocking, but didn't.
An array of spring flowers was sprouting in the churchyard. I take the rest of my shots and walk back to the car.
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In a picturesque position to the west of a large green, this is a tiny two-cell church of twelfth-century date with a fourteenth-century tower. There is much use of tufa in the quoins and some very clear herringbone masonry on the south side. The church was restored in 1859 by Sir George Gilbert Scott which has given the building a distinctive 'cleaned out' feeling inside. The north nave window has fragments of fourteenth-century glass, including two very stilted angels swinging censers. The nave has a good selection of hanging wall monuments and a very elegant benefactions board. An unusual sight is the lead plaque on the nave wall that was removed from the tower roof in 1859. It has a picture of a ship of Nelson's time scratched on it - a very crude representation at that - and is probably not by a seaman returned home as local legend asserts. The good east window of 1910 is by C.E. Kempe and Co. Ltd.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Ditton
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Ditton
WESTWARD from Allington lies the parish of Ditton, called in antient records, Dictune. It takes its name from the Saxon words dic and tune, which signify the village situated on the dike, or trench of water.
THE SITUATION and soil of this parish is much the same as that of Allington, last described. The high road from London, through Wrotham, to Maidstone, crosses the middle of it, at the thirty-first mile stone; the village stands on it, and the church about a quarter of a mile further southward, on an ascent, beyond which, the parish reaches into the large tract of coppice woods, which extends as far as Teston and Barming. The stream, from Bradborne park runs through this parish and village, across the above road, and having turned two mills, one above and the other below it, runs on to the river Medway, which is the northern boundary of this parish, near the north-west extremity of which, on the road leading from Larkfield to Newhith, and not far distant from that hamlet and the river, is Borough court. This parish is rather an obscure place, and has nothing further worthy of notice in it.
This parish, among others, was antiently bound to contribute to the repair of the fifth pier of Rochester bridge.
IN THE WOODS, at the southern part of this parish, are many trees of the mountain ash, with berries, called in Gerarde, Sorbus silvestris, five fraxinus bubula, the quicken tree, wild ash, or service tree; (fn. 1) and by Miller, Sorbus aucuparea, the wild service, or quicken tree.
THIS PLACE, at the time of the taking of the survey of Domesday, in the reign of the Conqueror, was part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux and earl of Kent, the king's half brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus described in it.
Haimo the sheriff holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Dictune. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is four carucates. In demesne there are two, and 20 villeins, with five borderers, having three carucates. There is a church and 6 servants, and one mill of 10 shillings, and eight acres of meadow, and 35 acres of pasture. Wood for the pannage of six hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth 8 pounds, when he received it 100 shillings, now 8 pounds. Sbern held it of king Edward.
There was at the above time in this parish likewise another estate, called SIFLETONE, part of the possessions also of the bishop of Baieux, which is thus entered in the same book, immediately after that above described.
Vitalis holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Sifletone. It was taxed at three yokes. The arable land is one carucate. In demesne there is one caracate and an half, and six villeins, with one borderer, having half a carucate. There are six servants, and one mill of 10s. There are ten acres of meadow, and thirty acres of pasture. In the time of the Confessor it was worth 40 shillings, when he received it four pounds, now 100 shillings. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, two men, Leuuin and Uluuin, held this land in coparcenary, and could turn themselves over with this land to whomever they would.
The estate first described appears to have been what has since been known by the name of the MANOR of DITTON, with the appendant MANOR of BRAMPTON.
On the disgrace of the bishop of Baieux, Ditton became confiscated to the crown; after which it appears to have been held of the Clares, earls of Gloucester, by a family who assumed their surname from it.
In the reign of king Edward I. William de Ditton held the manor of Ditton of the earl of Gloucester, at which time the manor of Brampton, once part of it, was held by William de Brampton of the above Wm. de Ditton, and by him of the earl of Gloucester. (fn. 2) In the beginning of the next reign of king Edward II. Ralph de Ditton and Joan de Lewkenore were owners of these manors; after which they both passed into the name of Aldon, and Thomas de Aldon, in the 20th of king Edward III. paid aid for both of them, held in manner as above mentioned.
THE MANOR OF SIFLETONE came to the crown likewise on the disgrace of the bishop of Baieux, and was afterwards held by a family who took their name from it. In the reign of king Henry III. and beginning of that of king Edward I. William de Sifleston held it of Wm. Ditton above mentioned, as he again did of the earl of Gloucester; from which name it passed into that of Burghersh, and Robert de Burghersh, constable of Dover-castle, warden of the five ports, and a baron of this realm, died possessed of this manor, in the 34th year of king Edward I. anno 1305, (fn. 3) whose son and heir, Stephen, in the 1st year of Edward II. obtained a charter of free warren for all his demesne lands within it. He was succeeded, in the 3d year of king Edward II. by Bartholomew lord Burghersh, from whom this manor seems to have passed to Tho. de Aldon, who, in the 20th year of king Edward III. was likewise possessed of the manor of Ditton, with that of Brampton, as has been already mentioned. He died in the 35th year of that reign, anno 1360, and these manors came into the family of Paveley, from which they passed to that of Windlesor, or Windsor, in the 1st year of king Richard II. in which name they continued till the 15th year of that reign, when they were conveyed by sale to Sir Lewis Clifford, K.B. descended from the Cliffords, of Clifford castle, in Herefordshire, whose son, Wm. Clifford, of Bobbing, esq. in Kent, sold them in Henry V.'s reign to Sir Wm. Colepeper, whose son, Sir Rich. Colepeper, (fn. 4) of Oxenhoath, sheriff in the 11th year of king Edward IV. died possessed of these manors in the 2d year of king Richard III. and leaving no issue male, his three daughters, Margaret, married to William Cotton, of Oxenhoath; Joyce to Edmund lord Howard; and Elizabeth to Henry Barham, esq. became his coheirs. They, in the next reign of king Henry VII. joined in the sale of these manors to Thomas Leigh, of Sibton, in Liminge, who left a son and heir, John Leigh, alias a Legh, esq. of Addington, in Surry; (fn. 5) and he, in the 35th year of king Henry VIII. exchanged these manors with the king for other lands elsewhere, (fn. 6) who next year granted, among other premises, his lordships or manors of Dytton, Syfflyngton, and Brampton, with all their appurtenances, in Dytton, Syfflyngton, Est Malling, Maidstone, and Brampton, to Sir Thomas Wriothesley, lord Wriothesley, or Wriseley, as the name was usually pronounced, to hold for his life, without any rent or account whatsoever; and the year afterwards he granted to him the fee of these manors and their appurtenances, to hold in capite by knights service, and the next year he had a grant of the tenths reserved by it.
This nobleman was descended from John Wryothesley, commonly called Wrythe, garter king at arms in the reigns of king Edward IV. and king Henry VII. who left issue two sons, Thomas, likewise garter on his father's death; and William, York herald, whose son was Thomas, lord Wriothesley, above mentioned. He had been, in the 35th year of that reign, created a baron, by the title of lord Wriothesley, of Titchfield, in the county of Southampton, and next year made lord chancellor, in the room of lord Audley, deceased, and a privy counsellor, and shortly afterwards knight of the Garter; (fn. 7) and anno 1 Edward VI. being three days before the coronation, he was created earl of Southamp ton, bearing for his arms, Azure, a plain cross or, between four falcons closed, argent. Soon after which, that same year, he alienated these manors, with their appurtenances, to Sir Robert Southwell, of Mereworth, who in the 1st and 2d year of king Philip and queen Mary, conveyed them to Sir Tho. Pope, in which name they remained till the next reign of queen Elizabeth, when they were alienated to Wiseman; and in the 24th year of it, these manors were the joint property of William, George, and Philip, and John Wiseman, brothers, as I conjecture, which Philip, having purchased the shares of the others, appears the next year, to have been in the possession of the whole see of them. (fn. 8)
From the name of Wiseman these manors were conveyed, in the reign of king James I. to Sir Oliver Boteler, of Teston, knight, in this county, who died possessed of them in 1632. His eldest son, Sir John Boteler, of Teston, died without issue, upon which his next brother, Sir William Boteler, became his heir, and was created a baronet in 1640. His great grand son, Sir Philip Boteler, bart. of Teston, died in 1772, without surviving issue, (fn. 9) and by will gave one moiety of his estates to Mrs. Elizabeth Bouverie, of Chart Sutton, and the other moiety to Elizabeth, viscountess dowager of Folkestone, and William Bouverie, earl of Radnor, since deceased; and on a partition of these estates, the manor of Ditton, with Brampton and Sysleston, or Sifflington, as it is now called, and the appurtenances belonging to them, was allotted to the Rt. Hon. lady dowager Folkestone, who died in 1782, and was succeeded by her only son, the Hon. Philip Bouverie, the present possessor of them, who has since taken the name of Pusey, and is the present owner of this estate.
BOROUGH COURT, the proper name of which is Brooke-court, is a manor which lies at the northern extremity of this parish, at no great distance from New hith, and the river Medway. It was part of the possions of the eminent family of Colepeper, so early as the reign of Edward III. in the first year of which, Walter Colepeper, esq. was found to die possessed of it; in whose descendants it afterwards continued down to Richard Colepeper, esq. afterwards knighted, who was of Oxenhoath, in this county; and died possessed of this manor in the 2d year of king Richard III. anno 1484, leaving his three daughters his coheirs; Margaret, married to William Cotton, of Oxenhoath; Joice to Edmund lord Howard; and Elizabeth to Henry Barham, of Teston.
After which it was alienated to Francis Shakerly, of Lancashire, the second son of Peter Shakerly, of Shakerly, in that county, who bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron, vert between three tufts, or mounts of grass of the second; who upon this removed into Kent, and resided at Brooke-court. He had six sons, of whom Richard, the eldest, was his heir; Thomas, the second son, was of Wrotham; the third son was of Otham; and by Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Darel, of Scotney, left a son Francis, who was elected fellow of All Souls college, in 1620.
Rich. Shakerley, esq. the eldest son, was of Brookecourt, and had issue a son John, born about the year 1600; and a daughter Mary, who was married to Mr. Peter Bewley, descended from those of Bewley court, in Woldham; and she, on her brother's death, without issue, entitled her husband to this manor. They had two daughters, Elizabeth, who died unmarried, in 1638; and Mary, who became her father's heir, and carried this manor in marriage to Mr. Basse, of Suffolk, who, in the beginning of the reign of king Charles II. alienated it to Sir Thomas Twisden, one of the judges of the court of King's bench.
He was second son of Sir William Twysden, bart. of East Peckham, by Anne his second wife, daughter of the first countess of Winchelsea, and was created a baronet in 1666. He afterwards seated himself at Bradborne, in the adjoining parish of East Malling; and in his descendants it has continued down to Sir John Papillon Twisden, bart. of Bradborne, the present owner of it.
There is a court baron held for this manor.
DITTON-PLACE is a mansion in this parish, which was, in the beginning of king James I.'s reign, the residence of the family of Brewer, many of whom lie buried in this church, and it continued with them till the beginning of this century, when, by mortgage or purchase, it came into the possession of Thomas Golding, esq. of Leyborne, sheriff in 1703, who gave it by will to his nephew, Mr. Thomas Golding, of Ryarsh, who sold it to John Brewer, esq. counsellor at law, whose neice, Mrs. Carney, of West Farleigh, about 1735, reconveyed it back again to Mr. Tho. Golding, whose son, Mr. John Golding, is now in the possession of it.
CHARITIES.
THOMAS GOLDING, gent. by will in 1704, gave a rent charge of 10s. to be paid yearly out of a house vested in admiral Forbes, in St. Leonard's-street, in Town Malling, to be distributed to the poor on Easter and Christmas days, and now of that annual product.
THE REV. THOMAS TILSON, by will in 1750, gave 100l. in money; the yearly produce to be distributed annually on the feasts of All Saints and the Purification, in wood and wheat to the poor, vested in Sir John Twisden, and of the annual produce of 3l.
DITTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small building, with a square tower at the west end.
The church of Ditton was given, in the reign of king Henry II. by William, whose surname is not mentioned, though it appears that he was lord of this parish, in free and perpetual alms, to the canons of the priory of Ledes, which was confirmed by Hamo his son, likewise lord of Ditton, and by Gualeran, at that time bishop of Rochester.
¶Gilbert de Glanvill, the successor of bishop Gualeran, further granted to the prior and canons, the par sonage of this church, in perpetual alms, and assigned to them, in the name of the parsonage, one bezant. In Latin bezantus. This was a piece of money coined by the western emperors at Constantinople, or Byzantium; of this there were two sorts, gold and silver, both which passed in England; the latter was worth two shillings, of which kind was that above-mentioned. It was to be received yearly from this church for ever, by the hand of the vicar of it, to be presented by them, and instituted by the bishop. Bishop Richard de Wendover, in the reign of king Henry III. confirmed the same, and granted that the religious should possess the parsonage and two shillings per annum, as a pension to be paid by the vicar, who being by them presented to the bishop, should possess the residue of this church, in the name of the vicarage of it. (fn. 10) By which it appears that this church was a vicarage endowed with the parsonage of it, held of the religious, by the yearly pension of two shillings, how it came since to be esteemed a rectory I know not.
