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Those of you who pay attention might remember me saying a few weeks ago that St Peter is one of the nearest churches to our house, in fact we can see it from our front garden, and yet I have never been inside.
And so a few weeks ago I decided to make a concerted effort to try to get in and to photograph it.
I spoke with a neighbour about this, as he is a warden at St Margaret's of Antioch, and remarked that a lady living nearby who regularly walked her dogs along our street was a warden at St Peter. This left me the simple task of waiting until I next saw her walking the dogs, 'accidently' go and speak to her and raise the subject
Not only could I get the key from her, but I could also get it at another location, that because of thefts they don't like to publicise, so no one knows or could find out. So, saturday afternoon I get the key, let myself in and snap it.
a church well worth waiting to see, but not 5 years I fear....
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WEST CLIFFE
IS so called from its situation westward of the adjoining parish of St. Margaret at Cliffe last described, and to distinguish it from that of Cliff at Hoo, near Rochester.
THIS PARISH lies very high on the hills, and much exposed; it is partly inclosed and partly open, arable and pasture downs; it extends to the high chalk cliffs on the sea shore, and the South Foreland on them, where the light-house stands. The high road from Dover to Deal leads through it. Its greatest extent is from north to south, in the middle of which stands the church, and village adjoining to it. As well as the adjoining parishes it is exceedingly dry and healthy, the soil is mostly chalk, notwithstanding which there is some good and fertile land in it. The height and continuance of the hills, and the depth and spacious width of the valleys, added to a wildness of nature, which is a leading feature throughout this part of the country, contribute altogether to its pleasantness; and the variety of propects, as well over the adjoining country, as the sea, and the coast of France beyond it, are very beautiful.
THE MANOR OF WEST CLIFFE, alias WALLETTSCOURT, was, in the time of the Conqueror, part of those possessions with which he enriched his halfbrother Odo, bishop of Baieux, and earl of Kent, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the survey of Domesday, taken in the 15th year of that reign:
Hugo (de Montfort) holds of the bishop, Westclive. It was taxed at two sulings. The arable land is. . . . . In demesne is one carucate, and seventeen villeins, having two carucates. In the time of king Edward the Con sessor it was worth eight pounds, when he received it six pounds, now eight pounds. Of this manor Hugo de Montfort holds two mills of twenty-eight shilings. Edric held it of king Edward.
Four years afterwards the bishop was disgraced, and all his possessions were confiscated to the crown, upon which this manor was granted to Hamon de Crevequer, a man of much note at that time, who was succeeded in it by the eminent family of Criol, and they continued in the possession of it in the reign of king Henry III. in the 48th year of which, John de Criol, younger son of Bertram, died possessed of it, leaving Bertram his son and heir, and he alienated it to Sir Gilbert Peche. He soon afterwards conveyed it to king Edward I. and Eleanor his queen, for the use of the latter, who died possessed of it in the 19th year of that reign. How long it afterwards continued in the crown I have not found; but in the 20th year of king Edward III. Gawin Corder held it by knight's service of the honor of Perch, viz. of the constabularie of Dover castle.
Sir Gawin Corder possessed this manor only for life, for the next year the king granted the reversion of it to Reginald de Cobham for his services, especially in France, being the son of John de Cobham, of Cobham, by his second wife Joane, daughter of Hugh de Nevill. (fn. 1) His son Reginald was of Sterborough castle, whence all his descendants were called of that place.
Reginald de Cobham, his son, possessed this manor, whose eldest surviving son Sir Thomas Cobham died possessed of this manor held in capite, in the 11th year of king Edward IV. leaving an only daughter and sole heir Anne, who carried it in marriage to Sir Edward Borough, of Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, (fn. 2) the lands of whose grandson Thomas, lord Burgh, were disgavelled by the act passed in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. His son William, lord Burgh, succeeded to it, holding it in capite, and in the 15th year of queen Elizabeth alienated it to Mr. Thomas Gibbon, who resided here; and it should be observed that though the coat of arms assigned to the Gibbons, of Westcliffe, by Sir William Segar, Sable, a lion rampant, guardant, or, between three escallops, argent—bears a strong resemblance to that assigned by him to the Gibbons, of Rolvenden, and is identically the same as those allowed to the Gibbons of Frid, in Bethersden, who were undoubtedly a branch of those of Rolvenden, yet I do not find any affinity between them; but I should rather suppose, these of Westcliffe were descended of the same branch as those of Castleacre abbey, in Norfolk; Matthew, the eldest son of Thomas Gibbon, the purchaser of this manor, rebuilt this seat in 1627, as the date still remaining on it shews. He resided in it, as did his several descendants afterwards down to Tho. Gibbon, gent. (fn. 3) who in 1660 sold it to Streynsham Master, esq. and he alienated it to admiral Matthew Aylmer, afterwards in 1718 created lord Aylmer, of the kingdom of Ireland, whose descendant Henry, lord Aylmer, devised it to his youngest son the Hon. and Rev. John Aylmer, and he alienated it to George Leith, esq. of Deal, who passed it away by sale to the two daughters and coheirs of Mr. Thomas Peck, surgeon, of Deal; they married two brothers, viz. James Methurst Pointer, and Ambrose Lyon Pointer, gentlemen, of London, and they are now, in right of their wives, jointly entitled to this manor.
BERE, or BYER-COURT, as it is sometimes written, situated in the southern part of this parish, was once accounted a manor, and was parcel of the demesnes of a family of the same name; one of whom, William de Bere, was bailiff of Dover in the 2d and 4th years of king Edward I. After this name was extinct here, this manor passed into the name of Brockman, and from thence into that of Toke, a family who seem before this to have been for some time resident in Westcliffe, (fn. 4) and bore for their arms, Parted per chevron, sable and argent, three griffins heads, erased and counterchanged. John Toke, a descendant of the purchaser of this manor in the fourth generation, lived here in the reigns of king Henry V. and VI. as did his eldest son Thomas Toke, esq. who by Joane, daughter of William Goldwell, esq. of Godington, in Great Chart, whose heir-general she at length was, had three sons, Ralph, who succeeded him in the family seat of Bere; Richard, who died s. p. and John, the youngest, who had the seat and estate of Godington, where his descendants remain at this time. Ralph Toke, esq. the eldest son above-mentioned, resided at Bere in king Henry VIII.'s time, in whose descendants this manor continued till the latter end of the last century, when Nicholas Tooke, or Tuck, as the name came then to be spelt, dying possessed of it, his heirs conveyed it afterwards by sale to the trustees of George Rooke, esq. of St. Laurence, who died possessed of this estate, which had long before this lost all the rights of having ever been a manor, in 1739, s. p. leaving it to his widow Mrs. Frances Rooke, (fn. 5) who alienated it to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, who died in 1757, and his only son and heir Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, is the present owner of it. (fn. 6)
SOLTON is an estate in the northern part of this parish, which was once accounted a manor; it was part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, under the general title of whose lands it is entered in the survey of Domesday, as follows:
Hugo (de Montfort) holds Soltone of the bishop. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is . . . . . In demesne there is one carucate, and three villeins, with one borderer, paying four shillings and seven pence. In the time of king Edward the Consessor, it was worth fifteen ponnds, and afterwards and now thirty shillings. In this manor Godric dwelt, and holds twenty acres as his own fee simple.
Four years after the taking of the above survey, the bishop was disgraced, and all his possessions were confiscated to the crown.
Soon after which this manor was granted to Jeffry de Peverel, and together with other lands elsewhere, made up the barony of Peverel, as it was then called, being held of the king in capite by barony, for the defence of Dover castle, to which it owed ward and service. Of the heirs of Jeffery de Peverel, this manor was again held by the family of Cramaville, by knight's service, and it appears by the escheat rolls, that Henry de Cramaville held it in capite at his death, in the 54th year of king Henry III. by yearly rent and ward to the castle of Dover; after which, though part of this estate came into the possession of the Maison Dieu hospital, in Dover, yet the manor and mansion of Solton became the property of the family of Holand, who bore for their arms, Parted per fess, sable and argent, three fleurs de lis, counterchanged. Henry Holand died possessed of this part of it in the 35th year of king Edward I. holding it in capite, as of the honor of Peverel, and it continued in that name till Henry Holand dying anno 10 Richard II. his daughter and heir Jane became possessed of it; after which it passed into the name of Frakners, and then again into that of Laurence, from whom it was conveyed to Finet, and Robert Finet resided here in queen Elizabeth's reign, being descended from John Finet, of Sienne, in Italy, of an antient family of that name there, who came into England with cardinal Campejus, anno 10 Henry VIII. They bore for their arms, Argent, on a cross engrailed, gules, five fleurs de lis of the field. His son Sir John Finet, master of the ceremonies to king James and king Charles I. likewise resided here, and died in 1641. He left by Jane his wife, daughter of Henry, lord Wentworth, two daughters and coheirs, Lucia and Finette, who became entitled to this manor, which at length was afterwards alienated to Matson, whose descendant Henry Matson, about the year 1720, devised it by his will, with other estates, to the value of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum, to the trustees of Dover harbour, for the use, benefit, and repair of it for ever, but the discharging of the trust in Mr. Matson's will being attended with many difficulties, his affairs were put into the court of chancery, and a decree was made, that the commissioners of Dover harbour should have Diggs-place, Solton, Singledge, and other lands, to make up the one hundred and fifty pounds per annum, they paying forty pounds a year out of these estates to the poor relations of his family, as long as any such of the name should remain according to the devise in his will, and the trustees above-mentioned, are at this time entitled to the fee of it.
There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly maintained are about sixteen, casually six.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is small, consisting of only one isle and a chancel. In the chancel is a stone, about one foot square, (not the original one, I apprehend) to the memory of Matthew Gibbon the elder, son of Thomas Gibbon, who built Westcliffe house, and dying in 1629, was buried here. Service being performed in it only once a month, little care is taken of it. This church was given by queen Alianor, wife to king Edward I. together with one acre of land, and the advowson, with the chapels, tithes and appurtenances, to the prior and convent of Christ-church, in pure and perpetual alms, free from all secular service, among other premises, in exchange for the port of Sandwich, which was confirmed by king Edward I. After which, in 1327, anno 2 king Edward III. the parsonage of this church was appropriated to the almnery of the priory, for the sustaining of the chantry founded there by prior Henry de Estry. In which situation it remained till the dissolution of the priory, in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, among the other possessions of it; after which, this appropriation and the advowson of the vicarage were settled by the king in his 33d year, among other lands, on his new-erected dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions they remain at this time.
On the sequestration of the possessions of deans and chapters, after the death of king Charles I. this parsonage was valued in 1650, by order of the state, when it appeared to consist of the parsonage-house, a large barn and yard, with the parsonage close, of three acres, and four acres lying in Westcliffe common field, together with the tithes of corn and grass, and all other small tithes within the parish, of the improved yearly value of sixty-two pounds. (fn. 7) The lessee repairs the chancel of the parsonage. Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, is the present lessee, on a beneficial lease.
The vicarage of Westcliffe is not valued in the king's books. In 1640 it was valued at ten pounds, communicants twenty. It is now of the clear yearly value of twenty-four pounds per annum, which is the augmented pension paid by the dean and chapter, the vicar not being entitled to any tithes whatever, nor even to the profits of the church-yard, all which are demised by the dean and chapter as part of the parsonage.
Maurice Callan, curate in 1466, was buried in this church, and by his will ordered his executors to pave the body of this church with paving tile.
www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63585
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A great surprise meets the visitor who is lucky enough to gain admittance here! The church is entered by walking up a hill, but you actually step down into the interior as the hill drops away steeply to the north, with the church set into its ridge. A Norman flint church of nave, chancel and later south tower, it is a haven of peace and light. Much of the latter floods in through the huge Decorated west window (its lancet predecessors may be seen in the wall outside). The church has a rare interior indeed – box pews run down north and south walls and there is a huge alley between, designed for the benches that still survive dotted about the building. Box pews were rented; the benches were for the non-paying poor. In pride of position is the pulpit. All this woodwork dates from the early nineteenth century, although the chancel was refurnished in the 1877s by the Church Commissioners and is standard fare. The lovely east window, the stonework of which is surely of the 1870s, contains some Georgian coloured glass edging – most delightful. Beautifully cared for and much loved, it is a shame that it is not more accessible to the casual visitor.
The Parish Church of St. Peter, near the centre of the town, has walls of Greensand ashlar and rubble and is roofed partly with lead and partly with modern materials. In the West Tower, 14th-century N. and S. arches indicate a building of that date; the rest of the tower, the Nave, the North Aisle and the West Porch are of the late 15th century; the South Aisle was rebuilt and enlarged in the 16th century. There is no chancel.
Architectural Description—The E. wall of the Nave has a chamfered plinth, a chamfered string-course below the sill of the E. window, and a gabled parapet of shallow inclination with a moulded coping and a hollow-chamfered string-course. The restored E. window (Plate 7) has five cinquefoil-headed lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred head. The N. and S. arcades have uniform two-centred arches with wave-moulded inner orders and hollow-chamfered outer orders; they spring from piers with four attached shafts alternating with vertical hollow-chamfers, with capitals with hollow-chamfered abaci and roll-mouldings, and with moulded bases, much mutilated. Above each arcade are four irregularly spaced clearstorey windows; those on the N. are of two square-headed lights with chamfered surrounds; in the S. clearstorey the windows are of two and three lights with trefoil two-centred heads in casementmoulded square-headed surrounds. The clearstorey walls have parapets with string-courses and copings continuous with those of the E. gable.
The North Aisle has an E. window of two trefoil-headed lights with vertical tracery in a moulded four-centred head with continuous jambs; over it, a moulded and hollow-chamfered parapet string-course is inclined in correspondence with the low-pitched roof. Above, a horizontal parapet, embattled and enriched as on the N. wall (see below), dies into the sloping string-course. The N. wall has four windows with moulded two-centred heads, continuous jambs and moulded labels; each opening is divided into two lights by a mullion which runs straight from sill to apex. The N. doorway has a two-centred head of two chamfered orders with continuous jambs and a moulded label; the wall is thinner near the doorway than elsewhere, but an internal corbel-table above the doorway carries the masonry out to its normal thickness. The N. wall has an elaborate embattled parapet with a hollow-chamfered string-course and a frieze of blind quatrefoils with bosses carved with heraldic devices including Tudor roses, portcullises, suns and crescents, crossed sheaves of arrows, and embowed dolphins; over these is an upper frieze of pierced panels with cusped diagonal and vertical tracery, and merlons with trefoil-headed panels and continuous chamfered and roll-moulded coping. At intervals along the parapet, pinnacles with panelled, trefoil-headed sides and gable-headed finials rise from gargoyles on the string-course. High up in the W. wall of the N. aisle is a small window of two square-headed lights; above, the embattled parapet continues horizontally (Plate 62).
In the South Aisle the masonry of the E. wall appears to be in two parts, that on the S. resulting from the 16th-century widening of the aisle. An E. doorway with a chamfered four-centred head, below floor-level in the early part of the aisle, presumably gave access to a crypt in the 15th-century structure; it is now blocked. The 16th-century E. window is of four segmental-headed lights in a chamfered square-headed surround. Above, the plain wallhead is raised slightly at the centre, following the shallow slope of the double-pitched lead roof. The S. wall has windows of two chamfered square-headed lights flanking a buttress of two weathered stages; further W. is a reset 15th-century window of three cinquefoil-headed lights in a chamfered square-headed surround. The W. wall has a window similar to that on the E., its lower part masked by the upper storey of an adjacent house (8). The Crypt below the S. aisle is of the 16th century. The S. wall has square-headed windows, and a blocked square-headed doorway; at the W. end is a fireplace with a deep cambered bressummer and a chimneybreast with weathered offsets; it is disused and a modern window opens in the S. wall. The W. wall contains a blocked doorway which formerly opened into the house.
The West Tower is of three stages. At the base is a moulded plinth; the stages are defined by hollow-chamfered stringcourses; at the top is an embattled parapet with a moulded coping and a parapet string-course with corner gargoyles. The top stage has corner pilasters which continue through the parapet and end in crocketed finials. The lower stages have weathered diagonal buttresses on the N.E. and S.E. corners and square-set three-stage buttresses to N. and S. on the W. side; the S. side has three square-set buttresses irregularly spaced, that on the W. being a raking buttress of uncertain date built on the lower part of a mediæval buttress. The polygonal vice turret on the N.W. corner of the tower continues through all stages and ends in a pyramidal stone capping, level with the parapet finials. The E. tower arch is two-centred and of three orders, the inner order wave-moulded, the others hollow-chamfered; the responds have attached shafts flanked by hollow-chamfers and wave mouldings, with moulded polygonal bases and capitals similar to those of the nave piers, but enriched with angels (now headless) bearing scrolls. The 14th-century N. and S. tower arches are two-centred and of two chamfered orders dying into plain responds. The S. arch is closed by a wall on the S. and is reinforced by a pier of rough masonry at the centre; adjacent to the pier is a blocked window with a chamfered two-centred head. The W. doorway has a moulded four-centred head and continuous jambs; above, the W. window has two 18th-century transomed square-headed lights, inserted in a 15th-century opening with a four-centred head and a moulded label. The second stage has small square-headed openings on the N. and E. Each face of the third stage has a belfry window of two trefoil-headed lights with a trefoil tracery light in a two-centred head with a moulded label.
Straight-joints show that the West Porch is later than the tower, albeit probably of the 15th century; it has a moulded plinth and a parapet with a hollow-chamfered string-course and a moulded coping; the string-course has foliate bosses. The diagonal western buttresses are of two weathered stages and above them are plain corner pinnacles, formerly with finials, now gone. The porch archway has a casement-moulded four-centred head with continuous responds and a label with square stops.
The Roof of the nave (Plate 66) is of 16th-century origin. It is divided into seven bays by heavily moulded main beams with raised centres; shafted timber wall-posts rising from moulded stone corbels support three of the beams and have curved braces with foliate spandrels. Similarly moulded ridge-beams and wall-plates intersect the main beams. On each side of the ridge each bay is divided into four panels by intersecting beams of lighter cross-section than the main beams; the panels are filled with plain boarding. In 1965 the roof was rebuilt in concrete, with the moulded 16th-century timbers suspended beneath it. The roof of the N. aisle is similar to that of the nave, but smaller in scale, having eight bays in its length; in 1969 it was in process of restoration.
The W. porch has a stone lierne Vault (Plate 10) with moulded ribs springing from angel corbels (two gone); the rib junctions have bosses carved with foliage, flowers, a blank shield and, at the centre, a large rose. Stone-panelled wall-arches extend the vault laterally to N. and S.
Fittings—Bells: six; treble by Thomas Purdue, inscribed 'A wonder great my eye I fix where was but 3 you may see six, 1684, T.P.'; 2nd inscribed 'When I doe ring prepare to pray, RA, TB, 1670'; 3rd inscribed 'Wm. Cockey Bell Founder 1738'; 4th inscribed '1738 Mr Henry Saunders & Mr Richard Wilkins Ch. Wds.'; 5th inscribed 'While thus we join in chearful sound may love and loyalty abound. H. Oram, C. Warden. R. Wells Aldbourne fecit MDCCLXXVI '; tenor by Thomas Purdue, inscribed 'When you hear me for to tole then pray to God to save the soul, anno domini 1672, TH, RW. CW. TP'. Brass and Indents: In N. aisle, stone floor-slab with central plate (17 by 3¾ ins.) with worn black-letter inscription of Stephen Payne (Hutchins III, 46), 1508 or 1514, and indents for four shields. Communion Rails: In eastern bay of N. and S. nave arcades, with stout turned oak balusters and moulded rails, late 17th century; defining two eastern bays of nave, with profiled flat balusters and moulded rails, 17th century, made up with modern work. Communion Tables: In S. aisle, of oak, with plain stretchers, heavy turned legs enriched with acanthus carving, and enriched rails with escutcheon dated 1631. Near N. doorway, of oak, with tapering octagonal legs with claw feet, arcuated rails, scrolled diagonal stretchers with turned finial at intersection, and beaded edge to top board, c. 1700. Font: (Plate 12) with octagonal bowl with two trefoil-headed sunk panels on each face and moulded underside, similarly panelled octagonal stem and plain octagonal base, 15th century; ovolo-moulded plinth, perhaps 17th century. Font cover, of wood, low eight-sided dome with moulded rim and ribs, 18th century. Glass: Five small panels reset in E. window of nave; (1) in a roundel with indecipherable inscription, shield-of-arms of Fitzjames impaling Newburgh (Sir John Fitzjames of Lewston, d. 1539, married Alice Newburgh of E. Lulworth); (2) former tracery light depicting Virgin and Child, c. 1500; (3) former tracery light with shield of Five Wounds, 15th century; (4) shield-of-arms of Eliot quartering another coat; (5) emblem of Trinity. Graffiti: on communion table in S. aisle, W.K., H.R.E.; on lead roof of tower, Jn. Reynolds, 1779.
Monument and Floor-slabs. Monument: In N. aisle, of Robert Woolridge, 1777, oval tablet with cherub and foliage. Floor-slabs: In nave, (1) of Walter Barnes, 1776, and his wives Elizabeth, 1729, Frances, 1757, and Mary, 1767, stone slab with shield-of-arms now indecipherable; (2) of Elizabeth Barnes, 1729, stone slab with inscription in architectural framework. In N. aisle, (3) of Stephen Payne, see Brass and Indents.
Niches: In N. aisle, in E. wall, with soffit carved to represent vaulting, formerly with canopy, pinnacles and corbel; in N.E. angle, with trefoil ogee head, carved enrichment at springing of soffit, shelf cut back; in N. wall, three ogee-headed niches, one with cinquefoil cusping, others trefoiled; externally, in N. wall of N. aisle, with crocketed ogee head and shafted jambs; over arch of W. porch, with canopied cinquefoil head and shafted jambs with crocketed finials; all 15th century.
Panelling: In nave, on E. wall, of oak, with moulded and shaped cornices and fielded panels surrounding tables of Creed, Decalogue etc., 18th century; in S. aisle, reset fragments with chip-carving and fielded panels, 17th and 18th century. Plate: includes undated Elizabethan silver cup by 'Gillingham' maker; silver paten inscribed 1714; silver stand-paten inscribed 'ex dono Thomae Hackny 1714'; large pewter flagon inscribed 'Shaston St. Peter's 1770'; with no marks; (some of these items may belong to Holy Trinity Church, proper attribution being impossible since the union of the two benefices). Poor-box: of oak, with foliate carving and inscription 'Remember the poore ', and with three locks, probably 17th century. Pulpit: of oak, polygonal, with fielded panels and moulded cornice, 18th century, base gone.
