Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

St Mary's Church. An Alien Priory cell of Austin canons was founded here c. 1200 and dissolved in 1409. The Church of St Mary, Patrixbourne was constructed during the late 12th century and has 13th century additions. The tower is placed centrally in the south aisle forming a `porch of honour', a distinctly Norman feature. The east end of the South aisle, the Bifrons Chapel, was rebuilt in the 15th century. The north aisle was added in 1824. The chancel was drastically restored in 1849 by Mr Marshall of Canterbury and in 1857, the nave, tower and south aisle were restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott.An alien priory cell of Austin canons was founded here circa 1200 when the church and manor was granted to the Priory of Beaulieu, Normandy. In 1258, it was granted to Merton Priory. The estate was sold to Merton, and the priory dissolved, in 1409. There is strong evidence that Patrixbourne was a minster created in a second wave of minster creation in Kent from the 8th to mid-10th centuries.

Monument Types

• MINSTER (CHURCH, Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 701 AD to 950 AD)
• CHURCH (Medieval to Modern - 1167 AD to 2050 AD)
• AUGUSTINIAN CELL (AUGUSTINIAN CELL, Medieval - 1258 AD to 1409 AD)

Full description

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(TR 18965514) Church (TU) (1) The Church of St Mary, Patrixbourne, is late 12th13th c. added to and restored later. An Alien Priory cell of Austin canons was founded here c. 1200 and dissolved in 1409. (2,3) In normal use. No further information concerning the priory cell. (4) Chancel, nave with aisles and tower in the centre of the south aisle, its ground floor forming a porch, with a broached shingled spire aboveit. Knapped flint. Rare and good east wheel window with cylindrical spokes. The chancel, the nave, the tower and the south aisle to the west of the tower are late C12 (the spire C13) and contain an especially fine Norman south doorway and a good Norman priests' doorway. But they were rather drastically restored at the expense of the first Marchioness Conyngham, the chancel in 1849 (architect Mr Marshall of Canterbury) the nave, tower and aisle in 1857 (architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott). The east end of the south aisle (the Bifrons Chapel) was rebuilt in the C15. The north aisle was added in 1824. Some of the windows have C16 and C17 Swiss glass given to the church by Lady Conyngham in 1837. Body stones in the churchyard. (5) Additional bibliography. (6 - 15)

The coursed whole flints in the west wall of the nave of this church suggest that its earliest fabric may date from the late 11th/early 12th century, though there is no certain evidence for this. A church is mentioned in Domesday Book (1086), so the nave of this church (or the west end of the nave) may well be the early Norman one.

This church is well-known because of its fine late 12th century south doorway under an unusual contemporary south tower-porch. There is also a fine wheel-window in the east gable of the chancel of the same date, as is the chancel arch and other windows in the chancel. The church and particularly the late 12th century features have been discussed and described in various articles (see references below), so will only be briefly described here. As usual, it is Livetts' paper of 1909 (though unfortunately the outside walls were almost completely covered in ivy at that time), and the brief notes of Stuart Rigold (1970) that are most useful for the building history. The various 19th century rebuildings (in c. 1824, 1849 and 1857), however, complicate matters.

As Stuart Rigold suggests, the church was perhaps rebuilt in the 1190s as a cell for the Augustinian canons of Merton Priory, Surrey. The elaborate chancel and the lean-to south aisle, straddled by the tower-porch were both built at about this time, no doubt for the canons (as well as parochial) use. Externally the chancel has been heavily restored with knapped flint and Bathstone, but the general form of all the windows on a string-course must be original, as is the small late 12th century south doorway with scalloped capitals and chevron mouldings. However early 19th century views show the south-east chancel window with 2-lights with trefoiled heads (?13th century), cutting the string-course. There is also a late 13th century piscina below it (and an aumbry) inside the chancel. The simple roof trusses over the chancel are also of later medieval date.

As Livett has ably shown, the tower porch on the south was originally flanked by a contemporary aisle on either side with a shed roof, probably continuing the line of the nave roof. There is external evidence for this at the west end of the aisle, where the lower part of the wall can still be seen to be original. There is also an original west window, and the lower part of a blocked south window (a new two-light window was inserted in the 15th century when the aisle wall was heightened. The heavy knapped flint gable on the west is 19th century. As Livett has also suggested, there was probably a similar aisle on the east side of the tower, but this was completely replaced in the 15th century when the new chapel of ?St John was built.

The tower itself is a fine late-12th century structure with a magnificent monumental decorated south doorway, last restored in 1939, when the flanking brick sloping buttresses were removed, and ties were put in. The upper part of the squat tower has a string-course with, above it, small round belfry windows. There is a later medieval shingled spire on top of it, and a 19th century clock inside (with south clock face). Beneath the tower, there is an original half-round arch into the south-west aisle, and simple pointed arches (?13th century) into the nave and south-east chapel. The chancel arch is also late 12th century but the arcades were replaced by Scott in 1857. A plain late 12th century north doorway to the nave (and the decorated window to the west on it) were reset in the north wall of the c. 1824 north aisle.