It is valued in the king's books at 11l. 15s. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 3s. 6d.
The patronage of this rectory, (for such it seems to have been accounted at the dissolution of the priory of Leeds, in the reign of king Henry VIII.) was, together with the pension of two shillings, and the rest of the possessions of that house surrendered into the king's hands, and became part of the possessions of the crown.
In the reign of king James I. Richard Shakerley, esq. was patron of this church. The present patron is the right hon. Heneage, earl of Aylesford, in whose family it has been some time.
The pension of two shillings yearly, payable to the priory of Leeds, as above-mentioned, was settled by king Henry VIII. in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, on his new-sounded dean and chapter of Rochester, who now enjoy it.
Kloster Hadmersleben (Hadmersleben monastery) was founded in 961 by the (six-year-old) King Otto II. There was quite a row because Bishop Bernhard von Halberstadt had refused to cede Magdeburg to Otto I as an archbishopric, even though the Pope wanted it. The bishop's refusal led to his nickname "Eisenkopf" (ironhead). The nunnery was not a really great success, and so the then bishop of Halberstadt wrote in 1120: "The piety of the nuns of Hadmersleben has not only fallen asleep but has completely died out." Thanks to a capable abbess, the convent soon became successful and in 1160 the building of the chapter house began. Around 1320 the construction of the Gothic monastery church began.
But then the convent fell into disrepair again until the nuns joined the Bursfeld congregation. Hadmersleben Abbey is one of the few monasteries in the Archdiocese of Magdeburg that remained Catholic beyond the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War. The Peace of Westphalia of 1648 made this possible.
In 1809, by decree of the King of Westphalia Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, the dissolution of the monastery was ordered. However, the affiliated parish remained.
St. Peter and St. Paul was the monastery church and has been a parish church since the Reformation. Since the 10th century, three construction phases can be identified. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the nave was renovated in early Gothic style in two construction phases, and a large gallery for the nuns was built above the older lower church. During the Thirty Years' War, the church was plundered and partially destroyed. From 1696 to 1710 the interior of the church was made baroque.
This Gothic altar was once the center of a winged altar. It is still visible where the wings were connected, but they may have been lost.
Parish Church of St Peter, Leeds.
Leeds Minster.
Memorial Window to Benjamin Gott (1762-1840) & his wife Elizabeth (1767-1857), 1862.
Designed by Edward Middleton Barry (1830-1880).
Made by William Wailes of Newcastle (1808-1881).
Benjamin Gott was one of the leading figures in the industrial revolution, in the field of textiles. His factory at Armley Mills was once the largest factory in the world and is now home to the Armley Mills Industrial Museum. Gott experimented with new ways of making wool cloth, introducing innovations such as using steam power and power looms. He made a large fortune, and he reinvested much of it back into improving his mills and buying new ones. He also founded almshouses in Armley, collected fine art, and presided over the founding of the Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society in 1819. His other mills included Bean Ings (1792), the first wool factory, Burley Mills (1798), and St Ann's Mills (1824). Gott became Mayor of Leeds in 1799, and, by the time he died in 1840, he was a millionaire.
William Wailes (1808-1881) started his own company in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1838 and became one of the largest provincial stained glass producers. In 1841 the company was making their own glass and Wailes was employed to make glass for Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, mainly from 1842 to 1845, but he produced glass for Pugin on and off up until the latter's death in 1852. His son-in-law, Thomas Rankine Strang (1835-1899) later joined him as a partner and the name changed to Wailes & Strang. From 1859, William Wailes lived in some style at Saltwell Towers, Gateshead. He died there and is buried in the churchyard of St Peter, Bywell, Northumberland.
The parish church of St Peter, Wolferton, Norfolk, dates from around 1300 and is unusual - for a Norfolk church - in that it is almost impossible to find any flint in the walls. The church is constructed from the local Carstone with limestone dressings. Walking around it I eventually found three small bits of flint jammed in the wall around the back - hence my caveat of 'almost'.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/sets/72157644820801895/ to see full set.
The church was gutted by fire in 1486 and rebuilt with a handsome late 15th century hammer beam timber roof. The wooden wall posts have carved apostles on them while the hammer beams have carved clerics. Traces of the fire remain with the reddening of the internal stonework.
As presented now it has a western tower, a central nave flanked by two more or less equal aisles and a chancel at the far end. The internal timber is handsome and is mostly 15th century - this includes the poppyhead choir stalls, the chancel screen and a parclose screen in the north aisle but what appears to be a 14th century parclose screen in the south aisle. Either this survived the fire or else it was brought from another church later.
There is a wall painting on the chancel arch but this appears to be 19th century but painted in medieval style. The church was restored by A. Blomfield in 1886 at the expense of the Prince of Wales (Bertie - later King Edward VII) as the church is close to Sandringham. The silver brass eagle lectern was gift of Alexandra Princess of Wales after Bertie survived typhoid in 1871 and was taken from St Mary Magdelene on the Sandringham estate.
There was no church guidebook on my visit (although it was unlocked) so I am grateful to the website 'British Listed Buildings'.
My good friend and EA church expert and all round good bloke, Simon K, www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/, provided me a list of fine churches to visit in the Dedham Vale which I should visit if the planned trip to Suffolk ever came off.
I left Dover early on the Thursday morning, and mixed it with the rush hour traffic at Dartfod before turning up the A12 and away from the craziness. And into the driving craziness that is Essex. But that's another story.
I turned off just after crossing the border into Suffolk at Stratford St Mary, and then got lost. I was trying to get to Stoke by Nayland, but I found no signs for it, and had to pull the sat nav out to find my way.
In preparing the list, I noted the name of Boxted, as it was nearly the same name as my first employer, Buxted, so when I saw a sign for Boxted, I followed it.
I thought I was in Suffolk still, but somewhere along the line I must have crossed back into Essex, as there are villages in both counties, very near each other, called Boxted.
Boxted village has two netres, the new part down in the valley, and the old part around the church up the hill. The church took some finding, but along and up Church Hill (always a giveaway), there it was.
I couple were preparing to do some pruning of the brambles growing out of the wall near the gate, and they gave me a disdainful look, but were pleasant enough when I left as I remarked what a wonderful church it is.
In fact, this might be one of my favourite churches I have visited, maybe even the favourite. I was surprised that Simon says so little about it, I found it a delight. The gallery so steeply raked the church felt like a theatre, and I am sure services here are special.
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There are two settlements in the parish, a large village a mile away down in the valley, and this smaller, older hamlet around the church.
While I was photographing the exterior, a rather brusque, rude woman asked me to move my bike so she could reverse up to the church because she was 'doing the flowers'. She then parked directly in front of the porch. She must have known her car would spoil my photographs. She got out and took - I kid you not - a single leafy branch from the back of her car and went into the church. I took as long as I could before joining her, by which time she was just leaving, thankfully. She had the grace to say goodbye.
This is a nice interior, full of light, curious pointed arcades punched through thick Norman walls, and a large west gallery raked so steeply that one has the impression of being in a cinema or theatre. An 18th Century memorial has an angel and a skeleton arm-wrestling over a corpse. I liked this one a lot, despite the rude woman.
Simon Knott, October 2012
www.essexchurches.org.uk/boxted.htm
In the early years of the 11th century a Saxon lord named Edwin built a church at Boxted, on the southern slopes of the Dedham Vale. The site chosen by Edwin for his church is rumoured to have been occupied by the ruins of a Roman villa destroyed by Queen Boudicca in her rebellion against the Romans in 61AD. Certainly the Saxon church was built using Roman bricks, mixed with local rubble.
Early historical studies of Boxted church suggest that Edwin's church used septaria stones, of the sort used to build the town walls of Colchester a few miles to the south.
In the late 11th century Edwin's church was replaced with a grand new building in stone. The builders were Robert de Horkesley and his wife Beatrice. The building was begun sometime around 1090 and completed by 1130. The church was dedicated to St Mary, and that dedication held true until sometime around the Reformation - perhaps when nearby Little Horkesley Priory was dissolved, at which point the church was rededicated to St Peter. The first priest was a monk from Little Horkesley Priory named Roberto. The material was a mix of puddingstone, rubble, and Roman brick, but the upper part of the tower was rebuilt in the 16th century with brick, and brick buttresses added. At the same time a timber porch was added.
he church was always kept in good repair; following the Reformation the locals complained that the chancel was in such poor condition that the vicar refused to hold services there. The church was heavily repaired in 1870 by AW Blomfield, one of the most active Victorian church architects. During a subsequent restoration in 1930 medieval wall paintings were uncovered, then just as quickly painted over again.
Historical Highlights
Interior features include a series of 17th century floor slabs to members of the Maidstone family, and to two servants of the Earl of Oxford. A painted and gilded royal coat of arms to George III are hung on the north wall of the nave. There is a 17th centuiry oak chest and several 12th century windows set high above the north arcade. The simple chancel arch is also 12th century. The nave roof is an intriguing crown-post design. On the wall is an attractive early 17th century memorial to Nathaniel Bacon.
Summming up Boxted church
I'd call St Peters an attractive church, not blessed with an enormous number of historic features, but a church with an ancient and interesting history nonetheless. Rather than making a special trip to see it I'd suggest seeing St Peters as part of a longer outing visiting several of the fascinating historic churches in Dedham Vale, like those at Little Horkesley, Wormingford, and Langham. To the best of my knowledge the church is normally open daylight hours.
Pay day.
Which is good.
So: Dateline Norwich, Norfolk.
I wake at half six, with buses and trucks heading into the city just outside the bedroom window, whatever, I slept well, so messed around online for an hour, had a shower and then went down for breakfast. Dressing first, of course.
I chose the "continental breakfast", of fruit and toast, and two pots of coffee which set me for the day.
I had a number of plans: first was to go to Cantley and the Limpenoe for some churchcrawling, but with the swing bridges at Reedham and Somerleyton closes for maintenance, that meant rail replacement buses. The other choice was to go to Cromer to the church there, have lunch of chips beside the seaside, beside the sea.
But first, a a walk to St Stephen's on Theatre Street, as I had not been there before, and was oepn, apparently.
Despite being the end of October, it was warm and humid, and would exceed 20 degrees in the afternoon. But was cloudy, and there was a chance of rain.
More than a chance as it turned out.
So, after breakfast I set out through Tombland, past The Halls where the beer festival was being held, and fresh supplies were being delivered.
Through the market, up the steps and across from The Forum to Theatre Street where the doors of the church had just been opened. What greeted me was a fine large East Anglian church, but instead of pews or rows of chairs, was tables and chairs all set out to be a café.
All churches do their best, I know, but St Stephens is now a calling point on the entrance to the once new shopping centre, the windows offer a large and bright space, but not very churchy.
I made the mistake of asking a volunteer when it stopped being a church: it's still a church, and the tables can be quickly replaced with rows of chairs, it seems.
I go round and get shots, but avoiding, as warned, not to get people in my shots. Its a big church, so I managed that pretty well.
Ten minutes later, St Peter Mancroft opened I wanted to snap the east windows as best I could, so with my compact I did my best. A guy sat behind me and tutted loudly as I took shots and when I asked a warden if I could take a shot of a memorial in the chancel. He had the whole church to sit in, but chose to sit behind me, already taking shots, apparently just so he could complain.
So screw you.
I got my shots, and left, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
Outside rain had began to fall. Falling hard enough not to be pleasant. My plan had been to walk tot he station, but wasn't going to walk in this weather. So, I walked through the market, lingering as rain fell harder, then crossing to Royal Arcade before emerging onto Back of the Inns, and walking into Castle Mall, taking a series of escalators to the top, all the while hoping that by the time I reached the top, rain would have stopped.
It hadn't.
But I did snap the decorative paving marking the source of an ancient spring, then headed down Timber Hill to the Murderers, where I went in and had a pint. And ended up staying for another and a lunch of nachos.
Last stop was St John Maddermarket, where I retook many shots, but had a long and interesting conversation with the warden about the church and the font found at St John in Folkestone.
I went back to the hotel, lay on the bed for a snooze edit some shots and post them with a description which became the backbone for the previous blog post.
For the evening, I had been invited for dinner at my good friend's, Sarah's.
So at five, I walk up through the City to Pottergate, then along, through the underpass and estate beyond, arriving at her door at just gone six.
Darkness was falling, the street was ankle deep in golden leaves, quite the most fabulous place, really.
We have a drink, chat abut churches, butterflies, orchids and Norwich City, after which we eat: a kind of duck stew, which was hearty and very good. Along with that, we sup from the bottle of fruity red I had bought on the way to her house.
The evening slipped by, and after walking 15,000 steps, I got a taxi back to the hotel, along fairly deserted roads, dropping me at the door of the hotel, where just inside a wedding reception was nearing its end, back in my room, I put in ear plugs and slept long and deep.
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The great urban churches of northern Europe sit on their market places, especially in Cathedral cities. It is as if they were intended as late Medieval statements of civic pride. They are a reminder of the way that the cities rose to prominence in the decades after the Black Death, as if the old order had been broken and a new one was beginning. They were a great affirmation of Catholic orthodoxy and social communion, in the years before the merchants that paid for them embraced Protestantism and capitalism. They are European culture caught on the cusp of the Renaissance, the beacons that lead us into early modern Europe.