Rainwater Head: on S. wall of nave, of lead, inscribed I.M., R.W., 1674, with contemporary down-pipe. Royal Arms: see (3). Seating: incorporates twenty-three reused oak bench-ends with traceried decoration, 15th century; also one oak bench with beaded decoration, 17th century. Stoup: in W. porch, with bowl cut off, 15th century. Tables of Creed and Decalogue etc.: In nave, on panelled E. wall, with shaped and gilded frames, one panel with Creed, one with Lord's Prayer, two with Decalogue, 18th century.
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.
Those of you who pay attention might remember me saying a few weeks ago that St Peter is one of the nearest churches to our house, in fact we can see it from our front garden, and yet I have never been inside.
And so a few weeks ago I decided to make a concerted effort to try to get in and to photograph it.
I spoke with a neighbour about this, as he is a warden at St Margaret's of Antioch, and remarked that a lady living nearby who regularly walked her dogs along our street was a warden at St Peter. This left me the simple task of waiting until I next saw her walking the dogs, 'accidently' go and speak to her and raise the subject
Not only could I get the key from her, but I could also get it at another location, that because of thefts they don't like to publicise, so no one knows or could find out. So, saturday afternoon I get the key, let myself in and snap it.
a church well worth waiting to see, but not 5 years I fear....
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WEST CLIFFE
IS so called from its situation westward of the adjoining parish of St. Margaret at Cliffe last described, and to distinguish it from that of Cliff at Hoo, near Rochester.
THIS PARISH lies very high on the hills, and much exposed; it is partly inclosed and partly open, arable and pasture downs; it extends to the high chalk cliffs on the sea shore, and the South Foreland on them, where the light-house stands. The high road from Dover to Deal leads through it. Its greatest extent is from north to south, in the middle of which stands the church, and village adjoining to it. As well as the adjoining parishes it is exceedingly dry and healthy, the soil is mostly chalk, notwithstanding which there is some good and fertile land in it. The height and continuance of the hills, and the depth and spacious width of the valleys, added to a wildness of nature, which is a leading feature throughout this part of the country, contribute altogether to its pleasantness; and the variety of propects, as well over the adjoining country, as the sea, and the coast of France beyond it, are very beautiful.
THE MANOR OF WEST CLIFFE, alias WALLETTSCOURT, was, in the time of the Conqueror, part of those possessions with which he enriched his halfbrother Odo, bishop of Baieux, and earl of Kent, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the survey of Domesday, taken in the 15th year of that reign:
Hugo (de Montfort) holds of the bishop, Westclive. It was taxed at two sulings. The arable land is. . . . . In demesne is one carucate, and seventeen villeins, having two carucates. In the time of king Edward the Con sessor it was worth eight pounds, when he received it six pounds, now eight pounds. Of this manor Hugo de Montfort holds two mills of twenty-eight shilings. Edric held it of king Edward.
Four years afterwards the bishop was disgraced, and all his possessions were confiscated to the crown, upon which this manor was granted to Hamon de Crevequer, a man of much note at that time, who was succeeded in it by the eminent family of Criol, and they continued in the possession of it in the reign of king Henry III. in the 48th year of which, John de Criol, younger son of Bertram, died possessed of it, leaving Bertram his son and heir, and he alienated it to Sir Gilbert Peche. He soon afterwards conveyed it to king Edward I. and Eleanor his queen, for the use of the latter, who died possessed of it in the 19th year of that reign. How long it afterwards continued in the crown I have not found; but in the 20th year of king Edward III. Gawin Corder held it by knight's service of the honor of Perch, viz. of the constabularie of Dover castle.
Sir Gawin Corder possessed this manor only for life, for the next year the king granted the reversion of it to Reginald de Cobham for his services, especially in France, being the son of John de Cobham, of Cobham, by his second wife Joane, daughter of Hugh de Nevill. (fn. 1) His son Reginald was of Sterborough castle, whence all his descendants were called of that place.
Reginald de Cobham, his son, possessed this manor, whose eldest surviving son Sir Thomas Cobham died possessed of this manor held in capite, in the 11th year of king Edward IV. leaving an only daughter and sole heir Anne, who carried it in marriage to Sir Edward Borough, of Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, (fn. 2) the lands of whose grandson Thomas, lord Burgh, were disgavelled by the act passed in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. His son William, lord Burgh, succeeded to it, holding it in capite, and in the 15th year of queen Elizabeth alienated it to Mr. Thomas Gibbon, who resided here; and it should be observed that though the coat of arms assigned to the Gibbons, of Westcliffe, by Sir William Segar, Sable, a lion rampant, guardant, or, between three escallops, argent—bears a strong resemblance to that assigned by him to the Gibbons, of Rolvenden, and is identically the same as those allowed to the Gibbons of Frid, in Bethersden, who were undoubtedly a branch of those of Rolvenden, yet I do not find any affinity between them; but I should rather suppose, these of Westcliffe were descended of the same branch as those of Castleacre abbey, in Norfolk; Matthew, the eldest son of Thomas Gibbon, the purchaser of this manor, rebuilt this seat in 1627, as the date still remaining on it shews. He resided in it, as did his several descendants afterwards down to Tho. Gibbon, gent. (fn. 3) who in 1660 sold it to Streynsham Master, esq. and he alienated it to admiral Matthew Aylmer, afterwards in 1718 created lord Aylmer, of the kingdom of Ireland, whose descendant Henry, lord Aylmer, devised it to his youngest son the Hon. and Rev. John Aylmer, and he alienated it to George Leith, esq. of Deal, who passed it away by sale to the two daughters and coheirs of Mr. Thomas Peck, surgeon, of Deal; they married two brothers, viz. James Methurst Pointer, and Ambrose Lyon Pointer, gentlemen, of London, and they are now, in right of their wives, jointly entitled to this manor.
BERE, or BYER-COURT, as it is sometimes written, situated in the southern part of this parish, was once accounted a manor, and was parcel of the demesnes of a family of the same name; one of whom, William de Bere, was bailiff of Dover in the 2d and 4th years of king Edward I. After this name was extinct here, this manor passed into the name of Brockman, and from thence into that of Toke, a family who seem before this to have been for some time resident in Westcliffe, (fn. 4) and bore for their arms, Parted per chevron, sable and argent, three griffins heads, erased and counterchanged. John Toke, a descendant of the purchaser of this manor in the fourth generation, lived here in the reigns of king Henry V. and VI. as did his eldest son Thomas Toke, esq. who by Joane, daughter of William Goldwell, esq. of Godington, in Great Chart, whose heir-general she at length was, had three sons, Ralph, who succeeded him in the family seat of Bere; Richard, who died s. p. and John, the youngest, who had the seat and estate of Godington, where his descendants remain at this time. Ralph Toke, esq. the eldest son above-mentioned, resided at Bere in king Henry VIII.'s time, in whose descendants this manor continued till the latter end of the last century, when Nicholas Tooke, or Tuck, as the name came then to be spelt, dying possessed of it, his heirs conveyed it afterwards by sale to the trustees of George Rooke, esq. of St. Laurence, who died possessed of this estate, which had long before this lost all the rights of having ever been a manor, in 1739, s. p. leaving it to his widow Mrs. Frances Rooke, (fn. 5) who alienated it to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, who died in 1757, and his only son and heir Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, is the present owner of it. (fn. 6)
SOLTON is an estate in the northern part of this parish, which was once accounted a manor; it was part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, under the general title of whose lands it is entered in the survey of Domesday, as follows:
Hugo (de Montfort) holds Soltone of the bishop. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is . . . . . In demesne there is one carucate, and three villeins, with one borderer, paying four shillings and seven pence. In the time of king Edward the Consessor, it was worth fifteen ponnds, and afterwards and now thirty shillings. In this manor Godric dwelt, and holds twenty acres as his own fee simple.
Four years after the taking of the above survey, the bishop was disgraced, and all his possessions were confiscated to the crown.
Soon after which this manor was granted to Jeffry de Peverel, and together with other lands elsewhere, made up the barony of Peverel, as it was then called, being held of the king in capite by barony, for the defence of Dover castle, to which it owed ward and service. Of the heirs of Jeffery de Peverel, this manor was again held by the family of Cramaville, by knight's service, and it appears by the escheat rolls, that Henry de Cramaville held it in capite at his death, in the 54th year of king Henry III. by yearly rent and ward to the castle of Dover; after which, though part of this estate came into the possession of the Maison Dieu hospital, in Dover, yet the manor and mansion of Solton became the property of the family of Holand, who bore for their arms, Parted per fess, sable and argent, three fleurs de lis, counterchanged. Henry Holand died possessed of this part of it in the 35th year of king Edward I. holding it in capite, as of the honor of Peverel, and it continued in that name till Henry Holand dying anno 10 Richard II. his daughter and heir Jane became possessed of it; after which it passed into the name of Frakners, and then again into that of Laurence, from whom it was conveyed to Finet, and Robert Finet resided here in queen Elizabeth's reign, being descended from John Finet, of Sienne, in Italy, of an antient family of that name there, who came into England with cardinal Campejus, anno 10 Henry VIII. They bore for their arms, Argent, on a cross engrailed, gules, five fleurs de lis of the field. His son Sir John Finet, master of the ceremonies to king James and king Charles I. likewise resided here, and died in 1641. He left by Jane his wife, daughter of Henry, lord Wentworth, two daughters and coheirs, Lucia and Finette, who became entitled to this manor, which at length was afterwards alienated to Matson, whose descendant Henry Matson, about the year 1720, devised it by his will, with other estates, to the value of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum, to the trustees of Dover harbour, for the use, benefit, and repair of it for ever, but the discharging of the trust in Mr. Matson's will being attended with many difficulties, his affairs were put into the court of chancery, and a decree was made, that the commissioners of Dover harbour should have Diggs-place, Solton, Singledge, and other lands, to make up the one hundred and fifty pounds per annum, they paying forty pounds a year out of these estates to the poor relations of his family, as long as any such of the name should remain according to the devise in his will, and the trustees above-mentioned, are at this time entitled to the fee of it.
There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly maintained are about sixteen, casually six.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is small, consisting of only one isle and a chancel. In the chancel is a stone, about one foot square, (not the original one, I apprehend) to the memory of Matthew Gibbon the elder, son of Thomas Gibbon, who built Westcliffe house, and dying in 1629, was buried here. Service being performed in it only once a month, little care is taken of it. This church was given by queen Alianor, wife to king Edward I. together with one acre of land, and the advowson, with the chapels, tithes and appurtenances, to the prior and convent of Christ-church, in pure and perpetual alms, free from all secular service, among other premises, in exchange for the port of Sandwich, which was confirmed by king Edward I. After which, in 1327, anno 2 king Edward III. the parsonage of this church was appropriated to the almnery of the priory, for the sustaining of the chantry founded there by prior Henry de Estry. In which situation it remained till the dissolution of the priory, in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, among the other possessions of it; after which, this appropriation and the advowson of the vicarage were settled by the king in his 33d year, among other lands, on his new-erected dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions they remain at this time.
On the sequestration of the possessions of deans and chapters, after the death of king Charles I. this parsonage was valued in 1650, by order of the state, when it appeared to consist of the parsonage-house, a large barn and yard, with the parsonage close, of three acres, and four acres lying in Westcliffe common field, together with the tithes of corn and grass, and all other small tithes within the parish, of the improved yearly value of sixty-two pounds. (fn. 7) The lessee repairs the chancel of the parsonage. Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, is the present lessee, on a beneficial lease.
The vicarage of Westcliffe is not valued in the king's books. In 1640 it was valued at ten pounds, communicants twenty. It is now of the clear yearly value of twenty-four pounds per annum, which is the augmented pension paid by the dean and chapter, the vicar not being entitled to any tithes whatever, nor even to the profits of the church-yard, all which are demised by the dean and chapter as part of the parsonage.
Maurice Callan, curate in 1466, was buried in this church, and by his will ordered his executors to pave the body of this church with paving tile.
www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63585
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A great surprise meets the visitor who is lucky enough to gain admittance here! The church is entered by walking up a hill, but you actually step down into the interior as the hill drops away steeply to the north, with the church set into its ridge. A Norman flint church of nave, chancel and later south tower, it is a haven of peace and light. Much of the latter floods in through the huge Decorated west window (its lancet predecessors may be seen in the wall outside). The church has a rare interior indeed – box pews run down north and south walls and there is a huge alley between, designed for the benches that still survive dotted about the building. Box pews were rented; the benches were for the non-paying poor. In pride of position is the pulpit. All this woodwork dates from the early nineteenth century, although the chancel was refurnished in the 1877s by the Church Commissioners and is standard fare. The lovely east window, the stonework of which is surely of the 1870s, contains some Georgian coloured glass edging – most delightful. Beautifully cared for and much loved, it is a shame that it is not more accessible to the casual visitor.
St Peter and St Paul Church Fareham. Small churchyard I walked through this morning when out for my morning exercise.
Belton, St Peter & St Paul, Grantham. Mainly constructed in the 12thC and 14thC, the church is next to, and associated with, but independent of Belton House. It is grade 1 listed. The Brownlow funerary chapel by Jeffry Wyattville, with the monument to Sophia, Lady Brownlow by Antonio Canova
Grantham, Lincolnshire, East Midlands, England - Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul, Belton Estate
September 2024
On the way back from Oxfordshire, I thought about stopping off somewhere to take some church shots.
I'm sure Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Sussex have fine churches just off the motorway, but one had stuck in my head, back in Kent, and that Hever.
What I didn't realise is how hard it was to get too.
I followed the sat nav, taking me off the motorway whilst still in Sussex, then along narrow and twisting main roads along the edge of the north downs, through some very fine villages, but were in Sussex.
Would I see the sign marking my return to the Garden of England?
Yes, yes I would.
Edenbridge seemed quite an unexpectedly urban place, despite its name, so I didn't stop to search for an older centre, just pressing un until I was able to turn down Hever Road.
It had taken half an hour to get here.
St Peter stands by the gate to the famous castle, a place we have yet to visit, and even on a showery Saturday in March, there was a constant stream of visitors arriving.
I asked a nice young man who was directing traffic, where I could park to visit the church. He directed me to the staff car park, meaning I was able to get this shot before going in.
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Near the grounds of Hever Castle, medieval home of the Bullen family. Sandstone construction with a nice west tower and spire. There is a prominent chimney to the north chapel, although this is not the usual Victorian addition, but a Tudor feature, whose little fireplace may be seen inside! The church contains much of interest including a nineteenth-century painting of Christ before Caiphas by Reuben Sayers and another from the school of Tintoretto. The stained glass is all nineteenth and twentieth century and includes a wonderfully evocative east window (1898) by Burlisson and Grylls with quite the most theatrical sheep! The south chancel window of St Peter is by Hardman and dated 1877. In the north chapel is a fine tomb chest which displays the memorial brass of Sir Thomas Bullen (d. 1538), father of Queen Anne Boleyn. Just around the corner is a typical, though rather insubstantial, seventeenth-century pulpit with sounding board.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Hever
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HEVER.
SOUTH-EASTWARD from Eatonbridge lies Hever, called in the Textus Roffensis, and some antient records, Heure, and in others, Evere.
This parish lies below the sand hill, and is consequently in that district of this county called The Weald.
There is a small part of it, called the Borough of Linckbill, comprehending a part of this parish, Chidingstone, and Hever, which is within the hundred of Ruxley, and being part of the manor of Great Orpington, the manerial rights of it belong to Sir John Dixon Dyke, bart. the owner of that manor.
THE PARISH of Hever is long, and narrow from north to south. It lies wholly below the sand hills, and consequently in the district of the Weald; the soil and face of the country is the same as that of Eatonbridge, last described, the oak trees in it being in great plently, and in general growing to a very large size. The river Eden directs its course across it, towards Penshurst and the Medway, flowing near the walls of Hever castle, about a quarter of a mile southward from which is the village of Hever and the parsonage; near the northern side of the river is the seat of Polebrooke, late Douglass's, now Mrs. Susannah Payne's; and a little farther, the hamlets of Howgreen and Bowbeach; part of Linckhill borough, which is in the hundred of Ruxley, extends into this parish. There is a strange odd saying here, very frequent among the common people, which is this:
Jesus Christ never was but once at Hever.
And then he fell into the river.
Which can only be accounted for, by supposing that it alluded to a priest, who was carrying the bost to a sick person, and passing in his way over a bridge, sell with it into the river.
Hever was once the capital seat and manor of a family of the same name, whose still more antient possessions lay at Hever, near Northfleet, in this county, who bore for their arms, Gules, a cross argent. These arms, with a lable of three points azure, still remained in the late Mote-house, in Maidstone, and are quartered in this manner by the earl of Thanet, one of whose ancestors, Nicholas Tuston, esq. of Northiam, married Margaret, daughter and heir of John Hever of this county. (fn. 1)
William de Heure. possessed a moiety of this place in the reign of king Edward I. in the 2d of which he was was sheriff of this county, and in the 9th of it obtained a grant of free warren within his demesne lands in Heure, Chidingstone, and Lingefield.
Sir Ralph de Heure seems at this time to have possessed the other moiety of this parish, between whose son and heir, Ralph, and Nicholas, abbot of St. Augustine's, there had been, as appears by the register of that abbey, several disputes concerning lands in Hever, which was settled in the 4th year of king Edward I. by the abbot's granting to him and his heirs for ever, the land which he held of him in Hever, to hold by the service of the fourth part of a knight's fee.
William de Hever, in the reign of king Edward III. became possessed of the whole of this manor, and new built the mansion here, and had licence to embattle it; soon after which he died, leaving two daughters his coheirs; one of whom, Joane, carried one moiety of this estate in marriage to Reginald Cobham, a younger son of the Cobhams of Cobham, in this county; (fn. 2) whence this part of Hever, to distinguish it from the other, acquired the name of Hever Cobham.
His son, Reginald lord Cobham, in the 14th year of that reign, obtained a charter for free warren within his demesne lands in Hever. (fn. 3) He was succeeded in this manor by his son, Reginald lord Cobham, who was of Sterborough castle, in Surry, whence this branch was stiled Cobhams of Sterborough.
The other moiety of Hever, by Margaret, the other daughter and coheir, went in marriage to Sir Oliver Brocas, and thence gained the name of Hever Brocas. One of his descendants alienated it to Reginald lord Cobham, of Sterborough, last mentioned, who died possessed of both these manors in the 6th year of king Henry IV.
His grandson, Sir Thomas Cobham, sold these manors to Sir Geoffry Bulleyn, a wealthy mercer of London, who had been lord mayor in the 37th year of king Henry VI. He died possessed of both Hever Cobham and Hever Brocas, in the 3d year of king Edward IV. leaving by Anne, his wife, eldest sister of Thomas, lord Hoo and Hastings, Sir William Bulleyn, of Blickling, in Norfolk, who married Margaret, daughter and coheir of Thomas Boteler, earl of Ormond, by whom he had a son and heir, Thomas, who became a man of eminent note in the reign of king Henry VIII. and by reason of the king's great affection to the lady Anne Bulleyn, his daughter, was in the 17th year of that reign, created viscount Rochford; and in the 21st year of it, being then a knight of the Garter, to that of earl of Wiltshire and Ormond; viz. Wiltshire to his heirs male, and Ormond to his heirs general.
He resided here, and added greatly to those buildings, which his grandfather, Sir Geoffry Bulleyn, began in his life time, all which he completely finished, and from this time this seat seems to have been constantly called HEVER-CASTLE.
He died in the 30th of the same reign, possessed of this castle, with the two manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas, having had by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, one sonGeorge, executed in his life time; and two daughters, Anne, wife to king Henry VIII. and Mary, wife of William Carey, esquire of the body, and ancestor of the lords Hunsdon and the earls of Dover and Monmouth.
On the death of the earl of Wiltshire, without issue male, who lies buried in this church, under an altar tomb of black marble, on which is his figure, as large as the life, in brass, dressed in the robes of the Garter, the king seised on this castle and these manors, in right of his late wife, the unfortunate Anne Bulleyn, the earl's daughter, who resided at Hever-castle whilst the king courted her, there being letters of both extant, written by them from and to this place, and her chamber in it is still called by her name; and they remained in his hands till the 32d year of his reign, when he granted to the lady Anne of Cleves, his repudiated wife, his manors of Hever, Seale, and Kemsing, among others, and his park of Hever, with its rights, members, and appurtenances, then in the king's hands; and all other estates in Hever, Seale, and Kemsing, lately purchased by him of Sir William Bulleyn and William Bulleyn, clerk, to hold to her during life, so long as she should stay within the realm, and not depart out of it without his licence, at the yearly rent of 931. 13s. 3½d. payable at the court of augmention. She died possessed of the castle, manors, and estates of Hever, in the 4th and 5th year of king Philip and queen Mary, when they reverted again to the crown, where they continued but a short time, for they were sold that year, by commissioners authorised for this purpose, to Sir Edward Waldegrave and dame Frances his wife; soon after which the park seems to have have been disparked.
This family of Waldegrave, antiently written Walgrave, is so named from a place, called Walgrave, in the county of Northampton, at which one of them was resident in the reign of king John, whose descendants afterwards settled in Essex, and bore for their arms, Per pale argent and gules. Warine de Walgrave is the first of them mentioned, whose son, John de Walgrave, was sheriff of London, in the 7th year of king John's reign, whose direct descendant was Sir Edward Waldegrave, who purchased this estate, as before mentioned. (fn. 5) He had been a principal officer of the household to the princess Mary; at the latter end of the reign of king Edward VI. he incurred the king's displeasure much by his attachment to her interest, and was closely imprisoned in the Tower; but the king's death happening soon afterwards, queen Mary amply recompensed his sufferings by the continued marks of her favour and bounty, which she conferred on him; and in the 4th and 5th years of that reign, he obtained, as above mentioned, on very easy terms, the castle and manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas; and besides being employed by the queen continually in commissions of trust and importance, had many grants of lands and other favours bestowed on him. But on the death of queen Mary, in 1558, he was divested of all his employments, and committed prisoner to the Tower, (fn. 6) where he died in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth. He left two sons, Charles, his heir; and Nicholas, ancestor to those of Boreley, in Essex; and several daughters.
