Church Of St Thomas The Apostle

Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Navestock

This parish church originates from the 11th and 12th centuries but was largely rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was damaged by a land mine that exploded in the churchyard in 1940 and subsequently repaired. The building is constructed of flint and rubble with a timber-framed west tower. It comprises a four-bay nave with a two-bay chancel. A single south aisle to the nave extends eastward for one bay as a chapel. The walls are rendered and the roof is peg-tiled.

The south elevation of the nave displays, from west to east, a 13th-century lancet window, a 13th-century doorway with a segment-headed arch and 20th-century timber porch, and a 15th-century three-light window with super mullions. The north elevation shows, from west to east, a 15th-century two-light window with super mullions, an 11th or 12th-century door with semicircular tympanum and segment head featuring intermittent roll moulding, another 15th-century two-light window with super mullions, and a 14th-century window with reticulated tracery.

The chancel's north side contains, from west to east, a 15th-century low side window, a 14th-century two-light window with reticulated tracery and label with head stops, and another 14th-century two-light window with reticulated tracery. The chancel's south side has a 14th-century two-light window with reticulated tracery. The east end displays a 14th-century three-light window with reticulated tracery.

The belfry tower is set in line with the south aisle. Originally faced in weatherboarding, it is now plastered with a steeply sloping tiled roof over its aisles and surmounted by a shingled broach spire. The tower is carried on four canted heavy oak posts whose framing is strengthened by long continuous passing braces carried down to the ground sills and posts of the aisles, jointed by notched lap joints. Within the tower base, four attached shafts with capitals and bases of perpendicular profile support an inserted belfry floor with arched braces meeting at a foliage boss. Though formerly attributed to the 15th century, radiocarbon tests and structural evidence now indicate the tower dates to the 13th century, probably around 1250 or earlier. The doorway between tower and south aisle, dated around 1400, is probably contemporary with inserted work and represents refurbishing at the opening of the 15th century. The four-bayed arcade of the south aisle is timber, plastered to resemble 13th-century stone ashlar work and now exposed at the chancel-nave junction. This timber core is thought to date from the 13th century and continues westward within the imitation stonework. The various oak doors with ironwork appear to be post-medieval replacements, the south door in particular copying the 12th-century form.

The church contains a 13th-century piscina in the south chapel and several 17th-century monuments. On the chancel east wall is a monument to John Greene, Sergeant at Law and Judge of Sheriff's court (died 1653), and Anne Blanchard, his wife (died 1641). This is a large tablet with a recess containing a half-length figure of a man in judge's robes, flanked by Corinthian pilasters supporting an entablature and broken pediment with ten shields of arms. On the chancel north wall is a monument to Anne Nicolls, wife of Charles Snelling (died 1625), and their child Roland (died 1625). This is a slate panel within an arched marble frame with small effigies of a woman, now headless, and a swaddled child, with two shields of arms. On the nave south wall is a slate tablet in a marble frame with pediment, cherubs and shields of arms, commemorating John Greene (died 1625).

The bells include a tenor and second inscribed "Miles Graye made mee 1637", a third by John Walgrave of London from the early 15th century mentioned in an inventory dated 1458, and a fourth by John Harding around 1560. The chancel windows retain some of their medieval exterior iron grilles with barbed terminals, most complete on the east window.