These things are more easily sensed in the great late medieval cities of Flanders and the Netherlands, for example at Bruges. The bridges, the medieval triumph, the tourist tat shops and the foreign voices can create an illusion of being in Cambridge or Oxford, but the great Market Church and Belfry on the main square recall Norwich, where St Peter Mancroft and the medieval Guildhall have a similar juxtaposition. The Industrial Revolution would bring a new wave of cities to prominence, but in the provincial cities that were prominent in the 15th century, Norwich, and Bristol, and York, you still sense the power of those times.
Looking at St Peter, the sophistication of its Perpendicular architecture feels a geological age away from the coarse, brutal Norman castle on the far side of the Main Croft ('Mancroft'), which is understandable. Four hundred years had passed since the Norman invasion, and St Peter Mancroft is as close in time to the Industrial Revolution as it is to the Normans. That is true of all late medieval churches, of course, but seeing the architecture in a city you get a sense that it looked to the future more than to the past. St Peter Mancroft feels entirely at home with the clean, Scandinavian lines of the adjacent 1930s City Hall, and perhaps even more so with the retro-Modernism of the new Forum, whch reflects it back to the city. The Forum was built to replace the Norwich City library, tragically destroyed by fire in 1994, but in style it echoes the confidence of a great 19th century railway station, the roof a triumph of engineering. You are reminded of Cologne, where to leave the railway station and step into the shadow of the west front of the great Cathedral is to merely move from one statement of civic pride to another.
The influence of Flanders and the Netherlands is familiar in East Anglia, of course, but it is only at Norwich you sense this sense of civic bullishness. Utilitarian, practical Ipswich demolished St Mildred on the Cornhill in the 19th century - the French Baroque town hall now stands on the site. In Cambridge, the market place has been skewed so that today St Mary the Great sits with its east window facing the stalls, as if keeping them at a distance. Worse, it now styles itself the 'University Church'. The great north side of St Peter Mancroft, its massive tower and clerestory like eternal truths rising above the deckchair jollity of the stall canopies, is a constant presence. You can never ignore it.
We know that the present church was begun by 1430, and was consecrated on St Peter's Day, 1455. That is, it is all of a piece. In the nave and chancel there are echoes of near-contemporary Holy Trinity, Long Melford, in Suffolk. The tower is something else again; idiosyncratic, a symbol of power and wealth. There's nothing else quite like it. Pevsner thought it more rich than aesthetically successful, and this is not helped by Street's spirelet of 1881, a flighty thing. There was a massive Victorian restoration here. Before the Streets, pere et fils, came along, diocesan architect Richard Phipson had given it a going over, and there is a sense of the grand 19th century civic dignity of his St Mary le Tower in Ipswich. Of course, hardly anything of these restorations is visible from the outside, apart from a mid-20th century meeting room down in the south-east corner, a jaunty Festival of Britain affair, now a parish tea room.
A processional way runs beneath the tower, and there is another beneath the chancel, the land sloping steeply away towards the east. You enter from either the north or south sides, through surprisingly small porches which lead into the aisles. Again, a sense of civic confidence pervades as the interior unfolds before you.
There is no chancel arch. The arcades run the full length of the church, the great east window is echoed by that to the west, and if you stand in the middle of the church and look to either end, only the west end organ tells you easily which direction you are facing. The furnishings are pretty much all Phipson's, uneasily heavy under the delicate fluting of the columns. How good modern wooden chairs would look in here! There are civic memorials the lengths of the aisle walls, but because the windows are full of clear glass they are not oppressive here as they are, say, at St Stephen.
At the west end of the north aisle sits the font on its pedestal. You can see at a glance that it was one of the seven sacraments series, and that all of its reliefs have been completely erased, as in the great churches of Southwold and Blythburgh in Suffolk. At Wenhaston, we know that this happened in the 19th century - could the same thing be true here? Above the font is the famous font canopy. Now, font canopies are so rare - there are only four of them, and they are all so different - that it is not particularly useful to compare them. Certainly, that here reflects the rather grander example at Trunch, some twenty miles away. Since the other two are either post-Reformation (Durham) or made of stone (Luton), it might make sense to think of the Norfolk two as a unique pair. Here at St Peter Mancroft, much of the upper part is a 19th century restoration, and there seems to have been some attempt to copy Trunch. The lower part is more interesting, with its niches and canopies. It must have been spectacular when the font was intact.
Pevsner tells us that the gilded reredos in the sanctuary is by JP Seddon, but that Ninian Comper restored and enlarged it in the early 1930s. It is not exciting, but that is probably as well, for above it is one of the greatest medieval treasures of East Anglia. This is the medieval glass that survives from the first few decades of the existence of the church. Some of it was probably in place that first Petertide. It has been moved around a bit since then; the whole east side was blown out by an explosion in 1648, and the glass has been removed on several occasions since, most recently during the Second World War. After East Harling, it is the finest expanse of Norwich School glass of the 15th century.
Books have been written about the glass at St Peter Mancroft, and there is neither time nor space to go into too much detail here. Suffice to say that this is the work of several Norwich workshops, probably working in the Conesford area of the city along what is today King Street. It is obvious that some other glass in East Anglia is from the same workshops using the same or similar cartoons, notably North Tuddenham in Norfolk and Combs in Suffolk, and of course most obviously, East Harling. Indeed, by comparison with East Harling in the 1920s, the historian Christopher Woodforde was able to deduce some of what was missing here, and what there.
There are several sequences, most notably the Story of Christ from the Annunciation to the day of Pentecost. This extends into a Marian sequence depicting the story of the Assumption. There are also scenes from the stories of St Peter and St John, and other individual Saints panels, including St Faith, a significant cult in late medieval Norwich. The panel of St Francis suggests that it was also once part of a sequence. The lower range depicts the donors, some of whom are identified. The central spine is largely modern glass by Clayton and Bell for the Streets in the 1880s. Some of the missing glass is now at Felbrigg Hall.
In any other church, the 1921 glass by Herbert Hendrie in the south chapel aisle chapel would be considered outstanding. It is in the style of Eric Gill, but feels rather heavy handed next to the extraordinary delicacy of its medieval neighbours.
While I was here, I stopped taking photographs for the one o'clock prayers. One of the custodians stood at the lectern and read very eloquently from the Acts of the Apostles, and said prayers for the city and its people. Apart from me, there were only two other listeners in the vast space. It was tenderly and thoughtfully done, but I couldn't help thinking that it is the exterior of this wonderful structure which is the Church's true act of witness in central Norwich now.
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichstpetermancroft/norwichs...
A short drive from Leybourne is Ditton.
St Peter sits at the edge of the village green, with a school, Parish Office and historical centre (in the old schoolhouse) on the other side of the main road.
This was the day of the seven locked churches, although this was just the second visit of the day.
On a dull and cloudy day, not the most inviting building, the west door was open, but a "church closed" sign hung down. I thought of knocking, but didn't.
An array of spring flowers was sprouting in the churchyard. I take the rest of my shots and walk back to the car.
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In a picturesque position to the west of a large green, this is a tiny two-cell church of twelfth-century date with a fourteenth-century tower. There is much use of tufa in the quoins and some very clear herringbone masonry on the south side. The church was restored in 1859 by Sir George Gilbert Scott which has given the building a distinctive 'cleaned out' feeling inside. The north nave window has fragments of fourteenth-century glass, including two very stilted angels swinging censers. The nave has a good selection of hanging wall monuments and a very elegant benefactions board. An unusual sight is the lead plaque on the nave wall that was removed from the tower roof in 1859. It has a picture of a ship of Nelson's time scratched on it - a very crude representation at that - and is probably not by a seaman returned home as local legend asserts. The good east window of 1910 is by C.E. Kempe and Co. Ltd.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Ditton
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Ditton
WESTWARD from Allington lies the parish of Ditton, called in antient records, Dictune. It takes its name from the Saxon words dic and tune, which signify the village situated on the dike, or trench of water.
THE SITUATION and soil of this parish is much the same as that of Allington, last described. The high road from London, through Wrotham, to Maidstone, crosses the middle of it, at the thirty-first mile stone; the village stands on it, and the church about a quarter of a mile further southward, on an ascent, beyond which, the parish reaches into the large tract of coppice woods, which extends as far as Teston and Barming. The stream, from Bradborne park runs through this parish and village, across the above road, and having turned two mills, one above and the other below it, runs on to the river Medway, which is the northern boundary of this parish, near the north-west extremity of which, on the road leading from Larkfield to Newhith, and not far distant from that hamlet and the river, is Borough court. This parish is rather an obscure place, and has nothing further worthy of notice in it.
This parish, among others, was antiently bound to contribute to the repair of the fifth pier of Rochester bridge.
IN THE WOODS, at the southern part of this parish, are many trees of the mountain ash, with berries, called in Gerarde, Sorbus silvestris, five fraxinus bubula, the quicken tree, wild ash, or service tree; (fn. 1) and by Miller, Sorbus aucuparea, the wild service, or quicken tree.
THIS PLACE, at the time of the taking of the survey of Domesday, in the reign of the Conqueror, was part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux and earl of Kent, the king's half brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus described in it.
Haimo the sheriff holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Dictune. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is four carucates. In demesne there are two, and 20 villeins, with five borderers, having three carucates. There is a church and 6 servants, and one mill of 10 shillings, and eight acres of meadow, and 35 acres of pasture. Wood for the pannage of six hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth 8 pounds, when he received it 100 shillings, now 8 pounds. Sbern held it of king Edward.
There was at the above time in this parish likewise another estate, called SIFLETONE, part of the possessions also of the bishop of Baieux, which is thus entered in the same book, immediately after that above described.
Vitalis holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Sifletone. It was taxed at three yokes. The arable land is one carucate. In demesne there is one caracate and an half, and six villeins, with one borderer, having half a carucate. There are six servants, and one mill of 10s. There are ten acres of meadow, and thirty acres of pasture. In the time of the Confessor it was worth 40 shillings, when he received it four pounds, now 100 shillings. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, two men, Leuuin and Uluuin, held this land in coparcenary, and could turn themselves over with this land to whomever they would.
The estate first described appears to have been what has since been known by the name of the MANOR of DITTON, with the appendant MANOR of BRAMPTON.
On the disgrace of the bishop of Baieux, Ditton became confiscated to the crown; after which it appears to have been held of the Clares, earls of Gloucester, by a family who assumed their surname from it.
In the reign of king Edward I. William de Ditton held the manor of Ditton of the earl of Gloucester, at which time the manor of Brampton, once part of it, was held by William de Brampton of the above Wm. de Ditton, and by him of the earl of Gloucester. (fn. 2) In the beginning of the next reign of king Edward II. Ralph de Ditton and Joan de Lewkenore were owners of these manors; after which they both passed into the name of Aldon, and Thomas de Aldon, in the 20th of king Edward III. paid aid for both of them, held in manner as above mentioned.
THE MANOR OF SIFLETONE came to the crown likewise on the disgrace of the bishop of Baieux, and was afterwards held by a family who took their name from it. In the reign of king Henry III. and beginning of that of king Edward I. William de Sifleston held it of Wm. Ditton above mentioned, as he again did of the earl of Gloucester; from which name it passed into that of Burghersh, and Robert de Burghersh, constable of Dover-castle, warden of the five ports, and a baron of this realm, died possessed of this manor, in the 34th year of king Edward I. anno 1305, (fn. 3) whose son and heir, Stephen, in the 1st year of Edward II. obtained a charter of free warren for all his demesne lands within it. He was succeeded, in the 3d year of king Edward II. by Bartholomew lord Burghersh, from whom this manor seems to have passed to Tho. de Aldon, who, in the 20th year of king Edward III. was likewise possessed of the manor of Ditton, with that of Brampton, as has been already mentioned. He died in the 35th year of that reign, anno 1360, and these manors came into the family of Paveley, from which they passed to that of Windlesor, or Windsor, in the 1st year of king Richard II. in which name they continued till the 15th year of that reign, when they were conveyed by sale to Sir Lewis Clifford, K.B. descended from the Cliffords, of Clifford castle, in Herefordshire, whose son, Wm. Clifford, of Bobbing, esq. in Kent, sold them in Henry V.'s reign to Sir Wm. Colepeper, whose son, Sir Rich. Colepeper, (fn. 4) of Oxenhoath, sheriff in the 11th year of king Edward IV. died possessed of these manors in the 2d year of king Richard III. and leaving no issue male, his three daughters, Margaret, married to William Cotton, of Oxenhoath; Joyce to Edmund lord Howard; and Elizabeth to Henry Barham, esq. became his coheirs. They, in the next reign of king Henry VII. joined in the sale of these manors to Thomas Leigh, of Sibton, in Liminge, who left a son and heir, John Leigh, alias a Legh, esq. of Addington, in Surry; (fn. 5) and he, in the 35th year of king Henry VIII. exchanged these manors with the king for other lands elsewhere, (fn. 6) who next year granted, among other premises, his lordships or manors of Dytton, Syfflyngton, and Brampton, with all their appurtenances, in Dytton, Syfflyngton, Est Malling, Maidstone, and Brampton, to Sir Thomas Wriothesley, lord Wriothesley, or Wriseley, as the name was usually pronounced, to hold for his life, without any rent or account whatsoever; and the year afterwards he granted to him the fee of these manors and their appurtenances, to hold in capite by knights service, and the next year he had a grant of the tenths reserved by it.
