Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1066 to 1799. Chancel, central tower and nave with aisles. Built of coursed rubble with Caen stone dressings. The nave and tower are Norman. The tower once had a broached shingled spire of which the stump remains. The chancel and the aisles of the nave are 13th century. At the west end of the north aisle was a priest's chamber at first floor level of which the windows and the brackets that supported the floor remain. South doorway to staircase turret has 12th century carved tympanum with rare timber lintel

Monument Types

• CHURCH (Medieval to Modern - 1066 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5273 CHISLET CHURCH LANE
Church of St Mary The Virgin TR 26 SW 5/277 30.1.67.
I
2. Chancel, central tower and nave with aisles. Built of coursed rubble with Caen stone dressings. The nave and tower are Norman. The tower once had a brached shingled spire of which the stump remains. The chancel and the aisles of the nave are C13. At the west end of the north aisle was a priest's chamber at first floor level of which the windows and the brackets that supported the floor remain. South doorway to staircase turret has C12 carved tympanum with rare timber lintol. Crownpost roof to nave, Trefoiled piscina and early C14 sedilia. C14 font. The churchyard contains some C18 headstones with skull or cherub motifs, some chest tombs and some oval bodystones.
Listing NGR: TR2240764328 (10)

Description from record TR 26 SW 13 :
[TR 22456431] St. Mary's Church [NAT] (1) The Church of St. Mary, Chislet, has a Norman nave and tower with 13thc. chancel and nave aisles. (2) In normal use. (3) The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Church Lane, Chislet. Grade I. Chancel, central tower and nave with aisles. Built of coursed rubble with Caen stone dressings. The nave and tower are Norman. The chancel and the aisle of the nave are C13. (4) [For full description see list.] Additional bibliography. (5-8)

The earliest evidence for a church here, which is presumably the one mentioned in Domesday Book, is in the west wall of the nave. On either side of the external west doorway, are some diagonally tooled blocks of Quarr and Caenstone from the original doorway. (The use of Quarr stone suggests a late 11th or very early 12th century date). There are other in situ diagonally-tooled blocks on the inner jambs of this doorway. During the 1866 restoration, some windows from the early Norman nave were uncovered, and a fragment of one of these can still be seen in the south aisle.

The central tower was then added to this nave in the early to mid-12th century. It has its original spiral-stair on the south-west, with an original doorway into it. This has a timber lintel and a chip-carved tympanum. (The external doorway to the spiral stair is a later insertion, and was reopened in 1948). On either side of the tower, two large round-headed windows light the ground floor. (The northern one appears to have a 13th century rere-arch). The ceiling above this is 19th century, and above is the ringers' chamber, which is light by smaller north and south round headed windows. The top stage of the tower, now housing the 1729 ring of bells, is 13th century (see below). Between the tower and later chancel is a fine early 12th century arch with a chevroned roll over it. The west side of this arch also has scalloped capitals and nook shafts; the east face is plain. It presumably originally lead into a small (? apsidal) sanctuary. The external eastern quoins to the tower are of the Caenstone diagonally-tooled small blocks.

In the years around A.D. 1200, the nave was given north and south aisles with steeply-pitched shed roofs, and low outer walls (see the evidence in the external west wall). The south aisle blocked earlier windows into the spiral stair. Simple pointed arches were cut through the original nave walls, and large rectangular piers were left. It is not clear why the north and south arcades do not match and have irregular spacing. The only decoration to these arcades is in the simple abacus mouldings and the bar-stops to the plain chamfers. The western tower arch was completely cut away, and a large pointed arch was inserted. It springs directly from abaci in the north and south walls.

Later in the 13th century, a much larger chancel was created, and the 12th century side jambs in the east face of the tower were cut back to allow a wider entry. This new chancel has three tall lancets on either side (with internal hood-moulds on head-stops), and a triplet in the east wall with internal shafts, capital, and rere-arch mouldings. There is also a small south doorway, and an internal filleted string-course. At the east end of the south wall is a fine trefoil-headed double-piscina. The top stage of the tower was also added at about this time with only a single small nearly square window on the south. There were also altars at the east ends of both aisles, as shown by the surviving piscinas.

