Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

St John's Ch (Norman and later) Grade I listed building This church originally belonged to Christ Church Priory. Early English with transepts added in second quarter of 14th century. Built of flint. Cruciform building with aisles to the nave, south porch and west tower with broached shingled spire. Norman west doorway with embattled moulding billet hood and scalloped capitals. The nave, aisles and tower are late 12th century, the chancel is 13th century, the transepts are 14th century, the south porch is 19th century. The whole building was restored in 1901. The north transept belonged to the owners of Lee Priory and has a 14th century effigy of William Heghtresbury. The south transept belonged to the owners of the Baye estate and contains the 14th century tomb of Sir Thomas de Baa.

Monument Types

• CHURCH (Medieval to Modern - 1167 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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[TR 2221 5813] St John's Church [NAT] (1) The church of St John, Ickham, has a Norman W doorway and late C12th, C13th and C14th work. (2) In normal use. (3) Church of St John, The Street (NE side), Ickham and Well. Grade I. This church originally belonged to Christ Church Priory. Early Englishwith transepts added in second quarter of C14. Built of flint. Cruciform building with aisles to the nave, S porch and W tower with broached shingled spire. Norman W doorway with embattled moulding billet hood and scalloped capitals. The nave, aisles and tower are late C12, the chancel is C13, the transepts are C14, the S porch is C19. The whole building was restored in 1901. (For full description see list). (4) Additional bibliography. (5)
A church at Ickham is mentioned in Domesday Book (1086), but the earliest visible remains now are of the mid-12th century. First there is a fine round-headed west doorway on the outside of the tower, which must be reset. It has typical mid-12th century ‘crenellated’ decoration over the roundarch. Inside the church at the east end of the nave, the four eastern piers indicate that there were mid-12th century round-headed arches here. The arch on the north (with a roll on the southside) still survives as does its western impost block (the main jambs, however, were renewed in the 14th century - see below), while on the south the arch has been replaced, but the 12th century piers still have much of their original quoins. This presumably indicates that the east end of the nave is still in part the late-11th century nave, pierced in the mid-12th century for aisles.

The population of Ickham must have been growing rapidly in the 12th and 13th centuries, as the nave was greatly enlarged to the west, and given south and north aisles in the late 12th or very early 13th century. A west tower was also added at the same time, and it has a plain pointed arch (with chamfers) into the nave. The western three bays of the nave also have plain pointed arches of different sizes, and in the south arcade only, one can see flat chamfers on some arches, and flat chamfers on the piers (with bar stops at the top, and pyramid stops at the bottom). The original aisles here were as usual, lean-to affairs and evidence for this can be seen outside the south-west corner of the nave, where the line of the slope can be seen. Only in the late 13th or early 14th century were the aisle walls raised and given new higher roofs. There is also a c.1200 south doorway (in the 19th century porch) with a plain chamfered archway. (It contains a pair of c.17th century doors). The aisle windows are paired-lancets of a later 13th century date, but those on the south have been reset in the 19th century (note the knapped flint surround). On the north the western paired-lancet has a relieving arch over it of re-used Roman bricks. There is a 19th century boiler house outside this window, and the buttresses on either side of it are also 19th century, but no sign of a north doorway. The north nave arcade was apparently given new side-alternative Ragstone jambs in the late 14th or 15th century.

In the 1230s or 40s the old chancel was demolished and replaced by a fine new chancel with four large lancets on either side, and a triplet (with moulded hoods externally and internally) in the east wall. There is also a small south doorway (with ¼¼¼¼¼..) and external and internal moulded string-courses, the latter rising up in steps at two stages inside the chancel. The second step-up is clearly for the altar dais, and there is a heavily-moulded trefoil-headed piscina (with two basins) in the south wall. It had separate side-shafts (now missing) which were probably of Purbeck marble. More unusually, however, there are at the west end of the chancel a pair of two-light lancet windows with quatrefoils over them in plate tracery. #there is a similar window in the west wall of the south transept which appears to be reset. When the new chancel was built, there were no transepts and it is worth noting that this new chancel is the same width as the nave, though slightly angled to the north. Several earlier legers (some late Medieval, including that of a priest, M de Hampton died 1306) are just visible beneath the modern choir-stalls, and it is recorded that 18 stalls (probably of a 15th century date) were removed from the chancel in the earlier 18th century. Some medieval glass was also removed at about this time. The chancel arch is an early 14th century insertion, but a small part of an in situ 13th century base can be seen in the western return on the north side. This perhaps relates to the earlier chancel arch. Both return walls at the west end of the chancel were refaced in the 19th century, presumably after the removal of a late-Medieval Rood screen.