This nobleman was descended from John Wryothesley, commonly called Wrythe, garter king at arms in the reigns of king Edward IV. and king Henry VII. who left issue two sons, Thomas, likewise garter on his father's death; and William, York herald, whose son was Thomas, lord Wriothesley, above mentioned. He had been, in the 35th year of that reign, created a baron, by the title of lord Wriothesley, of Titchfield, in the county of Southampton, and next year made lord chancellor, in the room of lord Audley, deceased, and a privy counsellor, and shortly afterwards knight of the Garter; (fn. 7) and anno 1 Edward VI. being three days before the coronation, he was created earl of Southamp ton, bearing for his arms, Azure, a plain cross or, between four falcons closed, argent. Soon after which, that same year, he alienated these manors, with their appurtenances, to Sir Robert Southwell, of Mereworth, who in the 1st and 2d year of king Philip and queen Mary, conveyed them to Sir Tho. Pope, in which name they remained till the next reign of queen Elizabeth, when they were alienated to Wiseman; and in the 24th year of it, these manors were the joint property of William, George, and Philip, and John Wiseman, brothers, as I conjecture, which Philip, having purchased the shares of the others, appears the next year, to have been in the possession of the whole see of them. (fn. 8)
From the name of Wiseman these manors were conveyed, in the reign of king James I. to Sir Oliver Boteler, of Teston, knight, in this county, who died possessed of them in 1632. His eldest son, Sir John Boteler, of Teston, died without issue, upon which his next brother, Sir William Boteler, became his heir, and was created a baronet in 1640. His great grand son, Sir Philip Boteler, bart. of Teston, died in 1772, without surviving issue, (fn. 9) and by will gave one moiety of his estates to Mrs. Elizabeth Bouverie, of Chart Sutton, and the other moiety to Elizabeth, viscountess dowager of Folkestone, and William Bouverie, earl of Radnor, since deceased; and on a partition of these estates, the manor of Ditton, with Brampton and Sysleston, or Sifflington, as it is now called, and the appurtenances belonging to them, was allotted to the Rt. Hon. lady dowager Folkestone, who died in 1782, and was succeeded by her only son, the Hon. Philip Bouverie, the present possessor of them, who has since taken the name of Pusey, and is the present owner of this estate.
BOROUGH COURT, the proper name of which is Brooke-court, is a manor which lies at the northern extremity of this parish, at no great distance from New hith, and the river Medway. It was part of the possions of the eminent family of Colepeper, so early as the reign of Edward III. in the first year of which, Walter Colepeper, esq. was found to die possessed of it; in whose descendants it afterwards continued down to Richard Colepeper, esq. afterwards knighted, who was of Oxenhoath, in this county; and died possessed of this manor in the 2d year of king Richard III. anno 1484, leaving his three daughters his coheirs; Margaret, married to William Cotton, of Oxenhoath; Joice to Edmund lord Howard; and Elizabeth to Henry Barham, of Teston.
After which it was alienated to Francis Shakerly, of Lancashire, the second son of Peter Shakerly, of Shakerly, in that county, who bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron, vert between three tufts, or mounts of grass of the second; who upon this removed into Kent, and resided at Brooke-court. He had six sons, of whom Richard, the eldest, was his heir; Thomas, the second son, was of Wrotham; the third son was of Otham; and by Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Darel, of Scotney, left a son Francis, who was elected fellow of All Souls college, in 1620.
Rich. Shakerley, esq. the eldest son, was of Brookecourt, and had issue a son John, born about the year 1600; and a daughter Mary, who was married to Mr. Peter Bewley, descended from those of Bewley court, in Woldham; and she, on her brother's death, without issue, entitled her husband to this manor. They had two daughters, Elizabeth, who died unmarried, in 1638; and Mary, who became her father's heir, and carried this manor in marriage to Mr. Basse, of Suffolk, who, in the beginning of the reign of king Charles II. alienated it to Sir Thomas Twisden, one of the judges of the court of King's bench.
He was second son of Sir William Twysden, bart. of East Peckham, by Anne his second wife, daughter of the first countess of Winchelsea, and was created a baronet in 1666. He afterwards seated himself at Bradborne, in the adjoining parish of East Malling; and in his descendants it has continued down to Sir John Papillon Twisden, bart. of Bradborne, the present owner of it.
There is a court baron held for this manor.
DITTON-PLACE is a mansion in this parish, which was, in the beginning of king James I.'s reign, the residence of the family of Brewer, many of whom lie buried in this church, and it continued with them till the beginning of this century, when, by mortgage or purchase, it came into the possession of Thomas Golding, esq. of Leyborne, sheriff in 1703, who gave it by will to his nephew, Mr. Thomas Golding, of Ryarsh, who sold it to John Brewer, esq. counsellor at law, whose neice, Mrs. Carney, of West Farleigh, about 1735, reconveyed it back again to Mr. Tho. Golding, whose son, Mr. John Golding, is now in the possession of it.
CHARITIES.
THOMAS GOLDING, gent. by will in 1704, gave a rent charge of 10s. to be paid yearly out of a house vested in admiral Forbes, in St. Leonard's-street, in Town Malling, to be distributed to the poor on Easter and Christmas days, and now of that annual product.
THE REV. THOMAS TILSON, by will in 1750, gave 100l. in money; the yearly produce to be distributed annually on the feasts of All Saints and the Purification, in wood and wheat to the poor, vested in Sir John Twisden, and of the annual produce of 3l.
DITTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small building, with a square tower at the west end.
The church of Ditton was given, in the reign of king Henry II. by William, whose surname is not mentioned, though it appears that he was lord of this parish, in free and perpetual alms, to the canons of the priory of Ledes, which was confirmed by Hamo his son, likewise lord of Ditton, and by Gualeran, at that time bishop of Rochester.
¶Gilbert de Glanvill, the successor of bishop Gualeran, further granted to the prior and canons, the par sonage of this church, in perpetual alms, and assigned to them, in the name of the parsonage, one bezant. In Latin bezantus. This was a piece of money coined by the western emperors at Constantinople, or Byzantium; of this there were two sorts, gold and silver, both which passed in England; the latter was worth two shillings, of which kind was that above-mentioned. It was to be received yearly from this church for ever, by the hand of the vicar of it, to be presented by them, and instituted by the bishop. Bishop Richard de Wendover, in the reign of king Henry III. confirmed the same, and granted that the religious should possess the parsonage and two shillings per annum, as a pension to be paid by the vicar, who being by them presented to the bishop, should possess the residue of this church, in the name of the vicarage of it. (fn. 10) By which it appears that this church was a vicarage endowed with the parsonage of it, held of the religious, by the yearly pension of two shillings, how it came since to be esteemed a rectory I know not.
It is valued in the king's books at 11l. 15s. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 3s. 6d.
The patronage of this rectory, (for such it seems to have been accounted at the dissolution of the priory of Leeds, in the reign of king Henry VIII.) was, together with the pension of two shillings, and the rest of the possessions of that house surrendered into the king's hands, and became part of the possessions of the crown.
In the reign of king James I. Richard Shakerley, esq. was patron of this church. The present patron is the right hon. Heneage, earl of Aylesford, in whose family it has been some time.
The pension of two shillings yearly, payable to the priory of Leeds, as above-mentioned, was settled by king Henry VIII. in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, on his new-sounded dean and chapter of Rochester, who now enjoy it.
Key Events and Dates
The Chapel
653 AD
The arrival of St Cedd.
654
Cedd founded a Celtic style community at Othona, built his Cathedral of St Peters on the foundations of the Roman fort and was consecrated Bishop of Essex. In fact Cedd's Cathedral was built where the gatehouse of the fort had been - so it was built on the wall of the fort - hence the name - Saint Peter-on-the-Wall.
664
Cedd died of the plague at Lastingham in October. Soon after the death of Cedd, Essex was taken into the Diocese of London and St Peter's became a minster for the surrounding country.
1068
The Chapel became the property of the Benedictine monastery of St Valery on the Somme.
1391
The Chapel was sold to William of Wykeham.
1750
For many years it was used as a barn for the storage of grain and shelter of cattle.
1920
Restored for use as a Chapel.
The Early History
1300 years ago there were people working in Ireland and Scotland to spread the Christian faith. In Ireland, Patrick had established many monasteries and from there Columba had come to Iona, a tiny island off the west coast of Scotland, to establish a monastery and many other Christian centres.
From Columba's monastery, a man called Aidan was sent from Iona at the invitation of King Oswald of Northumbria to set up a monastery at Lindisfarne on the north-east coast. It was also to be a school where Anglo-Saxon boys could be trained to become priests and missionaries. It was in this school that Cedd and his brothers Caelin, Cynebil and Chad learnt to read and write in Latin, and learnt to teach the Christian faith.
The four brothers were all ordained as priests and two of them, Cedd and Chad, later became bishops. Cedd's first mission was to go to the midlands, then called Mercia, at the request of its ruler, King Paeda, who wanted his people to become Christians. Cedd was so successful that when King Sigbert of the East Saxons (Essex) asked for a similar mission, it was Cedd who was sent.
St Peter's Church stands above the small village green on a sloping hillside above a small ford. There may have been a church here in the Saxon period, but the current church of St Peter was begun in the 12th century. The oldest part of the church is the lower section of the tower, where you can clearly see a small narrow window common in the early Norman period. The top of the tower is a saddleback design, common to the area near Cirencester.
The tower arch may also be early Norman. The two-bay nave arcade is late Norman, and a good example of Transitional Gothic style. The north aisle is also late Norman, with Early English windows in the west and north-east corner. The porch is also Early English, though it was moved to its current position during a sweeping restoration in 1872. The goblet-shaped font is late Norman, with very attractive foliated decoration around a circular bowl.
Tucked into a corner is a worn stone coffin, dating to the 13th or 14th century. It was discovered built into the churchyard wall and brought inside for preservation. There is a Norman piscina in the chancel, projecting from the south window embrasure. There are good examples of Victorian stained glass throughout the church.
Situated off the main road into the city, just inside the city marked by the nearby Westgate. St Peter sits at the end of a narrow lane, and is easily overlooked or mistaken for a small church.
In fact it is a tardis of a church, once you walk in, the body of the church opens up revealing, for me, a confused history.
Pews have been removed and replaced with modern chairs, and seems to also be a thriving cafe, judging by the people who came in asking if it was open. On this day it was just open for viewing.
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The earliest visible part of this church is the round-headed arch at the west end of the north arcade (see drawing in Smith (1971), 103 fig 3). This has Caenstone voussoirs and sits on plain rectangular piers with side-alternate Caenstone jambs, at the top of which are plain square imposts with a plain chamfer below. The masonry is diagonally tooled and must date from the first half of the 12th century.
A bit later in date is the small tower on the south-west. This was rebuilt and largely refaced externally in the early 14th century, but inside its east arch into the south aisle is similar to the north arcade arch, but is pointed and has some Reigate stone among its Caenstone quoins. The very large and long external quoins to the tower, which have been called 'Saxo-Norman' re surely a mixture of reused Roman blocks and new Ragstone long ties of the 14th century (compare the 'long and short' work on the north west quoin of the 14th century Lady Chapel).
Soon after the tower was built, probably in the early 13th century, the south door was built. This has jambs largely of Reigate stone, and on its east side a very worn capital and base indicate a missing shaft (no doubt a Purbeck marble column). The beginning of the moulded archway over the door (also in Reigate stone) can be seen on the east, but the rest of it has been restored with plain Caenstone voussoirs. Inside the original hooks for the double doors still survive.
There is a plain font of c.1200 with a square bowl of Bethersden marble at the west end of the nave. It has a 17th century cover and iron crane for lifting it.
During the 13th century, as is commonly found, a longer new chancel was built (confirmed by documentary evidence, which shows that in rental D (Urry, 209 and 304) of c. 1200, the eastern part of the area now occupied by the chancel was still in secular hands). The most obvious evidence for this is the wide lancet on the south-east side of the chancel, which shows that the south aisle was only extended eastwards at a later date. The two wide but plain arches on the north side of the chancel have chamfers with bar stops and comb-tooling which also suggests a 13th century date. The narrower western arch in the south arcade (opposite the south door) is also a plain 13th century arch.
In the early 14th century the tower and west wall of the church was rebuilt. The west wall was realigned, presumably to allow St Peter's Lane, which bifurcated immediately north of the church, more room. At the same time a new 3-light east window was built that has similar 'Decorated' tracery to the new west window. The tower has small single light early 14th century windows in its upper stage, and a probably comtemporary (but now restored) crenellated parapet. Inside the top stage of the tower is a (probably 14th century) timber bell-frame. It was heightened and enlarged for 3 bells in the early 17th century and restored in 1968 when 4 bells were hung there (including a treble, recast in 1903, from St Margaret's Church). There are still two medieval bells in the tower, one of which (the tenor) was cast by William le Belyetere in the early 14th century. The other by William Wodewarde is a bit later (c. 1400).