Charles Waldegrave succeeded his father in his estates in this parish; whose son Edward received the honour of knighthood at Greenwich, in 1607, and though upwards of seventy years of age, at the breaking out of the civil wars, yet he nobly took arms in the king's defence, and having the command of a regiment of horse, behaved so bravely, that he had conferred on him the dignity of a baronet, in 1643; after which he continued to act with great courage in the several attacks against the parliamentary forces, in which time he lost two of his sons, and suffered in his estate to the value of fifty thousand pounds.
His great grandson, Sir Henry Waldegrave, in 1686, in the 1st year of king James II. was created a peer, by the title of baron Waldegrave of Chewton, in Somersetshire, and had several offices of trust conferred on him; but on the Revolution he retired into France, and died at Paris, in 1689. (fn. 7) He married Henrietta, natural daughter of king James II. by Arabella Churchill, sister of John duke of Marlborough, by whom he had James, created earl of Waldegrave in the 3d year of king George II. who, in the year 1715, conveyed the castle and these manors to Sir William Humfreys, bart. who that year was lord mayor of the city of London. He was of Barking, in Essex, and had been created a baronet in 1714. He was descended from Nathaniel Humfreys, citizen of London, the second son of William ap Humfrey, of Montgomery, in North Wales, and bore for his arms two coats, Quarterly, 1st and 4th, sable, two nags heads erased argent; 2d and 3d, per pale or and gules, two lions rampant endorsed, counterchanged.
He died in 1735, leaving by his first wife, Margaret, daughter of William Wintour, of Gloucestershire, an only son and heir, Sir Orlando Humfreys, bart. who died in 1737, having had by Ellen, his wife, only child of colonel Robert Lancashire, three sons and two daughters; two of the sons died young; Robert, the second and only surviving son, had the castle and manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas, and died before his father possessed of them, as appears by his epitaph, in 1736, ætat. 28.
On Sir Orlando's death his two daughters became his, as well as their brother's, coheirs, of whom Mary, the eldest, had three husbands; first, William Ball Waring, of Dunston, in Berkshire, who died in 1746, without issue; secondly, John Honywood, esq. second brother of Richard, of Mark's-hall, who likewife died without issue, in 1748; and lastly, Thomas Gore, esq. uncle to Charles Gore, esq. M.P. for Hertfordshire; which latter had married, in 1741, Ellen Wintour, the only daughter of Sir Orlando Humfreys, above mentioned.
They, with their husbands, in 1745, joined in the sale of Hever-castle and the manors of Hever Cobham and Hever Brocas, to Timothy Waldo. He was descended from Thomas Waldo, of Lyons, in France, one of the first who publicly opposed the doctrines of the church of Rome, of whom there is a full account in the Atlas Geograph. vol. ii. and in Moreland's History of the Evangelical Churches of Piedmont. One of his descendants, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, to escape the persecution of the duke D'Alva, came over to England, where he and his descendants afterwards settled, who bore for their arms, Argent a bend azure, between three leopards heads of the second; of whom, in king Charles II.'s reign, there were three brothers, the eldest of whom, Edward, was knighted, and died without male issue, leaving two daughters his coheirs; the eldest of whom, Grace, married first Sir Nicholas Wolstenholme, bart. and secondly, William lord Hunsdon, but died without issue by either of them, in 1729. The second brother was of Harrow, in Middlesex; and Timothy, the third, was an eminent merchant of London, whose grandsons were Edward, who was of South Lambeth, esq. and died in 1783, leaving only one daughter; and Timothy, of Clapham, esquire, the purchaser of this estate, as above mentioned, who was afterwards knighted, and died possessed of it, with near thirteen hundred acres of land round it, in 1786; he married, in 1736, Miss Catherine Wakefield, by whom he left an only daughter and heir, married to George Medley, esq. of Sussex, lady Waldo surviving him is at this time intitled to it.
The castle is entire, and in good condition; it has a moat round it, formed by the river Eden, over which there is a draw bridge, leading to the grand entrance, in the gate of which there is yet a port cullis, within is a quadrangle, round which are the offices, and a great hall; at the upper end of which, above a step, is a large oak table, as usual in former times. The great stair case leads up to several chambers and to the long gallery, the cieling of which is much ornamented with soliage in stucco; the rooms are all wainscotted with small oaken pannels, unpainted. On one side of the gallery is a recess, with an ascent of two steps, and one seat in it, with two returns, capable of holding ten or twelve persons, which, by tradition, was used as a throne, when king Henry VIII. visited the castle. At the upper end of the gallery, on one side of a large window, there is in the floor a kind of trap door, which, when opened, discovers a narrow and dark deep descent, which is said to reach as far as the moat, and at this day is still called the dungeon. In a closet, in one of the towers, the window of which is now stopped up, there is an adjoining chamber, in which queen Anne Bulleyn is said to have been consined after her dis grace. The entrance to this closet, from the chamber, is now by a small door, which at that time was a secret sliding pannel, and is yet called Anne Bulleyn's pannel.
In the windows of Hever-castle are these arms; Argent, three buckles gules, within the garter; a shield of four coasts, Howard, Brotherton, Warren, and Mowbray, argent three buckles gules; a shield of eight coats, viz. Bulleyn, Hoo, St. Omer, Malmains, Wickingham, St. Leger, Wallop, and Ormond; and one, per pale argent and gules, for Waldegrave. (fn. 8)
It is reported, that when Henry VIII. with his attendants, came to the top of the hill, within sight of the castle, he used to wind his bugle horn, to give notice of his approach.
There was a court baron constantly held for each of the above manors till within these forty years, but at present there is only one, both manors being now esteemed but as one, the circuit of which, over the neighbouring parishes, is very extensive.
SEYLIARDS is an estate here which extends itself into the parishes of Brasted and Eatonbridge, but the mansion of it is in this parish, and was the antient seat of the Seyliards, who afterwards branched out from hence into Brasted, Eatonbridge, Chidingstone, and Boxley, in this county.
The first of this name, who is recorded to have possessed this place, was Ralph de Seyliard, who resided here in the reign of king Stephen.
Almerick de Eureux, earl of Gloucester, who lived in the reign of king Henry III. demised lands to Martin at Seyliard, and other lands, called Hedinden, to Richard Seyliard, both of whom were sons of Ralph at Seyliard, and the latter of them was ancestor to those seated here and at Delaware, in Brasted. (fn. 9)
This place continued in his descendants till Sir Tho. Seyliard of Delaware, passed it away to John Petley, esq. who alienated it to Sir Multon Lambarde, of Sevenoke, and he died possessed of it in 1758; and it is now the property of his grandson, Multon Lambarde, of Sevenoke, esq.
Charities.
A PERSON gave, but who or when is unknown, but which has time out of mind been distributed among the poor of this parish, the sum of 10s. yearly, to be paid out of land vested in the churchwardens, and now of that annual produce.
The Rev. JOHN PETER gave by will, about 1661, the sum of 10s. yearly, to be paid for the benefit of poor farmers only, out of land vested in the rector, the heirs of Wm. Douglass, and the heirs of Francis Bowty, and now of that annual produce.
The Rev. GEORGE BORRASTON, rector, and several of the parishioners, as appears by a writing dated in 1693, purchased, with money arising from several bequests, the names of the donors unknown, except that of WILLIAM FALKNER, to which the parishioners added 15l. a piece of land, the rent to be distributed yearly among the poor of the parish, vested in the rector and churchwardens, and of the annual produce of 3l. 12s.
Rev. THOMAS LANCASTER, rector, gave by will in 1714, for buying good books for the poor, and in case books are not wanting for the schooling of poor children at the discretion of the mimister, part of a policy on lives, which was exchanged for a sum of money paid by his executor, being 20l. vested in the minister and churchwardens.
SIR TIMOTHY WALDO gave by will in 1786, 500l. consolidated 3 per cent. Bank Annuities, one moiety of the interest of which to be applied for the placing of some poor boy of the parish apprentice to a farmer, or some handicraft trade, or to the sea service, or in cloathing such poor boy during his apprenticeship, and in case no such poor boy can be found, this moiety to be distributed among such of the industrious poor who do not receive alms. The other moiety to be laid out in buying and distributing flannel waistcoats, or strong shoes, or warm stockings, among such of the industrious or aged poor persons inhabiting within this parish, as do not receive alms, vested in the Salters Company.
HEVER is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham. The church, which stands at the east end of the village, is a small, but neat building, consisting of one isle and two chancels, having a handsome spire at the west end of it. It is dedicated to St. Peter.
Among other monuments and inscriptions in it are the following:—In the isle is a grave-stone, on which is the figure of a woman, and inscription in black letter in brass, for Margaret, wife of William Cheyne, obt. 1419, arms, a fess wavy between three crescents.—In the chancel, a memorial for Robert Humfreys, esq. lord of the manor of Heaver, only son and heir of Sir Orlando Humfreys, bart. of Jenkins, in Effex, obt. 1736. Against the wall is a brass plate, with the figure of a man kneeling at a desk, and inscription in black letter for William Todde, schoolmaster to Charles Waldegrave, esq. obt. 1585.—In the north chancel, an altar tomb, with the figure on it at large in brass, of Sir Thomas Bullen, knight of the garter, earl of Wilcher and earl of Ormunde, obt. 1538. A small slab with a brass plate, for ........ Bullayen, the son of Sir Thomas Bullayen.—In the belsry, a stone with a brass plate, and inscription in black letter in French, for John de Cobham, esquire, obt. 1399, and dame Johane, dame de Leukenore his wife, and Renaud their son; near the above is an antient altar tomb for another of that name, on which is a shield of arms in brass, or, on a chevron, three eagles displayed, a star in the dexter point. These were the arms of this branch of the Cobhams, of Sterborough-castle. (fn. 10)
This church is a rectory, the advowson of which belonged to the priory of Combwell, in Goudhurst, and came to the crown with the rest of its possessions at the time of the surrendry of it, in the 7th year of king Henry VIII. in consequence of the act passed that year for the surrendry of all religious houses, under the clear yearly revenue of two hundred pounds. Soon after which this advowson was granted, with the scite of the priory, to Thomas Colepeper, but he did not long possess it; and it appears, by the Escheat Rolls, to have come again into the hands of the crown, and was granted by the king, in his 34th year, to Sir John Gage, to hold in capite by knights service; who exchanged it again with Tho. Colepeper, to confirm which an act passed the year after. (fn. 11) His son and heir, Alexander Colepeper, had possession granted of sundry premises, among which was the advowson of Hever, held in capite by knights service, in the 3d and 4th years of king Philip and queen Mary; the year after which it was, among other premises, granted to Sir Edward Waldegrave, to hold by the like tenure.
Charles Waldegrave, esq. in the 12th year of queen Elizabeth, alienated this advowson to John Lennard, esq. of Chevening, and being entailed to his heirs male, by the last will of Sampson Lennard, esq. his eldest son, under the word hereditament possessed it, and it being an advowson in gross, was never disentailed by Henry, Richard, or Francis, lords Dacre, his descendants, so that it came to Thomas lord Dacre, son of the last mentioned Francis, lord Dacre, afterwards earl of Sussex, in 1673, and at length sole heir male of the descendants of John Lennard, esq. of Chevening, above mentioned; and the same trial was had for the claim of a moiety of it, at the Queen's-bench bar, as for the rest of the earl's estates, and a verdict then obtained in his favour, as has been already fully mentioned before, under Chevening.
The earl of Sussex died possessed of it in 1715, (fn. 12) whose two daughters, his coheirs, on their father's death became entitled to this advowson, and a few years afterwards alienated the same.
It then became the property of the Rev. Mr. Geo. Lewis, as it has since of the Rev. Mr. Hamlin, whose daughter marrying the Rev. Mr. Nott, of Little Horsted, in Sussex, he is now intitled to it.
In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church of Heure was valued at fifteen marcs.
By virtue of a commission of enquiry, taken by order of the state, in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned, that Hever was a parsonage, with a house, and twelve acres of glebe land, which, with the tithes, were worth seventy-seven pounds per annum, master John Petter being then incumbent, and receiving the profits, and that Francis lord Dacre was donor of it. (fn. 13)
This rectory was valued, in 1747, at 1831. per annum, as appears by the particulars then made for the sale of it.
It is valued, in the king's books, at 15l. 17s. 3½d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 10s. 8¾d. It is now of the yearly value of about 200l.
¶The priory of Combwell, in Goudhurst, was endowed by Robert de Thurnham, the founder of that house, in the reign of king Henry II. with his tithe of Lincheshele and sundry premises in this parish, for which the religious received from the rector of this church the annual sum of 43s. 4d.
St Peter is a landmark church on the north side of Stoke Bridge, overlooking a busy junction. When the church was built, the river was wider, and this must have been a waterside church. It is the first of a line of three medieval dockside churches about 150m each apart. Its fine west tower makes it seem much bigger than it actually is, and the great view when approaching from the south or west is a modern, unfamiliar one; until 20 years ago, this church was surrounded by urban clutter. St Peter's tower has not been seen from a distance like this for hundreds of years, and perhaps never, because this has always been an urban, industrial parish. Indeed, because this is the oldest part of Ipswich, and Ipswich is England's longest continually occupied town, this is perhaps England's longest continually occupied urban parish.
Views from the east, however, are dismal and more typical. After this church was declared redundant in the early 1970s, it fell into a terrible state, at the time the most pitiful of all Ipswich churches. When St Peter was made redundant this was a far less busy area, and it was easy for vandals to break in and cause damage. This church was important enough for George Gilbert Scott to have been responsible for the considerable 1870s restoration of the nave and chancel, but this Victorian work seemed to be nearing the end of its structural life. The land here is very soft, and although St Peter doesn't suffer the problems that caused the closure of adjacent St Mary at Quay, there were cracks in the nave walls that have had to be urgently addressed.
As at St Stephen and St Lawrence, the main entrance is from the west, and there are elaborate niches flanking the doorway. This view has benefited greatly from the late 1990s restoration, of which more in a moment. To the east, the factory has been demolished, and this whole area is now part of Ipswich's biggest regeneration programme since the 1960s, the Waterside development. Soon, St Peter's neighbours will include an apartment block more than 20 storeys high, and the dockside silos and factories are being replaced by designer flats, bars and hotels. The wet dock itself is now a large marina. One day, this may well be a wonderful setting for the church. For now, it is still a bit of a building site.
Coming here in 2006 was a slightly distressing experience. Inside, the damage caused by vandalism, settlement and weather were readily apparent. The east window was still partly boarded up (at one time, they all were) and the paint had peeled from the walls. Virtually all the fixtures had gone, and so there was a poignancy about the way the altar and pulpit were dressed. But when I had first seen it, in the early 1990s, it had been much worse than this. The Ipswich Historic Churches Trust, which took over the care of St Peter, allowed it to be used by a model railway club for nearly 20 years. The nave was tightly packed with model train layouts, the arcades draped with electric cables, making a proper appreciation of the integrity of the interior impossible. This church was terribly uncared for, and it all seemed a shame.
This church was only open on the Historic Churches bike ride day, (unless, of course, you joined the model railway club), but a visit was always desirable, because St Peter has one great treasure. It has the finest black Tournai marble font in England. There are only 9 others, including St Peter's near-twin in Lincoln Cathedral. It is a mystery why the Anglican diocese allowed this to remain in such a vulnerable building when so much else - organ, benches, fittings - had been removed.
When a church falls redundant, the font is often the first thing to go, pressed into service at some other church. But here, the massive black square block remained, brooding, with its primitive carvings of lions. Once seen, this 12th century art treasure is never forgotten. And yet, for 364 days a year, the town's most important early-medieval artifact was locked away with the train-sets and the damp. Few decisions could have been more short-sighted. But it survived, of course, and has no doubt survived much worse over the centuries, and sits just to the east of the soaring tower arch.
St Peter's other treasure is the so-called 'Wolsey's gateway', a watergate which is all that remains of the school planned by Cardinal Wolsey as a feeder to his Oxford college. The school was never completed, its stone taken for use elsewhere in the town. The gateway itself, built into St Peter's south churchyard wall, is of mild interest, I suppose, its crest and brickwork eaten away by acidic fumes from the thousands of cars that pass within a few feet everyday. I don't suppose the Victorian factory fumes did it much good either.
The five medieval churches of Ipswich town centre which were declared redundant in the 1970s and 1980s were handed to the Borough Council, who established the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust to look after them. It was something of a poisoned chalice for those who became the churches' stewards, for there was little money available to be spent on them. Indeed, it sometimes appeared as if the financial problem was deliberately intended as a spur for the Trust to find fully commercial uses for the buildings.
In 1999, there was a chance of a business use for St Peter. Acorn Office Supplies, an established office equipment firm out on one of the industrial estates, were looking for a town centre showroom. The model railway club were sent packing, and the building was given an extensive (and essential) programme of restoration, revealing superb exterior flintwork, as bubbly as lace. Planning permission was obtained to convert St Peter into offices and a showroom for Acorn.
The firm was full of promises about allowing access to the font, which would have been a great thing for the town. Unfortunately, when John Blatchly of the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust wrote to me in November 2001 it was to say that Acorn Office Equipment had withdrawn. This is a great disappointment to us, he wrote, for the public were to have had access to much of the building during office hours, there would have been no permanent changes to the fabric of the building, and significant improvements would have been made to the building’s facilities and decorative state.
There had never been a satisfactory commercial reuse of a medieval church in Ipswich, and it wasn't going to happen this time. Chastened perhaps by the possible ultimate cost of the conversion, Acorn remained on their industrial estate. And, of course, they were correct to do so, because nowadays who in their right mind would go into a town centre to look at office furniture, when there is a perfectly good supplier on the edge of town?
And therein lies the problem. As planning laws have loosened, and buildings can be constructed swiftly with cheaper materials, no commercial organisation in its right mind was going to spend the seven figure sum required to bring a redundant medieval building up to standard. The early years of the new millennium really were dark days for the redundant town centre churches, because it really looked as if a quarter of a century's neglect might lead to their ultimate demise.
When I last wrote about this church in 2006, I asked a simple question. What should happen to St Peter? In this redevelopment area, everything was up for grabs; a borough that can give planning permission for a 23 storey block beside a medieval church is presumably capable of doing more or less anything to the church itself. St Peter's tower has become a landmark, an essential part of the townscape, and the font is a national treasure. I suggested then that perhaps the best way forward was to primarily consider the conservation of these two features, perhaps by demolishing the rest of the structure and turning it into a garden, perhaps entered through Wolsey's gateway. The font could then be enclosed beneath the tower by a glass atrium to east of the elegant tower arch. This may have sounded radical, but this is an area where radical ideas were being enthusiastically implemented, andwas in any case no more radical than the Brooke Report of the 1960s, which advised that redundant medieval churches should be demolished and the land sold.
There are many differences between the Britain of thirty years ago, when St Peter became redundant, and the Britain of today. Primarily, of course, we are now a rich country, and can afford the luxury of maintaining our priceless heritage more than we could then - unless we plan to cash in the family silver and spend the proceeds on the bombing of Middle Eastern countries, of course.
Secondly, a vast heritage industry has grown up in that time; people are now obsessed with the past, and historically themed villages and electronically enhanced 'experiences' cater for their hunger. There's nothing we like so much these days as a wander through a Viking town, or watching a medieval cobbler at work, or various troops of the Civil War beating seven shades out of each other.
Thirdly, there is a hunger for a sense of the numinous; people are searching for something that they didn't seem to want thirty years ago. Sometimes this is satisfied by New Age mysticism, but the Churches still have a lot to offer - the Church of England seems to have at last begun to grasp that most people don't want to attend Sunday services, but they may still want to wander into a church and look around, and to sit and to meditate. People go into a church when they want to pray or if they only want a good cry. They won't necessarily come back on Sunday - although, of course, they might - but the church building itself offers them a spiritual shelter, at least if it is open during the day, which most in Ipswich town centre are.
Fourthly, there is a huge passion in North America and Australia for tracing ancestral roots. Look at the visitors book in any East Anglian village church; a large proportion of the names will be of people returning to the village that their ancestors left perhaps centuries ago. They always make for the church. This wasn't the case thirty years ago.
Fifthly, television and books have created a fascination with art and architecture that most people did not tap into before. Programmes about churches and castles have unbelievably large followings. People can tell you what a clerestory is and what a hammerbeam was for in a way that they couldn't in the past.
It seemed to me that all these points needed to be taken into account when considering the future of redundant medieval churches. At the time I wrote that, the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust still seemed stuck in the 1980s, pursuing commercial solutions to the problem of finding new uses for its empty churches. But as a member of the IHCT committee confided in me, this is not going to happen; not at St Peter, and not at most of the other redundant churches. No business is going to pour cash into old buildings with poor service access, when there are now so few restrictions on building afresh on brownfield and even greenfield sites.
I finished my 2006 polemic by stating what I firmly believed to be true: there will never be a commercial use for this building. But I also believed that the future for St Peter, if it exists, must be a sustainable one. I asked what could be done to make people actually want to go to St Peter, and to persuade us that it is worth paying for, through our taxes or even through our pockets?
Even as I was typing that, plans were afoot to actually do something about St Peter. Now, I hope it doesn't sound too immodest of me to point out that my suggested future for the redundant nearby church of St Lawrence has come almost exactly true, so I am happy to report that here, at St Peter, the planners did not take me up on my suggestion of demolishing the nave and chancel. However, once it became clear that there was no possible commercial future for the building, people with energy started getting clever, and finding out about grant-funding and public sector finance. This was a sea-change in thinking, and an extremely important one, because today in England, only the public sector can afford to take on projects of this type. Here at St Peter, the church has been transformed into a concert space which will be home to the Ipswich Hospital Band, one of the best of its kind in the country.
The transformation has been a gentle one. A raked stage has been built up within the chancel, the floor has been replaced, the walls have been decorated, and the stained glass restored. It is simply and pleasingly done, and cost a good deal less than the £1.2 million required at St Lawrence. The Ipswich Millennium Tapestries are on permanent display, there is a local history exhibit, and the building is open every day for visitors.
At the turn of the Millennium, only one of the five churches had any sustainable future. Now, all five of them have a secure life ahead, and four of them are already in use - only St Clement waits to see what the Waterfront will make of it. For anyone who knew these churches twenty years ago, it is a most heart-warming experience to visit them now.
