The Church Of St Dunstan'S Without The West Gate

THE CHURCH OF ST DUNSTAN'S WITHOUT THE WEST GATE

This parish church dates from the late 11th or early 12th century in origin, with significant later medieval additions. The building is constructed of flint and stone rubble with stone dressings, except for the southeast chapel which is of red brick dating to around 1524. The roofs are tiled.

The church comprises a chancel with a southeast chapel, a nave with a south aisle and southwest tower, a north porch, and a northwest chapel. The late 11th or early 12th century origins are evident in the herringbone masonry in the nave's north wall and the very large quoin stones that survive in the northwest corner of the nave. The northwest chapel was built around 1330 as a chantry by Henry de Canterbury, chaplain to Edward III. The southwest tower and south aisle date to the later 14th century, possibly built in two phases. The southeast chapel was built in 1402 by John Roper and dedicated to St Nicholas, then rebuilt in brick around 1524. A north porch was added or rebuilt in the late 17th century.

The exterior displays good massing, particularly at the west end, where the tall southwest tower descends across the nave roof to the northwest chapel. The 14th-century tower has an embattled parapet with a single small 14th-century window with a square head on each of the lower three stages, and the bell stage has two-light 14th-century cusped openings, also with square heads. A short round stair turret rises on the south side. The west end of the nave has a large 15th-century west window and below it a 15th-century west door with blind tracery in the spandrels. The door is flanked by two 13th-century lancets, presumably reset, as they are positioned unusually. The 14th-century northwest chapel has its own gabled roof, a two-light Decorated west window, and in its north wall a small rectangular 14th-century window that breaks the string course and a blocked 14th-century doorway.

The north porch has a chamfered outer opening and a small east window, with a 17th-century pendant at the apex of the gable bargeboards. A 12th or very early 13th-century lancet stands east of the north porch, and there is also a 14th-century window in the nave's north wall. Another 14th-century window and a 13th-century lancet appear in the chancel's north wall, and the east window is 14th-century, heavily renewed, with intersecting ogee tracery. The southeast chapel, rebuilt in brick around 1524, has a low pitched roof behind a plain parapet and three-light windows with depressed heads and uncusped lights. The south aisle also has a low pitched roof behind a plain parapet and three late Decorated windows, each of two lights with a large cusped lozenge in the head. There is no clerestory.

Internally, there is no chancel arch, but the chancel is distinguished by offsets that narrow it from the nave on either side. The four-bay south arcade is very tall for the height of the nave, reaching almost to the top of the wall and dates to the late 14th century. The outer orders have continuous hollow chamfers, and the inner order rests on half-round shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The tower arch, opening into the west bay of the south aisle, is also 14th-century and has a continuous outer order and an inner order on shafts with moulded capitals that differ slightly from those in the arcade. The tower is vaulted, with corner shafts similar to the tower arch and thin ribs. The southwest chapel opens to the aisle through an early 15th-century arch on polygonal responds with moulded capitals, and there is a matching two-bay arcade from the chapel to the chancel, with the central pier having a very high base. Traces of a former squint from the nave into the northwest chapel are visible in the nave's north wall. A timber west gallery, underbuilt to form a vestry with the upper part used as the organ loft, is present.

The nave roof is of late medieval construction, featuring tie beams and crown posts. The tie beams are moulded, and the crown posts have moulded capitals and bases, with open rafters. The chancel roof is of similar construction but largely 19th-century, with panelled rafters. The south aisle roof is also 19th-century but retains the moulded timber wall posts and stone corbels of the medieval roof. The southeast chapel roof is flat and 16th-century in style with moulded beams.

A plain octagonal font, probably dating to the 14th century, has an excellent 15th-century timber cover in the form of a tabernacle, with buttresses, pinnacles, and tracery; the lower part has been restored. Two identical Coade stone fonts, probably early 19th-century, feature baluster stems and small bowls with fluting on the undersides. A 19th-century timber pulpit, choir stalls, and simple nave benches are present.

Notable stained glass includes a chancel east window by William Aikman from 1933, the Thomas More window by Lawrence Lee from 1973, and the Ecumenical window of 1984 by John Hayward, the latter two in the southeast chapel.

In the south chapel are two marble tomb chests: one plain, of Bethersden marble, for John Roper, died 1524, with a back plate for brasses now lost, and a larger, more heavily decorated chest for Edmund Roper, died 1533. A wall tablet with double columns but no figures commemorates Thomas Roper, died 1597. A ledger slab of 1932 marks the burial place in the south chapel's Roper vault of the head of Sir Thomas More, died 1535, revered as a saint in the Roman Catholic church. Some good table tombs are present in the churchyard.

The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century. In 1170 or 1171, King Henry II is said to have removed his shoes and changed into penitential garments at this church for his entrance into Canterbury following the murder of Thomas Becket. Sir Thomas More, beheaded in 1535 for refusing to sign the Act of Supremacy, had his head buried in the Roper vault in the south aisle. His daughter, Margaret Roper, wife of William Roper, persuaded the bridgekeeper of London Bridge to throw it to her as she passed under the bridge in a boat. Although she was imprisoned for this action, she was eventually released and allowed to keep the head. More is revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic church, and the church remains a place of pilgrimage.

The church was restored in 1878–80 to designs by Ewan Christian, a well-known church architect. The southeast chapel was used as an organ chamber and restored as a chapel in the early 20th century.