Also probably of the first half of the 14th century is the new, much wider, Lady Chapel on the north east. It has one original two light window on the north, but unfortunately the east window has its tracery removed and replaced with (c. early 19th century) timber Y-tracery. Between the Lady Chapel and Chancel a fire Easter Sepulcre (with cusped and sub-cusped arches over on both sides) was inserted. Some time perhaps later in the 14th century a new wide but irregularly shaped north aisle was created west of the Lady Chapel and a new crown-post roof was erected over the whole north aisle and Lady Chapel. There is a three light window with hexofoils over at the west end of the enlarged north aisle with a square hood mould externally. However, the Petrie view from the north-west of 1801 shows only a 2 light window without upper quatre-foiled lights.
Also perhaps of the first half of the 14th century, is the rebuilt south aisle which terminated in the Chapel of St John-the-Baptist (see will of 1505). The east window is of the reticulated variety while in the south wall are 2-light, 3-light and 2-light windows all under square hood-moulds. They have all been heavily restored externally in Bathstone. There is a piscina under the eastern 2-light window with a small shelf over the damaged bowl. Between this aisle and the chancel are two contemporary plain arches with simple chamfers and (now worn) brooch-stops at the base. At about the same time the old Romanesque piers were probably demolished at the east end of the nave and two very wide but plain arches were inserted instead. The crown-post roof over the new south aisle may also be 14th century, but that over the nave is perhaps 15th century. There is also a double piscina on the south-east side of the chancel with a Perpendicular head over it, and a small window at the extreme west end of the north aisle on the north side with a simple cinque-foiled head (now into the vestry).
The only late-15th century addition to the church are probably the rood-screen and loft. The extra tie-beam here is probably part of the rood loft (a door through the south pier between the nave and chancel still survives) and the doorway from the north chapel into the late 19th century parish hall beyond. This small doorway dates from c. 1500 and presumably lead originally into a comtemporary vestry.
The major restoration of the church was in 1882, when a new parish hall to the north was built, as we have seen. Much of the external parts of the windows were restored at this time in Bathstone.
BUILDING MATERIALS (Incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.):
The 12th century work has only Caenstone for quoins with flint, reused Roman bricks, etc, for the rubble work. By the end of the 12th century Reigate stone was being introduced, and by the later 13th century Ragstone is used, and this is the most common quoin material for the 14th century work (though Caen is still used).
The usual 19th century restoration in Bathstone, while the east wall of the church was refaced in 19th century buff brick (also the upper part of the south-east buttress). The east window has recently been refaced externally in Lepine.
Bells in tower: Treble - 1903 (S B Goslin, from St Margaret's Church), 2nd 1637 (John Palmer, Canterbury) 3rd c 1400 (William Wodewarde, London), Tenor c.1325 (William Le Belyetere, Canterbury) (rehung for chiming only 1968). Some old glass also survives.
www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/C-PET.htm
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St Peter's church is the only one of six Canterbury medieval churches lying on the main city thoroughfare (Westgate to St George's gate) to have survived for parish worship. The others (Holy Cross, All Saints, St Mary Bredman, St Andrews and St George's) have all been removed to assist traffic flow, incorporated into new retail developments, converted to secular use or lost to enemy bombing in World War II. The position of St Peter's parish church (not to be confused with the nearby St Peter's Methodist church) is odd - set back from the highway and tucked away behind retail shops which stand directly on St Peter's Street (Image 1). This location lies on the line of the original Roman road leading from the Westgate, suggesting a possible religious use for the site from early times. The building includes examples of materials and styles reflecting 1000 years of worship here - specific examples are listed below. Specialists have not agreed on the dating of some elements, but in general terms the original 12th century tower and nave were enlarged first with a 13th century sanctuary, followed by the wide north aisle in the early 14th century and the narrower south aisle in the later 14th century. A major refurbishment in 1882 included addition of a parish hall. From 1660 until recent years, the church was used for the annual service to mark the appointment of a new mayor - hence the need for a mace holder (more below). St Peter's closed for parish worship in 1928 but Sunday services resumed in 1953. The City Centre parish currently comprises St Peter's, St Mildred's and St Dunstan's churches.
Several red Roman tiles can be spotted amongst the flint work of the slim Norman tower
Large white quoin stones mark the corners of the tower - a mix of re-used Roman blocks and added ragstone
A single round 12th century Norman arch survives under the eastern face of the tower (Image 2)
The font (Image 3) dates from around 1200, has a square bowl and is carved from Bethersden marble - the 17th century font cover is currently kept on the floor nearby but its winding mechanism (an iron crane) of a similar date remains place
The original door hooks are also in place, whilst the late 17th century mace holder currently stands, hard to spot, high on a window ledge (Image 4)
Two brass plates may be on interest. On the north wall, the memorial to William Lovelle, rector of St George's in the 1430s, provides interesting detail of ecclesiastical dress of the period (Image 5) but has had a chequered existence: rescued from St George's church after the bombing of 1942, removed to the Cathedral Library for safe keeping, remounted in St Peter's church, taken to Whitstable for a few days in January 1978 to improve its fixings, suffered minor damage in the storms and floods that month, cleaned up and returned to St Peter's. A second brass, also on the north wall, includes several French names, reminding us of Huguenot religious refugees whose descendants were buried here in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Near the high altar, note: an Easter sepulchre, a recess used to keep the host and altar crucifix during Easter time under its ogee arch (Image 6); the simple aumbry, a small cupboard used to store chalices and the sacrament (Image 7); and the less common double piscina (Image 8) used to wash hands and communion vessels
A window in the south aisle, inserted in 1904, is by Sir Ninian Comper, who incorporated a strawberry into many of his works as a tribute to his clergyman father (the latter died whist giving strawberries to poor children). Here the strawberry appears in the bottom left corner (Image 9).
The roof structures contain many examples of 14th and 15th century crown posts
The modern rood beam and figures were erected in 1922 in memory of priest-in-charge William Beam and parishioners who gave their lives in World War I
The keys of St Peter can be seen in the weather vane above the tower.
www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk/stpeter/4590809560
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My good friend and EA church expert and all round good bloke, Simon K, www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/, provided me a list of fine churches to visit in the Dedham Vale which I should visit if the planned trip to Suffolk ever came off.
I left Dover early on the Thursday morning, and mixed it with the rush hour traffic at Dartfod before turning up the A12 and away from the craziness. And into the driving craziness that is Essex. But that's another story.
I turned off just after crossing the border into Suffolk at Stratford St Mary, and then got lost. I was trying to get to Stoke by Nayland, but I found no signs for it, and had to pull the sat nav out to find my way.
In preparing the list, I noted the name of Boxted, as it was nearly the same name as my first employer, Buxted, so when I saw a sign for Boxted, I followed it.
I thought I was in Suffolk still, but somewhere along the line I must have crossed back into Essex, as there are villages in both counties, very near each other, called Boxted.
Boxted village has two netres, the new part down in the valley, and the old part around the church up the hill. The church took some finding, but along and up Church Hill (always a giveaway), there it was.
I couple were preparing to do some pruning of the brambles growing out of the wall near the gate, and they gave me a disdainful look, but were pleasant enough when I left as I remarked what a wonderful church it is.
In fact, this might be one of my favourite churches I have visited, maybe even the favourite. I was surprised that Simon says so little about it, I found it a delight. The gallery so steeply raked the church felt like a theatre, and I am sure services here are special.
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There are two settlements in the parish, a large village a mile away down in the valley, and this smaller, older hamlet around the church.
While I was photographing the exterior, a rather brusque, rude woman asked me to move my bike so she could reverse up to the church because she was 'doing the flowers'. She then parked directly in front of the porch. She must have known her car would spoil my photographs. She got out and took - I kid you not - a single leafy branch from the back of her car and went into the church. I took as long as I could before joining her, by which time she was just leaving, thankfully. She had the grace to say goodbye.
This is a nice interior, full of light, curious pointed arcades punched through thick Norman walls, and a large west gallery raked so steeply that one has the impression of being in a cinema or theatre. An 18th Century memorial has an angel and a skeleton arm-wrestling over a corpse. I liked this one a lot, despite the rude woman.
Simon Knott, October 2012
www.essexchurches.org.uk/boxted.htm
In the early years of the 11th century a Saxon lord named Edwin built a church at Boxted, on the southern slopes of the Dedham Vale. The site chosen by Edwin for his church is rumoured to have been occupied by the ruins of a Roman villa destroyed by Queen Boudicca in her rebellion against the Romans in 61AD. Certainly the Saxon church was built using Roman bricks, mixed with local rubble.
Early historical studies of Boxted church suggest that Edwin's church used septaria stones, of the sort used to build the town walls of Colchester a few miles to the south.
In the late 11th century Edwin's church was replaced with a grand new building in stone. The builders were Robert de Horkesley and his wife Beatrice. The building was begun sometime around 1090 and completed by 1130. The church was dedicated to St Mary, and that dedication held true until sometime around the Reformation - perhaps when nearby Little Horkesley Priory was dissolved, at which point the church was rededicated to St Peter. The first priest was a monk from Little Horkesley Priory named Roberto. The material was a mix of puddingstone, rubble, and Roman brick, but the upper part of the tower was rebuilt in the 16th century with brick, and brick buttresses added. At the same time a timber porch was added.
he church was always kept in good repair; following the Reformation the locals complained that the chancel was in such poor condition that the vicar refused to hold services there. The church was heavily repaired in 1870 by AW Blomfield, one of the most active Victorian church architects. During a subsequent restoration in 1930 medieval wall paintings were uncovered, then just as quickly painted over again.
Historical Highlights
Interior features include a series of 17th century floor slabs to members of the Maidstone family, and to two servants of the Earl of Oxford. A painted and gilded royal coat of arms to George III are hung on the north wall of the nave. There is a 17th centuiry oak chest and several 12th century windows set high above the north arcade. The simple chancel arch is also 12th century. The nave roof is an intriguing crown-post design. On the wall is an attractive early 17th century memorial to Nathaniel Bacon.
Summming up Boxted church
I'd call St Peters an attractive church, not blessed with an enormous number of historic features, but a church with an ancient and interesting history nonetheless. Rather than making a special trip to see it I'd suggest seeing St Peters as part of a longer outing visiting several of the fascinating historic churches in Dedham Vale, like those at Little Horkesley, Wormingford, and Langham. To the best of my knowledge the church is normally open daylight hours.
St. Peter's is noted for its beautiful stained glass windows, particularly the west window and Harry Clarke's early masterpiece entitled 'The Adoration of the Sacred Heart'. The window depicts the Sacred Heart, Mary Magdalene and St. John the Evangelist. The window was installed in 1919.
St. Peters is richly decorated with Gothic embellishments, such as gargoyles, pinnacles, bosses and columns made from Newry granite. The principal entrance is in the front, which consists of double doors, deeply and richly recessed with Newry granite columns and moulded jambs, while the tympanum is elaborately carved, and has a statue of St. Peter in the centre, the whole surmounted with a crocketted gable and paneling.
St Peter, Boughton Monchelsea, is one of a series of parish churches built on a sandstone ridge overlooking the Kentish Weald. It is one of them which was closed on my last visit to the area, so on Heritage Weekend I returned, and found it open and very friendly.
A volunteer had cleared some of the vegetation in the churchyard, and was making busy with a bonfire, whose smoke lazily crept through the boughs of ancient trees down the slope of the down.
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A church whose interior does not quite deliver all its picturesque exterior promises. The situation on the end of the sandstone ridge with far-ranging views is wonderful - and the lychgate is one of the oldest in the county, probably dating from the fifteenth century. Inside the results of a serious fire in 1832 and subsequent rebuildings are all too obvious. The plaster has been stripped from the walls and the rubble stonework disastrously repointed, whilst the poor quality mid-nineteenth-century glass installed by Hardman's studio is not typical of the usual high quality of that firm's output. However, the stone and alabaster reredos is just the right scale for the chancel, and compliments the medieval aumbry, piscina and sedilia. There is also a good range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century memorials including a large piece at the west end by Scheemakers to commemorate Sir Christopher Powell (d. 1742).
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Boughton+Monchelsea
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BOUGHTON MONCHENSIE
LIES the next parish northward from Hedcorne. It is written in Domesday, Boltone; in later records, Bocton, and sometimes West Bocton; and now usually Boughton. It has the addition of Monchensie, (commonly pronounced Monchelsea) to it from the family of that name, antiently possessors of it, and to distinguish it from the other parishes of the same name within this county; and it is sometimes called, in the neighbourhood of it, Boughton Quarry, from the large quarries of stone within it.
