Church of St Mary the Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

This church, located on the south side of Reculver Lane, was built in 1877–8 by Joseph Clarke, the diocesan surveyor, and is a Gothic Revival structure designed in the style of 13th-century Early English architecture. A choir vestry was added in 1963. The building was consecrated on 12 June 1878.

The church is constructed of knapped flint-faced walls with limestone dressings and a red clay tiled roof. The plan consists of a nave, chancel, south west porch, north vestry and organ chamber, and a south vestry. The chancel is slightly narrower than the nave and both are placed under a continuous ridge. The fenestration is dominated by single lancet windows, with two-light Geometrical windows lighting the east bay of the nave. The east wall features a pair of lancets beneath an uncusped circular window. At the west end stands a gabled bellcote containing a single bell, with a slender buttress extending up the west wall to the level of the bellcote. On the north side, the organ chamber and vestry are sheltered beneath a catslide roof. The south vestry, a flat-roofed addition of the 1960s, has a pair of three-light mullioned windows in its south wall.

The south doorway is a reused 13th-century opening from the ancient church at Reculver, featuring a multi-moulded arch and keeled nook-shafts with simple foliage capitals.

Inside, the walls are plastered and whitened. Some stones from the ancient church of Reculver have been reused, notably at the junction of nave and chancel. There is no arch between these spaces; the distinction is marked by the slight narrowing of the chancel and a change in roof type. The nave has tie beams with crown posts, while the chancel features a seven-sided roof divided into square panels.

The principal fixtures include a plain octagonal medieval font, said to have come from the lost chapel of All Saints in Thanet. The church is furnished with pews having rounded shaped ends and choir stalls with open frontals. Some 17th-century memorial slabs from the old church are set into the floor. The organ, installed in 1955, was built by F. H. Browne of Canterbury with a case designed by Caröe and Partners. Several windows contain stained glass dating from the early 20th century.

The church represents the third place of worship on this site. The ancient Saxon church at Reculver, much of it dating from the 7th century, was largely demolished in 1809 in the mistaken belief that it faced imminent destruction from coastal erosion, though sea defences were subsequently erected. A replacement building was constructed a mile inland and consecrated on 13 April 1813, incorporating stonework from the demolished church. This structure was itself replaced by the present, smaller church in the 1870s.

Joseph Clarke (1819 or 1820–1888) was a London-based architect whose practice focused extensively on church building and restoration. He served as diocesan surveyor to Canterbury and Rochester, and from 1877 to the newly created diocese of St Albans. These positions generated numerous commissions across the three dioceses, though his work also extended to most parts of England. He was also consultant architect to the Charity Commissioners.