St Peter, Wolverhampton, West Midlands.
Grade l listed.
South Aisle Window - one of three - detail.
By Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907), c1890.
Charles Eamer Kempe was a painter of walls, ceilings and woodwork of churches in the 1860s. The style then in vogue reflected a resurgence of interest to high church practices. Kempe's training served him well, and he started his own stained glass company, CE Kempe & Co in London, in 1868. He was not a trained artist, but was nevertheless artistic, and able to suggest ideas which could be developed by his artists and cartoonists. He insisted that only the firm's name should take the credit for the standard of work produced, and that individual members of the studio remain anonymous.
Kempe perfected the use of silver stain on clear glass, which leaves a yellow tint, which could be delicate or deep depending on the amount of stain. His greatest stylistic influence was the stained glass of Northern Germany and Flanders from the 16th Century. He took many trips to Europe, often taking the Kempe Company artists with him. The insignia of Kempe, from about 1895 until his death in 1907 was a wheatsheaf, from his family's coat of arms. After his death, the firm was run by four of his directors, including his cousin, Walter Tower. The insignia then changed to a wheatsheaf with a black tower.
Wormleighton is a peaceful spot, well off the beaten track in the ironstone belt of south-east Warwickshire. The main approach through the village takes one past the attractive gateway to the manor house (whose tower might deceive the unsuspecting into thinking it is the church at first glance!) and then the church is located further up the narrow lane on high ground that overlooks it. St Peter's is a delightfully rustic building dating back to the early 13th century with a solid square west tower and an aisled nave and chancel with 14th century modifications and a modest 15th century clerestory.
Inside there is a feeling of antiquity with the sturdy ironstone Transitional nave arcades and a sense of lightness from the rendered walls and largely clear glazing. There are several features of interest here but the most significant one is the wonderful early 16th century chancel screen carved with rich traceried paneling and a few carved crowned heads. Such an impressive surviving medieval rood screen is a rarity in Warwickshire and this is of particularly fine quality (its impact however is slightly diminished by the red curtains partially obscuring it, but then we can't begrudge the congregation wanting to stay warm!).
This is a lovely church well worth seeking out, normally kept open I believe though this was the first time I'd had a proper look inside (on a previous visit many years ago we arrived just in time for a service to start so couldn't do more than look through the door!). A tranquil spot with much of antiquity to reward the visitor.
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.
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...
St. Peter Church, Poulshot, Wiltshire.
There was a church recorded at Poulshot in 1200, when a church which had been given to the Abbey of Bec in Normandy after the Norman Conquest was given by William, Abbot of Bec, to the Bishop and Church of Old Sarum. In 1238 the church was valued at £10; in 1341 it was £7. 6s. 8d and in 1535 it was £7. 8s.8d. Later, by the 15th century, the church had been transferred to the monastery at Edington.
The church consists of a chancel, nave and aisles, south porch, tower and vestry. The oldest existing parts of the church date from the 13th century but many changes were made in the 15th century.
The aisles in the nave are quite narrow, and this is said to be because they were built on the foundations of the original Norman church. The nave was built in the 13th century and the aisles, built of rubble and ashlar, were added in the 14th. A window was built in each aisle in the 15th century and the porch, in an early Perpendicular style with a timbered roof and a stone seat on each side, had been added in 1400. The remnants of a holy water stoup (or bowl) are found in the inner doorway.
The chancel is thought to have been built in the 13th century. In the 15thh century a tripled lanceted window was removed and replaced by a square window. To the north of the chancel is a window in the Early English style; the top of the window opposite was cut away in the Restoration period and was replaced with a beam of wood. In the 16th century the chancel was lengthened; this resulted in the impression of the nave being relatively short.
On the floor of the chancel is a plate of brass dedicated to Samuel White and dated 1632. He is referred to as being as 'White in virtues as in name'. Another memorial on the floor of the chancel is to the Reverend Richard Sanderson and his wife who died at the end of the 18th century. He was rector at Poulshot for 17 years. On the north wall is a tablet commemorating the life of Daniel Bolwell, who died in 1763.
Much of the church was repaired in 1898 and the church did escape the reforming urge which many Victorians felt towards their religious buildings. The nave was damaged by fire in 1916 and the original, oak pulpit which dated from the beginning of the 17th century was destroyed. The pulpit today is a copy of the original and was donated to the church by Miss Stansfield.
In 1866 the barrel organ was replaced with a harmonium; this in turn was replaced by a new organ in 1972.
There are three bells in the church, all cast at the Bristol foundry. The first bell dates from 1540 and is dedicated to St. John the Evangelist; the second and third date from 1606. The tower itself was built in 1853 by former rector Canon William Fisher in memory of his wife who had died the year before. Before its construction, the three bells were rung from a wooden bell turret found at the western point of the nave. William Fisher himself died in 1874, after being the incumbent at Poulshot for 51 years. He was buried in the west of the churchyard.
Another well respected rector of Poulshot was Isaac Walton, the son of Isaac Walton senior, who was a noted angler and author of “The Compleat Anglerâ€. Isaac the rector was born in 1651, and his uncle was Thomas Ken, who is regarded as an important figure in recent clerical history and was the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Walton was educated at Cambridge and after becoming rector of Poulshot in 1680, remained in the post for 39 years. He is buried in Salisbury Cathedral after dying in 1719, possibly from smallpox.
The first rectory was built by the incumbent John de Hinton in the 1270s. A subsequent rectory was occupied by Isaac Walton. A brick rectory was built in 1781 but it is no longer inhabited by the vicar, who now lives at Worton.
There is a complete list of rectors from 1289 to the present day. Surviving parish registers, with a small number of gaps, date from 1627; they are held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham.
The churchyard contains many memorial stones, including one which faces the east window, bearing no inscription. It is said that the grave holds Edington monks who served the church in the 15th century, but there has never been any real corroboration that monks from Edington were ever at Poulshot, although the link with the priory means that it was possible. Near to the south porch are dole stones, which is where the church doles were once handed out to the poor of the parish.
Poulshot was united with the benefice of Rowde in 1984.
In 1953 a war memorial was built on an outside wall of the church to remember the two men from the parish who died in the Second World War and the 10 who died during the First World War.
In 1965 the tower was struck by lightning but the minor damage was repaired. The church roof fell into disrepair and had to be fixed in 1980, at a cost of £22,000, much of which had been raised by people in the parish.
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.
Church of St Peter Parmentergate, situated on King Street. Redundant since 1981 and now in the care of The Norwich Historic Churches Trust.
Monument to Richard †1615 and Elizabeth (née Hobart)† 1622 Berney. South wall of chancel, next to altar. Plaster. Commissioned by Elizabeth’s brother, Edward, 1623, at her request. Possibly by a member of Edward Stanyon’s workshop.
The monument was restored by Dr David Carrington of Skillingtons in 2008. Their website includes an account of the work and a portfolio of photos: www.skillingtons.co.uk/portfolio/norwich-st-peters/
A large and impressive monument, unusual in being of plaster. In scale it fits into the tradition of monuments to lords of the local manor, and the Latin inscription notes that the deceased were Richard Berney †1615 of Langley and Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Jacob Hobart of Hales Hall. It continues that she died in 1622, and that the monument was commissioned by her brother, Edward Hobart in 1623. Blomefield notes that by 1626 the Berneys are recorded as owning Berneys-Inn near the churchyard. It was recorded in King Street from 1267 to the 15th century and the site has been identified by Plunkett as nos 86 to 90, on the same side as the church just before King Street joins Mountergate.
Richard and Elizabeth Berney lie in their dark robes on their backs, their hands clasped prayer, presumably to the haloed heads of Christ and the Virgin Mary on the elaborate decorative scroll framing the Latin inscription. Elizabeth rests her feet on a heraldic bull (the Hobart family emblem) and Richard on a bear (a punning reference to Berney). The base is decorated with simulated marble with two cherubs to remind us of death. One sleeps on a skull, holding an extinguished torch and his companion on an hour-glass, holding a grave-digger’s spade. The colour is taken up in the figures of the three cardinal virtues flanking the splendid achievement: Hope with anchor and chain, Faith, bible in hand and Charity giving suck, with another infant at her feet. The canopy, with its black Doric columns, is decorated with angel heads and in the centre an improbable plumed American Indian – a reminder of the renewed call for recruits to and investment in the London based Virginia Company.
Their coats of arms are supported by two bears, with Father Time holding his scythe above as a further reminder of death. Given the difficulty of producing plaster figures it is not surprising that the patterning of the surround behind them (based on a Renaissance model popularised by Sansovino in Venice), the strapwork of the cartouche and decoration of their ruffs, for instance, is of higher quality than the effigies. This, though, raises the question of the choice of plaster for a funeral monument. One obvious reason is cost. In 1608 Sir William Paston paid £200 for a comparable monument in St Edmund, Paston, which had combined alabaster and marble. Plaster must have been considerably cheaper and Edward Hobart may have been encouraged by the presence of one of London’s leading plasterers, Edward Stanyon, in Norfolk. Especially since he would have known Stanyon’s ceilings for Sir Henry Hobart at Blickling in 1620, as well as those at Felbrigg for Thomas Windham from 1621-23. Stanyon remained in Norfolk to produce a now lost overmantel at Hunstanton Hall from 1624-1626, which would have included modelling in higher relief than his ceilings. Both branches of the Hobarts (Blickling and Hales Hall) were descended from Sir James Hobart (d. 1517), attorney-general to Henry VII, who had moved into his major residence at Hales Hall, Loddon by 1482. Stanyon had trained a number of apprentices, some of whom would have worked with him in Norfolk, and later Apethorpe Hall in Northampton. Dr. Claire Gapper, the leading specialist of British Renaissance plasterwork, has suggested that it is therefore probable that the monument was produced by Stanyon’s team, but added that that it is difficult to be certain in the absence of any surviving comparative plasterwork.
Francis Blomefield, 'City of Norwich, chapter 42: Upper, or North Conisford ward, St Peter Per Mountergate and South Conisford ward' in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 4, the History of the City and County of Norwich, Part II (London, 1806), pp. 64-84 and 84-120; www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norwich/kin.htm; www.norfolkpubs.co.uk/norwich/bnorwich/ncbei.htm; clairegapper.info/search-results.html?search Chapter VI
Transmission and Diffusion, The plasterwork of Edward Stanyon and the dominant style of the 1620s.
detail of the heraldic bull and bear
On the way back from Oxfordshire, I thought about stopping off somewhere to take some church shots.
I'm sure Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Sussex have fine churches just off the motorway, but one had stuck in my head, back in Kent, and that Hever.
What I didn't realise is how hard it was to get too.
I followed the sat nav, taking me off the motorway whilst still in Sussex, then along narrow and twisting main roads along the edge of the north downs, through some very fine villages, but were in Sussex.
Would I see the sign marking my return to the Garden of England?
Yes, yes I would.
Edenbridge seemed quite an unexpectedly urban place, despite its name, so I didn't stop to search for an older centre, just pressing un until I was able to turn down Hever Road.
It had taken half an hour to get here.
St Peter stands by the gate to the famous castle, a place we have yet to visit, and even on a showery Saturday in March, there was a constant stream of visitors arriving.
I asked a nice young man who was directing traffic, where I could park to visit the church. He directed me to the staff car park, meaning I was able to get this shot before going in.
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Near the grounds of Hever Castle, medieval home of the Bullen family. Sandstone construction with a nice west tower and spire. There is a prominent chimney to the north chapel, although this is not the usual Victorian addition, but a Tudor feature, whose little fireplace may be seen inside! The church contains much of interest including a nineteenth-century painting of Christ before Caiphas by Reuben Sayers and another from the school of Tintoretto. The stained glass is all nineteenth and twentieth century and includes a wonderfully evocative east window (1898) by Burlisson and Grylls with quite the most theatrical sheep! The south chancel window of St Peter is by Hardman and dated 1877. In the north chapel is a fine tomb chest which displays the memorial brass of Sir Thomas Bullen (d. 1538), father of Queen Anne Boleyn. Just around the corner is a typical, though rather insubstantial, seventeenth-century pulpit with sounding board.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Hever
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HEVER.
SOUTH-EASTWARD from Eatonbridge lies Hever, called in the Textus Roffensis, and some antient records, Heure, and in others, Evere.
This parish lies below the sand hill, and is consequently in that district of this county called The Weald.
There is a small part of it, called the Borough of Linckbill, comprehending a part of this parish, Chidingstone, and Hever, which is within the hundred of Ruxley, and being part of the manor of Great Orpington, the manerial rights of it belong to Sir John Dixon Dyke, bart. the owner of that manor.
THE PARISH of Hever is long, and narrow from north to south. It lies wholly below the sand hills, and consequently in the district of the Weald; the soil and face of the country is the same as that of Eatonbridge, last described, the oak trees in it being in great plently, and in general growing to a very large size. The river Eden directs its course across it, towards Penshurst and the Medway, flowing near the walls of Hever castle, about a quarter of a mile southward from which is the village of Hever and the parsonage; near the northern side of the river is the seat of Polebrooke, late Douglass's, now Mrs. Susannah Payne's; and a little farther, the hamlets of Howgreen and Bowbeach; part of Linckhill borough, which is in the hundred of Ruxley, extends into this parish. There is a strange odd saying here, very frequent among the common people, which is this:
Jesus Christ never was but once at Hever.
And then he fell into the river.
Which can only be accounted for, by supposing that it alluded to a priest, who was carrying the bost to a sick person, and passing in his way over a bridge, sell with it into the river.
Hever was once the capital seat and manor of a family of the same name, whose still more antient possessions lay at Hever, near Northfleet, in this county, who bore for their arms, Gules, a cross argent. These arms, with a lable of three points azure, still remained in the late Mote-house, in Maidstone, and are quartered in this manner by the earl of Thanet, one of whose ancestors, Nicholas Tuston, esq. of Northiam, married Margaret, daughter and heir of John Hever of this county. (fn. 1)
William de Heure. possessed a moiety of this place in the reign of king Edward I. in the 2d of which he was was sheriff of this county, and in the 9th of it obtained a grant of free warren within his demesne lands in Heure, Chidingstone, and Lingefield.
Sir Ralph de Heure seems at this time to have possessed the other moiety of this parish, between whose son and heir, Ralph, and Nicholas, abbot of St. Augustine's, there had been, as appears by the register of that abbey, several disputes concerning lands in Hever, which was settled in the 4th year of king Edward I. by the abbot's granting to him and his heirs for ever, the land which he held of him in Hever, to hold by the service of the fourth part of a knight's fee.
William de Hever, in the reign of king Edward III. became possessed of the whole of this manor, and new built the mansion here, and had licence to embattle it; soon after which he died, leaving two daughters his coheirs; one of whom, Joane, carried one moiety of this estate in marriage to Reginald Cobham, a younger son of the Cobhams of Cobham, in this county; (fn. 2) whence this part of Hever, to distinguish it from the other, acquired the name of Hever Cobham.
His son, Reginald lord Cobham, in the 14th year of that reign, obtained a charter for free warren within his demesne lands in Hever. (fn. 3) He was succeeded in this manor by his son, Reginald lord Cobham, who was of Sterborough castle, in Surry, whence this branch was stiled Cobhams of Sterborough.
The other moiety of Hever, by Margaret, the other daughter and coheir, went in marriage to Sir Oliver Brocas, and thence gained the name of Hever Brocas. One of his descendants alienated it to Reginald lord Cobham, of Sterborough, last mentioned, who died possessed of both these manors in the 6th year of king Henry IV.
His grandson, Sir Thomas Cobham, sold these manors to Sir Geoffry Bulleyn, a wealthy mercer of London, who had been lord mayor in the 37th year of king Henry VI. He died possessed of both Hever Cobham and Hever Brocas, in the 3d year of king Edward IV. leaving by Anne, his wife, eldest sister of Thomas, lord Hoo and Hastings, Sir William Bulleyn, of Blickling, in Norfolk, who married Margaret, daughter and coheir of Thomas Boteler, earl of Ormond, by whom he had a son and heir, Thomas, who became a man of eminent note in the reign of king Henry VIII. and by reason of the king's great affection to the lady Anne Bulleyn, his daughter, was in the 17th year of that reign, created viscount Rochford; and in the 21st year of it, being then a knight of the Garter, to that of earl of Wiltshire and Ormond; viz. Wiltshire to his heirs male, and Ormond to his heirs general.
He resided here, and added greatly to those buildings, which his grandfather, Sir Geoffry Bulleyn, began in his life time, all which he completely finished, and from this time this seat seems to have been constantly called HEVER-CASTLE.
He died in the 30th of the same reign, possessed of this castle, with the two manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas, having had by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, one sonGeorge, executed in his life time; and two daughters, Anne, wife to king Henry VIII. and Mary, wife of William Carey, esquire of the body, and ancestor of the lords Hunsdon and the earls of Dover and Monmouth.
On the death of the earl of Wiltshire, without issue male, who lies buried in this church, under an altar tomb of black marble, on which is his figure, as large as the life, in brass, dressed in the robes of the Garter, the king seised on this castle and these manors, in right of his late wife, the unfortunate Anne Bulleyn, the earl's daughter, who resided at Hever-castle whilst the king courted her, there being letters of both extant, written by them from and to this place, and her chamber in it is still called by her name; and they remained in his hands till the 32d year of his reign, when he granted to the lady Anne of Cleves, his repudiated wife, his manors of Hever, Seale, and Kemsing, among others, and his park of Hever, with its rights, members, and appurtenances, then in the king's hands; and all other estates in Hever, Seale, and Kemsing, lately purchased by him of Sir William Bulleyn and William Bulleyn, clerk, to hold to her during life, so long as she should stay within the realm, and not depart out of it without his licence, at the yearly rent of 931. 13s. 3½d. payable at the court of augmention. She died possessed of the castle, manors, and estates of Hever, in the 4th and 5th year of king Philip and queen Mary, when they reverted again to the crown, where they continued but a short time, for they were sold that year, by commissioners authorised for this purpose, to Sir Edward Waldegrave and dame Frances his wife; soon after which the park seems to have have been disparked.
This family of Waldegrave, antiently written Walgrave, is so named from a place, called Walgrave, in the county of Northampton, at which one of them was resident in the reign of king John, whose descendants afterwards settled in Essex, and bore for their arms, Per pale argent and gules. Warine de Walgrave is the first of them mentioned, whose son, John de Walgrave, was sheriff of London, in the 7th year of king John's reign, whose direct descendant was Sir Edward Waldegrave, who purchased this estate, as before mentioned. (fn. 5) He had been a principal officer of the household to the princess Mary; at the latter end of the reign of king Edward VI. he incurred the king's displeasure much by his attachment to her interest, and was closely imprisoned in the Tower; but the king's death happening soon afterwards, queen Mary amply recompensed his sufferings by the continued marks of her favour and bounty, which she conferred on him; and in the 4th and 5th years of that reign, he obtained, as above mentioned, on very easy terms, the castle and manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas; and besides being employed by the queen continually in commissions of trust and importance, had many grants of lands and other favours bestowed on him. But on the death of queen Mary, in 1558, he was divested of all his employments, and committed prisoner to the Tower, (fn. 6) where he died in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth. He left two sons, Charles, his heir; and Nicholas, ancestor to those of Boreley, in Essex; and several daughters.
Charles Waldegrave succeeded his father in his estates in this parish; whose son Edward received the honour of knighthood at Greenwich, in 1607, and though upwards of seventy years of age, at the breaking out of the civil wars, yet he nobly took arms in the king's defence, and having the command of a regiment of horse, behaved so bravely, that he had conferred on him the dignity of a baronet, in 1643; after which he continued to act with great courage in the several attacks against the parliamentary forces, in which time he lost two of his sons, and suffered in his estate to the value of fifty thousand pounds.
His great grandson, Sir Henry Waldegrave, in 1686, in the 1st year of king James II. was created a peer, by the title of baron Waldegrave of Chewton, in Somersetshire, and had several offices of trust conferred on him; but on the Revolution he retired into France, and died at Paris, in 1689. (fn. 7) He married Henrietta, natural daughter of king James II. by Arabella Churchill, sister of John duke of Marlborough, by whom he had James, created earl of Waldegrave in the 3d year of king George II. who, in the year 1715, conveyed the castle and these manors to Sir William Humfreys, bart. who that year was lord mayor of the city of London. He was of Barking, in Essex, and had been created a baronet in 1714. He was descended from Nathaniel Humfreys, citizen of London, the second son of William ap Humfrey, of Montgomery, in North Wales, and bore for his arms two coats, Quarterly, 1st and 4th, sable, two nags heads erased argent; 2d and 3d, per pale or and gules, two lions rampant endorsed, counterchanged.
He died in 1735, leaving by his first wife, Margaret, daughter of William Wintour, of Gloucestershire, an only son and heir, Sir Orlando Humfreys, bart. who died in 1737, having had by Ellen, his wife, only child of colonel Robert Lancashire, three sons and two daughters; two of the sons died young; Robert, the second and only surviving son, had the castle and manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas, and died before his father possessed of them, as appears by his epitaph, in 1736, ætat. 28.
On Sir Orlando's death his two daughters became his, as well as their brother's, coheirs, of whom Mary, the eldest, had three husbands; first, William Ball Waring, of Dunston, in Berkshire, who died in 1746, without issue; secondly, John Honywood, esq. second brother of Richard, of Mark's-hall, who likewife died without issue, in 1748; and lastly, Thomas Gore, esq. uncle to Charles Gore, esq. M.P. for Hertfordshire; which latter had married, in 1741, Ellen Wintour, the only daughter of Sir Orlando Humfreys, above mentioned.
They, with their husbands, in 1745, joined in the sale of Hever-castle and the manors of Hever Cobham and Hever Brocas, to Timothy Waldo. He was descended from Thomas Waldo, of Lyons, in France, one of the first who publicly opposed the doctrines of the church of Rome, of whom there is a full account in the Atlas Geograph. vol. ii. and in Moreland's History of the Evangelical Churches of Piedmont. One of his descendants, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, to escape the persecution of the duke D'Alva, came over to England, where he and his descendants afterwards settled, who bore for their arms, Argent a bend azure, between three leopards heads of the second; of whom, in king Charles II.'s reign, there were three brothers, the eldest of whom, Edward, was knighted, and died without male issue, leaving two daughters his coheirs; the eldest of whom, Grace, married first Sir Nicholas Wolstenholme, bart. and secondly, William lord Hunsdon, but died without issue by either of them, in 1729. The second brother was of Harrow, in Middlesex; and Timothy, the third, was an eminent merchant of London, whose grandsons were Edward, who was of South Lambeth, esq. and died in 1783, leaving only one daughter; and Timothy, of Clapham, esquire, the purchaser of this estate, as above mentioned, who was afterwards knighted, and died possessed of it, with near thirteen hundred acres of land round it, in 1786; he married, in 1736, Miss Catherine Wakefield, by whom he left an only daughter and heir, married to George Medley, esq. of Sussex, lady Waldo surviving him is at this time intitled to it.