The church underwent a major rebuilding in the 15th century when a five-bay crown-post roof was put on the nave, and a 3-light perpendicular window, with its new gable above, was put into the west wall (below it are traces of a filled-up earlier west doorway). Two western buttresses, with plinths, were added, and, as we have seen, the south-west aisle was heightened and given a new 2-light south window with a square hood-mould. The south-east chapel was also rebuilt at this time, but this may be a rebuilding of an earlier rebuilding. The east window of this chapel replaced a simpler perpendicular window with a square hood-mould in the 19th century when the fireplace and chimney flue above (in the gable) were put into the Conyngham `pew'. This chapel has a tomb recess in its south wall, and externally there are two south buttresses and a continuous plinth, but it too has been heavily restored and refaced externally (and given a new roof). There is a squint into the chancel from this chapel, and a reused 12th century niche in the south-east corner.

The fine south door is 17th century (restored in the 19th century).

The north aisle was built in c. 1824 and has triple course of buff-bricks half way up, and reused Caenstone quoins; also cement render around the windows, and some reused windows and doorway (see above). The chancel was restored by Mr Marshall of Canterbury in 1849, when the triple east windows and the south doorway were reopened. (Fine 16th-17th century glass was then put into the windows, and the Conyngham vault was made beneath the chancel. Finally (Sir) Gilbert Scott was brought in, in 1857 to restore the whole church, and he created new arcades in the nave, paid for by the Conynghams. (The screen at the west end of the nave was originally from behind the 19th century high altar - was it first a Rood screen?)

In 1939, the brick buttresses were removed, and metal ties were put into the tower. (17)

Description from record TR 15 NE 996:
The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5273 PATRIXBOURNE PATRIXBOURNE ROAD (west side)
Church of St Mary R 1855 28/466 30.1.67
I GV
2. Chancel, nave with aisles and tower in the centre of the south aisle, its ground floor forming a porch, with a broached shingled spire above it. Knapped flint. Rare and good east wheel window with cylindrical spokes. The chancel, the nave, the tower and the south aisle to the west of the tower are late C12 (the spire (Cl3) and contain an especially fine Norman south doorway and a good Norman priests' doorway. But they were rather drastically restored at the expense of the first Marchioness Conyngham, the chancel in 1849 (architect Mr Marshall of Canterbury) the nave, tower and aisle in 1857 (architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott). The east end of the south aisle (the Bifrons Chapel) was rebuilt in the Cl5. The north aisle was added in 1824. Some of the windows have C16 and Cl7 Swiss glass given to the church by Lady Conyngmm in 1837. Body stones in the churchyard.
Listing NGR: TR1896055150 (18)

Historic England archive material (19)

<1> OS 6" 1962 (OS Card Reference). SKE48371.

<2> MHLG (1953/11/A Dec 1960) 50 (OS Card Reference). SKE46953.

<3> Med Rel Houses,Eng & Wales 1953 161 (D Knowles & R N Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46810.

<4> F1 ASP 02.02.65 (OS Card Reference). SKE41881.

<5> DOE(HHR) Dist of City of Canterbury, Kent. March 1980 168 (OS Card Reference). SKE40920.

<6> M Rel Houses Eng & Wales 1971 181-182 (D Knowles & R N Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46223.

<7> Arch Cant 14 1882 169-184 (W A Scott Robertson) (OS Card Reference). SKE34714.

<8> Arch Cant 28 1909 305-310 illus. (G M Livett) (OS Card Reference). SKE34924.

<9> JBAA 20-21 1958 32 (F Henry,D'ES-L, G Zarnecki) (OS Card Reference). SKE44907.

<10> Arch J 126 1969 214-215 illus. (S E Rigold) (OS Card Reference). SKE36540.

<11> Arch J 86 1929 316-317 illus (G M Livett) (OS Card Reference). SKE36721.

<12> BOE North East & East Kent 1983 414,415 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE38258.

<13> VCH Kent 2 1926 239 (R C Fowler) (OS Card Reference). SKE50974.

<14> Country Life 48 1920 448 (P M Johnston) (OS Card Reference). SKE39437.

<15> Tanner's `Notitia Monastica' Kent XI 1787 2061 (Naismith) (OS Card Reference). SKE49803.

<16> JBAA 20 New Series 1914 170-1 (OS Card Reference). SKE44906.

<17> Kent County Council, 1993, Patrixbourne, St Mary:Diocesan church survey (Unpublished document). SKE29464.

<19> Historic England, Archive material associated with St Mary's Church, Patrixbourne Listed Building (Archive). SKE54603.

<19> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading