Church Of St Mary The Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a parish church dating back to circa 1200, with alterations in the 14th century and a significant restoration by Christian in 1884. It is constructed of flint and rubble stone with a plain tiled roof. The church comprises a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, a north porch, and a western tower.

The two-stage tower features 15th and 13th century windows, a wooden balustrade, and an ogee cupola with a weathervane and ball finial, which was saved in 1884 thanks to the intervention of J.O. Scott. Much of the exterior is the work of Christian’s restoration, featuring new buttresses and tracery. The east window is a genuine early 14th-century design, consisting of three lights with quatrefoiled heads.

The interior appears to have fared better than the exterior. The tower arch is double-chamfered, resting on double rebated moulded abaci. The north arcade is composed of four chamfered pointed arches supported by alternate square and octagonal piers, which have deeply scalloped capitals. The four-bay south arcade has unmoulded arches on square piers with simple abaci. The nave roof features crown posts, partly restored, while the north aisle has a cross-braced, plastered roof. The chancel arch sits on moulded square responds, chamfered at the corners. The chancel east window reveal incorporates ringed nook shafts with stiff-leaf capitals, two original lancet reveals, and a roof of two crown posts with renewed rafters.

Notable interior features include a 14th-century sedilia of three seats with quadruple clustered colonettes, cusped ogee heads, quatrefoils in the spandrels, a frieze, and a crenellated top. There is a restored ogee-headed piscina and a cross-shelved aumbry on the eastern wall. The chancel also contains a 18th-century altar rail with turned balusters. A trecusped piscina and aumbry are located in the south aisle. The west wall of the nave displays the Royal Arms of George III.

Memorials include a black wall plaque dedicated to Elizabeth Shrubsole (died 1720), a white marble wall plaque for William Gibbs (died 1777), oval wall plaques for James Garret (died 1765) and John Cason (died 1718), and a white and black wall monument for a High Sheriff of Kent, signed J. Bacon Jnr. A small black wall tablet commemorates Sir Thomas Bleckenden (died 1661).