The castle is entire, and in good condition; it has a moat round it, formed by the river Eden, over which there is a draw bridge, leading to the grand entrance, in the gate of which there is yet a port cullis, within is a quadrangle, round which are the offices, and a great hall; at the upper end of which, above a step, is a large oak table, as usual in former times. The great stair case leads up to several chambers and to the long gallery, the cieling of which is much ornamented with soliage in stucco; the rooms are all wainscotted with small oaken pannels, unpainted. On one side of the gallery is a recess, with an ascent of two steps, and one seat in it, with two returns, capable of holding ten or twelve persons, which, by tradition, was used as a throne, when king Henry VIII. visited the castle. At the upper end of the gallery, on one side of a large window, there is in the floor a kind of trap door, which, when opened, discovers a narrow and dark deep descent, which is said to reach as far as the moat, and at this day is still called the dungeon. In a closet, in one of the towers, the window of which is now stopped up, there is an adjoining chamber, in which queen Anne Bulleyn is said to have been consined after her dis grace. The entrance to this closet, from the chamber, is now by a small door, which at that time was a secret sliding pannel, and is yet called Anne Bulleyn's pannel.
In the windows of Hever-castle are these arms; Argent, three buckles gules, within the garter; a shield of four coasts, Howard, Brotherton, Warren, and Mowbray, argent three buckles gules; a shield of eight coats, viz. Bulleyn, Hoo, St. Omer, Malmains, Wickingham, St. Leger, Wallop, and Ormond; and one, per pale argent and gules, for Waldegrave. (fn. 8)
It is reported, that when Henry VIII. with his attendants, came to the top of the hill, within sight of the castle, he used to wind his bugle horn, to give notice of his approach.
There was a court baron constantly held for each of the above manors till within these forty years, but at present there is only one, both manors being now esteemed but as one, the circuit of which, over the neighbouring parishes, is very extensive.
SEYLIARDS is an estate here which extends itself into the parishes of Brasted and Eatonbridge, but the mansion of it is in this parish, and was the antient seat of the Seyliards, who afterwards branched out from hence into Brasted, Eatonbridge, Chidingstone, and Boxley, in this county.
The first of this name, who is recorded to have possessed this place, was Ralph de Seyliard, who resided here in the reign of king Stephen.
Almerick de Eureux, earl of Gloucester, who lived in the reign of king Henry III. demised lands to Martin at Seyliard, and other lands, called Hedinden, to Richard Seyliard, both of whom were sons of Ralph at Seyliard, and the latter of them was ancestor to those seated here and at Delaware, in Brasted. (fn. 9)
This place continued in his descendants till Sir Tho. Seyliard of Delaware, passed it away to John Petley, esq. who alienated it to Sir Multon Lambarde, of Sevenoke, and he died possessed of it in 1758; and it is now the property of his grandson, Multon Lambarde, of Sevenoke, esq.
Charities.
A PERSON gave, but who or when is unknown, but which has time out of mind been distributed among the poor of this parish, the sum of 10s. yearly, to be paid out of land vested in the churchwardens, and now of that annual produce.
The Rev. JOHN PETER gave by will, about 1661, the sum of 10s. yearly, to be paid for the benefit of poor farmers only, out of land vested in the rector, the heirs of Wm. Douglass, and the heirs of Francis Bowty, and now of that annual produce.
The Rev. GEORGE BORRASTON, rector, and several of the parishioners, as appears by a writing dated in 1693, purchased, with money arising from several bequests, the names of the donors unknown, except that of WILLIAM FALKNER, to which the parishioners added 15l. a piece of land, the rent to be distributed yearly among the poor of the parish, vested in the rector and churchwardens, and of the annual produce of 3l. 12s.
Rev. THOMAS LANCASTER, rector, gave by will in 1714, for buying good books for the poor, and in case books are not wanting for the schooling of poor children at the discretion of the mimister, part of a policy on lives, which was exchanged for a sum of money paid by his executor, being 20l. vested in the minister and churchwardens.
SIR TIMOTHY WALDO gave by will in 1786, 500l. consolidated 3 per cent. Bank Annuities, one moiety of the interest of which to be applied for the placing of some poor boy of the parish apprentice to a farmer, or some handicraft trade, or to the sea service, or in cloathing such poor boy during his apprenticeship, and in case no such poor boy can be found, this moiety to be distributed among such of the industrious poor who do not receive alms. The other moiety to be laid out in buying and distributing flannel waistcoats, or strong shoes, or warm stockings, among such of the industrious or aged poor persons inhabiting within this parish, as do not receive alms, vested in the Salters Company.
HEVER is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham. The church, which stands at the east end of the village, is a small, but neat building, consisting of one isle and two chancels, having a handsome spire at the west end of it. It is dedicated to St. Peter.
Among other monuments and inscriptions in it are the following:—In the isle is a grave-stone, on which is the figure of a woman, and inscription in black letter in brass, for Margaret, wife of William Cheyne, obt. 1419, arms, a fess wavy between three crescents.—In the chancel, a memorial for Robert Humfreys, esq. lord of the manor of Heaver, only son and heir of Sir Orlando Humfreys, bart. of Jenkins, in Effex, obt. 1736. Against the wall is a brass plate, with the figure of a man kneeling at a desk, and inscription in black letter for William Todde, schoolmaster to Charles Waldegrave, esq. obt. 1585.—In the north chancel, an altar tomb, with the figure on it at large in brass, of Sir Thomas Bullen, knight of the garter, earl of Wilcher and earl of Ormunde, obt. 1538. A small slab with a brass plate, for ........ Bullayen, the son of Sir Thomas Bullayen.—In the belsry, a stone with a brass plate, and inscription in black letter in French, for John de Cobham, esquire, obt. 1399, and dame Johane, dame de Leukenore his wife, and Renaud their son; near the above is an antient altar tomb for another of that name, on which is a shield of arms in brass, or, on a chevron, three eagles displayed, a star in the dexter point. These were the arms of this branch of the Cobhams, of Sterborough-castle. (fn. 10)
This church is a rectory, the advowson of which belonged to the priory of Combwell, in Goudhurst, and came to the crown with the rest of its possessions at the time of the surrendry of it, in the 7th year of king Henry VIII. in consequence of the act passed that year for the surrendry of all religious houses, under the clear yearly revenue of two hundred pounds. Soon after which this advowson was granted, with the scite of the priory, to Thomas Colepeper, but he did not long possess it; and it appears, by the Escheat Rolls, to have come again into the hands of the crown, and was granted by the king, in his 34th year, to Sir John Gage, to hold in capite by knights service; who exchanged it again with Tho. Colepeper, to confirm which an act passed the year after. (fn. 11) His son and heir, Alexander Colepeper, had possession granted of sundry premises, among which was the advowson of Hever, held in capite by knights service, in the 3d and 4th years of king Philip and queen Mary; the year after which it was, among other premises, granted to Sir Edward Waldegrave, to hold by the like tenure.
Charles Waldegrave, esq. in the 12th year of queen Elizabeth, alienated this advowson to John Lennard, esq. of Chevening, and being entailed to his heirs male, by the last will of Sampson Lennard, esq. his eldest son, under the word hereditament possessed it, and it being an advowson in gross, was never disentailed by Henry, Richard, or Francis, lords Dacre, his descendants, so that it came to Thomas lord Dacre, son of the last mentioned Francis, lord Dacre, afterwards earl of Sussex, in 1673, and at length sole heir male of the descendants of John Lennard, esq. of Chevening, above mentioned; and the same trial was had for the claim of a moiety of it, at the Queen's-bench bar, as for the rest of the earl's estates, and a verdict then obtained in his favour, as has been already fully mentioned before, under Chevening.
The earl of Sussex died possessed of it in 1715, (fn. 12) whose two daughters, his coheirs, on their father's death became entitled to this advowson, and a few years afterwards alienated the same.
It then became the property of the Rev. Mr. Geo. Lewis, as it has since of the Rev. Mr. Hamlin, whose daughter marrying the Rev. Mr. Nott, of Little Horsted, in Sussex, he is now intitled to it.
In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church of Heure was valued at fifteen marcs.
By virtue of a commission of enquiry, taken by order of the state, in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned, that Hever was a parsonage, with a house, and twelve acres of glebe land, which, with the tithes, were worth seventy-seven pounds per annum, master John Petter being then incumbent, and receiving the profits, and that Francis lord Dacre was donor of it. (fn. 13)
This rectory was valued, in 1747, at 1831. per annum, as appears by the particulars then made for the sale of it.
It is valued, in the king's books, at 15l. 17s. 3½d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 10s. 8¾d. It is now of the yearly value of about 200l.
¶The priory of Combwell, in Goudhurst, was endowed by Robert de Thurnham, the founder of that house, in the reign of king Henry II. with his tithe of Lincheshele and sundry premises in this parish, for which the religious received from the rector of this church the annual sum of 43s. 4d.
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 sits on a small lane leading up from the old A20 London Road to the downs of Stowting and Wye, it sits apart from the village of the same name, and the closest building is now a farm, converted from the grand house it once served.
I came here about 5 years ago on Heritage weekend, and found it locked, as it has been on a couple of subsequent visits.
I came up here more in hope really, having to get past a large group of cyclists who we making hard work of the shallow slope, in fact I only got past them when one of their number got a puncture and the whole group stopped.
But the church was unmanned, but open, so my much postponed plan to attend one of the monthly services was now not needed.
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An absolute charmer – built of flint with only the adjacent Court for company. It is a simple two cell Norman church of flint but one which, despite Clarke’s ambitious rebuilding in the nineteenth century, has much to offer. Low in the south wall, now part of the French drain, is a medieval mass dial! It is in the infill of the original south door. The medieval tower was demolished by Clarke and the west door reopened into a nave with straightforward crown post roof. The glass is a real mixture, the south western window depicting St George having a really androgynous figure! The ledger slabs from the church were all moved to the vestry and include a rare inscription to someone who was drowned whilst racing the rapids through the old London Bridge. The chancel contains a good example of funeral armour. This church is well worth a drive to seek out.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Monks+Horton
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MONKS HORTON.
THE parish of Horton, usually called Monks Horton, from the priory situated in it, as well as to distinguish it from others of that name in this county, lies the next southward from Stowting,
It LIES adjoining to the down hills which cross the parish, and though it has a variety of situation it is in the whole esteemed healthy. The high road from Canterbury called Stone-street way, leads over Hampton-hill, along the east side of it; above this it is a dreary forlorn country, the soil wretchedly poor, and covered with sharp flints, much the same as that in Stowting before described, but at the foot of the hill it changes to a better soil, and a much more pleasant aspect, in which part it may, in comparison of the lower part of the valley southward, over which there is an extensive view, be called high ground, which occasioned this part of it to be called formerly Uphorton; in which part of it is Mount Morris, standing in the midst of several hundred acres of dry pasture grounds, extending over the greatest part of this and into the adjoining parishes, which have been all open one to the other for some time; the trees and coppice wood, round the former inclosures, having been suffered to grow for many years natural and luxuriant, and being interspersed with other woods and plantations, form a scene uncommonly pleasant and picturesque for a long way round. At a small distance from Mount Morris, among these now uninclosed pastures, stands Horton court-lodge and the church. The western part of the parish is very low, wet, and swampy; the stream which rises northward from hence at Stowting, runs along this side of it by the hamlets of Horton and Broad street, and so on into the Post ling branch below Sellinge; here the soil is a deep, miry clay, though on the side of the stream there are some fertile good meadows, among which is Horton priory, standing in a bottom near the stream, below Broad-street, in a very low and damp situation, and so obscure and retired, having a large wood which reaches close up to it, that it is hardly seen till you are close to it. There is but a small part of it remaining; what is left is made use of for the dwellinghouse, being a long narrow building, of ashler stone and flints, seemingly of the time of king Henry VI though by the windows it appears to have been much altered at different times; and there are the remains of a tower at the east end, and a small part of a very fine, large, circular arch, with zigzag ornaments of a much antienter date, seemingly the great entrance into the priory, or perhaps the church of it; beyond which, still further eastward, that part which was taken down by the king's order soon after the suppression of it, seems to have stood.
At THE TIME of taking the survey of Domesday, Horton was part of the possessions of Hugo de Montfort; accordingly it is thus entered in Domesday, under the general title of his lands:
In Stotinges hundred, Alnod holds of Hugo, Hortone. Leuuin held it of king Edward, and it was taxed at half a suling. The arable land is three carucates. In demesne there are two carucates, and five villeins, with six borderers having one carucate and an half. There is a church, and one mill of twenty five pence, and twentyfour acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of ten bogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth forty shillings, and afterwards twenty, now sixty shillings. In the same place Alnod holds one yoke, of Hugo, but there is nothing.
The same Hugo holds three rood and a half in the same lath, which three sochmen hold of king Edward. There now one villein has half a carucate, with three borderers. It is and was worth separately ten shillings.
And a little further below, in the same record:
In Stotinges hundred, Ralph holds of Hugo, Hortun. Two sochmen held it of king Edward, and it was laxed at one yoke and an half. The arable land is one carucate and an half. In demesne there is one, with four villeins, and one mill of thirty pence, and ten acres of meadow. Of the wood there is pannage for six bogs.
On the voluntary exile of Robert de Montfort, grandson of Hugh above-mentioned, in the reign of king Henry I. his estates in this parish, among the rest of his possessions, came into the king's hands, whence they were, with others adjoining in this neighbourhood, soon afterwards granted to Robert de Ver, constable of England, who had married Adeliza, daughter of Hugh de Montfort, and they jointly, by which it should seem that she had a special interest in this manor as part of her inheritance, granted THE MANOR OF HORTON, alias UPHORTON, in the early part of the reign of king Henry II. to the prior and monks of their new-founded priory in this parish, to hold to them, on the payment of one marc of silver yearly to the church of St. Pancrace, of Lewes, as an acknowledgment. (fn. 1) It appears by the record of Dover castle, taken in king Edward I.'s reign, that the prior of Horton held one knight's fee in Horton, by the service of ward to that castle, being part of that barony held of it, called the Constabularie; so called from its being held as part of the barony of the earl of Bologne, constable of that castle in the reign of king Henry I. and Darell, in his treatise, says the possessors of this manor, among others, were bound to repair a tower in it, called Penchester tower; which service was afterwards changed for the annual payment of ten shillings in lieu of it. In which state it continued till the general dissolution of religious houses in the reign of king Henry VIII. in the 27th year of which, an act having passed for the suppression of all such, whose revenues did not amount to two hundred pounds per annum, this priory was surrendered into the king's hands; whence this manor, as well as all the rest of the possessions belonging to it, was granted by the king, in his 29th year, to archbishop Cranmer, and it continued part of the possessions of that see till the reign of queen Elizabeth, when it was by act again vested in the crown, where it staid till king Charles I. in his 4th year, granted it to trustees for the use of the mayor and commonalty of the city of London; whence it was sold two years afterwards to George Rooke, gent. of Mersham, from whose family were descended the Rookes, of St. Laurence, near Canterbury, now extinct. They bore for their arms, Argent, on a chevron engrailed, sable, three chess rooks, argent, between three rooks, sable. (fn. 2) His descendant Heyman Rooke alienated it in the reign of queen Anne to Tho. Morris, esq. of this parish, who dying without issue male, devised this manor by will to his daughter's son Morris Drake Morris, esq. and on failure of issue male in that branch, to the issue male of the said Morris's sister Elizabeth Drake, by her husband Matthew Robinson, esq. of Yorkshire; by virtue of which, their eldest son the Right Hon. Matthew Robinson Morris, lord Rookby, of whom a further account will be given hereafter, is now become entitled to it. A court baron is regularly held for this manor.
THE MANOR OF SHERFORD, alias EAST HORTON, was, in the time of king Edward the Consessor, part of the possessions of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, being then esteemed as one yoke of land; but after the Norman conquest it was taken from them, and given, among much other land in this neighbourhood, to Hugh de Montsort, not withstanding the opposition which the monks made to it, which their chronicles say, was all in vain, and this manor is accordingly included in the description before-mentioned of his lands in the survey of Domesday. On his voluntary exile in the reign of Henry I. it was, with the rest of his possessions, seized on by the crown, and was most probably afterwards returned to the abbot; for in the 23d year of king Edward III. Sir Richard de Retling held it of the abbot at his death, that year, and left it to Joane his sole daughter and heir, who marrying John Spicer, entitled him to it, and in this name and family this manor continued till the reign of queen Elizabeth, about the latter end of which it was alienated by one of them to Thomas Morris, gent. of London, whose grandson Thomas Morris, esq. late of London, merchant, in the reign of king William, erected on the scite of this manor, on an eminence, a handsome mansion for his residence, which he named MOUNT MORRIS. He died in 17'7, having had an only son Thomas, who was drowned under London bridge, on his return from Holland, in 1697, æt. 23; and one daughter, married first to Drake, of Cambridgeshire, and secondly to the learned Dr. Conyers Middleton; by the former of whom she had Morris Drake, and a daughter Elizabeth, who married Matthew Robinson, esq. The family of Morris bore for their arms, Argent, a spread eagle within a bordure, sable. (fn. 3) Thomas Morris, esq. by will devised this seat, as well as the manor of East Horton, among his other estates, at his death in 1717, to his grandson Morris Drake, esq. who took the name of Morris, and afterwards resided here, and dying s.p. it came by the entail in the above will to his sister Elizabeth Drake, married to Matthew Robinson, esq. of Yorkshire, for her life, and afterwards to her issue. The Robinsons are originally descended from the Robinsons, of Strouan, in Perthshire, in the highlands of Scotland, where at this time there is a considerable and numerous clan of this name. The first of them, of this branch, who came into England, settled at Kendal, in Westmoreland, in the reign of king Henry VIII. After which William Robinson, of the eldest branch of them, resided at Rookby, in Yorkshire, which he had purchased in queen Elizabeth's reign, whose eldest son Thomas was killed in the civil wars in 1643, leaving several sons and daughters. From William the eldest, descended William Robinson, of Rookby, of whose sons, Thomas the eldest, was of Rookby, and created a baronet in 1730, but died s.p. Richard, the sixth son, was archbishop of Armagh, and primate of Ireland, and on failure of issue by his brother, succeeded to the title of baronet in 1777. He was created Lord Rokeby, of the kingdom of Ireland, with remainder to Matthew Robinson, esq. his kinsman, of West Layton, in Yorkshire, and his heirs male. He died unmarried in 1794, and Septimius, the seventh son, was knighted and gentleman usher of the black rod. Leonard, the youngest son of Thomas, who was slain in 1643 as above-mentioned, was chamberlain of London, and knighted. He left three sons and six daughters, of whom the eldest and only surviving son was Matthew Robinson, esq. of West Layton, who married Elizabeth Drake, by whom he became possessed of Horton during her life, as above-mentioned. He died in London in 1778, æt. 84, having had by her seven sons and two daughters. Of the former, Matthew Robinson Morris, esq. of Horton, twice served in parliament for Canterbury, and is the present Lord Rokeby; Tho mas was barrister-at-law, author of the celebrated treatise on Gavelkind, who died unmarried in 1748; Morris was solicitor in chancery, who died in Ireland in 1777, leaving two sons, Morris and Matthew; William was late rector of Denton, whose son Matthew is in orders, and his daughter Elizabeth is the second wife of Samuel Egerton Brydges, esq. of Denton; John was fellow of Trinity-hall, Cambridge; and Charles is barrister-at law, recorder of Canterbury, and served twice in parliament for that city; he has one daughter Mary, who married William Hougham, jun. esq. The two daughters were Elizabeth married to Edw. Montague, esq. of Allethorpe, in Yorkshire; and Sarah to G. L. Scott, esq. They bear for their arms, Vert, a chevron between three roebucks trippant, or. (fn. 4) By virtue of Mr. Morris's will, on the death of Elizabeth, wife of Matthew Robinson, esq. this estate passed immediately, notwithstanding her husband survived, to her eldest son Matthew Robinson, esq. who in compliance with the same will, took the additional name of Morris, of whom a full account has already been given before. In 1794, on the death of the lord primate of Ireland, unmarried, he succeeded, by the limitation of the patent, to the title of lord Rokeby, which he now enjoys. He is now entitled to this manor and seat, in which he resides, being at present unmarried.
IN THE VERY beginning of king Henry II.'s reign, Robert, son of Bernard de Ver, with the king's licence, founded A PRIORY in this parish, (on part of the demesnes of the manor of Horton) in honor of the Virgin Mary, and St. John the Evangelist, placing in it monks of the order of Clugni, and subjecting it as a cell to the priory of St. Pancrace, of that order, at Lewes, in Sussex. After which he, together with his wife Adeliza, daughter of Hugh de Montfort, gave to them their manor of Horton, with its appurtenances, and other lands and services elsewhere, the prior paying yearly to the church of St. Pancrace before-mentioned, one marc of silver as an acknowledgment. And they ordained that the prior of St. Pancrace, of Lewes, should have the management and disposition of the prior and monks of Horton, in the same manner as of his own, according to the rule of St. Benedict, and the order of Clugnt; and they gave to them besides, by different subsequent charters, several other lands, tithes, churches, and other possessions, and confirmed their former donations to it; and these were afterwards increased by others made at different times to it, as appears by the several charters in the register of it, and those again confirmed by Henry de Essex, by king Stephen, and by several different popes. King Edward III. in his 47th year, released this priory from its state of an alien priory, and made it indigenous, prioratus indigena, that is, upon the same footing as other English priories. In the 8th year of the next reign of king Richard II. the revenues of it, in temporalities and spiritualities, were valued at 98l. 16s. 8d.