THIS PARISH lies upon the lower or southern ridge, commonly called the Quarry hills, which cross it, the summit of them being the northern boundary of the Weald, so much therefore of this parish as is below it is within that district. The church stands about half way down of the hill southward, and close to the churchyard is the antient mansion of Boughton-place, pleasantly situated, having an extensive prospect southward over the Weald, in a park well wooded and watered; from hence the parish extends into the Weald, towards that branch of the Medway which flows from Hedcorne towards Style-bridge and Yalding, over a low deep country, where the soil is a stiff clay like that of Hedcorne before-described. Northward from Boughtonplace, above the hill, the parish extends over Cocksheath, part of which is within its bounds, on the further side of it is a hamlet called Boughton-green, and beyond it the seat of Boughton-mount, the grounds of which are watered by the stream, which rises near Langley park, and having lost itself under ground, rises again in the quarries here, and flowing on through Lose, to which this parish joins here, joins the Medway a little above Maidstone. These large and noted quarries, usually known by the name of Boughton quarries, are of the Kentish rag-stone, of which the soil of all this part of the parish, as far as the hills above-mentioned consists, being covered over with a fertile loam, of no great depth. At the end of Cocksheath eastward is the hamlet of Cock-street, usually called, from a public-house in it, Boughton Cock, when the soil becomes a red earth, much mixed with rotten flints; a little to the southward of which, at the edge of the heath is the parsonage, with some coppice wood adjoining, and on the brow of the hill, at the eastern bounds of the parish, the seat of Wiarton, having an extensive prospect over the Weald.
THIS PARISH was part of those possessions given by William the Conqueror, on his accession to the crown of England, to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux, whom he likewise made earl of Kent, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the survey of Domesday, taken about the year 1080:
Hugh, grandson of Herbert, holds of the bishop of Baieux Boltone. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is two carucates. In demesne there is nothing. But five villeins have five carucates there, and two acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty hogs. There is a church. In the time of king Edward the Consessor, and afterwards, it was worth eight pounds, now six pounds. Alunin held it of earl Goduine.
Four years after the taking the above-mentioned survey, the bishop of Baieux was disgraced, and all his possessions were consiscated to the crown.
After which, this manor came into the possession of the family of Montchensie, called in Latin records, De Monte Canisio, the principal seat of which was at Swanscombe, in this county. (fn. 1) William, son of William de Montchensie, who died anno 6 king John, was possessed of this manor, and it appears that he survived his father but a few years, for Warine de Montchensie, probably his uncle, succeeded to his whole inheritance in the 15th year of that reign. Soon after which this manor passed into the possession of the family of Hougham, of Hougham, in this county.
OUGHTON MONCHENSIE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sutton.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small building, having a handsome square tower at the west end.
This church was given to the priory of Leeds, soon after the foundation of it by Henry de Bocton, and was afterwards appropriated to it, with the licence of the archbishop, before the reign of king Richard II. at which time the parsonage of it was valued at ten pounds, and the vicarage of it at four pounds yearly income, (fn. 4) both which remained part of the possessions of the priory till the dissolution of it in the reign of king Henry VIII. when it came, with the rest of the possessions of that house, into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter in his 33d year, settled both the parsonage and advowson of the church of Bocton on his new-erected dean and chapter of Rochester, part of whose possessions they now remain.
The lessee of the parsonage is Mrs. Eliz. Smith; but the presentation to the vicarage, the dean and chapter reserve to themselves.
¶On the abolition of deans and chapters, after the death of king Charles I. this parsonage was surveyed by order of the state in 1649, when it was returned, that it consisted of the scite, which, with the tithes, was worth 56l. 3s. 4d. that the glebe land of twenty-nine acres and two roods was worth 8l. 16s. 8d. per annum, both improved rents; which premises were let anno 14 Charles I. to Sir Edward Hales, knight and baronet, by the dean and chapter, for twenty one years, at the yearly rent of 13l. 10s. The lessee to repair the chancel of the parish church, and the advowson was excepted by the dean and chapter out of the lease.
The vicarage is valued in the king's books at 7l. 13s. 4d. and the yearly tenths at 15s. 4d. per annum. In 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds per annum. Communicants, 177. In 1649 it was surveyed, with the parsonage, by order of the state, and valued at thirty pounds per annum, clear yearly income. (fn. 5)
The vicar of this church in 1584, but his name I have not found, was deprived for non-conformity; though he was so acceptable to the parishioners, that they, to the number of fifty-seven, made a petition to the lord treasurer, to restore their minister to them.
St Mary and St Peter has a rather curious aspect, with the tower at the west end of the south aisle as at Westhall. It is so for similar reasons; a large new nave was built to the north of the old on in the 14th century. In the 15th century, a fine porch was added to what was now the south aisle, and somehow a shield with the instruments of passion on it has survived in the spandrels. When the chancel was rebuilt in the 1890s, the south aisle was lengthened to create a reading room, intended for the education of children and their accomodation during services. It is still used for those purposes.
Stepping through the south aisle into the west end of the nave, I entered a memorably lovely open space, cleared of all clutter. Stone flags on the floor, and glorious light flooding in through the massive west window gave it an organic, prayerful feeling. The great font sits on the stone flagged floor; it is of typical Suffolk design, but of quite different proportions, as though a giant hand had squashed it. on the south side stands the statue of Samuel Clouting, an inscription detailing his charitable donations.
There were two important 19th Century restorations here, both in their own way unusual for rural East Anglia. The first was in the 1870s by Norman Shaw, that architect and artist much beloved of Betjeman. Shaw was a great influence on the burgeoning Arts and Crafts Movement, and it was during the full flowering of that movement in the 1890s that a second major restoration would be carried out by Shaw's pupil ES Prior, designer of the lychgate.
Standing at the west end is one of the fruits of the first restoration. This is Shaw's reredos, which sits below the vast window. It is extraordinary to think it comes from such an early date. It was installed behind the altar, but it cut off much of the east window. Prior shifted it to the side of the chancel, and then in the 20th Century it was moved to its current position. The crucifixion is flanked by Old and New Testament scenes around the theme of trees - the Tree of Knowledge depicts Adam and Eve, the Tree of Life has Christ and St Paul. Scenes below depict Biblical scenes including the Visitation and a tender Presentation in the Temple.
It is a taste of things to come. Turning east, the view is of a clean, wide and ornate open space, the result of Prior's restoaration of twenty years later. The benches are jolly garden furniture, and they face an exquisite screen of wrought iron and brass, reminiscent of the parclose screens at near-contemporary Lowestoft Our Lady Star of the Sea. The screen is surmounted by Prior's jewel-like rood group; bronze figures shocked into relief by their wrought iron settings, angels that mount either side of a firmament of stars, dizzy in the space.
The great pulpit is 17th century, and was famous enough to serve as a model for the one at Aldeburgh. At the east end of the south aisle sits its upturned tester, now a table surrounded by chairs. On the window sill behind stands a quaint Victorian reminder that there is a time to speak, and a time to keep silent.
The late 19th Century glass is good. Moses and St John on the north side of the nave are by Ford Madox Brown, and were installed as part of Shaw's restoration. Madox Brown would later work for William Morris & Co, but the company was here in the 1870s as well for the figures now reset in the north chancel window of the Blessed Virgin (Edward Burne-Jones) and St Peter (William Morris).
The patterned glass which successfully lights the west end of the nave and aisle was made by Powell & Son for the second restoration, although it must be said that the other windows by Burlison & Grylls (nave and chancel) and Heaton, Butler & Bayne (east window) are nowhere near as interesting. Perhaps it is just that they are not as unusual. Best of all, perhaps, is the clear light from the vast west window.
The curious dedication of this lovely church is, obviously enough, a modern invention, as at Barham and Stowmarket. It's not clear to me exactly why - these things usually happen when a nearby church is lost and the two parishes combined, the one dedication subsumed into the other. I had previously thought that the St Peter part of the dedication came from the church at neighbouring Carlton, the two now forming the joint parish of Kelsale-cum-Carlton, but Cautley found the joint dedication already in use in the 1930s, and in any case Carlton church appears to be still (just) in business. Perhaps it comes from the lost church at Buxlow, a few miles to the east. The medieval dedication of the church was probably to the Assumption.
Simon Knott, November 2012
A short drive from Leybourne is Ditton.
St Peter sits at the edge of the village green, with a school, Parish Office and historical centre (in the old schoolhouse) on the other side of the main road.
This was the day of the seven locked churches, although this was just the second visit of the day.
On a dull and cloudy day, not the most inviting building, the west door was open, but a "church closed" sign hung down. I thought of knocking, but didn't.
An array of spring flowers was sprouting in the churchyard. I take the rest of my shots and walk back to the car.
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In a picturesque position to the west of a large green, this is a tiny two-cell church of twelfth-century date with a fourteenth-century tower. There is much use of tufa in the quoins and some very clear herringbone masonry on the south side. The church was restored in 1859 by Sir George Gilbert Scott which has given the building a distinctive 'cleaned out' feeling inside. The north nave window has fragments of fourteenth-century glass, including two very stilted angels swinging censers. The nave has a good selection of hanging wall monuments and a very elegant benefactions board. An unusual sight is the lead plaque on the nave wall that was removed from the tower roof in 1859. It has a picture of a ship of Nelson's time scratched on it - a very crude representation at that - and is probably not by a seaman returned home as local legend asserts. The good east window of 1910 is by C.E. Kempe and Co. Ltd.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Ditton
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Ditton
WESTWARD from Allington lies the parish of Ditton, called in antient records, Dictune. It takes its name from the Saxon words dic and tune, which signify the village situated on the dike, or trench of water.
THE SITUATION and soil of this parish is much the same as that of Allington, last described. The high road from London, through Wrotham, to Maidstone, crosses the middle of it, at the thirty-first mile stone; the village stands on it, and the church about a quarter of a mile further southward, on an ascent, beyond which, the parish reaches into the large tract of coppice woods, which extends as far as Teston and Barming. The stream, from Bradborne park runs through this parish and village, across the above road, and having turned two mills, one above and the other below it, runs on to the river Medway, which is the northern boundary of this parish, near the north-west extremity of which, on the road leading from Larkfield to Newhith, and not far distant from that hamlet and the river, is Borough court. This parish is rather an obscure place, and has nothing further worthy of notice in it.
This parish, among others, was antiently bound to contribute to the repair of the fifth pier of Rochester bridge.
IN THE WOODS, at the southern part of this parish, are many trees of the mountain ash, with berries, called in Gerarde, Sorbus silvestris, five fraxinus bubula, the quicken tree, wild ash, or service tree; (fn. 1) and by Miller, Sorbus aucuparea, the wild service, or quicken tree.
THIS PLACE, at the time of the taking of the survey of Domesday, in the reign of the Conqueror, was part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux and earl of Kent, the king's half brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus described in it.
Haimo the sheriff holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Dictune. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is four carucates. In demesne there are two, and 20 villeins, with five borderers, having three carucates. There is a church and 6 servants, and one mill of 10 shillings, and eight acres of meadow, and 35 acres of pasture. Wood for the pannage of six hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth 8 pounds, when he received it 100 shillings, now 8 pounds. Sbern held it of king Edward.
There was at the above time in this parish likewise another estate, called SIFLETONE, part of the possessions also of the bishop of Baieux, which is thus entered in the same book, immediately after that above described.
Vitalis holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Sifletone. It was taxed at three yokes. The arable land is one carucate. In demesne there is one caracate and an half, and six villeins, with one borderer, having half a carucate. There are six servants, and one mill of 10s. There are ten acres of meadow, and thirty acres of pasture. In the time of the Confessor it was worth 40 shillings, when he received it four pounds, now 100 shillings. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, two men, Leuuin and Uluuin, held this land in coparcenary, and could turn themselves over with this land to whomever they would.
The estate first described appears to have been what has since been known by the name of the MANOR of DITTON, with the appendant MANOR of BRAMPTON.
On the disgrace of the bishop of Baieux, Ditton became confiscated to the crown; after which it appears to have been held of the Clares, earls of Gloucester, by a family who assumed their surname from it.
In the reign of king Edward I. William de Ditton held the manor of Ditton of the earl of Gloucester, at which time the manor of Brampton, once part of it, was held by William de Brampton of the above Wm. de Ditton, and by him of the earl of Gloucester. (fn. 2) In the beginning of the next reign of king Edward II. Ralph de Ditton and Joan de Lewkenore were owners of these manors; after which they both passed into the name of Aldon, and Thomas de Aldon, in the 20th of king Edward III. paid aid for both of them, held in manner as above mentioned.
