Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

GradeII* listed building. Main construction periods 1731 to 1899 Church built in 1731/3 on Site of an earlier church of St. George built in the late 15th century as a chapel of ease to the parish church of St. Mary and licenced for mass in 1492. The church was burnt down in a great fire in 1727. In the basement of 74 High Street during demolition a quantity of stone, mostly worked was found. It was elaborately carved, of late Perpendicular style, and is believed to be form the demolished St. George's with the stone work used as infill for No.74 which was also destroyed in 1727.

Monument Types

• CHAPEL OF EASE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1540 AD to 2050 AD)
• CHURCH (CHURCH, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• PARISH CHURCH (PARISH CHURCH, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• CHURCH (Post Medieval to Modern - 1731 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Description from record TQ 67 SW 7:
[TQ 64687434] St. George's Chapel of Unity [T.U.] (1) St. George's Ch. [T.U.] (2) The first Church of St. George, Gravesend, was built in 1510 and became the parish church in 1544. It was burned down in 1727 and the present church was built on the site in 1731-3. (3) In normal use. (4) Parish Church of St. George. Grade B. (5) Additional bibliography. (6)(7)

Description from record TQ 67 SW 234:
Site of an earlier church of St. George built in the late 15th century as a chapel of ease to the parish church of St. Mary and licenced for mass in 1492. The church was burnt down in a great fire in 1727. In the basement of 74 High Street (TQ64757435) during demolition a quantity of stone, mostly worked was found. It was elaborately carved, of late Perpendicular style, and is believed to be form the demolished St. George's with the stone work used as infill for No.74 which was also destroyed in 1727.(1-2)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5277 PRINCES STREET (West Side)
Church of St George TQ 6474 SE 1/1 23.1.52.
B
2. Parish Church. The original Parish Church of Gravesend (St Mary's) was nearly a mile further inland to the south. The first church on the present site was built in 1510 and became the Parish Church in 1544. This was burned down in 1727 in the great fire which destroyed most of old Gravesend. The present building was built in 1731-3 at the cost of £5,000. George II contributed £1,000, Queen Caroline £500, and the remainder was obtained from duties levied on coal brought by sea to London and Gravesend. The architect and builder was C Sloane (1690-1764) who is buried in the Churchyard. On the west wall of the Church is a tablet in memory of him. (He also built the Old Town Hall at Maidstone). The Church is built of brown brick on an ashlar base, with long and short stone quoins. Apsidal east end with curved pediment above it. Brick tower at the west end with stone cupola set back above with clock face on each front, and stone spire set back above this. Doorcase with Gibbs surround. The north and west sides of the Church each have 2 tiers of 5 windows, the upper tier being round-headed and the lower tier segmental-headed. The organ loft was inserted in 1764 and the small galleries on each side of it in 1819. Apse enlarged and North Aisle added in the 1890s by W and C A Basset-Smith. The Red Indian Princess Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhattan of Virginia, who was baptised Rebecca, married Thomas Rolfe and with him visited the English court in 1616, where she was received by Queen Anne, wife of James I, was buried in the Chancel of the Parish Church of Gravesend when she died in England in March 1617. It is generally thought that this was the previous church on the present site which had been the Parish church since 1544, and on this assumption there is a tablet in memory of the Princess in the present building. But the original Parish Church of St Mary was still standing in 1617, and so there is some element of doubt in the matter.
Listing NGR: TQ6468974341


Listing Text:

List entry Description

Summary of Building

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details..

Reasons for Designation

The church of St George, Gravesend is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Parish church of 1731-2 by George Sloane and built under the 50 New Churches Act. * Chancel extended and N aisle added in the very late C19. * Early C18 communion rails, W gallery of 1764 and C18 George England organ. * Association with the Native American princess, Pocahontas, who was buried in the previous church. * Good townscape value.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details..

Details

This List entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 06/01/2014

742/1/1

PRINCES STREET (West side), Church Of St George

23.01.52

II*

1731-2 by Charles Sloane, chancel rebuilt and extended eastwards in 1892, N aisle added in 1895-9 to designs by William and Charles Basset-Smith.

MATERIALS: Yellow stock brick with stone dressings, mostly Bath stone with some Portland stone repairs, Stonewold concrete tile roofs.

PLAN: Nave with W gallery and W tower largely set within the W end of the nave, N aisle, apsidal chancel with NE vestry.