In the reign of king Henry VI. they were taxed at 106l. 16s. 8d. though the total revenue of it was 117l. 12s. 6d. At which time, as appears by the register of the priory, there were here only six monks, with the prior, all priests and prosessed, though by their charter of foundation, they were to maintain thirteen monks, or if their revenue came short, at least eight. And in this state it continued till the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when this priory was suppressed by act, as not having revenues of the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, the yearly revenues of it amounting to no more than 95l. 12s. 2d. clear yearly income, and 111l. 16s. 11½d. total yearly revenue, (fn. 5) and it was surrendered up with all its lands and possessions, into the king's hands, by Richard Gloucester, alias Brisley, then prior of it, who had fifteen pounds a year pension granted to him. (fn. 6)
The original of the register of this priory was formerly in the possession of the family of Rooke, afterwards of William Somner, of Canterbury; and a transcript of it was not many years since in the Surrenden library, though now in other hands. Among the Harleian MSS. are collections from the chartularie of this priory, taken anno 1648, No. 2044-38; and there is a manuscript chartularie in the Bodleian library at Oxford, Dodsworth LV, which seems to be that once in the possession of William Somner abovementioned.
THE SCITE OF THE PRIORY of Horton, with the possessions belonging to it, did not remain long in the hands of the crown, during which time however much of the buildings of it were pulled down and carried off, for the king, in his 29th year, granted them, subject to certain exceptions and payments to archbishop Cranmer, who that year conveyed them back again to the crown; whence they were next year granted, to hold in capite by knight's service, to Richard Tate, esq. of Stockbury, who was then in possession of them by a former lease from the crown. He was afterwards knighted, and in the I st year of Edward VI. alienated the scite of the priory, with the lands belonging to it, to Walter Mantell, esq. grandson of Sir Walter Mantell, of Heyford, in Northamptonshire, who bore for his arms, Argent, a cross engrailed, between four mullets, sable; but he being, with his nephew Walter Mantell and others, attainted and executed, for being concerned in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, in the I st year of queen Mary, this estate became forfeited to the crown, where it staid till queen Elizabeth, in her 13th year, restored it to his eldest son Matthew Mantell, to bold to him and his heirs male, whose direct descendants continued to reside in it for several generations afterwards, in one of whom it still continues, being at this time vested in Mr. Augustus William Mantell.
Charities.
WILLIAM FORDRED, by will in 1550, gave to this parish, among others, a proportion of the rents of twenty-five acres of land in St. Mary's parish, in Romney Marsh; which portion to this parish is of the annual produce of 4l. 12s. 4 1/2d. to be distributed annually to the poor, and vested in certain trustees.
The poor constantly relieved are about eight, casually four.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Elham.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is but a small building, consisting of one isle and one chancel, having a low pointed turret at the west end, in which are four bells. In the chancel are two monuments for the family of Rooke, and several memorials for the Morris's, who lie in a vault underneath. In the isle there are monuments and memorials likewise of the Morris's. Against the north wall, over lord Rokeby's pew, is a curious tablet of vellum, on which is written a long copy of Latin verses, round it are ornaments, with the last-mentioned arms, and the date, 1647, seemingly done in needle-work, most probably by Mrs. Sarah, wise of Thomas Morris, gent. of Horton, who died in 1646, whose monument is here near it. There are no remains of painted glass in the windows. Richard Burcherde, of Canterbury, by will in 1534, gave three pounds to this church, to buy two tables of alabaster for two altars in the body of it, on one to be the story of our Lady, and on the other that of St. John; near them was the tabernacle of St. Nicholas; and he gave four pounds towards making a window, the same as that on the north side there.
The church of Horton appears, after the general dissolution of monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. to have been vested in the crown, where it remained till the king, in his 34th year, exchanged the advowson of this rectory, among other premises, with the archbishop of Canterbury, and it has remained parcel of the possessions of that see ever since, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.
This rectory is valued in the king's books at 7l. 10S. 8d. It is now a discharged living, of the clear yearly certified value of forty pounds. In 1588 it was valued at thirty pounds, communicants 108. In 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds, communicants 180.
There was a decree made in the court of exchequer, on the complaint of Laurence Rook, then the queen's farmer, of the scite and demesnes of Horton manor, in the 39th year of queen Elizabeth, touching the payment of tithes to the rector of this parish, by which, certified by the queen's letters of inspeximus, a modus was established as having been time out of mind, for all pasture grounds, and of the dry cattle, and the wool of sheep and lambs feeding on them, and for certain sorts of wood mentioned therein.
Bryan Faussett, soon after he became rector, commenced a suit in the exchequer, for tithes due to him, in opposition to the above decree; but after carrying his suit on for several years, he dropped it, and the tithes have been ever since received by the succeeding rectors according to the above-mentioned decree.
St Peter sits on a small lane leading up from the old A20 London Road to the downs of Stowting and Wye, it sits apart from the village of the same name, and the closest building is now a farm, converted from the grand house it once served.
I came here about 5 years ago on Heritage weekend, and found it locked, as it has been on a couple of subsequent visits.
I came up here more in hope really, having to get past a large group of cyclists who we making hard work of the shallow slope, in fact I only got past them when one of their number got a puncture and the whole group stopped.
But the church was unmanned, but open, so my much postponed plan to attend one of the monthly services was now not needed.
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An absolute charmer – built of flint with only the adjacent Court for company. It is a simple two cell Norman church of flint but one which, despite Clarke’s ambitious rebuilding in the nineteenth century, has much to offer. Low in the south wall, now part of the French drain, is a medieval mass dial! It is in the infill of the original south door. The medieval tower was demolished by Clarke and the west door reopened into a nave with straightforward crown post roof. The glass is a real mixture, the south western window depicting St George having a really androgynous figure! The ledger slabs from the church were all moved to the vestry and include a rare inscription to someone who was drowned whilst racing the rapids through the old London Bridge. The chancel contains a good example of funeral armour. This church is well worth a drive to seek out.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Monks+Horton
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MONKS HORTON.
THE parish of Horton, usually called Monks Horton, from the priory situated in it, as well as to distinguish it from others of that name in this county, lies the next southward from Stowting,
It LIES adjoining to the down hills which cross the parish, and though it has a variety of situation it is in the whole esteemed healthy. The high road from Canterbury called Stone-street way, leads over Hampton-hill, along the east side of it; above this it is a dreary forlorn country, the soil wretchedly poor, and covered with sharp flints, much the same as that in Stowting before described, but at the foot of the hill it changes to a better soil, and a much more pleasant aspect, in which part it may, in comparison of the lower part of the valley southward, over which there is an extensive view, be called high ground, which occasioned this part of it to be called formerly Uphorton; in which part of it is Mount Morris, standing in the midst of several hundred acres of dry pasture grounds, extending over the greatest part of this and into the adjoining parishes, which have been all open one to the other for some time; the trees and coppice wood, round the former inclosures, having been suffered to grow for many years natural and luxuriant, and being interspersed with other woods and plantations, form a scene uncommonly pleasant and picturesque for a long way round. At a small distance from Mount Morris, among these now uninclosed pastures, stands Horton court-lodge and the church. The western part of the parish is very low, wet, and swampy; the stream which rises northward from hence at Stowting, runs along this side of it by the hamlets of Horton and Broad street, and so on into the Post ling branch below Sellinge; here the soil is a deep, miry clay, though on the side of the stream there are some fertile good meadows, among which is Horton priory, standing in a bottom near the stream, below Broad-street, in a very low and damp situation, and so obscure and retired, having a large wood which reaches close up to it, that it is hardly seen till you are close to it. There is but a small part of it remaining; what is left is made use of for the dwellinghouse, being a long narrow building, of ashler stone and flints, seemingly of the time of king Henry VI though by the windows it appears to have been much altered at different times; and there are the remains of a tower at the east end, and a small part of a very fine, large, circular arch, with zigzag ornaments of a much antienter date, seemingly the great entrance into the priory, or perhaps the church of it; beyond which, still further eastward, that part which was taken down by the king's order soon after the suppression of it, seems to have stood.
At THE TIME of taking the survey of Domesday, Horton was part of the possessions of Hugo de Montfort; accordingly it is thus entered in Domesday, under the general title of his lands:
In Stotinges hundred, Alnod holds of Hugo, Hortone. Leuuin held it of king Edward, and it was taxed at half a suling. The arable land is three carucates. In demesne there are two carucates, and five villeins, with six borderers having one carucate and an half. There is a church, and one mill of twenty five pence, and twentyfour acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of ten bogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth forty shillings, and afterwards twenty, now sixty shillings. In the same place Alnod holds one yoke, of Hugo, but there is nothing.
The same Hugo holds three rood and a half in the same lath, which three sochmen hold of king Edward. There now one villein has half a carucate, with three borderers. It is and was worth separately ten shillings.
And a little further below, in the same record:
In Stotinges hundred, Ralph holds of Hugo, Hortun. Two sochmen held it of king Edward, and it was laxed at one yoke and an half. The arable land is one carucate and an half. In demesne there is one, with four villeins, and one mill of thirty pence, and ten acres of meadow. Of the wood there is pannage for six bogs.
On the voluntary exile of Robert de Montfort, grandson of Hugh above-mentioned, in the reign of king Henry I. his estates in this parish, among the rest of his possessions, came into the king's hands, whence they were, with others adjoining in this neighbourhood, soon afterwards granted to Robert de Ver, constable of England, who had married Adeliza, daughter of Hugh de Montfort, and they jointly, by which it should seem that she had a special interest in this manor as part of her inheritance, granted THE MANOR OF HORTON, alias UPHORTON, in the early part of the reign of king Henry II. to the prior and monks of their new-founded priory in this parish, to hold to them, on the payment of one marc of silver yearly to the church of St. Pancrace, of Lewes, as an acknowledgment. (fn. 1) It appears by the record of Dover castle, taken in king Edward I.'s reign, that the prior of Horton held one knight's fee in Horton, by the service of ward to that castle, being part of that barony held of it, called the Constabularie; so called from its being held as part of the barony of the earl of Bologne, constable of that castle in the reign of king Henry I. and Darell, in his treatise, says the possessors of this manor, among others, were bound to repair a tower in it, called Penchester tower; which service was afterwards changed for the annual payment of ten shillings in lieu of it. In which state it continued till the general dissolution of religious houses in the reign of king Henry VIII. in the 27th year of which, an act having passed for the suppression of all such, whose revenues did not amount to two hundred pounds per annum, this priory was surrendered into the king's hands; whence this manor, as well as all the rest of the possessions belonging to it, was granted by the king, in his 29th year, to archbishop Cranmer, and it continued part of the possessions of that see till the reign of queen Elizabeth, when it was by act again vested in the crown, where it staid till king Charles I. in his 4th year, granted it to trustees for the use of the mayor and commonalty of the city of London; whence it was sold two years afterwards to George Rooke, gent. of Mersham, from whose family were descended the Rookes, of St. Laurence, near Canterbury, now extinct. They bore for their arms, Argent, on a chevron engrailed, sable, three chess rooks, argent, between three rooks, sable. (fn. 2) His descendant Heyman Rooke alienated it in the reign of queen Anne to Tho. Morris, esq. of this parish, who dying without issue male, devised this manor by will to his daughter's son Morris Drake Morris, esq. and on failure of issue male in that branch, to the issue male of the said Morris's sister Elizabeth Drake, by her husband Matthew Robinson, esq. of Yorkshire; by virtue of which, their eldest son the Right Hon. Matthew Robinson Morris, lord Rookby, of whom a further account will be given hereafter, is now become entitled to it. A court baron is regularly held for this manor.
THE MANOR OF SHERFORD, alias EAST HORTON, was, in the time of king Edward the Consessor, part of the possessions of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, being then esteemed as one yoke of land; but after the Norman conquest it was taken from them, and given, among much other land in this neighbourhood, to Hugh de Montsort, not withstanding the opposition which the monks made to it, which their chronicles say, was all in vain, and this manor is accordingly included in the description before-mentioned of his lands in the survey of Domesday. On his voluntary exile in the reign of Henry I. it was, with the rest of his possessions, seized on by the crown, and was most probably afterwards returned to the abbot; for in the 23d year of king Edward III. Sir Richard de Retling held it of the abbot at his death, that year, and left it to Joane his sole daughter and heir, who marrying John Spicer, entitled him to it, and in this name and family this manor continued till the reign of queen Elizabeth, about the latter end of which it was alienated by one of them to Thomas Morris, gent. of London, whose grandson Thomas Morris, esq. late of London, merchant, in the reign of king William, erected on the scite of this manor, on an eminence, a handsome mansion for his residence, which he named MOUNT MORRIS. He died in 17'7, having had an only son Thomas, who was drowned under London bridge, on his return from Holland, in 1697, æt. 23; and one daughter, married first to Drake, of Cambridgeshire, and secondly to the learned Dr. Conyers Middleton; by the former of whom she had Morris Drake, and a daughter Elizabeth, who married Matthew Robinson, esq. The family of Morris bore for their arms, Argent, a spread eagle within a bordure, sable. (fn. 3) Thomas Morris, esq. by will devised this seat, as well as the manor of East Horton, among his other estates, at his death in 1717, to his grandson Morris Drake, esq. who took the name of Morris, and afterwards resided here, and dying s.p. it came by the entail in the above will to his sister Elizabeth Drake, married to Matthew Robinson, esq. of Yorkshire, for her life, and afterwards to her issue. The Robinsons are originally descended from the Robinsons, of Strouan, in Perthshire, in the highlands of Scotland, where at this time there is a considerable and numerous clan of this name. The first of them, of this branch, who came into England, settled at Kendal, in Westmoreland, in the reign of king Henry VIII. After which William Robinson, of the eldest branch of them, resided at Rookby, in Yorkshire, which he had purchased in queen Elizabeth's reign, whose eldest son Thomas was killed in the civil wars in 1643, leaving several sons and daughters. From William the eldest, descended William Robinson, of Rookby, of whose sons, Thomas the eldest, was of Rookby, and created a baronet in 1730, but died s.p. Richard, the sixth son, was archbishop of Armagh, and primate of Ireland, and on failure of issue by his brother, succeeded to the title of baronet in 1777. He was created Lord Rokeby, of the kingdom of Ireland, with remainder to Matthew Robinson, esq. his kinsman, of West Layton, in Yorkshire, and his heirs male. He died unmarried in 1794, and Septimius, the seventh son, was knighted and gentleman usher of the black rod. Leonard, the youngest son of Thomas, who was slain in 1643 as above-mentioned, was chamberlain of London, and knighted. He left three sons and six daughters, of whom the eldest and only surviving son was Matthew Robinson, esq. of West Layton, who married Elizabeth Drake, by whom he became possessed of Horton during her life, as above-mentioned. He died in London in 1778, æt. 84, having had by her seven sons and two daughters. Of the former, Matthew Robinson Morris, esq. of Horton, twice served in parliament for Canterbury, and is the present Lord Rokeby; Tho mas was barrister-at-law, author of the celebrated treatise on Gavelkind, who died unmarried in 1748; Morris was solicitor in chancery, who died in Ireland in 1777, leaving two sons, Morris and Matthew; William was late rector of Denton, whose son Matthew is in orders, and his daughter Elizabeth is the second wife of Samuel Egerton Brydges, esq. of Denton; John was fellow of Trinity-hall, Cambridge; and Charles is barrister-at law, recorder of Canterbury, and served twice in parliament for that city; he has one daughter Mary, who married William Hougham, jun. esq. The two daughters were Elizabeth married to Edw. Montague, esq. of Allethorpe, in Yorkshire; and Sarah to G. L. Scott, esq. They bear for their arms, Vert, a chevron between three roebucks trippant, or. (fn. 4) By virtue of Mr. Morris's will, on the death of Elizabeth, wife of Matthew Robinson, esq. this estate passed immediately, notwithstanding her husband survived, to her eldest son Matthew Robinson, esq. who in compliance with the same will, took the additional name of Morris, of whom a full account has already been given before. In 1794, on the death of the lord primate of Ireland, unmarried, he succeeded, by the limitation of the patent, to the title of lord Rokeby, which he now enjoys. He is now entitled to this manor and seat, in which he resides, being at present unmarried.
IN THE VERY beginning of king Henry II.'s reign, Robert, son of Bernard de Ver, with the king's licence, founded A PRIORY in this parish, (on part of the demesnes of the manor of Horton) in honor of the Virgin Mary, and St. John the Evangelist, placing in it monks of the order of Clugni, and subjecting it as a cell to the priory of St. Pancrace, of that order, at Lewes, in Sussex. After which he, together with his wife Adeliza, daughter of Hugh de Montfort, gave to them their manor of Horton, with its appurtenances, and other lands and services elsewhere, the prior paying yearly to the church of St. Pancrace before-mentioned, one marc of silver as an acknowledgment. And they ordained that the prior of St. Pancrace, of Lewes, should have the management and disposition of the prior and monks of Horton, in the same manner as of his own, according to the rule of St. Benedict, and the order of Clugnt; and they gave to them besides, by different subsequent charters, several other lands, tithes, churches, and other possessions, and confirmed their former donations to it; and these were afterwards increased by others made at different times to it, as appears by the several charters in the register of it, and those again confirmed by Henry de Essex, by king Stephen, and by several different popes. King Edward III. in his 47th year, released this priory from its state of an alien priory, and made it indigenous, prioratus indigena, that is, upon the same footing as other English priories. In the 8th year of the next reign of king Richard II. the revenues of it, in temporalities and spiritualities, were valued at 98l. 16s. 8d.
In the reign of king Henry VI. they were taxed at 106l. 16s. 8d. though the total revenue of it was 117l. 12s. 6d. At which time, as appears by the register of the priory, there were here only six monks, with the prior, all priests and prosessed, though by their charter of foundation, they were to maintain thirteen monks, or if their revenue came short, at least eight. And in this state it continued till the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when this priory was suppressed by act, as not having revenues of the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, the yearly revenues of it amounting to no more than 95l. 12s. 2d. clear yearly income, and 111l. 16s. 11½d. total yearly revenue, (fn. 5) and it was surrendered up with all its lands and possessions, into the king's hands, by Richard Gloucester, alias Brisley, then prior of it, who had fifteen pounds a year pension granted to him. (fn. 6)
The original of the register of this priory was formerly in the possession of the family of Rooke, afterwards of William Somner, of Canterbury; and a transcript of it was not many years since in the Surrenden library, though now in other hands. Among the Harleian MSS. are collections from the chartularie of this priory, taken anno 1648, No. 2044-38; and there is a manuscript chartularie in the Bodleian library at Oxford, Dodsworth LV, which seems to be that once in the possession of William Somner abovementioned.
THE SCITE OF THE PRIORY of Horton, with the possessions belonging to it, did not remain long in the hands of the crown, during which time however much of the buildings of it were pulled down and carried off, for the king, in his 29th year, granted them, subject to certain exceptions and payments to archbishop Cranmer, who that year conveyed them back again to the crown; whence they were next year granted, to hold in capite by knight's service, to Richard Tate, esq. of Stockbury, who was then in possession of them by a former lease from the crown. He was afterwards knighted, and in the I st year of Edward VI. alienated the scite of the priory, with the lands belonging to it, to Walter Mantell, esq. grandson of Sir Walter Mantell, of Heyford, in Northamptonshire, who bore for his arms, Argent, a cross engrailed, between four mullets, sable; but he being, with his nephew Walter Mantell and others, attainted and executed, for being concerned in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, in the I st year of queen Mary, this estate became forfeited to the crown, where it staid till queen Elizabeth, in her 13th year, restored it to his eldest son Matthew Mantell, to bold to him and his heirs male, whose direct descendants continued to reside in it for several generations afterwards, in one of whom it still continues, being at this time vested in Mr. Augustus William Mantell.
Charities.
WILLIAM FORDRED, by will in 1550, gave to this parish, among others, a proportion of the rents of twenty-five acres of land in St. Mary's parish, in Romney Marsh; which portion to this parish is of the annual produce of 4l. 12s. 4 1/2d. to be distributed annually to the poor, and vested in certain trustees.
The poor constantly relieved are about eight, casually four.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Elham.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is but a small building, consisting of one isle and one chancel, having a low pointed turret at the west end, in which are four bells. In the chancel are two monuments for the family of Rooke, and several memorials for the Morris's, who lie in a vault underneath. In the isle there are monuments and memorials likewise of the Morris's. Against the north wall, over lord Rokeby's pew, is a curious tablet of vellum, on which is written a long copy of Latin verses, round it are ornaments, with the last-mentioned arms, and the date, 1647, seemingly done in needle-work, most probably by Mrs. Sarah, wise of Thomas Morris, gent. of Horton, who died in 1646, whose monument is here near it. There are no remains of painted glass in the windows. Richard Burcherde, of Canterbury, by will in 1534, gave three pounds to this church, to buy two tables of alabaster for two altars in the body of it, on one to be the story of our Lady, and on the other that of St. John; near them was the tabernacle of St. Nicholas; and he gave four pounds towards making a window, the same as that on the north side there.
The church of Horton appears, after the general dissolution of monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. to have been vested in the crown, where it remained till the king, in his 34th year, exchanged the advowson of this rectory, among other premises, with the archbishop of Canterbury, and it has remained parcel of the possessions of that see ever since, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.
This rectory is valued in the king's books at 7l. 10S. 8d. It is now a discharged living, of the clear yearly certified value of forty pounds. In 1588 it was valued at thirty pounds, communicants 108. In 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds, communicants 180.
There was a decree made in the court of exchequer, on the complaint of Laurence Rook, then the queen's farmer, of the scite and demesnes of Horton manor, in the 39th year of queen Elizabeth, touching the payment of tithes to the rector of this parish, by which, certified by the queen's letters of inspeximus, a modus was established as having been time out of mind, for all pasture grounds, and of the dry cattle, and the wool of sheep and lambs feeding on them, and for certain sorts of wood mentioned therein.
Bryan Faussett, soon after he became rector, commenced a suit in the exchequer, for tithes due to him, in opposition to the above decree; but after carrying his suit on for several years, he dropped it, and the tithes have been ever since received by the succeeding rectors according to the above-mentioned decree.
Standing alone amid the fields of Old Idsworth and Heberden's Farms is the little Church of St Hubert, for many centuries dedicated to St Peter but rededicated to St Hubert, patron saint of hunters, probably in the late 19th century (after the discovery of the wall painting in 1864). According to legend, St Hubert was converted while hunting on Good Friday by seeing an image of the crucified Christ between the antlers of a stag. He later became Bishop of Maastricht and Liege and died in 727. It is thought that the chapel could well have been used as a hunting chapel in its early days.
