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ID:SKE29621
Title:Fawkham, St Mary:Diocesan church survey
Originator:Diocese of Rochester (Hugh Richmond)
Date:2002
Summary:The church consists of two cells, a Romanesque form. The plan of the chancel is based on a square and the plan of the nave is just over a double square. The nave is wider than the chancel. This type of plan normally had a wall between nave and chancel with a narrow chancel arch. The external walls of the nave and chancel are of the 12th century. They are plain and have no buttresses. Five windows in the nave and three in the chancel provide dating evidence. All are of the same pattern and consist of a narrow single light with a semicircular head and plain jambs. The rear arches are also semicircular and have splayed jambs and a sloping cill. This type of window was common throughout the greater part of the 12th century. The chancel has one window in the north wall. It is set well to the east and it may be that the chancel originally had two widows on each side. The east wall has a pair of blocked windows that are level with the side window. There was probably also a window in the gable mirroring the triangular arrangement in the west wall of the nave. The surviving windows in the north and south walls of the nave are towards the west and are not opposite one another. The window in the south wall is a little further to the west than that on the north. The general position of these windows suggests that the nave may originally have had three widows on each side. The west wall has a pair of windows level with those in the side walls. Both were blocked, presumably when the present west window was installed in c. 1350 but that on the north was reopened in c.1920. There is a third window central in the gable that is of the same form but it was entirely replaced in 1955. There is a small niche with a round head at the east end of the south wall. It has been identified as a piscina of 12th century date and indicates that there was a secondary altar in the south-east part of the nave.A tomb recess was constructed in the north wall of the chancel in the late 13th century. It has a pointed head and label. The arch has cusps decorated with trefoils and is carried on half round shafts with moulded caps and bases. The marble tomb slab remains but has been covered with a 13th century coffin lid.A number of openings were modernised in c.1300. Also a tomb recess was constructed in the nave and a new piscina provided in the chancel. The 12th century east windows in the chancel were replaced by a single window of c. 1300 with a pointed head and two pointed lights with tall cinquefoiled heads and with a dagger shaped quatrefoil above. The rear arch is segmental and has a hollow chamfered scoinson arch, splayed jambs and a sloping cill. There are two windows of a different type in the south wall but of similar date. The one on the east has a pointed head and label and consists of a single trefoiled light with an ogee head. The rear arch is pointed but low with splayed jambs and a sloping cill. The other window has a pointed head and label. It consists of two trefoiled lights with ogee heads and a quatrefoil above. The chamfered rear arch is segmental with splayed jambs and a sloping cill. There is a piscina below the east jamb of the single light window. It has a frame with rectangular side pilasters and a crocketted gable. The upper parts are missing but probably consisted of three finials. Set within is a pointed arch with a hollow chamfer and bar stops that frames a double piscina that mirrors the pattern of the east window. Two windows in the nave were also replacd in 1300 they are opposite each other towards the East and match the window of two lights in the chancel each has a pointed head and two ogee trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil above. The rear arches are pointed and have chamfered scinso arches, splayed jambs and sloping cills.

Associated Monuments

TQ 56 NE 123CHURCH OF SAINT MARY, Fawkham (Listed Building) ()