In the early 14th century two fine transepts, with external buttresses and plinths, were added to the church as separate chapels. They both have the unusual feature of gabled projecting altar-recesses, and both have fine traceried windows in their east and north (or south walls). Also each north or south window contains a fine canopied tomb (with an effigy on it) beneath the window (that on the north has now lost its canopy, and been rebuilt, unfortunately, and the effigy here of a priest is supposed to be William of Heghtresbury, a prominent churchman who died in 1372. This is not, however, certain. The tracery of these two transepts is fine work, though there are distinctive differences. For example, the north transept uses sunk-chamfers in the arches to the north aisle and to the altar recess, while the south transept has concave chamfers with pyramid stops in the equivalent positions here. Both transepts also have piscines. The architecture, and particularly the projecting altar bays, can be compared with work at Wingham and Adisham churches. The very fine south transept canopied tomb is probably of Thomas or Baa (or Boy) who died in 1339. He is sculpted as a knight, and his name and arms were formerly in the window glass. Later the north transept became the ‘Lee Chantry’, but before the Reformation there was another chantry chapel in the nave (the Denys Chantry), and a fine iron-bound medieval chest relating to this chantry survives in the north transept. All the roofs over the nave, chancel and transepts, though repaired in 1874 (chancel) and 1932-2 (nave) with no ceilings, are probably of a 14th century date. They were probably put in after the transepts and new chancel arch were built. At the west end of the south aisle is a reset early Perpendicular two-light window.

The c.1200 west tower had a timber broach spire (probably of late medieval date), but this was demolished in 1825 when a new flat lead roof and crenellated parapet. A new spire and a clock were added in 1870 when the tower was restored (all four bells inside date to 1641). The major restoration of the church was in 1845-6 under Hezekiah Marshall (Cost £1,167), and galleries were put in, though an earlier west gallery was removed, to give the church 240 new ‘free’ seats (the I.C.B.S. gave a grant of £60). Later repairs were in 1870 (tower), 1901, and to the nave roof in 1932-3 (after the ceiling collapsed). The major masonry repairs and the south porch were probably made in 1845-6. (9)

Description from record TR 25 NW 342:
The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5273 ICKHAM AND WELL THE STREET (north-east side)
Church of St John TR 2258 36/425 30.1.67
I GV
2. This church originally belonged to Christ Church Priory. Early English with transepts added in second quarter of C14. Built of flint. Cruciform building with aisles to the nave, south porch and west tower with broached shingled spire. Norman west doorway with embattled moulding billet hood and scalloped capitals. The nave, aisles and tower are late C12, the chancel is C13, the transepts are C14, the south porch is C19. The whole building was restored in 1901. The north transept belonged to the owners of Lee Priory and has a C14 effigy of William Heghtresbury. The south transept belonged to the owners of the Baye estate and contains the C14 tomb of Sir Thomas de Baa. Wall monuments. Double piscina. The churchyard contains some C18 headstones with skull, urn or cherub motifs. Listing NGR: TR2221358143 (10)

<1> OS 6" 1960 (OS Card Reference). SKE48367.

<2> MHLG (1953/11/A Dec 1960) 39 (OS Card Reference). SKE46949.

<3> F1 ASP 03-JUL-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE41906.

<4> DOE(HHR) Dist of City of Canterbury Kent Nov 1980 131 (OS Card Reference). SKE40917.

<5> BOE NE and E Kent 1983 362-3 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE38238.

<6> Arch Cant 14 1882 113-133 (WA Scott Robertson) (OS Card Reference). SKE34709.

<7> Arch Cant 25 1902 207-221 (T Shipdem Frampton) (OS Card Reference). SKE34880.

<8> Field report for monument TR 25 NW 27 - July, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5747.

<9> Diocese of Canterbury (Tim Tatton-Brown), 1996, 1997, Church Survey - Church of St. John the Evangelist, Ickham. (Unpublished document). SKE7570.

<10> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading