Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1280 to 1915. A 13th century church with Norman origins which was extended in the 14th century and restored in 1875.

Monument Types

• CHURCH (Medieval to Modern - 1280 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Description from record TQ 86 NW 30:
[TQ 84366750] St Mary's Church [NAT] (1) St Mary's Church, Upchurch, consists of a nave and chancel, each with aisles, north and south porches and a west tower with spire. most of the architectural details are Decorated but there is some Early English in the chancel. (2) In the restoration of 1877 plinths of a Norman chancel arch were found. There are 13th cent. wall paintings on the south wall of the south aisle. (3) In normal use. (4) Church of St Mary The Virgin. Chancel c.1300, nave and east chapels 14th c, restored 1875 by Blomfield. (Full architectural description) (5) Church of St Mary the Virgin, a large church of typical Kentish outline, with an unusually spacious nave, and decorated gothic throughout. Blomfield's restoration of 1875 was confined to the chancel, leaving the old red tiles in the nave and the plaster on the roofs. (6)

Description from record TQ 86 NW 210:
Listed building : no additional information available

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 86 NW UPCHURCH HORSHAM LANE (north side)
1/4 Church of St. Mary The Virgin 24.1.67 I
Parish church. Chancel c. 1300, nave and east chapels C14, restored 1875 by Blomfield. Flint and rubble, with plain tiled roofs and shingled spire. Chancel with north and south chapel, nave with aisles, west tower north and south porches. Two stage battered tower with roll moulded and plain chamfered west doorway, and restored C15 Perpendicular west windows. Shingle spire of an 8 sided cone placed over a pyramid, built 1915 after an explosion. South aisle with angle buttresses and offset porch with quatrefoiled oculi containing C14 glass. South chapel of rubble, east end of chancel flint and rubble, north chapel flint, with charnel cellar below, with restored geometric south east window, restored curvilinear east window with sexfoil and genuine C14 curvilinear north-east 3 light window with mouchettes. North aisle and north-east chapel with angle buttresses and 3 offset buttresses, with 2 large C14 windows, 2 light with quatrefoil over, and 4 smaller ones of similar pattern, with lean- to north porch. Interior: unmoulded tower arch, with rounded corners projecting into nave containing stairs. Three bay nave arcade, octagonal piers with double chamfered arches, and 3 bay crown post roof with straight tie beams and solid knees on carved corbels. Nave and aisles with continuous wall seats. South aisle with C15 3 bay cusped blind arcading and string course over. North-east corner of nave has exposed 1 shaft head c. 1300 and section of keel roll blind hollow chamfered nave arcade and chancel arch pre-dating Cl4 expansion of nave. Double hollow chamfered chancel arch on octagonal responds. Chancel of c. 1300 with later C14 2 bay arcades to chapels, roll moulded with hollow and plain chamfer on square piers with attached marble shafts at corners, and carved leaf capitals, with fragments of earlier blind arcading and string course with same mouldings as fragment in nave. Trussed rafter roof. Fittings: ascending triple stone sedilia in chancel, with wooden backboard. Piscinas in chancel, south chapel, and north aisle and 2 paired aumbreys in chancel east wall and aumbrey with door in south chapel. C14 screen to south chapel, with solid plastered base, with square-headed lights, 2 with mouchettes. C14 cusped and ogee-headed recess in south chapel, with attached shafts. Medieval floor tiles survive at nave east end (10 rows) and in north chapel. C12 architectural fragment in north aisle, zig- zag and diaper mouldings. Monuments: C14 wall tomb, on north chapel, a marble slab with crocketed and cusped ogee arch with 2 castellated pinnacles. 2 brasses in north aisle, half-length man and woman (15 in), c. 1350, originally with inscription in French. Glass: in north aisle, roundel c. 1300 of angel, with other C14 and C15 figures, and roundels in south porch. Fragmentary wall painting in south aisle. (See BOE Kent II, 1983, 482-3) Listing NGR: TQ8434667457 (8)

<1> OS 6" 1906-38 (OS Card Reference). SKE48316.

<2> Notes on the Churches of Kent 1877 175-7 (SR Glynne) (OS Card Reference). SKE47702.

<3> Little Guides: Kent 1935 293-4 (JC Cox) (OS Card Reference). SKE46145.

<5> DOE(HHR) Swale Boro Kent 27-NOV-84 72 (OS Card Reference). SKE41188.

<6> Bldgs of Eng NE and E Kent 1983 482-3 (J Newman, Ed N Pevsner) (OS Card Reference). SKE37827.

<7> Field report for monument TQ 86 NW 30 - November, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4579.

<8> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading