Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1639 to 1775. Parish Church 1744-46 for 7th Earl of Westmorland after the old Church had been taken down to make way for the Castle. Very probably by Henry Flitcroft

Monument Types

• CHURCH (Post Medieval to Modern - 1639 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Description from record TQ 65 SE 27 :
(TQ 66025375) St. Lawrence's Church (NAT) (1) 2/29 Church of St Lawrence 25.8.59 I Parish Church 1744-46 for 7th Earl of Westmorland after the old Church had been taken down to make way for the Castle. Very probably by Henry Flitcroft. Temple church, taking up ideas laid down by Jones and by Hawksmoor & Archer in the 50 New Churches Commission, purified by neo-Palladian Theory. Ragstone blocks with sandstone ashlar quoins and dressings. Tiled slate roof with colossally deep eaves and pediment ends. West tower copied almost directly from Flitcroft St Giles-in-the-Fields. Square town base with arched belfry openings on west and with urns atop corners. Octagonal clock stage with pediment aedicules on each side. Columned and balustraded octagonal 3rd stage supporting octagonal pedestal of eight-sided obelisk like tower. Semi-circular Tuscan west porch with eaves cornice around. 7 bay nave with key-blocks to windows. East with 3 windows with arched central one, giving effect of Palladian window. Internal window in east pediment. Oculus in west pediment. Interior with barrel-vaulted nave three times wider than aisles themselves. More a series of square bays. 6 bays with close-set Doric columns carrying flat entablature. Attached half-columns against all four walls. Columns painted to look like marble, ceilings with coffering. Tomb to Sir Thomas Faut: d.1589 Erected 1639. 2 pairs of Corinthian columns supporting entablature curving forward in the centre with putti below. 2 reclining effigies beneath with kneeling sons. Attached to exterior wall to south, Monument to Francesco Sleter, decorative painter, d.1775. See M Whiffor, Smart and Georgian Churches outside London, London 147/48. (2) St Lawrence, Mereworth. The outstanding 18th century church in the county, in scale and ambition and in architectural interest. The exterior is a goulash of famous London churches, the steeple copied almost directly from Gibbs's St Martin-in-the-Fields, set over the west end of a low rectangular body, with end pediments and colossally deep eaves, after the manner of Inigo Jones at St Paul, Covent Garden, and a semi circular Tuscan west porch, nearer Archer's at St Paut Deptford than St Mary-le-Strand. Plain windows with key-blocks, the east three with an arched centre one, which makes a sort of Venetian window, and a grandiose Roman Baths window in the pediment. Monuments from the old church fill the circular vistibule which is below the tower. Full architectural description of interior. (3) Mereworth Church. Perhaps the oddest church in Kent. At the entrance, six great columns support the portico, and the tower is surmounted by a needle like spire. Inside are 36 sham marble columns. The church however contains much from the ancient church which John Fane destroyed. There is old stained glass in the east window and south chapel as well as striking sculptures and brasses. The canopied tomb of a medieval Earl and Countess of Westmorland is particularly fine. (4)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:

TQ 65 SE MEREWORTH THE STREET
2/29 Church of St Lawrence
25.8.59
- I
Parish Church 1744-46 for 7th Earl of Westmorland after the old Church had been taken down to make way for the Castle. Very probably by Henry Flitcroft. Temple church, taking up ideas laid down by Jones and by Hawksmoor & Archer in the 50 New Churches Commission, purified by neo-Palladian Theory. Ragstone blocks with sandstone ashlar quoins and dressings. Tiled slate roof with colossally deep eaves and pediment ends. West tower copied almost directly from Flitcroft St Giles-in-the-Fields. Square town base with arched belfry openings on west and with urns atop corners. Octagonal clock stage with pediment aedicules on each side. Columned and balustraded octagonal 3rd stage supporting octagonal pedestal of eight-sided obelisk like tower. Semi-circular Tuscan west porch with eaves cornice around. 7 bay nave with key-blocks to windows. East with 3 windows with arched central one, giving effect of Palladian window. Internal window in east pediment. Oculus in west pediment. Interior with barrel-vaulted nave three times wider than aisles themselves. More a series of square bays. 6 bays with close-set Doric columns carrying flat entablature. Attached half-columns against all four walls. Columns painted to look like marble, ceilings with coffering. Tomb to Sir Thomas Faut: d.1589 Erected 1639. 2 pairs of Corinthian columns supporting entablature curving forward in the centre with putti below. 2 reclining effigies beneath with kneeling sons. Attached to exterior wall to south, Monument to Francesco Sleter, decorative painter, d.1775. See M Whiffor, Smart and Georgian Churches outside London, London 147/48. Listing NGR: TQ6585553714 (5)

Diocese of Rochester (Tim Tatton-Brown), 1994, Mereworth, St Lawrence: Diocesan church survey (Unpublished document). SKE29437.

<1> OS 1:2500 1963 (OS Card Reference). SKE48205.

<2> DOE(HHR) Boro of Tonbridge & Malling Kent April 1985 53 (OS Card Reference). SKE40851.

<3> Bldgs of Eng W Kent & the Weald 1980 421-423 illus (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37888.

<4> Trans Battle & Dist Hist Soc 7 1958 25 (OS Card Reference). SKE50623.

<5> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading