Church Of St Augustine

Church of St Augustine

Parish church of 12th-century origin, substantially re-fenestrated in the 13th and early 14th centuries, with porches added in 1865. The building is constructed of flint with a plain tiled roof and is arranged as a cruciform plan with a central tower and north and south porches.

The central tower is squat with bold quoins, a string course and parapet, topped with a low spire. Massive raking buttresses with tiled weathering are set in the re-entrant angles to the transepts. The west end features a clasping buttress to the north and offset angle buttresses on the south. A simple chamfered west door is surmounted by a lancet window. The south doorway displays scallop capitals on nook shafts with zig-zag moulding and a billet-moulded hood. Lancet windows predominate throughout, except in the south transept where bar tracery appears. There is considerable brick dressing and repair to the east end. The east window comprises a central lancet with a round-headed lancet above and a roundel with billet-moulded surround at the top.

The interior is simple and spacious, with a tall nave accessed by four steps up to the west door. The original reveals of 12th-century Romanesque lancets survive, with the easternmost reveals being 13th-century pointed lancets. The roof is 19th-century work with king posts and secondary crown posts to the purlins. A blocked round-headed recess lies to the north-east. The tower crossing arches feature scalloped nook shafts with square responds and imposts decorated with bold roll mould and zig-zag moulding. The chancel arch was rebuilt in pointed form. A window opening above the crossing arch appears in the nave gable. The transepts contain large lancets; the south transept lancet has inserted Y-tracery. The chancel has trefoil-headed reveals to its north and south lancets, and a large pointed-arched recess on the east wall containing two-tier lancets. The lower chancel wall is considerably thickened.

Furnishings include a triangular-headed piscina with crude shafts and drip, a chamfered elliptical sedile with three 19th-century seats, and an aumbrey in the north wall. The reredos and other embellishments date from 1865 and were designed by J. F. Bentley. These are executed in stone and alabaster, featuring a tabernacle, quatrefoiled lozenges bearing evangelical symbols, attached shafts and stiffleaf enrichment. Quatrefoil recesses on the north and south walls record the work commissioned by the Hannam family in 1865. Polychrome tiles cover the sanctuary floor. A 19th-century corona lucis hangs in the south transept and crossing. The choir stalls incorporate 18th-century bead-moulded panelling, with additional examples in the south transept. Arms of George II dated 1751 appear in the nave. Two hatchments in the south transept and a sculptural fragment—a 14th-century head of a king—are also present. Large areas of old floor tiles survive, particularly in the south transept and crossing.

The church contains a major monument to Sir Edwyn Sandys, erected before his death in 1628. This is a very large freestanding monument in black marble and alabaster. The effigies of Sir Edwyn and his wife lie at different levels, hands clasped in prayer, in well-executed though stiff poses upon a pilastered chest displaying coats of arms. A deep columned recess with entablature and tied-back curtains rises above, crowned with cartouche shields and a large pedimented and draped achievement. The inner walls of the recess display a helm at the head and gloves at the feet, with three cherubs above. The rear wall carries an inscription plaque dated 1830 and two awkwardly executed angels, probably of the same date. Sir Edwyn, an Elizabethan lawyer and courtier, built Northbourne Court and its surviving gardens, and drafted the constitution of the Virginia colony, which provided the model for other North American States. The church was a possession of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, explaining both its dedication and its substantial scale.