EXTERIOR: Entirely Classical with relatively simple detailing. Tall, four stage W tower, only slightly projecting from the W end of the nave, with rusticated quoins and platbands. Gibbs surround to the W doorway. Tower windows with a mixture of tall, round-headed windows and occuli. Slender spire with a ball finial and weathervane. W end of the nave blind on the S, one window on the N. The C19 apse has a plain brick parapet above a platband and cornice, and a Venetian E window, reused from the original C18 apse. Windows in the E wall of the nave on either side of the nave added in 1914. The nave (S side) has a rendered parapet above a moulded stone cornice and two tiers of windows, the lower tier with shallow segmental heads, the upper tier taller, round-headed and linked by a platband. The C19 N aisle has 2-light round-headed windows with a transom, uncusped lights and a roundel in the head. The westernmost window is single light. The original N doorway has been re-sited in the W end of the aisle with a rusticated surround, keyblock, cornice and two-leaf door with fielded panels. Flat roofed C19 vestry in the NE corner with a plain brick parapet and stone surrounds to the windows and doors.

INTERIOR: The interior is plastered and painted except for the dressings and columns of the N aisle. The nave has a flat ceiling with a decorative plaster oval and 3 ventilators, and a deep, plain coved cornice with a platband decorated with small rosettes is supported on corbelled pilasters; these have been reduced in length above the N arcade. The chancel opens through a segmental arch on impost blocks decorated with rosettes. The apse has a plaster rib vault, and is lined with two tiers of panelling, the upper tier with reeded pilasters, a triglyph frieze and reeded shafts flanking the central light of the Venetian E window. W gallery of 1764 on slender timber posts and breaks forward in the centre. The gallery front has fielded panelling and a key frieze below the cornice. Good stair with turned balusters and a dado of fielded panelling. In the SW corner is an upper gallery with a plain front recessed into the space next to the tower.

Four bay N arcade of 1897 in a Beaux Arts version of an early C18 style, with segmental arches panelled on the soffit on polished, red Aberdeen granite columns with Tuscan capitals and bases.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: C18 communion rails with chunky barleysugar balusters; they have panels with Italianate painting of 1893, a remnant of a large-scale late C19 decorative scheme in the chancel that has otherwise largely been painted out. In the W gallery, a 1764 George England organ (not working) with good carved decoration to the case. Drum pulpit of 1907 with reeded pilasters with holly and ebony inlay, and curly brackets to the octagonal stem. Plain polygonal font of 1872 in a Perpendicular style.

E window glass of 1866 in a pictorial style with very little leading. S nave windows by Clayton and Bell; Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and Moore and Son. The nave NE and SE windows of 1914, and given by the Society of Colonial Dames of America in memory of Princess Pocahontas.

HISTORY There was a church (St Mary's) at Gravesend in the Anglo-Saxon period, but it was on a different site. The first church on the present site was built in the late C15 and became the parish church in 1544. This building, which probably comprised a nave, chancel and N aisle, and possibly a steeple or tower, stood some way to the W of the present church. The Native American princess, Pocahontas, died in Gravesend in 1614 and is said to have been buried in the old church. That church burned down in 1727 in a great fire that destroyed most of Gravesend. The present church was built in 1731-2 to designs by Charles Sloane and funded out of the dues on coal coming into London as part of the 1711 Fifty New Churches Act. The chancel was extended E, retaining the apsidal plan and original E window, in 1892 and in 1895-9 the N aisle was added to designs by the firm of Basset-Smith.

SOURCES: Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald (1969), 288-9 Adam, H et al, St George's Church Guide (1990)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of St George, Gravesend is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Parish church of 1731-2 by Charles Sloane and built under the 50 New Churches Act. * Chancel extended and N aisle added in the very late C19. * Early C18 communion rails, W gallery of 1764 and C18 George England organ. * Association with the Native American princess, Pocahontas, who was buried in the previous church. * Good townscape value . (9)

Photographs (10-11)

<1> O.S.1/2500 1955. (OS Card Reference). SKE47840.

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1998, High Street, Gravesend: Site Inspection Report & Documentary Study (Unpublished document). SWX6737.

<2> O.S.1/2500 1932. (OS Card Reference). SKE47839.

<2> Hiscock, R. H., 1990, "King John's Palace", Gravesend: Some Notes on a Riverside Edwardian Royal Manor House, Arch Cant CVII p 193-205 (Article in serial). SKE11947.

<3> M.H.L.G.(1148/11/A, April 1951) 10 (OS Card Reference). SKE46259.

<4> F1 ASP 14-OCT-64 (OS Card Reference). SKE42109.

<5> DOE (HHR) Bor of Gravesham 1975 27-28 (OS Card Reference). SKE39794.

<6> Bldgs of Eng West Kent and the Weald 1980 300-301 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE38059.

<7> Arch Cant 85 1970 182-184 (AF Allen) (OS Card Reference). SKE35804.

<8> Field report for monument TQ 67 SW 7 - October, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3633.

<9> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<10> 1975, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10840.

<11> 1979, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10841.

Sources and further reading