THE MANOR OF SIFLETONE came to the crown likewise on the disgrace of the bishop of Baieux, and was afterwards held by a family who took their name from it. In the reign of king Henry III. and beginning of that of king Edward I. William de Sifleston held it of Wm. Ditton above mentioned, as he again did of the earl of Gloucester; from which name it passed into that of Burghersh, and Robert de Burghersh, constable of Dover-castle, warden of the five ports, and a baron of this realm, died possessed of this manor, in the 34th year of king Edward I. anno 1305, (fn. 3) whose son and heir, Stephen, in the 1st year of Edward II. obtained a charter of free warren for all his demesne lands within it. He was succeeded, in the 3d year of king Edward II. by Bartholomew lord Burghersh, from whom this manor seems to have passed to Tho. de Aldon, who, in the 20th year of king Edward III. was likewise possessed of the manor of Ditton, with that of Brampton, as has been already mentioned. He died in the 35th year of that reign, anno 1360, and these manors came into the family of Paveley, from which they passed to that of Windlesor, or Windsor, in the 1st year of king Richard II. in which name they continued till the 15th year of that reign, when they were conveyed by sale to Sir Lewis Clifford, K.B. descended from the Cliffords, of Clifford castle, in Herefordshire, whose son, Wm. Clifford, of Bobbing, esq. in Kent, sold them in Henry V.'s reign to Sir Wm. Colepeper, whose son, Sir Rich. Colepeper, (fn. 4) of Oxenhoath, sheriff in the 11th year of king Edward IV. died possessed of these manors in the 2d year of king Richard III. and leaving no issue male, his three daughters, Margaret, married to William Cotton, of Oxenhoath; Joyce to Edmund lord Howard; and Elizabeth to Henry Barham, esq. became his coheirs. They, in the next reign of king Henry VII. joined in the sale of these manors to Thomas Leigh, of Sibton, in Liminge, who left a son and heir, John Leigh, alias a Legh, esq. of Addington, in Surry; (fn. 5) and he, in the 35th year of king Henry VIII. exchanged these manors with the king for other lands elsewhere, (fn. 6) who next year granted, among other premises, his lordships or manors of Dytton, Syfflyngton, and Brampton, with all their appurtenances, in Dytton, Syfflyngton, Est Malling, Maidstone, and Brampton, to Sir Thomas Wriothesley, lord Wriothesley, or Wriseley, as the name was usually pronounced, to hold for his life, without any rent or account whatsoever; and the year afterwards he granted to him the fee of these manors and their appurtenances, to hold in capite by knights service, and the next year he had a grant of the tenths reserved by it.
This nobleman was descended from John Wryothesley, commonly called Wrythe, garter king at arms in the reigns of king Edward IV. and king Henry VII. who left issue two sons, Thomas, likewise garter on his father's death; and William, York herald, whose son was Thomas, lord Wriothesley, above mentioned. He had been, in the 35th year of that reign, created a baron, by the title of lord Wriothesley, of Titchfield, in the county of Southampton, and next year made lord chancellor, in the room of lord Audley, deceased, and a privy counsellor, and shortly afterwards knight of the Garter; (fn. 7) and anno 1 Edward VI. being three days before the coronation, he was created earl of Southamp ton, bearing for his arms, Azure, a plain cross or, between four falcons closed, argent. Soon after which, that same year, he alienated these manors, with their appurtenances, to Sir Robert Southwell, of Mereworth, who in the 1st and 2d year of king Philip and queen Mary, conveyed them to Sir Tho. Pope, in which name they remained till the next reign of queen Elizabeth, when they were alienated to Wiseman; and in the 24th year of it, these manors were the joint property of William, George, and Philip, and John Wiseman, brothers, as I conjecture, which Philip, having purchased the shares of the others, appears the next year, to have been in the possession of the whole see of them. (fn. 8)
From the name of Wiseman these manors were conveyed, in the reign of king James I. to Sir Oliver Boteler, of Teston, knight, in this county, who died possessed of them in 1632. His eldest son, Sir John Boteler, of Teston, died without issue, upon which his next brother, Sir William Boteler, became his heir, and was created a baronet in 1640. His great grand son, Sir Philip Boteler, bart. of Teston, died in 1772, without surviving issue, (fn. 9) and by will gave one moiety of his estates to Mrs. Elizabeth Bouverie, of Chart Sutton, and the other moiety to Elizabeth, viscountess dowager of Folkestone, and William Bouverie, earl of Radnor, since deceased; and on a partition of these estates, the manor of Ditton, with Brampton and Sysleston, or Sifflington, as it is now called, and the appurtenances belonging to them, was allotted to the Rt. Hon. lady dowager Folkestone, who died in 1782, and was succeeded by her only son, the Hon. Philip Bouverie, the present possessor of them, who has since taken the name of Pusey, and is the present owner of this estate.
BOROUGH COURT, the proper name of which is Brooke-court, is a manor which lies at the northern extremity of this parish, at no great distance from New hith, and the river Medway. It was part of the possions of the eminent family of Colepeper, so early as the reign of Edward III. in the first year of which, Walter Colepeper, esq. was found to die possessed of it; in whose descendants it afterwards continued down to Richard Colepeper, esq. afterwards knighted, who was of Oxenhoath, in this county; and died possessed of this manor in the 2d year of king Richard III. anno 1484, leaving his three daughters his coheirs; Margaret, married to William Cotton, of Oxenhoath; Joice to Edmund lord Howard; and Elizabeth to Henry Barham, of Teston.
After which it was alienated to Francis Shakerly, of Lancashire, the second son of Peter Shakerly, of Shakerly, in that county, who bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron, vert between three tufts, or mounts of grass of the second; who upon this removed into Kent, and resided at Brooke-court. He had six sons, of whom Richard, the eldest, was his heir; Thomas, the second son, was of Wrotham; the third son was of Otham; and by Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Darel, of Scotney, left a son Francis, who was elected fellow of All Souls college, in 1620.
Rich. Shakerley, esq. the eldest son, was of Brookecourt, and had issue a son John, born about the year 1600; and a daughter Mary, who was married to Mr. Peter Bewley, descended from those of Bewley court, in Woldham; and she, on her brother's death, without issue, entitled her husband to this manor. They had two daughters, Elizabeth, who died unmarried, in 1638; and Mary, who became her father's heir, and carried this manor in marriage to Mr. Basse, of Suffolk, who, in the beginning of the reign of king Charles II. alienated it to Sir Thomas Twisden, one of the judges of the court of King's bench.
He was second son of Sir William Twysden, bart. of East Peckham, by Anne his second wife, daughter of the first countess of Winchelsea, and was created a baronet in 1666. He afterwards seated himself at Bradborne, in the adjoining parish of East Malling; and in his descendants it has continued down to Sir John Papillon Twisden, bart. of Bradborne, the present owner of it.
There is a court baron held for this manor.
DITTON-PLACE is a mansion in this parish, which was, in the beginning of king James I.'s reign, the residence of the family of Brewer, many of whom lie buried in this church, and it continued with them till the beginning of this century, when, by mortgage or purchase, it came into the possession of Thomas Golding, esq. of Leyborne, sheriff in 1703, who gave it by will to his nephew, Mr. Thomas Golding, of Ryarsh, who sold it to John Brewer, esq. counsellor at law, whose neice, Mrs. Carney, of West Farleigh, about 1735, reconveyed it back again to Mr. Tho. Golding, whose son, Mr. John Golding, is now in the possession of it.
CHARITIES.
THOMAS GOLDING, gent. by will in 1704, gave a rent charge of 10s. to be paid yearly out of a house vested in admiral Forbes, in St. Leonard's-street, in Town Malling, to be distributed to the poor on Easter and Christmas days, and now of that annual product.
THE REV. THOMAS TILSON, by will in 1750, gave 100l. in money; the yearly produce to be distributed annually on the feasts of All Saints and the Purification, in wood and wheat to the poor, vested in Sir John Twisden, and of the annual produce of 3l.
DITTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small building, with a square tower at the west end.
The church of Ditton was given, in the reign of king Henry II. by William, whose surname is not mentioned, though it appears that he was lord of this parish, in free and perpetual alms, to the canons of the priory of Ledes, which was confirmed by Hamo his son, likewise lord of Ditton, and by Gualeran, at that time bishop of Rochester.
¶Gilbert de Glanvill, the successor of bishop Gualeran, further granted to the prior and canons, the par sonage of this church, in perpetual alms, and assigned to them, in the name of the parsonage, one bezant. In Latin bezantus. This was a piece of money coined by the western emperors at Constantinople, or Byzantium; of this there were two sorts, gold and silver, both which passed in England; the latter was worth two shillings, of which kind was that above-mentioned. It was to be received yearly from this church for ever, by the hand of the vicar of it, to be presented by them, and instituted by the bishop. Bishop Richard de Wendover, in the reign of king Henry III. confirmed the same, and granted that the religious should possess the parsonage and two shillings per annum, as a pension to be paid by the vicar, who being by them presented to the bishop, should possess the residue of this church, in the name of the vicarage of it. (fn. 10) By which it appears that this church was a vicarage endowed with the parsonage of it, held of the religious, by the yearly pension of two shillings, how it came since to be esteemed a rectory I know not.
It is valued in the king's books at 11l. 15s. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 3s. 6d.
The patronage of this rectory, (for such it seems to have been accounted at the dissolution of the priory of Leeds, in the reign of king Henry VIII.) was, together with the pension of two shillings, and the rest of the possessions of that house surrendered into the king's hands, and became part of the possessions of the crown.
In the reign of king James I. Richard Shakerley, esq. was patron of this church. The present patron is the right hon. Heneage, earl of Aylesford, in whose family it has been some time.
The pension of two shillings yearly, payable to the priory of Leeds, as above-mentioned, was settled by king Henry VIII. in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, on his new-sounded dean and chapter of Rochester, who now enjoy it.
By J Walker Todd (of Dick Peddie and Todd), 1927-8. Diminutive Byzantine church set back from line of High Street between buildings, square-plan with semi-circular apse to S, Greek Cross plan to interior with single stage tower over crossing.
Interior: broad piers to corners with pierced arches supporting central dome, arches ringed with tiles in section. Pilastered walls with stugged ashlar to base; plaque to W wall. Steps up to apsidal sanctuary.
Stained glass: tripartite with Christ to centre flanked by St Margaret and St Mildred; nook shafts dividing and flanking.
The church was required to slot into a space measuring just 26 feet in width. The church's unusual Byzantine design was chosen in part because it would alleviate the problem of allowing sufficient light into such a narrow space with taller buildings on either side. The founding stone was laid by Colonel MacLaren of the Craigs on 18 May 1927, and the church was completed almost exactly a year later. Despite the fact that the congregation had always been named St. Peter's, Bishop Walpole dedicated it to St. Mildred, with whom his late wife had shared a name. The name reverted to St. Peter's in 1978.
This just shows the building from an aerial front view. You can see all the subtle angles needed to capture this marvelous building.
It is the weekend. Again.
And with Jools suffering a relapse in her chesty cough, we slept late and I said I'd go to Tesco first thing, before coffee, and she could get dressed in her own time.
So I grabbed my coat, the shopping bags and shopping list, put them in the car and drove to Tesco. First up was to fill the car with petrol, then drive round to park up, get a trolley and head into the store, grabbing a scanner on the way in.
Apart from the weekly things, I got some stuffing mix and more blocks of butter for Christmas. Meaning that apart from the fruit and veg and milk, we are all abut done here.
Yay us.
Back home for coffee, unload the car and put shopping away, before finally having breakfast 1 of fruit then bacon butties and brews for breakfast 2.
That's better.
The plan for the day was for some local churchcrawling. After some internet research I had the name of the keyholder at Bekesbourne, I called but was told she was out but would be back "soon". OK, in which case we would visit some other nearby churches and go there last.
Not far to Barham from Chez Jelltex, just along the A2, overtaking lorries and slow cars until we turned off at Wootton, down past the filling station and into Barham, stopping on the road beside the church.
Barham is always open, I thought, no worries here. As I got out all my camera gear and lugged it over the road and through the churchyard.
Round on the north side, we arrive at the porch and I find the door is locked after all. No news of a keyholder, but next week there is a coffee morning. If we feel OK after our COVID booster, we might go along.
Its a short drive along the Elham Valley to Bridge. And yes there is really a place called Bridge, and it does have a bridge. A bridge in Bridge, which takes the old Watling Street and high road over the bed of the Nailbourne.
Bridge never lets us down. And indeed it was open, door ajar, and soon a warden came and put all the lights on so snapping was easier. I'd not missed much on previous visits, but with a new-ish lens, it was always worth in redoing shots. I did have the big lens with me, great for details of carvings and in stained glass windows, which I photograph enthusiastically.
From Bridge, its a five minute drive to Patrixbourne.
I wanted to come back here to take close up details of the Tympanum and rose window from the outside, so it wasn't too much of a loss that the door was locked after all.
So, I set about getting my shots and rattle off a couple of hundred.
Back to the car, and next village along is Bekesbourne, where I had called earlier. The keyholder lives in a "large while building opposite the church", the website said. Yes, it's a palace.
An actual palace.
So, there was scruffy me shambling up the large door, ringing the bell and asking if the church keyholder was in.
She wasn't.
And her husband wasn't too keen on letting me have it.
Now I know how to get it, there'll be plenty of other times.
I leave, but on the way back to the main road, a large Audi passes us, and pretty much the only place she could be going was the palace: should we go back?
No, there'll be other times.
We head home, back along the A2, but calling in at Jen's to do some admin. That done it was back home, all back by one, and ready for some more World Cup action from the sofa.
Lunch was pizza and beer, done in ten minutes and easy as anything, so the main task of the day was to fight my heavy eyelids that threatened to send me to sleep.
Argentina beat Mexico in a bad tempered game, then France beat Denmark 2-1, by which time it was nine and time for bed.
Phew.
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LOCATION: Situated on Upper Chalk (just above the Nailbourne floodplain) at about 90 feet above O.D. with the main Roman road to Dover immediately to the north-east. Bridge Place is about a ¼ mile to the south-west, and its mother-church of Patrixbourne is about ¾ miles to the north-east. Canterbury is just under 3 miles to the north-west.
