Church Of St Mary The Blessed Virgin

CHURCH OF ST MARY THE BLESSED VIRGIN, WALMER

This church was built around 1120, probably by the d'Auberville family as a chapel to their manor house, Walmer Court. The chancel dates from the Early English period. The building underwent significant alterations and partial rebuilding in 1898, when an unusual 17th-century extension was demolished. The church had been enlarged unconventionally in the late 17th century by the addition of a galleried nave on the north side of the existing nave, reorientating the church on a north-south axis and placing the altar to the south. A drawing by George Ansell from 1826 documents this extension, which he subsequently enlarged at that time. When the new Church of St Mary was built in 1887–88, St Mary's ceased to be the parish church.

The church is constructed of flint with stone dressings and a roughcast render to the chancel, with a clay tile roof. It has a simple plan comprising a nave, lower chancel, and south porch. A bellcote stands at the west end.

The south porch features a late 19th-century Norman style doorway. The 12th-century south door has a chevron, billet and nailhead moulded arch carried on heavy shafts with scallop capitals. Most windows have been altered or renewed. The south side of the nave contains one small Norman window to the west of the porch and a large late-medieval three-light window to the east with label mould and head-stop, though the tracery has been renewed. At the north end of the nave wall is a 14th-century low side window with a trefoil head and label mould.

The interior preserves a 12th-century chancel arch of considerable scale for such a small church, decorated with chevron and nailhead mouldings, with abacus moulding continuing along the wall on each side. Traces of medieval wall painting survive above the arch on the nave side. A 14th-century trefoil-headed piscina stands at the north end of the south wall of the nave, positioned below the low side window and possibly contemporary with it. Two niches in the chancel wall include an aumbry and a credence. The king-post roof is of late 19th-century date. A cone font cover dates from 1664.

The church contains numerous monuments, chiefly early to mid-19th-century neo-Classical wall tablets, many commemorating naval or military figures. Six hatchments hang in the nave, notably that of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports from 1829 to 1852, which was carried in front of his cortege to the station following his death at Walmer Castle. The hatchment bears the motto "Virtutis fortuna comes" (Fortune is the companion of valour). Wellington was a regular worshipper at the church when resident at Walmer Castle.

The ruins of Walmer Court, the manor house from which the church originated, stand approximately 15 metres to the northeast and are a scheduled ancient monument. The southern wall of the manor house forms part of the churchyard wall, creating a strong visual and historical relationship between the two structures.