Link to printer-friendly page

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

HER Number:TQ 56 SW 137
Type of record:Listed Building
Name:CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL

Summary

Church sited on the edge of a village rich in historic buildings. The foundations of the Norman chancel were found under the nave in 1956-7. C14 N wall; N chapel early Perp; other features mostly late Perp; c.1775 W tower, rebuilt after a fire. Chancel rebuilt and the north east vestry/organ chamber added in the 1860s restoration by Woodye; restoration in the 1950s.

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1327 to 1775

Summary from record TQ 56 SW 2 :

Church, 12th century and later


Grid Reference:TQ 52279 61590
Map Sheet:TQ56SW
Parish:SHOREHAM, SEVENOAKS, KENT

Monument Types

  • CHURCH (Medieval to Modern - 1327 AD to 2050 AD)
Protected Status:Listed Building (I) 1243786: CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

Listing Text:

SHOREHAM

771/31/1154 CHURCH STREET
10-SEP-1954 SHOREHAM
(North side)
CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL

I
Church sited on the edge of a village rich in historic buildings. The foundations of the Norman chancel were found under the nave in 1956-7. C14 N wall; N chapel early Perp; other features mostly late Perp; c.1775 W tower, rebuilt after a fire. Chancel rebuilt and the north east vestry/organ chamber added in the 1860s restoration by Woodye; restoration in the 1950s.

MATERIALS: Flint and stone rubble with freestone dressings; the tower flint with red brick dressings; tiled roofs.

PLAN: Nave and chancel in one, west tower; south bay south arcade; north chapel, north east vestry/organ chamber; south east chapel, south west porch.

EXTERIOR: Chancel with coped gable, diagonal buttresses with set-offs and 3-light east window of 1953 (following war damage) with reticulated tracery. One Decorated and one Perpendicular style window to the nave. The C14 north chapel (now the vestry) has a 2-light window (tracery much renewed), Woodyer's eastward extension is largely Decorated style but has a 3-light Perpendicular east window. The south aisle is buttressed, one buttress partly rebuilt in red brick with 3-light Perpendicular windows (much stonework renewal) with cinquefoil-headed lights and Tudor arched heads. Very lively design to 3-stage tower with red brick banding to the lower and clasping toothed pilaster buttresses to the upper stages, above a red brick platband. The tower has a pierced red brick parapet and obelisk pinnacles with ball finals. Windows and doorways in the tower have proud architraves with keyblocks and capitals; pedimented clockface on west face, 1857 clock. The south west porch is remarkable: timber-framed and gabled with renewed cusped and pierced bargeboards. Although it has been extensively repaired the front posts and spandrels each side of the doorway are constructed out of the solid. The spandrels are carved with blind tracery. Much of the construction above the doorway and of the side walls appears to be C19 with ad hoc repairs, but the design of a plain crown post braced to the collar purlin may be original. The timber framed sides of the porch sit on a flint base and the tier of panels below the middle rail have flint infill. Above the rail are, to the front, 5-light square-headed timber mullioned openings with traceried heads and, to the rear, panels filled with diagonal boarding.

INTERIOR: The nave has a medieval 4-bay Perpendicular crownpost roof, the crownposts with moulded capitals and bases and 4-way bracing. The south chancel chapel has a probably late medieval boarded, panelled roof with flat carved bosses at the intersections of the ribs and a C19 parclose screen, made locally. 6-bay south arcade with engaged shafts with capitals and moulded arches, one and half bays to the chancel. Probably late medieval tie beam and common rafter roof to the south aisle. The chancel roof is 1860s and is boarded and panelled, including one bay of the nave. C19 reredos of stone panels with painted figures under ogee arches, the stone panelling extending across the width of the sanctuary. Octagonal responds to the moulded arch into the north chapel. Stone flag flooring to nave, salvaged from Shoreham Place and laid in 1955-7. Impressive late medieval (restored) timber screen with rood loft with lierne vaulting extends across the width of the nave and south aisle, the main doorway to the nave off-centre and the south end projecting across one of the aisle windows. This is said to be the only surviving screen in Kent that extends across the full width a church.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Plain medieval octagonal stone font with a rustic conical font cover, said to be Tudor. 1827 timber drum pulpit designed by Blore, originating from Westminster Abbey: a timber drum with well-proportioned blind Gothic tracery below crocketted gables. Organ case 1730, also from Westminster Abbey. Simple nave benches with open backs and ends. Stained glass includes a 1903 Morris and Co window to Burne-Jones's design. C14 tomb canopy on north wall. Wall monuments include 4 of early C18 date by Henry Cheere (Pevsner) to members of the Borrett family.
The path to the church from the village is planted with Irish yews, said to date from 1867.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: St Peter and St Paul is a largely medieval church with an outstanding late medieval timber-framed porch and very lively polychromatic C18 tower. The interior includes a late medieval rood screen, late medieval roofs and good quality fittings re-used from Westminster Abbey.

SOURCES: Pevsner, West Kent and the Weald, 1980 edn., 521-522
Payne, A, Gliddon, P, Edwards, V, Benbow, D and David, E, St Peter and St Paul, Shoreham, Kent, 1995.

