Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

St Stephen's Church Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1080 to 1731 Parish church with nave of circa 1100, 12th century tower and 14th century chancel. Four bay nave with lower three bay chancel, west tower, south porch and north and south transepts. The south transept was rebuilt in the late 16th century. The church is built of flint and stone rubble and is cruciform in shape.

Monument Types

• CHURCH (Medieval to Modern - 1080 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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[TR 14835915] St Stephen's Church [NAT]. (1) St Stephen's Church, Hales Drive, Hackington, is 12th/14thc. (2) In normal use. (3) Church of St Stephen's, Hales Drive, Hackington. C12 to c14. Flint and rubble having a squat tower with a C12 zigzag arch. Tiled roof. Porch. Nave has lancets and 2 side chapels. This was the original nave of Archbishop Anselm's church of circa 1100. (4) Additional bibliography. (5)
The architectural history of this church has been very well surveyed by K.H. Jones (in Arch. Cant. 44 (1932), 253-263), and this survey is accompanied by an excellent measured plan by G.M. Livett. It is, therefore, only necessary here to summarize the earlier work, and perhaps to amplify a few details where a different interpretation is given.

The earliest fabric surviving above ground belongs to the nave; and must date from the late 11th/early 12th century. These early walls are made with flint and reused Roman brick set 'herringbone-wise' in thick layers of coarse lime mortar. The outer face was then lightly rendered all over. The finest original architectural feature is the south doorway (now in the later porch), which is made of Caen stone, and has a 'chip-carved' diaper pattern in the tympanium over a timber-lintel. The side shafts have cushion capitals, and there was perhaps a similar doorway in the west wall, though with more elaborate chevon - covered arches over it. There may also have been a doorway in the north wall. Two original windows survive above the south porch. They are round-headed and have quite large openings. That on the east was lengthened downwards in the 13th century. Another similar window, but at a lower level, is on the north side of the nave at the west end. It is perhaps reset in the 19th century from a higher up position to the east (This window is blocked in an early 19th century view).

This church is now a cruciform church and the arches into the north and south transepts are semi-circular (though slightly flattened) with roll-mouldings on the nave side of the arch, and with mainly plain (and in part restored) piers. The south-east pier has a more elaborate cushion capital at the top and chip-carved work on the abacus. Jones suggests that they are arches that were reset in the early 13th century, using materials from Archbishop Baldwin's late 1180s college. This is highly unlikely, and it is much more likely that they are original early to mid-12th century arches (on a large scale) still in situ. This suggests that there was already a prominent cruciform church here before Archbishop Baldwin started to construct his college. The surviving external quoins on the east and west sides (at the extreme north end) of the south transept are also probably mid-12th century in date, though the 12th century transepts have disappeared totally.

The west doorway was also perhaps rebuilt in the later 12th century, though its inner arch has comb-chislework of a 13th century date. The lower part is heavily restored in Portland stone. During the early-mid 13th century a tower was inserted at the west end of the nave by putting a north-south wall on its east side with a pointed arch in it. Large angle buttresses were added on the north-west and south-west corners (containing much reused masonry), and an upper stage was built with large Hythe stone quoins (and some reused Caen stone blocks). There is a 13th century rectangular window half way up the wall. The upper windows were replaced in the 15th century, but still have 13th century internal jambs. All the 13th century work is characterized by the use of the comb-chisel. The internal heads of the upper tower windows are of tile voussoirs (also probably 15th century replacements).

The lancet windows in the nave, with rere-arches, must date from the later 13th century, but the blocked lancet in the west wall of the south transept (with Caen jambs and a Reigate stone head) may be earlier. Also of a late 13th century date is the chancel, which is in three bays and has external buttresses. Jones' suggestion that the (outer) window tracery was inserted a few decades later in the early to mid-14th century seems unlikely (there is no sign of window insertion in the fabric of the outer walls which are full of reused fragments and Roman bricks and thin tiles). Much of the external tracery has been restored in Bath stone, and the tracery in the upper quatrefoils may be a 19th century insertion (cf. Early 19th cent. drawings). The original quoins to the buttresses and for the plinth (not made on the north) are of large blocks of dark green Hythe stone. The internal shafts in the chancel windows have been painted black to look like marble, but are in fact cut from the same blocks as the jambs. The north and south transepts were apparently rebuilt in the early 14th century, though the south transept was almost completely rebuilt in the late 16th century. The north wall of the north transept with its diagonal buttresses and trio of trefoils in the head of its three-light north window must be early 14th century as is the 2-light E. window of the S. transept. A pair of small early 14th century ogee-headed windows were also added on either side of the chancel east window, though the east window itself is a 15th century (5 light Perpendicular) replacement. Also added in the 15th century is the stone south-porch, which is particularly distinctive in having much dark brown ironstone in its south gable. The chancel arch is perhaps early 15th century.

