Church Of St Rumwold

The Church of St. Rumwold is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant rebuilding during the 13th and 14th centuries. It is constructed of ragstone with timber framing and brick infill for the porch, and weatherboarding for the turret, all under a plain tiled roof with a leaded turret roof. The church comprises a chancel and nave, with a western turret and a northern porch. The western end features offset buttresses, some of which have been repaired with brick, and a double hollow-chamfered western doorway with a drip mould. The turret has a leaded, ogee-shaped roof topped with a vane post. The nave has three offset buttresses on each wall, each featuring two cusped, two-light Y-tracery windows. A chamfered south doorway and a hollow-chamfered north door are set within a timber porch with a ragstone base and a cusped bargeboard above the doorway, adorned with urns. The east wall of the nave is punctuated by lancet windows, some of which are blocked, and the chancel is stepped, with a Romanesque lancet to the north, a 16th-century two-light Perpendicular window to the south, and a Romanesque triple window to the east.

Inside, the nave has a roof with two crown posts and an early 17th-century timber gallery structure at the west end. The floorboards are missing from this gallery, but a turned baluster rail and upper flight of newel stairs remain. A chamfered chancel arch rests on moulded imposts. The chancel has a plastered barrel roof. Architectural features include a segmentally arched double piscina within the east wall, and a partly blocked aumbrey in the south wall of the chancel, alongside a window seat relating to the 16th-century chancel south window. A turned baluster altar rail is supported by wrought iron gate piers. The sanctuary contains simple wainscotting and raised, fielded panelled choir stalls. A C18 octagonal pulpit is accompanied by an attached reading desk, with raised and fielded panels on a rendered masonry base, a Greek key cornice, and a fluted, pilastered back panel to a tester featuring a Greek key and modillioned cornices. A small trefoiled and ogee headed beaded niche is located on the northeast wall of the nave. A bulbous font made of Bethersden marble sits upon a square base, with a railed surround – potentially re-used from the old altar rail. The nave also houses Bolection moulded prayer boards and a benefaction board dated 1774, recording a benefaction of 8 shillings per annum from Valentine Knott of Pinn Farm, beginning in 1614. Fragments of glass from the 14th and 15th centuries are found in the nave, alongside an East window dated 1907. The mid-18th-century Royal Arms are displayed on the west wall.