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5280 SHOREHAM SHOREHAM Church Street (North Side)
Church of St Peter and St Paul TQ 5261 31/1154 10.9.54.
B
2. Parish Church. The present Church was built during the reign of Edward III on site of previous Church. The west end tower of flint rubble with red brick quoins and dressings to windows was built in 1775 to replace previous tower destroyed by fire. The rood screen is the most interesting feature of the Church. It is the most perfectly preserved screen in the county and retains the original vaulting to support the rood loft. Very good south porch of timber with tracery. Other interesting features are the pulpit and organ case, both of which were at one time at Westminster Abbey and were brought to Shoreham in the early C19. Octagonal Tudor font cover. The rest of the Church is in the main perpendicular with very good arcade of 6 arches between nave and south aisles. Listing NGR: TQ5227561591 (1)

Description from record TQ 56 SW 2 :
[TQ 5227 6159] Church of St Peter & St Paul [NAT] (2) St Peter and St Paul's Shoreham, was built temp Edward III. (3) Twelfth cent and later. (Visual inspection and church notice). In normal use. (4) Church of St Peter and St Paul, Church Street (N side). Grade B. Parish church. The present church was built during the reign of Edward III on site of previous church. The west end tower of flint rubble with red brick quoins and dressings to windows was built in 1775 to replace previous tower destroyed by fire. The rood screen is the most interesting feature of the church. It is the most perfectly preserved screen in the county and retains the original vaulting to support the rood loft. Very good south porch of timber with tracery. Other interesting features are the pulpit and organ case, both of which were at one time at Westminster Abbey and were brought to Shoreham in the early C19. Octagonal Tudor font cover. The rest of the church is in the main Perpendicular with very good arcade of 6 arches between nave and south aisles. Wall and Lych Gate to Church of St Peter & St Paul, Church Strteet (N side), Shoreham. Grade II. Flint rubble wall of early C19, with picturesque lych gate of 1862. (5) St Peter and St Paul. Largely late Perpendicular. Nave and chancel in one. South aisle and south chancel chapel, with a continuous arcade on piers of four shafts and four hollows. Timber south porch. This maybe Late Perpendicular too, though the corner posts are vast, so vast that the doorway spandrels are carved out of the solid. Early English tower arch and, inside the tower, parts of two windows in the W doorway. Early Decorated N wall. The short N chapel Early Perpendicular. In 1956-7 the foundations of the Norman chancel were found under the nave. Large W tower of c1775. The church was drastically restored in 1864 by Woodyer, who rebuilt the chancel and added the NE vestry. Rood screen - a unique survival for Kent in that it extends the full width of the church and keeps its loft, coved to both W and E. Of the Devon type, though plain by Devon standards. Justone band of vine trail and cresting. The tracery is almost all modern.(6) The church of St's Peter and Paul, Shoreham. The name of the parish is included in the list of churches in the Textus Roffensis, but there are no architectural evidences of a pre-Conquest church. It was more likely of wood. There is likewise no definite indication of the church that followed it in the C12th. The earliest architectural evidence is of the late C12th, the arch from the nave to the western tower. Records speak of building operations in 1485, 1567,1575, 1581. In 1601 the chancel was in a ruinous state, as it was also in 1774 and repairs were carried out in 1775 (tower), 1863 (vestry), 1928 and recently. See illustration card for plan. (7)

additional info (8-10)

Desk based assessment carried out in 2012 (11)


<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<1> OS 6" 1961 (OS Card Reference). SKE48369.

<2> MHLG (2360/11/A April 1949) 103 (OS Card Reference). SKE47016.

<3> F1 ASP 02-OCT-64 (OS Card Reference). SKE41899.

<4> DOE (HHR) Dist of Sevenoaks Kent Oct 1975 293 (OS Card Reference). SKE40318.

<5> The Buildings of England W Kent and the Weald 1980 521-522 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE50222.

<6> Arch Cant 65 1952 144-148 illus (F C Ellivston Ernwood) (OS Card Reference). SKE35396.

<7> Arch Cant 73 1959 216-219 illus (A D Stoyel) (OS Card Reference). SKE35534.

<8> Field report for monument TQ 56 SW 2 - October, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE2966.

<9> Diocese of Canterbury (Tim Tatton-Brown), 1994, Shoreham, St Peter and Paul:Diocesan church survey (Unpublished document). SKE29491.

<10> CgMs Consulting, 2012, Heritage Desk Based Assessment: Land at Quarry Wood, Aldington, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE31505.

Sources and further reading

Cross-ref. Source description
<1>XYMap: English Heritage. List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. [Mapped feature: #30908 church, ]
<1>OS Card Reference: OS 6" 1961.
<2>OS Card Reference: MHLG (2360/11/A April 1949) 103.
<3>OS Card Reference: F1 ASP 02-OCT-64.
<4>OS Card Reference: DOE (HHR) Dist of Sevenoaks Kent Oct 1975 293.
<5>OS Card Reference: The Buildings of England W Kent and the Weald 1980 521-522 (J Newman).
<6>OS Card Reference: Arch Cant 65 1952 144-148 illus (F C Ellivston Ernwood).
<7>OS Card Reference: Arch Cant 73 1959 216-219 illus (A D Stoyel).
<8>Bibliographic reference: Field report for monument TQ 56 SW 2 - October, 1964.
<9>Unpublished document: Diocese of Canterbury (Tim Tatton-Brown). 1994. Shoreham, St Peter and Paul:Diocesan church survey.
<10>Unpublished document: CgMs Consulting. 2012. Heritage Desk Based Assessment: Land at Quarry Wood, Aldington, Kent.