Of unique importance to this church is the surviving indenture for the making of a new rood-screen in 1519-20 (see A. Vallance in op. cit. below). This screen still survives, though its top was mutilated in the 19th century, and it was moved to the entrance of the south transept in 1966. Another early 16th century feature is the 3-light east window to the north transept. The simple three-and five-cant roofs (with three tie beams each in the nave and chancel) may also have been replaced in the 16th century. They all have painted lath and plaster ceilings. The south transept was almost completely rebuilt in the late 16th century in brick (with the south plinth repaired in the 19th century in knapped flint) for the Manwood family pew (with a brick burial-vault beneath). The low pyramid roof, and unusual hexagonal spirelet over it, on the western tower has a frame that may date from the late 15th or 16th century (with later repairs). The ? Late Medieval font was given by Sir Roger Manwood in 1591 (inscribed). There was a major mid-19th century restoration when the church was refloored and repewed. (6)

Description from record TR 15 NW 1341:
The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TR 15 NW HACKINGTON HALES DRIVE
956/11/248 Church of St Stephen
03.12.49 I
Parish church. Nave of c1100, tower C12, chancel C14 and south transept rebuilt in late C16. Cruciform shape. Flint and stone rubble with tiled roof but south chapel mainly brick. Four bay nave with lower three bay chancel, west tower, south porch and north and south transepts. Three stage west tower is Norman but with cinquefoil bell stage with wooden louvres and has hexagonal weatherboarded base to shingled spire with metal finial. Wide buttresses. First floor has round-headed windows, second floor has lancets. Arched doorcase to west with zigzag moulding and rows of colonnettes. Nave has one round-headed window and two pointed lancets to south and three pointed lancets to north. South porch of flint and ironstone with some reused stone fragments including zigzag. C13 arched doorcase but double perpendicular windows. South transept has flint base and brick above, mainly covered in render with four round-headed brick mullioned windows. East side has double trefoiled windows. North transept has C14 north window with three trefoils and three trefoils within circles above. Triple round-headed window to east and double pointed-headed windows to west. Chancel is of flint, brick and stone rubble with restored double cinquefoil lights and buttresses and large 5-light traceried cinquefoil headed east window flanked by trefoil windows. INTERIOR: Fine west door dated 1630 with motto "let all things be done decently and in order". Stone font dated 1591 with buttressed stem and panelled octagonal bowl Jacobean pulpit. Coat of arms of William III. Part of 1519 rood screen by Michael Bonversall, a copy of the one at Holy Cross Westgate, is resited in the south transept. Tower screen dated 1630. North transept window by Kempe 1889. Armorial fragments to windows of porch and south transept. Monument to Sir Roger Manwood d. 1592 with waist length portrait in robes of Chief Baron of the Exchequer, his two wives and issue framed by columns and entablature with skeleton on half-rolled up pallet below. Richard Ibbotson (d1731) wall tablet with scrolled open pediment. Source: Pevsner BOE North East and East Kent pp 244 and 245.
Listing NGR: TR1402860922 (7)

Historic England archive material (8)

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

<2> MHLG (944/11/A Mar 1962) 21 (OS Card Reference). SKE47032.

<3> F1 ASP 02-FEB-65 (OS Card Reference). SKE41893.

<4> DOE (HHR) Dist of the City of Canterbury 1973 95 (OS Card Reference). SKE40367.

<5> BOE North East and East Kent 1983 244-245 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE38262.

<6> Diocese of Canterbury (Tim Tatton-Brown), 1993, Church Survey - St Stephen's Church, Hackington. (Unpublished document). SKE7587.

<7> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<8> Historic England, Archive material associated with St Stephen's Church, Canterbury, Listed building (Archive). SKE54651.

Sources and further reading