The chapel stands some distance from the road, adjoining the site of the old Manor House of Idsworth, of which only the stables, coach house and walled garden remain, the house having been demolished when the railway was built in the mid 19th century. It overlooks a valley in which a stream (lavant) now flows only in occasional winters but which was the site of a village from about the 9th to the 14th centuries.
Idsworth is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, unlike the neighbouring manor of Chalton, which was held personally by Earl Godwin, Earl of Wessex and premier Earl of England, until his death in 1053, when the manor passed to his son, (later King) Harold, who held it until his death at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Idsworth began as a chaplaincy of the manor of Chalton but by the 12th century had become independent and later became the dominant of the two manors.
The chapel is believed to have been built by Earl Godwin, who died in 1053, which perhaps explains why this is the latest date normally given to its origin. However, Roman coins and pottery have been found in the adjoining field and it has been suggested that the chapel could well have been built on the foundations of a much earlier building. The oldest part is the nave (later widened), which was built in the new Norman style which Edward the Confessor was then introducing into England. An early English Chancel, a bell turret and a porch were all added later.
St Hubert's Church is beautiful in its simplicity rather than its richness, yet some of its contents are rich beyond price. For example, on the North wall of the Chancel is a mural, discovered in 1864 and dated at circa 1330.
Unusual for its completeness and quality, it consists of two parts separated by a horizontal zigzag line. It is generally agreed that the lower picture depicts the presentation of the head of St John the Baptist, on a salver, to Salome (the contorted figure in the foreground) at King Herod's feast (clearly visible in the centre), and that the separate scene at the left-hand end represents St John being thrown into prison. The hunting scene in the upper picture is less easily interpreted and an earlier view that it represents St Hubert converting or curing a lycanthrope (a man who through a form of insanity believed himself to be a wolf) has been discounted in a number of modern treatises on the subject. It is generally considered that the right-hand end of the upper picture depicts the arrest of St John and that the remainder portrays the discovery of a "hairy anchorite", a hermit who, according to legend, in penance for sins of inchastity and murder, undertook to walk on all fours until he knew he was forgiven. In the early 14th century this legend could well have been identified with events in the early life of St John the Baptist, thus providing a thread of continuity through both tiers of the mural.
A new fresco in 14th century style, was commissioned and painted in 2000 to celebrate the millennium. This depicts ‘Christ in Majesty’ together with images inspired by the vision of St Peter and also a rich variety of other symbols and contemporary images.
Detail of the east window by John Hayward 1964, which depicts a central figure of St Peter surrounded by vignettes and other details connected to his life. It is a fine example of modern stained glass and Hayward's bold personal style in particular.
The glass in the main lights replaced a Victorian window which was then transferred to the west window of the chapel, however its traceries could not be accommodated there and thus remained in place, sitting rather awkwardly alongside Hayward's strikingly different glass in the main lights below.
The chapel of St Peter's College, Oxford was formerly the church of St Peter le Bailey built by Basil Champneys in 1874 but later re-purposed for collegiate use following redundancy.
The interior is somewhat austere but is enlivened by a couple of remarkable modern windows by John Hayward and Ervin Bossanyi.
St. Peter's Square (Italian: Piazza San Pietro [ˈpjattsa sam ˈpjɛːtro], Latin: Forum Sancti Petri) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighbourhood or rione of Borgo.
At the centre of the square is an Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1586. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later, including the massive Tuscan colonnades, four columns deep, which embrace visitors in "the maternal arms of Mother Church". A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613.
St. Peter's Church is the oldest Roman Catholic parish in New York State, dating to 1785. The cornerstone of the present Greek Revival granite building, the second on the site purchased from Trinity Parish, with six Ionic columns was laid in 1836, as designed by John R. Haggerty and Thomas Thomas.
The Roman Catholic Church was not permitted to function in New York during the Dutch and British colonial periods, except for the administration of Governor Thomas Dongan, who was himself Catholic. St. Peter's Church. The British evacuation following the American Revolution changed this, paving the way for St. Peter's.
St. Peter's Parish opened the first Catholic school in the state of New York in 1800. Elizabeth Ann Seton was received into the Roman Catholic Church at St. Peter's in 1805. St. Peter's was the first church in the archdiocese to offer midday services, and by the 1940s St. Peter's was becoming more of a service church as the financial district gave way to stores and tall office buildings, with thousands entering the area each day for work.
Located just north of the World Trade Center, the church served as a staging area for emergency responders. The body of the Rev. Mychal Judge, Chaplain to the New York City Fire Department and officially the first casualty of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, was brought to St. Peter's by firefighters and laid before the altar.
St. Peter's was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965.
National Register #80002721 (1980)
Ceiling Boss - Piata.
Church of St Peter, Hinton Road, Bournemouth
Grade I Listed
List Entry Number: 1153014
Listing NGR: SZ0888791218
Details
101756 768/13/1 HINTON ROAD 11-OCT-01 (East side) CHURCH OF ST PETER
GV I
13/1 HINTON ROAD 1. 5l86 (East Side) Church} of St Peter
SZ 0891 13/1 5.5.52.
I GV
2. South aisle 1851, Edmund Pearce, rest of church, 1855-79, G E Street, large, Purbeck stone with Bath stone dressings, built in stages and fitted out gradually. Dominating west tower, 1869, and spire (important landmark, 202 ft high), 1879: west door up steps with 4-light Geometrical window over, 3rd stage with steeply pointed blind arcade with encircled quatrefoils in spandrels, belfry with paired 2-light windows, elaborate foliage-carved cornice and arcaded panelled parapet, spire of Midlands type, octagonal with 3 tiers of lucarnes and flying buttresses springing from gabled pinnacles with statues (by Redfern) in niches. Western transepts with 4-light Geometrical windows, 1874. Nave, 1855-9, has clerestory of 5 pairs of 2-light plate tracery windows between broad flat buttresses, with red sandstone bands to walls and voussoirs and foliage medallions in spandrels. North aisle has narrow cinquefoiled lancets, Pearce's south aisle 2-light Geometrical windows (glass by Wailes, 1852-9); gabled south porch with foliage-carved arch of 3 order and inner arcade to lancet windows. South transept gable window 4-light plate tracery, south-east sacristy added 1906 (Sir T G Jackson). North transept gable has 5 stepped cinquefoiled lancets under hoodmould, north-east vestries, built in Street style by H E Hawker, 1914-15, have 2 east gables. Big pairs of buttresses clasp corners of chancel, with 5-light Geometrical window- south chapel. Nave arcade of 5 bays, double-chamfered arches on octagonal colunms, black marble colonnettes to clerestory. Wall surfaces painted in 1873-7 by Clayton and Bell, medallions in spandrels, Rood in big trefoil over chancel arch, roof of arched braces on hammerbeams on black marble wall shafts, kingposts high up. North aisle lancets embraced by continuous trefoil-headed arcade on marble colonnettes, excellent early glass by Clayton and Bell, War Shrine Crucifix by Comper, l917. Western arch of nave of Wells strainer type with big openwork roundels in spandrels. Tower arch on piers with unusual fluting of classical type, glass in tower windows by Clayton and Bell. South-west transept has font by Street, 1855, octagonal with grey marble inlay in trefoil panels, south window glass by Percy Bacon, 1896. Chancel arch on black shafts on corbels, low marble chancel screen with iron railing. Pulpit, by Street, carved by Earp, exhibited 1862 Exhibition: circular, pink marble and alabaster with marble-oolumned trefoil-headed arcaded over frieze of inlaid panels, on short marble columns, tall angel supporting desk. Lectern: brass eagle 1872 (made by Potter) with railings to steps by Comper, 1915. Chancel, 1863-4, has 2-bay choir has elaborate dogtooth and foliage-carved arches on foliage capitals, with clustered shafts of pink marble and stone, sculptured scenes by Earp in cusped vesica panels in spandrels, pointed boarded wagon roof with painted patterning by Booley and Garner, 1891. Choir stalls with poppyheads, 1874, by Street, also by Street (made by Leaver of Maidenhead) the ornate and excellent parclose screens of openwork iron on twisted brass colunms, pavement by Comper, l9l5. Sanctuary, also 2 bays, rib-vaulted, with clustered marble wall shafts with shaft rings and foliage capitals, painted deocrations by Sir Arthur Blomfield, 1899 (executed by Powells). First bay has sedilia on both sides (within main arcade), backed by double arcade of alternating columns of pink alabaster (twisted)and black marble. Second bay aisleless, lined by Powell mosaics. East window has fine glass by Clayton and Bell, designed by Street, 1866. Reredos by Redfern, also designed by Street has Majestas in vesica flanked by angels, under gabled canopies, flanked by purple and green twisted marble columns, flanking Powell mosaics of angels, 1899, echoing design of predecessors by Burne-Jones which disintegrated. North transept screen to aisle by Comper, 1915, Minstrel Window by Clayton and Bell, 1874, sculpture of Christ and St Peter over doorway by Earp. South transept screen to aisle and altar cross and candlesticks to chapel by Sir T G Jackson, l906, murals by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, 1908, windows in transept and over altar by Clayton and Bell, 1867, and to south of chapel (particularly good) by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co, 1864.
The Church of St Peter, Churchyard Cross, Lychgate, Chapel of the Resurrection, and 2 groups of gravestones form a group.
Listing NGR: SZ0888791218
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1153014
St Peter's church in the centre of Bournemouth, Dorset; one of the great Gothic Revival churches of the 19th century and now serving as the parish church of Bournemouth. On the site of a plain, slightly earlier church, this building was commissioned by the priest, Alexander Morden Bennett, who moved to the living from London in 1845.
In 1853 Bennett chose George Edmund Street, architect of the London Law Courts, to design the proposed new church. The church grew stage by stage and Street in turn commissioned work from some of the most famous names of the era, including Burne-Jones, George Frederick Bodley, Sir Ninian Comper, William Wailes and Thomas Earp. There is even one small window by William Morris.
St. Peter / San Pedro
17th Century
FILIPINO
Solid ivory. Mounted on wooden socle base.
May have once been part of a very rare set of the Twelve Apostles. The twelve have now been separated but six of the original dozen have come up for sale in the auctions rooms of Bonham's in London. See the pics below.
Condition is fair and consistent with age. With old cracks, damages and repair. The ivory has yellowed in places with dust and dirt on cracks and crevices. The whole is mounted on an associated wooden, socle base. Base exhibiting chip and losses to both paint and gesso layer. Certain areas of the base may have been reshaded or repainted at some time.
The halos are possibly of a later date. Halo showing significant damage and loss. One-third of St. Peter's halo is lacking with one spoke missing. Halo also lacks original peg to mount them on the saint's head. Halo now secured with a wooden splints. There is crazing and cracking to St. Peter's shoulder with his key later re-glued.
On wooden, socle base that exhibit significant wear and tear. Paint peeling to the gesso later. Evidence of over-painting and reshading.
Height w/o Base: 23 cm or 9.2 in.
St Peter's Church in Pilning, South Gloucestershire. The architect was Thomas Henry Wyatt and it was consecrated in 1855. An extension in the same style was added in the 20th Century. It is a Grade II listed building.
St Peter in Folkestone, recently renovated to reveal multicoloured brickwork, and looked fabulous early one Saturday morning when we visited.
One nugget was revealed to us, in that the font rather than as 'brokentaco says above was obtained from a Norfolk church that was being consumed by the sea, turns out the font belonged to the church St Peter Southgate in Norwich, which is now a poor ruin.
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichpetersouthgate/norwichpe...
The vicar saw the font in the porch of St Etheldreda in Norwich and bought it.
St Peter's Church in Benington, Hertfordshire, 19 August 2010.
Picture taken from the street so not a very good one really.
On the way back from Oxfordshire, I thought about stopping off somewhere to take some church shots.
I'm sure Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Sussex have fine churches just off the motorway, but one had stuck in my head, back in Kent, and that Hever.
What I didn't realise is how hard it was to get too.
I followed the sat nav, taking me off the motorway whilst still in Sussex, then along narrow and twisting main roads along the edge of the north downs, through some very fine villages, but were in Sussex.
Would I see the sign marking my return to the Garden of England?
Yes, yes I would.
Edenbridge seemed quite an unexpectedly urban place, despite its name, so I didn't stop to search for an older centre, just pressing un until I was able to turn down Hever Road.
It had taken half an hour to get here.
St Peter stands by the gate to the famous castle, a place we have yet to visit, and even on a showery Saturday in March, there was a constant stream of visitors arriving.
I asked a nice young man who was directing traffic, where I could park to visit the church. He directed me to the staff car park, meaning I was able to get this shot before going in.
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Near the grounds of Hever Castle, medieval home of the Bullen family. Sandstone construction with a nice west tower and spire. There is a prominent chimney to the north chapel, although this is not the usual Victorian addition, but a Tudor feature, whose little fireplace may be seen inside! The church contains much of interest including a nineteenth-century painting of Christ before Caiphas by Reuben Sayers and another from the school of Tintoretto. The stained glass is all nineteenth and twentieth century and includes a wonderfully evocative east window (1898) by Burlisson and Grylls with quite the most theatrical sheep! The south chancel window of St Peter is by Hardman and dated 1877. In the north chapel is a fine tomb chest which displays the memorial brass of Sir Thomas Bullen (d. 1538), father of Queen Anne Boleyn. Just around the corner is a typical, though rather insubstantial, seventeenth-century pulpit with sounding board.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Hever
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HEVER.
SOUTH-EASTWARD from Eatonbridge lies Hever, called in the Textus Roffensis, and some antient records, Heure, and in others, Evere.
This parish lies below the sand hill, and is consequently in that district of this county called The Weald.
There is a small part of it, called the Borough of Linckbill, comprehending a part of this parish, Chidingstone, and Hever, which is within the hundred of Ruxley, and being part of the manor of Great Orpington, the manerial rights of it belong to Sir John Dixon Dyke, bart. the owner of that manor.
THE PARISH of Hever is long, and narrow from north to south. It lies wholly below the sand hills, and consequently in the district of the Weald; the soil and face of the country is the same as that of Eatonbridge, last described, the oak trees in it being in great plently, and in general growing to a very large size. The river Eden directs its course across it, towards Penshurst and the Medway, flowing near the walls of Hever castle, about a quarter of a mile southward from which is the village of Hever and the parsonage; near the northern side of the river is the seat of Polebrooke, late Douglass's, now Mrs. Susannah Payne's; and a little farther, the hamlets of Howgreen and Bowbeach; part of Linckhill borough, which is in the hundred of Ruxley, extends into this parish. There is a strange odd saying here, very frequent among the common people, which is this:
Jesus Christ never was but once at Hever.
And then he fell into the river.
Which can only be accounted for, by supposing that it alluded to a priest, who was carrying the bost to a sick person, and passing in his way over a bridge, sell with it into the river.
Hever was once the capital seat and manor of a family of the same name, whose still more antient possessions lay at Hever, near Northfleet, in this county, who bore for their arms, Gules, a cross argent. These arms, with a lable of three points azure, still remained in the late Mote-house, in Maidstone, and are quartered in this manner by the earl of Thanet, one of whose ancestors, Nicholas Tuston, esq. of Northiam, married Margaret, daughter and heir of John Hever of this county. (fn. 1)
William de Heure. possessed a moiety of this place in the reign of king Edward I. in the 2d of which he was was sheriff of this county, and in the 9th of it obtained a grant of free warren within his demesne lands in Heure, Chidingstone, and Lingefield.
Sir Ralph de Heure seems at this time to have possessed the other moiety of this parish, between whose son and heir, Ralph, and Nicholas, abbot of St. Augustine's, there had been, as appears by the register of that abbey, several disputes concerning lands in Hever, which was settled in the 4th year of king Edward I. by the abbot's granting to him and his heirs for ever, the land which he held of him in Hever, to hold by the service of the fourth part of a knight's fee.
William de Hever, in the reign of king Edward III. became possessed of the whole of this manor, and new built the mansion here, and had licence to embattle it; soon after which he died, leaving two daughters his coheirs; one of whom, Joane, carried one moiety of this estate in marriage to Reginald Cobham, a younger son of the Cobhams of Cobham, in this county; (fn. 2) whence this part of Hever, to distinguish it from the other, acquired the name of Hever Cobham.
His son, Reginald lord Cobham, in the 14th year of that reign, obtained a charter for free warren within his demesne lands in Hever. (fn. 3) He was succeeded in this manor by his son, Reginald lord Cobham, who was of Sterborough castle, in Surry, whence this branch was stiled Cobhams of Sterborough.
The other moiety of Hever, by Margaret, the other daughter and coheir, went in marriage to Sir Oliver Brocas, and thence gained the name of Hever Brocas. One of his descendants alienated it to Reginald lord Cobham, of Sterborough, last mentioned, who died possessed of both these manors in the 6th year of king Henry IV.
His grandson, Sir Thomas Cobham, sold these manors to Sir Geoffry Bulleyn, a wealthy mercer of London, who had been lord mayor in the 37th year of king Henry VI. He died possessed of both Hever Cobham and Hever Brocas, in the 3d year of king Edward IV. leaving by Anne, his wife, eldest sister of Thomas, lord Hoo and Hastings, Sir William Bulleyn, of Blickling, in Norfolk, who married Margaret, daughter and coheir of Thomas Boteler, earl of Ormond, by whom he had a son and heir, Thomas, who became a man of eminent note in the reign of king Henry VIII. and by reason of the king's great affection to the lady Anne Bulleyn, his daughter, was in the 17th year of that reign, created viscount Rochford; and in the 21st year of it, being then a knight of the Garter, to that of earl of Wiltshire and Ormond; viz. Wiltshire to his heirs male, and Ormond to his heirs general.
He resided here, and added greatly to those buildings, which his grandfather, Sir Geoffry Bulleyn, began in his life time, all which he completely finished, and from this time this seat seems to have been constantly called HEVER-CASTLE.
He died in the 30th of the same reign, possessed of this castle, with the two manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas, having had by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, one sonGeorge, executed in his life time; and two daughters, Anne, wife to king Henry VIII. and Mary, wife of William Carey, esquire of the body, and ancestor of the lords Hunsdon and the earls of Dover and Monmouth.
On the death of the earl of Wiltshire, without issue male, who lies buried in this church, under an altar tomb of black marble, on which is his figure, as large as the life, in brass, dressed in the robes of the Garter, the king seised on this castle and these manors, in right of his late wife, the unfortunate Anne Bulleyn, the earl's daughter, who resided at Hever-castle whilst the king courted her, there being letters of both extant, written by them from and to this place, and her chamber in it is still called by her name; and they remained in his hands till the 32d year of his reign, when he granted to the lady Anne of Cleves, his repudiated wife, his manors of Hever, Seale, and Kemsing, among others, and his park of Hever, with its rights, members, and appurtenances, then in the king's hands; and all other estates in Hever, Seale, and Kemsing, lately purchased by him of Sir William Bulleyn and William Bulleyn, clerk, to hold to her during life, so long as she should stay within the realm, and not depart out of it without his licence, at the yearly rent of 931. 13s. 3½d. payable at the court of augmention. She died possessed of the castle, manors, and estates of Hever, in the 4th and 5th year of king Philip and queen Mary, when they reverted again to the crown, where they continued but a short time, for they were sold that year, by commissioners authorised for this purpose, to Sir Edward Waldegrave and dame Frances his wife; soon after which the park seems to have have been disparked.
This family of Waldegrave, antiently written Walgrave, is so named from a place, called Walgrave, in the county of Northampton, at which one of them was resident in the reign of king John, whose descendants afterwards settled in Essex, and bore for their arms, Per pale argent and gules. Warine de Walgrave is the first of them mentioned, whose son, John de Walgrave, was sheriff of London, in the 7th year of king John's reign, whose direct descendant was Sir Edward Waldegrave, who purchased this estate, as before mentioned. (fn. 5) He had been a principal officer of the household to the princess Mary; at the latter end of the reign of king Edward VI. he incurred the king's displeasure much by his attachment to her interest, and was closely imprisoned in the Tower; but the king's death happening soon afterwards, queen Mary amply recompensed his sufferings by the continued marks of her favour and bounty, which she conferred on him; and in the 4th and 5th years of that reign, he obtained, as above mentioned, on very easy terms, the castle and manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas; and besides being employed by the queen continually in commissions of trust and importance, had many grants of lands and other favours bestowed on him. But on the death of queen Mary, in 1558, he was divested of all his employments, and committed prisoner to the Tower, (fn. 6) where he died in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth. He left two sons, Charles, his heir; and Nicholas, ancestor to those of Boreley, in Essex; and several daughters.
Charles Waldegrave succeeded his father in his estates in this parish; whose son Edward received the honour of knighthood at Greenwich, in 1607, and though upwards of seventy years of age, at the breaking out of the civil wars, yet he nobly took arms in the king's defence, and having the command of a regiment of horse, behaved so bravely, that he had conferred on him the dignity of a baronet, in 1643; after which he continued to act with great courage in the several attacks against the parliamentary forces, in which time he lost two of his sons, and suffered in his estate to the value of fifty thousand pounds.
His great grandson, Sir Henry Waldegrave, in 1686, in the 1st year of king James II. was created a peer, by the title of baron Waldegrave of Chewton, in Somersetshire, and had several offices of trust conferred on him; but on the Revolution he retired into France, and died at Paris, in 1689. (fn. 7) He married Henrietta, natural daughter of king James II. by Arabella Churchill, sister of John duke of Marlborough, by whom he had James, created earl of Waldegrave in the 3d year of king George II. who, in the year 1715, conveyed the castle and these manors to Sir William Humfreys, bart. who that year was lord mayor of the city of London. He was of Barking, in Essex, and had been created a baronet in 1714. He was descended from Nathaniel Humfreys, citizen of London, the second son of William ap Humfrey, of Montgomery, in North Wales, and bore for his arms two coats, Quarterly, 1st and 4th, sable, two nags heads erased argent; 2d and 3d, per pale or and gules, two lions rampant endorsed, counterchanged.
He died in 1735, leaving by his first wife, Margaret, daughter of William Wintour, of Gloucestershire, an only son and heir, Sir Orlando Humfreys, bart. who died in 1737, having had by Ellen, his wife, only child of colonel Robert Lancashire, three sons and two daughters; two of the sons died young; Robert, the second and only surviving son, had the castle and manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas, and died before his father possessed of them, as appears by his epitaph, in 1736, ætat. 28.