In the early 14th century, a fine embattled sedilia was put into the south side of the chancel (cf. the nearby sedilia at St. Augustine's other church of Westbere). At about the same time, the nave aisles were reconstructed with buttresses and two two-light decorated-style windows in each wall. Trefoil-headed windows were also inserted into the end walls of each aisle (except on the south-east, which is mostly covered by the spiral stair. new north and south doorways and a west doorway to the nave (with simple hood-moulds) were also made. The Purbeck marble font bowl, with its incised blind tracery on the sides, also dates from the early 14th century. Corbels halfway up the wall, and a small high window on the north side at the west end of the north aisle suggest a small upper chamber here.

The 15th century saw the heightening of the nave and aisle walls, though without a clerestory being put in, and the making of nearly flat roofs (hidden by parapets) over the aisles. A fine new four-bay roof was made over the nave, with slender crown-posts. The timber-framed lower section of the spire (the top section perhaps fell down in the early post-medieval period) may also date from this time, though it could be 14th century. A three-light perpendicular window was also inserted into the west end of the nave.

In the late 15th to early 16th century, a doorway was cut in the north side of the chancel, presumably to a contemporary vestry; it now leads to the 1866 vestry. Porches must have been made outside the west and north doorway by this time. The north porch is mentioned in a will of 1503, and there are faint scars for the west porch. Glynne mentions a 'modern west porch' as being there in 1848. Another will mentions the reparation of the steeple and the buying of a new bell in 1499. This may be when the present top was created (after the fall of the upper spire).

Some repairs seem to have been carried out in the later 18th or early 19th century. Ties were put into the upper stage of the tower, and more disc-shaped ties were fixed to the outside of the west gable and tied to a new king-post truss at the extreme west end of the nave. The rebuilt north-west buttresses, in red brick, may be of the same date.

The main ring was created anew in 1729.

There are now six bells: Treble 1729; 2nd 1729; 3rd 1786 (recast of 1729); 4th 1729 (recast 1970), 5th 1752 (recast of 1729); 6th 1729. (See R.C Offen 'Chislet Bells' in McIntosh (ed.), 81-2), which hang in a new iron frame, made in 1959.

A sundial was placed over the south door in 1830 on a Portland stone tablet.

The major Victorian restoration came in 1865-6, when the Incorporated Church Building Society granted £120, and 32 extra seats were created. Before this there was a north and west gallery - the latter with an organ, according to Glynne. He also tells us that there was wainscotting and 'quasi-stalls' in the chancel. The north-east vestry over a boiler-house, was also built at this time, and a large chimney was made against the north chancel wall. Much external repair work was also carried out at this time, including a refacing of the chancel in heavy knapped flint, and the covering of much of the nave and aisle walls in a render with pebble-dash. In c. 1985 the nave was turned into a new multi-purpose centre. (9)

<1> OS 6" 1960 (OS Card Reference). SKE48367.

<2> MHLG (1953/11/A Dec 1960) 26 (OS Card Reference). SKE46947.

<3> F1 ASP 11-OCT-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE42059.

<4> DOE(HHR) Dist of City of Canterbury Kent Mar 1980 82 (OS Card Reference). SKE40915.

<5> BOE NE and E Kent 1983 276-277 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE38232.

<6> Arch Cant 12 1878 106-112 (F Slater) (OS Card Reference). SKE34652.

<7> Arch J 86 1929 268 (Martin) (OS Card Reference). SKE36704.

<8> Field report for monument TR 26 SW 13 - October, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5897.

<9> Diocese of Canterbury (Tim Tatton-Brown), 1994, Church Survey - St Mary's Church, Chislet. (Unpublished document). SKE7595.

<10> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading