Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Reading Street

A small late medieval church that was moved and reconstructed in 1858 by the architect Samuel Sanders Teulon.

The building is constructed of stone rubble with freestone dressings and has a red clay-tiled roof. It comprises a nave and chancel in one continuous space, with a small bellcote at the west end and a lean-to northeast vestry. A timber-framed bellcote, tile-hung with a shingled spirelet, sits above the western gable.

The church reuses medieval masonry from an older church formerly located on the Island of Oxney, approximately a mile to the south. The footprint of the nave and chancel preserves the medieval original. The windows are all two-light Perpendicular design except for the east window, which has three lights; while some masonry is medieval, much dates from Teulon's reconstruction. The south doorway, relocated during the rebuilding, features a roll moulding in a chamfered outer arch and retains a nineteenth-century plank door with strap hinges. The medieval buttresses and north porch were removed during the rebuilding. The northeast vestry sits under a catslide roof, and the western bellcote is a small louvred tower topped with a shingled pyramid.

The interior is plastered and whitened, with no chancel arch; the distinction between nave and chancel is marked by a change in roof design. The nave roof is an A-frame structure on posts with straight braces onto corbels, curved queen struts, and two tiers of purlins, with minimal cusped decoration and plaster backing. The chancel roof is of closely spaced common rafters.

The fittings are primarily nineteenth-century or later. The chancel contains a simple reredos with a shelf. The pulpit is a timber drum on a stone plinth with plain sides, a carved cornice and base, and is dated to the eighteenth century. The font is small with an octagonal bowl featuring a brattished cornice, on an octagonal stem, and sits on a raised step of encaustic tiles. The nave has chair seating, while the choir stalls have chamfered ends and open traceried Perpendicular-style fronts. A fragment of old oak frieze is incorporated into the reading desk. A rustic sanctuary rail has wrought-iron uprights and a wooden handrail. The nave floor is parquet, while the chancel has red and black tiles. A painted royal arms dated 1768, executed by J Marten of Tenterden, is of good quality.

The medieval church on the Island of Oxney itself had been erected from the remains of a substantial earlier medieval church. A chapel was rebuilt at the cost of John Raynold shortly before 1525. Following a lightning strike, an eyewitness writing in 1659 recorded that "about 100 years since, a little church, was built upon part of the former foundations." The church's relocation in 1858 became necessary after the River Rother was diverted and the Island of Oxney subsequently depopulated, rendering the building redundant. Drawings from 1809 and 1858, housed within the building, document its appearance before the move. The contractors Bourne and Chambers of Woodchurch completed the removal within three months at a cost of £270. Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812–73), the architect, was a prominent and prolific church architect of his era, typically known for striking structural polychromy and exotic architectural details; his restrained approach at this small country church is therefore particularly notable.