On Sir Orlando's death his two daughters became his, as well as their brother's, coheirs, of whom Mary, the eldest, had three husbands; first, William Ball Waring, of Dunston, in Berkshire, who died in 1746, without issue; secondly, John Honywood, esq. second brother of Richard, of Mark's-hall, who likewife died without issue, in 1748; and lastly, Thomas Gore, esq. uncle to Charles Gore, esq. M.P. for Hertfordshire; which latter had married, in 1741, Ellen Wintour, the only daughter of Sir Orlando Humfreys, above mentioned.
They, with their husbands, in 1745, joined in the sale of Hever-castle and the manors of Hever Cobham and Hever Brocas, to Timothy Waldo. He was descended from Thomas Waldo, of Lyons, in France, one of the first who publicly opposed the doctrines of the church of Rome, of whom there is a full account in the Atlas Geograph. vol. ii. and in Moreland's History of the Evangelical Churches of Piedmont. One of his descendants, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, to escape the persecution of the duke D'Alva, came over to England, where he and his descendants afterwards settled, who bore for their arms, Argent a bend azure, between three leopards heads of the second; of whom, in king Charles II.'s reign, there were three brothers, the eldest of whom, Edward, was knighted, and died without male issue, leaving two daughters his coheirs; the eldest of whom, Grace, married first Sir Nicholas Wolstenholme, bart. and secondly, William lord Hunsdon, but died without issue by either of them, in 1729. The second brother was of Harrow, in Middlesex; and Timothy, the third, was an eminent merchant of London, whose grandsons were Edward, who was of South Lambeth, esq. and died in 1783, leaving only one daughter; and Timothy, of Clapham, esquire, the purchaser of this estate, as above mentioned, who was afterwards knighted, and died possessed of it, with near thirteen hundred acres of land round it, in 1786; he married, in 1736, Miss Catherine Wakefield, by whom he left an only daughter and heir, married to George Medley, esq. of Sussex, lady Waldo surviving him is at this time intitled to it.
The castle is entire, and in good condition; it has a moat round it, formed by the river Eden, over which there is a draw bridge, leading to the grand entrance, in the gate of which there is yet a port cullis, within is a quadrangle, round which are the offices, and a great hall; at the upper end of which, above a step, is a large oak table, as usual in former times. The great stair case leads up to several chambers and to the long gallery, the cieling of which is much ornamented with soliage in stucco; the rooms are all wainscotted with small oaken pannels, unpainted. On one side of the gallery is a recess, with an ascent of two steps, and one seat in it, with two returns, capable of holding ten or twelve persons, which, by tradition, was used as a throne, when king Henry VIII. visited the castle. At the upper end of the gallery, on one side of a large window, there is in the floor a kind of trap door, which, when opened, discovers a narrow and dark deep descent, which is said to reach as far as the moat, and at this day is still called the dungeon. In a closet, in one of the towers, the window of which is now stopped up, there is an adjoining chamber, in which queen Anne Bulleyn is said to have been consined after her dis grace. The entrance to this closet, from the chamber, is now by a small door, which at that time was a secret sliding pannel, and is yet called Anne Bulleyn's pannel.
In the windows of Hever-castle are these arms; Argent, three buckles gules, within the garter; a shield of four coasts, Howard, Brotherton, Warren, and Mowbray, argent three buckles gules; a shield of eight coats, viz. Bulleyn, Hoo, St. Omer, Malmains, Wickingham, St. Leger, Wallop, and Ormond; and one, per pale argent and gules, for Waldegrave. (fn. 8)
It is reported, that when Henry VIII. with his attendants, came to the top of the hill, within sight of the castle, he used to wind his bugle horn, to give notice of his approach.
There was a court baron constantly held for each of the above manors till within these forty years, but at present there is only one, both manors being now esteemed but as one, the circuit of which, over the neighbouring parishes, is very extensive.
SEYLIARDS is an estate here which extends itself into the parishes of Brasted and Eatonbridge, but the mansion of it is in this parish, and was the antient seat of the Seyliards, who afterwards branched out from hence into Brasted, Eatonbridge, Chidingstone, and Boxley, in this county.
The first of this name, who is recorded to have possessed this place, was Ralph de Seyliard, who resided here in the reign of king Stephen.
Almerick de Eureux, earl of Gloucester, who lived in the reign of king Henry III. demised lands to Martin at Seyliard, and other lands, called Hedinden, to Richard Seyliard, both of whom were sons of Ralph at Seyliard, and the latter of them was ancestor to those seated here and at Delaware, in Brasted. (fn. 9)
This place continued in his descendants till Sir Tho. Seyliard of Delaware, passed it away to John Petley, esq. who alienated it to Sir Multon Lambarde, of Sevenoke, and he died possessed of it in 1758; and it is now the property of his grandson, Multon Lambarde, of Sevenoke, esq.
Charities.
A PERSON gave, but who or when is unknown, but which has time out of mind been distributed among the poor of this parish, the sum of 10s. yearly, to be paid out of land vested in the churchwardens, and now of that annual produce.
The Rev. JOHN PETER gave by will, about 1661, the sum of 10s. yearly, to be paid for the benefit of poor farmers only, out of land vested in the rector, the heirs of Wm. Douglass, and the heirs of Francis Bowty, and now of that annual produce.
The Rev. GEORGE BORRASTON, rector, and several of the parishioners, as appears by a writing dated in 1693, purchased, with money arising from several bequests, the names of the donors unknown, except that of WILLIAM FALKNER, to which the parishioners added 15l. a piece of land, the rent to be distributed yearly among the poor of the parish, vested in the rector and churchwardens, and of the annual produce of 3l. 12s.
Rev. THOMAS LANCASTER, rector, gave by will in 1714, for buying good books for the poor, and in case books are not wanting for the schooling of poor children at the discretion of the mimister, part of a policy on lives, which was exchanged for a sum of money paid by his executor, being 20l. vested in the minister and churchwardens.
SIR TIMOTHY WALDO gave by will in 1786, 500l. consolidated 3 per cent. Bank Annuities, one moiety of the interest of which to be applied for the placing of some poor boy of the parish apprentice to a farmer, or some handicraft trade, or to the sea service, or in cloathing such poor boy during his apprenticeship, and in case no such poor boy can be found, this moiety to be distributed among such of the industrious poor who do not receive alms. The other moiety to be laid out in buying and distributing flannel waistcoats, or strong shoes, or warm stockings, among such of the industrious or aged poor persons inhabiting within this parish, as do not receive alms, vested in the Salters Company.
HEVER is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham. The church, which stands at the east end of the village, is a small, but neat building, consisting of one isle and two chancels, having a handsome spire at the west end of it. It is dedicated to St. Peter.
Among other monuments and inscriptions in it are the following:—In the isle is a grave-stone, on which is the figure of a woman, and inscription in black letter in brass, for Margaret, wife of William Cheyne, obt. 1419, arms, a fess wavy between three crescents.—In the chancel, a memorial for Robert Humfreys, esq. lord of the manor of Heaver, only son and heir of Sir Orlando Humfreys, bart. of Jenkins, in Effex, obt. 1736. Against the wall is a brass plate, with the figure of a man kneeling at a desk, and inscription in black letter for William Todde, schoolmaster to Charles Waldegrave, esq. obt. 1585.—In the north chancel, an altar tomb, with the figure on it at large in brass, of Sir Thomas Bullen, knight of the garter, earl of Wilcher and earl of Ormunde, obt. 1538. A small slab with a brass plate, for ........ Bullayen, the son of Sir Thomas Bullayen.—In the belsry, a stone with a brass plate, and inscription in black letter in French, for John de Cobham, esquire, obt. 1399, and dame Johane, dame de Leukenore his wife, and Renaud their son; near the above is an antient altar tomb for another of that name, on which is a shield of arms in brass, or, on a chevron, three eagles displayed, a star in the dexter point. These were the arms of this branch of the Cobhams, of Sterborough-castle. (fn. 10)
This church is a rectory, the advowson of which belonged to the priory of Combwell, in Goudhurst, and came to the crown with the rest of its possessions at the time of the surrendry of it, in the 7th year of king Henry VIII. in consequence of the act passed that year for the surrendry of all religious houses, under the clear yearly revenue of two hundred pounds. Soon after which this advowson was granted, with the scite of the priory, to Thomas Colepeper, but he did not long possess it; and it appears, by the Escheat Rolls, to have come again into the hands of the crown, and was granted by the king, in his 34th year, to Sir John Gage, to hold in capite by knights service; who exchanged it again with Tho. Colepeper, to confirm which an act passed the year after. (fn. 11) His son and heir, Alexander Colepeper, had possession granted of sundry premises, among which was the advowson of Hever, held in capite by knights service, in the 3d and 4th years of king Philip and queen Mary; the year after which it was, among other premises, granted to Sir Edward Waldegrave, to hold by the like tenure.
Charles Waldegrave, esq. in the 12th year of queen Elizabeth, alienated this advowson to John Lennard, esq. of Chevening, and being entailed to his heirs male, by the last will of Sampson Lennard, esq. his eldest son, under the word hereditament possessed it, and it being an advowson in gross, was never disentailed by Henry, Richard, or Francis, lords Dacre, his descendants, so that it came to Thomas lord Dacre, son of the last mentioned Francis, lord Dacre, afterwards earl of Sussex, in 1673, and at length sole heir male of the descendants of John Lennard, esq. of Chevening, above mentioned; and the same trial was had for the claim of a moiety of it, at the Queen's-bench bar, as for the rest of the earl's estates, and a verdict then obtained in his favour, as has been already fully mentioned before, under Chevening.
The earl of Sussex died possessed of it in 1715, (fn. 12) whose two daughters, his coheirs, on their father's death became entitled to this advowson, and a few years afterwards alienated the same.
It then became the property of the Rev. Mr. Geo. Lewis, as it has since of the Rev. Mr. Hamlin, whose daughter marrying the Rev. Mr. Nott, of Little Horsted, in Sussex, he is now intitled to it.
In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church of Heure was valued at fifteen marcs.
By virtue of a commission of enquiry, taken by order of the state, in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned, that Hever was a parsonage, with a house, and twelve acres of glebe land, which, with the tithes, were worth seventy-seven pounds per annum, master John Petter being then incumbent, and receiving the profits, and that Francis lord Dacre was donor of it. (fn. 13)
This rectory was valued, in 1747, at 1831. per annum, as appears by the particulars then made for the sale of it.
It is valued, in the king's books, at 15l. 17s. 3½d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 10s. 8¾d. It is now of the yearly value of about 200l.
¶The priory of Combwell, in Goudhurst, was endowed by Robert de Thurnham, the founder of that house, in the reign of king Henry II. with his tithe of Lincheshele and sundry premises in this parish, for which the religious received from the rector of this church the annual sum of 43s. 4d.
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...
There are over 100 tombs within St. Peter's Basilica (extant to various extents), many located in the Vatican grotto, beneath the Basilica. These include 91 popes, St. Ignatius of Antioch, Holy Roman Emperor Otto II, and the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Exiled Catholic British royalty James Francis Edward Stuart and his two sons, Charles Edward Stuart and Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Bishop of Frascati, are buried here, having been granted asylum by Pope Clement XI. Also buried here are Maria Clementina Sobieska, wife of James Francis Edward Stuart, Queen Christina of Sweden, who abdicated her throne in order to convert to Catholicism, and Countess Matilda of Tuscany, supporter of the Papacy during the Investiture Controversy. The most recent interment was Pope John Paul II, on 8 April 2005. Beneath, near the crypt, is the recently discovered vaulted fourth-century "Tomb of the Julii".
St. Peter's Church and its monastic order were founded in the 7th century. The cemetery includes 12th century catacombs and catacombs that probably date back to the 5th century. The "modern" cemetery includes the graves of Mozart's sister and Franz Joseph Haydn's composer brother, Michael Haydn. The cemetery is one of the Salzburg scenes featured in the move of The Sound of Music.
23 May, 2017
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 Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, or simply St. Peter's Basilica (Latin: Basilica Sancti Petri; Italian: Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), is an Italian Renaissance church in Vatican City, the papal enclave within the city of Rome.
Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter's is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and one of the largest churches in the world. (wikipedia)
St Peter and St Paul, Eye, Suffolk
I had not been back to Eye church for years. I had often passed through the town, often stopped here indeed, but the church was such a big project I had usually carried on to somewhere else. I finally tipped up here on the first Sunday in September 2018, a few minutes after High Mass had finished. The great church was full of incense, the bright summer light thrusting through it, claiming the interior for something greater and more numinous than mere congregational worship. As ever here I was made welcome.
There are three Suffolks. There is mighty Ipswich, a proud provincial town of 150,000 people. There are the scattered villages, hundreds and hundreds of them, their medieval parish churches forming the backbone of the county. And then, there are the small towns. Eye is perhaps the most robustly independent of Suffolk's smaller towns. It isn't big at all, but it is far from anywhere else of any size in the county, if you ignore Norfolk's Diss looming on the horizon. The railways reached it, bringing with them proud 19th century municipal buildings. Until the 1830s, the town returned two members to parliament, and it still gave its name to the parliamentary constituency until the 1970s. There is a castle (or, at least, what looks like a castle), some decent pubs, a theatre, and one of Suffolk's grandest churches.
The great flint-encrusted tower of St Peter and St Paul rises above a stunningly crafted interior. Here inside, we will find the nearest thing Suffolk has to a fulfilment of the ecclesiological aspirations of our great-grandparents' generation.
From a tiny spark, a glint in the eye of John Keble at Oxford in the 1830s, the sacramental revival in the Church of England spread like wildfire over the course of the ensuing century. The Church set about rediscovering its Catholic roots, and the preaching houses of the Hanoverians were stripped bare and filled with all the best that the Gothic revival had to offer. In many medieval churches, original artefacts were rediscovered and pressed back into service. Where this wasn't possible, the mass-production workshops of Birmingham and London could be called upon to provide what history could not.
Ironically, the catalyst for all this had been some of those very reform acts which had deprived Eye of its 'rotten borough' status. Catholic emancipation in the 1820s had been followed by grants to a Catholic university in Ireland. Keble, along with Pusey, Newman, Froude and the others, saw that the Church of England was in danger of being sidelined as a protestant sect. The Oxford Movement, as it became known, published a series of tracts to try and educate the middle classes about their lost past. Their intention was that the Church would recover its catholicity, and its destiny as a national church; the inevitable result was that some of the Movement, Newman among them, would leave the Church of England to become Catholics themselves.
The medieval past that they most admired was that of the early 14th century. This allowed them to see the later medieval period as an abuse-riddled downturn, from which the Church had to be rescued at the Reformation. However, as the Movement went on, there were many who asked if the Reformation had really been necessary at all.
The grandeur of Suffolk's biggest churches is an eve-of-the-Reformation wealth of the medieval industrial-heartland-of-England thing. Here at Eye it rebuilt the tower in the second half of the 15th century. As at Stradbroke, with which the tower has much in common, it was De la Pole money that rebuilt it, and the family arms are discernible still. Mortlock points out that you can see the shape of the windows change from late-Decorated to Perpendicular over the course of the 40 years or so it took to build. You can see the last windows, the pure rationalism of the late Perpendicular period, right at the top in the bell-stage. Beneath are some mystical Decorated windows, and below them the vast west window which bridges the gap between the two.
As the tower was being completed, so the rest of the church was undergoing an opulent rebuild. You can see evidence of the extension at the east end of the south aisle, where a blocked door sits beside the new one into the chancel. As at Lavenham, the parishioners here were left in no doubt about secular power and its might. Soon, the De la Poles, the Springs, the De Veres and so on would outgrow the middle ages, and the aspirations of wealthy families such as these would give rise to the Reformation, the nation state, and ultimately capitalism itself.
This was in the future. For now, the De la Poles invested in prayers as well as commerce, and although their south porch is a bit battered these days, it remains one of the loveliest in Suffolk, its brickwork echoing the gildhall on the other side of the church. You can only enter it from inside the church if you hope to see the dole table and fine 13th century doorway that survives of the earlier church, and you have to be there when it is open, for it now contains a shop.
Externally then, this is one of the great East Anglian churches. Here we see the late medieval Church in all its glory.
But in the 1530s, a collision of expediency and opportunity put an end to it all. Henry VIII took the church out of Europe; his son Edward VI enforced its protestant credentials, and Edward's sister Elizabeth I settled the whole thing by imposing a tyrannical oppression of the old ways, to bolster her grip on power. The past was subverted and lost, as first Anglicans, and then Puritans, overthrew the religion of their parents and grandparents, of the long generations. They all but obliterated the old order, the ancient faith. Much was lost, and much was forgotten. This was what the Oxford Movement tried to recover, but in the context of a national established church, with spectacular results.
By the end of the 19th century, the Anglo-catholic movement was in the ascendant. Most churches now saw Holy Communion as the main service rather than Morning Prayer; most churches became focused on the altar rather than the pulpit. Perhaps the formality and splendour of the high church aesthetic chimed with the pomposity and rhetoric of British imperialism; it is worth noting that the rise and fall of Anglo-catholicism as a mainstream tradition coincided almost exactly with the growth and decline of the British Empire. The movement reached its height in the early years of the 20th century, and probably the greatest exponent of Anglo-catholic fixtures and fittings was Ninian Comper. Comper will be familiar to manyfor his work at Lound and Lowestoft. He has also made appearances at Kettlebaston, Ipswich St Mary Elms, Ufford and Barsham, all beacons of early 20th century Anglo-catholic correctness.
All gone now, alas, alas. The ritualist tide has receded almost completely, and only the trappings and debris survive here and there, a reminder of what once was. An age that hovers on the edge of a public memory, when the formal vision of the established Church was at the heart of British daily life; an age of candles and incense, of richly coloured vestments and four-part choirs. An age of anthems, and war memorials, and processions, and coronations, and a liturgy that brought you to your knees.
Some of this still survives. Here at Eye the tradition has not completely receded.
You walk beneath the great tower with its wonderful fan-vaulting so uncharacteristic of Suffolk, and then into the open space of a large, civic church. As at Hadleigh, Halesworth, and other small Suffolk towns, the 19th century restoration here was pretty significant. However, into this created space have been placed furnishings of superb quality and design. The centre piece is Comper's magnificent rood screen and loft, built on the remains of the old one in the mid-1920s. The screen below is good, although not as good as some of the county's other late-15th century screens; the loft however, is easily the best 20th century work in Suffolk.
The figures on the dado screen must have been painted in 1500. Pevsner says, somewhat harshly, that they are all bad. It is true that they are doll-like, with nothing like the sophistication of those across the A140 at Yaxley, for example, but they have a certain naive charm. Curiously, the gessowork that forms a relief to the figures is really quite sophisticated. They are, from north to south: I: St Paul, II: St Helen, III: St Edmund, IV: St Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins, V: Henry VI, VI: St Dorothy, VII: St Barbara, VIII: St Agnes, IX: St Edward the Confessor, (the gap into the chancel is here), X: St John the Evangelist, XI: St Catherine, XII: St William of Norwich, XIII: St Lucy, XIV: St Thomas of Canterbury, and XV: St Agatha.
Many of these Saints had strong local cults in the late medieval period, and are familiar from other East Anglian screens. The less common St William of Norwich adds a little colour, standing as evidence of an anti-semitism that persisted well into the late middle ages, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the Jewish population had been expelled some two centuries previously. Two of the other images resonate strongly - the cults of Henry VI and St Thomas of Canterbury were particularly frowned upon by the 16th century reformers.
Up in the chancel, an entirely secular memorial recalls the Reverend Thomas Wythe, for fifty years Vicar of this Parish. he died in 1835, and the monument notes that he cordially believed, zealously preached, assiduously practiced. It is unlikely that the Reverend Wythe would recognise the inside of his church today. Much of what was foregrounded in this church by the considerable 1850s restoration was further adapted and enhanced by the higher church over the ensuing century. The most spectacular work is by Ninian Comper. As well as the rood and rood loft already mentioned, he produced the great east window depicting the Risen Christ flanked by St John, St Peter, St Paul and St Polycarp in memory of John Polycarp Oakey, parish priest here who died in 1926. Comper's also is the towering font cover, and the window of St George in the north aisle in memory of George Gerald Warnes, a 'Black-and-Tan' auxiliary who was gunned down by the IRA in Grafton Street, Dublin during the so-called 'Troubles' that preceded the Irish Civil War of the 1920s.
The process continues. The elegant tomb recess in the north aisle, for example, is host to Lough Pendred's 1960s Madonna and child. Pendred carved the same subject in a different composition for the lady chapel in the south aisle. To be honest, this kind of light wood romantic abstraction is very much of its decade, but there is a poignancy to its presence here in one of the surviving outposts of modern Anglo-Catholicism. Eye is one of the few Suffolk churches that still 'sports the big six'; that is to say, has six tall candles on the high altar.
Comper decorated the chancel roof, which glows magnificently in the morning light through the east window. Tucked away in two corners are two post-Reformation tombs to Nicholas Cutler and William Honyng, the first in the north aisle (it was originally in the sanctuary, according to Mortlock) and the second in the south aisle chapel. They are curious, because they appear to be almost identical, although whether this is a tribute to early-modern vanity, competing arrogance or mass-production I couldn't say.
This is a church in which to wander. It is full of interest, little details and quiet corners. A bit like Eye itself. Beside the church, the large, half-timbered building to the north is the former guildhall. For a long time this was a wonderful second hand bookshop, but that is now closed. On the corner post are the restored angels of the Annunciation - one only has been left unrestored. It is almost a symbol for this reinvented place.
Across the road is a rather urban 1960s red-brick modernist building that now houses the Eye Youth Resource Centre - one assumes it wouldn't get planning permission today. Above is the Castle Mound, now crowned by a late 19th century folly after the former windmill was demolished. You wander northwards into narrow streets of independent shops, and the sense of a community that supports and is at ease with itself. A proud little town. Its great church suits it well.
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.
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.
St Peter lies in the top of a down between Canterbury and Challock. It is found down the end of a long dead end lane, and I have never found it unlocked.
This must be the sixth, or so, visit to St Peter. I travelled in hope, at ten on a Saturday morning, when I hoped it would be being cleaned by wardens.
But although looking in good repair, it was locked, and no details of a keyholder.
Since, I have written to the vicar to arrange a visit.
News as we get it.
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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.
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...