DESCRIPTION: Unfortunately the church was disastrously over-restored in 1859 by Scott (John Newman, B.O.E. (N.E. and Kent 3rd ed. 1983), 159, says it was 'done with grotesque insensitivity'). However, with the help of Glynne's description (of 1846), and various early 19th century views, as well as the few surviving medieval features, it is possible to work out something of the architectural history. Externally it has been completely refaced with heavy knapped flint, and Bathstone dressings, but the core of all the main walls, except the Vestry on the north-east and the tower stair-turret must be medieval. The west end of the north aisle also appears to have been extended westwards in 1859.
There had been an earlier small-scale repewing in 1836, followed by a restoration by Scott in 1857. The complete rebuilding took place in 1859-60, with most of the money coming from Mrs Gregory of Bridge Hill.
From the surviving remains, there is no doubt that the nave, chancel, south aisle and tower-base all date from the 12th century. It is also possible that the nave itself dates from the late 11th century, but there is no visible evidence for this. The west doorway to the nave is of a mid- to later 12th century date, and unlike virtually everything else on the outside of the church was not totally renewed in 1859. There is a decorated round-headed archway with water-leaf capitals, and much original Caenstone survives. The internal north jamb to the doorway is also mostly of original diagonally-tooled Caenstone blocks. On the north-east side of the chancel is a round-headed (c. mid-12th century) window, which was unblocked in 1859. Glynne in 1846 refers to two 'closed' windows on the north side of the chancel, and 'on the south a fine doorway and two windows, now closed; the former has fine chevron mouldings'. This doorway was reset on the east side of the north-east vestry in 1859, but its fine chevroned arch, over scalloped capitals, is still visible as an entrance to the vestry lobby. The south aisle and south-west tower seem to have been added in the later 12th century. The arcade had already gone by 1846, but part of a respond (with nook-shafts) still survives at the extreme east end. Just beyond this, in the east wall, a fragment of the north jamb of a 12th century window survives. This south aisle had a low southwall until 1859, and its steep-pitched roof continued the line of the main nave roof. The tower at the west end of this aisle has 1859 round-headed arches, on the north and east in a 'decorated Romanesque' style (? designed by Scott). Glynne tells us that originally they were 'very rude semicircular arches'. The south and east windows into the ground floor of the tower may be based on earlier 12th century ones.
During the earlier 13th century, a north transept chapel and north aisle were added. Glynne tells us that 'the north aisle is very low and narrow, divided from the nave by three rude pointed arches with large wall piers having no capitals or impost mouldings'. The pointed arches survive, though a fourth has been added on the west, as well as three extraordinary double piers. The eastern respond is mostly original, however, with bar-stopped chamfers. Another original arch (with bar-stopped chamfers) divides the north aisle from the north-east transept chapel. Glynne also says that there was a lancet at the west end of this aisle. The north-east chapel still has a pair of original lancets on the north (restored externally), and earlier there was apparently a hagioscope from this chapel into the chancel. The upper stage of the tower may be 13th century.
The one later medieval feature that survives is the 3-light early perpendicular window in the west wall of the nave. This too still contains quite a lot of original masonry, and may date from the late 14th century. The 2-light east window, now rebuilt, was probably early 14th century ('poor Middle Pointed' according to Glynne). The early 19th century views show a pair of two-light late perpendicular windows with square hoods on the south side of the chancel.
The chancel still contains some early 16th century fittings, and a roodloft was documented as being made in 1522 (see below). On the north side of the sanctuary are two low rectangular niches which contain the two halves of the effigy for Macobus Kasey (ob. 1512). Above and just to the west of this is some relief sculpture (also ? early 16th century) in a tympanum panel. Was this set originally inside a 12th century doorway? Above this is an early 17th century painting of Robert Bargrave (ob. 1649). On the chancel south wall (at the west end) are fragments of a relief memorial to a vicar, Malcolm Ramsey (ob. 1538). He was vicar of Patrixbourne and Bridge for 44 years. These include part of an inscription.
The tower appears to have been given brick south-east and south-west buttresses in the 17th or 18th century. These were removed in 1859 when a south-east stair-turret was added to the tower. This was apparently restored in 1891.
BUILDING MATERIALS: (Incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.): Virtually the whole of the church has Bathstone dressings, with heavy knapped flint on the exterior. Some 12th century and later Caenstone does, however, survive.
EXCEPTIONAL MONUMENTS IN CHURCH: - see above
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size, Shape: Large Rectangular area around with church, but with the north-east side cut off by the main (Roman) road to Dover (Bridge Hill). Large new extension to the south - ? Late 19th century.
Condition: Good
Apparent extent of burial: Burial in churchyard from at least 1474.
Boundary walls: To road on north-east, with gateway with brick piers and iron arch.
Ecological potential: ? Yes - many fastigiate yews (and other trees) in southern part of churchyard.
HISTORICAL RECORD (where known):
Earliest ref. to church: 13th century.
Late med. status: Vicarage (with Patrixbourne).
Patron: Goes with Patrixbourne church to which it was a chapel. After the Reformation, the patron was the owner of nearby Bifrons.
Other documentary sources: Hasted IX (1800), 289-290. Test. Cant. (E. Kent, 1907), 35-6 mentions the Holy Cross (Rood) light, as well as lights of Our Lady, St. Nicholas, St. Erasmus, the Trinity, St. Loye, St. Trunion, as well as St. Peter (? in the chancel). The Eastern Sepulchre mentioned in 1535, and 'the painting of the High Cross in the Roodloft in 1504 - also 'to the making of the Roodloft, 1522'.
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS:
Inside present church: ? Good, except under east end of south aisle, where there is a sunken boiler house.
Outside present church: Good, but perhaps disturbed by the 1859 refacing and rebuilding.
Quinquennial inspection (date\architect): MAY 1993 A. CLAGUE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: A 12th century nave, chancel, south aisle and south-west tower base, with an added earlier 13th century north aisle and north-east transept chapel, which was very heavily restored and refaced externally in 1859-60.
The wider context: One of a group of medieval parish churches, which was technically only a chapel-of-ease (to Patrixbourne, in this case).
REFERENCES: For the vicars, see W.A. Scott Roberton 'Patricksbourne church, and Bifrons' Arch. Cant. 14 (1882), 169-184. (A list of vicars, by T.S. Frampton (1900) is on the S.W. side of the nave). S.R. Glynne Churches of Kent (1877), 131-2 (he visited in 1846).
Plans and early drawings: Petrie view from S.W. in 1807, and views from S.W. and S. in 1828 in Victoria and Albert Museum. Also view of church from S.W. in oil (? early 19th cent.) and Watercolour of church from S.E. (June 1869) in the vestry and plan of graveyard (new part) in 1942 (also in vestry).
DATE VISITED: 21st February 1994 REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown
www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/BRI.htm
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BRIDGE
LIES the next adjoining parish to Patrixborne southward, being written in old deeds, Bregge, and taking its name from the bridge, which was antiently over the stream which crosses it. This parish was in early times so considerable, as to give name both to the hundred and deanry in which it is situated.
IT IS SITUATED about two miles and an half eastward of Canterbury, on the high Dover road, formerly the Roman Watling-street way, which appears high and entire almost throughout it; in the valley on this road stands the village of Bridge, with the church and vicarage in it, a low moist situation, the bourn or stream of the Little Stour crossing it under a stone bridge, built a few years ago by the contributions of the neighbouring gentlemen. At a small distance southward is Bridge place, now inhabited by lady Yates, widow of the late judge Yates, and of Dr. Thomas, late bishop of Rochester. The hills, form which there is a most pleasing prospect, are wholly chalk, as are in general the other upland parts of it, towards the south especially, where the country is very barren, with heathy ground and woodland, and much covered with stones. In this part of the parish is Gosley wood, once belonging to St. Augustine's monastery, afterwards granted to Thomas Colepeper, esq. It belongs now to Mr. Beckingham.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, claims over the greatest part of it, and the manor of Patrixborne over that part of this parish on the north side of the Dover road. There are two boroughs in it, viz. of Blackmansbury and of Bridge.
The MANOR OF BLACKMANSBURY, alias BRIDGE, was parcel of the possessions of the abbey of St. Augustine, belonging to the sacristie, as appears by the registers of it, in which frequent mention is made of this manor, with the free tenants belonging to it, in Honpit, Rede, and Blackmansbury. In which state this manor continued till the suppression of the abbey in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, (fn. 1) where it remained till the 36th year of that reign, when this manor, with divers lands in Houndpit and Blackmanbury, was granted to Henry Laurence, to hold in capite by knight's service, and he that year held a court here; and in his descendants it continued till the 18th of queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was alienated by fine levied, by John Laurence, to William Partherich, esq. whose arms were, Vaire, argent and sable, on a chief of the second, three roses of the first. His grandson Sir Edward Partherich, of this place, passed it away in 1638 to Sir Arnold Braems, descended of a family originally out of Flanders, where his ancestors were opulent merchants. Jacob Braems, his ancestor, was of Dover, merchant, and built the great house now the Custom house there, where he resided. Sir Arnold Braems above-mentioned, bore for his arms, Sable, on a chief, argent, a demi lion Tampant, gules. He built a spacious and magnificent mansion on the scite of the antient court-lodge here, which he named BRIDGE-PLACE, in which he afterwards resided, as did his son Walter Braems, esq. till his death in 1692; but the great cost of building this seat so impoverished the estate, that his heirs, about the year 1704, were obliged to part with it, which they did by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, who soon afterwards pulled down the greatest part of this mansion, leaving only one wing of it standing, the size and stateliness of which being of itself full sufficient for a gentleman's residence, cannot but give an idea of the grandeur of the whole building when entire. He died in 1729, since which this manor and seat has continued in his descendants, in like manner as Bisrons abovedescribed, down to his great-grandson Edward Taylor, esq. the present possessor of them. There is not any court held for this manor.
BEREACRE, now called Greatand Little Barakers is another manor in this parish, which in the 21st year of king Edward I. was in the possession of Walter de Kancia, as appears by an inquisition taken that year, at his decease; not long after which it has passed into a family of its own name. After this name was become extinct here, it came into the possession of the Litchfields, who owned much land about Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Betshanger, and in this name it continued till the 22d year of Edward IV. and then Roger Litchfield passed it away to Richard Haut, whose only daughter and heir Margery carried it in marriage to William Isaac, esq. of Patrixborne, from whose descendant Edward Isaac, about the latter end of king Henry VIII. it was sold to Petyt and Weekes, who joined in the sale of it to Naylor, of Renville, from which name it was alienated to Smith and Watkins; after which it was conveyed by sale to John Taylor, esq. of Bisrons, in whose descendants it has continued down to Edward Taylor, esq. the present owner of it.
Charities.
SIR HENRY PALMER, of Bekesborne, by will in 1611, gave 10s. to be yearly paid out of his manor of Well-court, towards the relief of the poor of it.
The poor constantly relieved are about eighteen, casually the same.
BRIDGE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of its own name.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of three isles, a high chancel, and a north sept or chancel in the middle of the north isle. It has a spire steeple at the south-east corner, in which are three bells. In the high chancel, within the altar-rails, is a monument for Jane, second daughter of Walter Harslete, of Bekesborne, first wife of Sir Arnold Braems, ob 1635, and lies buried in St. Mary's church, in Dover; and for Elizabeth, (second daughter of Sir Dudley Diggs) his second wife, obt. 1645, and lies in the middle of this chancel. Against the north wall is a painted portrait of Robert Bargrave, gent. of Bridge, obt. 1649. Under a circular arch in the same wall are two rows of small imagery, carved in stone, the uppermost repre santing God the Father, with several figures on each side; the lower one, figures taken from the history of the Old Testament. Underneath these, in the hollow of the wall, is the figure of a man lying at full length, in robes, with his two hands joined and uplifted, having on his head seemingly a full perriwig. A memorial for John Hardy, esq. of Bridge-place, obt. 1779. On the east side of the south window is a hollow in the wall, and under it an inscription for Macobus Kasey, vicar of Patrixborne, obt. m.v.c.i.xii. and of his being vicar there xxi years. On the opposite side of the window is carved the figure of a scull, with a snake entering in at one eye, and the end of it out at the other, and a hand with a finger pointing up to it, as if it had been the cause of the person's death, and several bones are interspersed about it. The north chancel is made use of for a school, by voluntary contributions. On the south side of the chancel is a circular arched door-way, with Saxon ornaments. In the register are many entries, from the year 1580 to 1660, of the family of Bargrave, alias Bargar, residents in this parish, and one for Thomas, son of John Cheney, gent. who died in 1620.
The church of Bridge, which is a vicarage, was always esteemed as a chapel to the church of Patrixborne, and as such is included in the valuation of that vicarage in the king's books, the vicar of which is instituted and inducted into that vicarage, with the chapel of Bridge annexed to it. (fn. 2)
The parsonage of this parish therefore, as an appendage to that of Patrixborne, is the property of Edward Taylor, esq. of Bifrons. In 1588 here were eightynine communicants, in 1640 one hundred and twenty.