Church of St Augustine

This parish church dates from the mid-13th century with 14th-, 15th- and 18th-century alterations. It was restored in 1790 by Thomas White and again in the 1950s and 1960s. The building is constructed of roughly coursed mixed stone with a plain tile roof, consisting of a continuous nave and chancel with north and south aisles of unequal length. Each aisle extends slightly beyond the chancel and formerly had chapels within their east ends. The north aisle has a schoolroom at its west end, now used as a chapel. There is a north porch and a small medieval north stair turret.

Nave

The nave dates from the mid-13th century and was extended westward by two bays in the 14th century. The west end has no plinth and features two buttresses. The west window is stepped and chamfered with three untraceried lights and an angular hoodmould, set within a blocked two-centred arched architrave. The west doorway is two-centred arched, made of marble-stone with two chamfered orders and fitted with a ribbed door.

South Aisle

The east end of the south aisle dates from the mid-13th century, with the remainder also 13th-century, extended with the nave in the 14th century. It has no plinth and features one west buttress, seven south buttresses and one east buttress. A rainwater-head dated 1741 sits to the west. The aisle is gabled with a square-topped west window of three cinquefoil-headed lights with cavetto mullions, blocked tracery above and fragments of hoodmould. Four untraceried south windows have two pointed-arched lights each, square heads and cavetto mullions but no hoodmoulds, probably dating from 1790. A broad 15th-century five-light traceried east window has cavetto mullions, a segmental head and hoodmould. The south doorway has a segmental-pointed arch with continuous bead moulding and a ribbed door.

Chancel

The chancel dates from the mid-13th century and has no plinth, with angle buttresses and a gabled roof slightly higher than the nave roof. There are two chamfered lancets to the south and three to the north. The stepped three-light untraceried east window has cavetto mullions and a hoodmould, restored except for the head. It resembles the 18th-century aisle windows but is said to be 16th-century (according to Anne Roper's The Church of St Augustine, Brookland, 1982 edition). Fragments remain of the lower cill and chamfered jambs of blocked east lancets, along with blocked rectangular chamfered openings in the gable above.

North Aisle

The north aisle is 13th-century, extended with the nave in the 14th century. It has a low chamfered stone plinth to the north elevation only, with angle buttresses and two additional buttresses to the north, beneath a lean-to roof. The 14th-century east window features cusped intersecting tracery and a hoodmould. A geometrical window at the east end of the north elevation has two cinquefoil-headed lights, a chamfered sexfoil and two plain open spandrels, with a hoodmould featuring roll-and-hollow moulding and carved heads as label-stops. Two further north windows—one east of the porch and one between the turret and lean-to—are similar to the 18th-century south aisle windows; the former has broad 18th-century wooden shutters.

The small medieval stair turret adjoins the porch to the west, standing on a stone plinth with stone string and battlements, and containing two small lights—one cusped, one rectangular. A Second World War memorial clock is mounted here. The lean-to extension to the schoolroom at the west end of the north elevation has a rectangular wood mullion window of five leaded lights. The west gable end has a rectangular 19th-century window of two leaded lights above a 19th-century ribbed door with cambered head, reached by three steps.

North Porch

The north porch is built of gault and red brick in Flemish bond on a stepped brick plinth with a plain tile roof and weatherboarded gable. It has projecting eaves with moulded bargeboards. The structure was formerly timber-framed and probably partly open, as evidenced by large braces and a bracket. Beneath a collar are two large durns, moulded to the outside with plain chamfer, roll and fillet. Large spandrels each contain a quatrefoil circumscribed by roll and fillet, with a trefoil above and below. The 18th-century shutter doors have panelled lower sections with ramped tops and boarded upper sections. The two-centred arched moulded stone inner doorway has broach stops and retains its ribbed medieval door.

Interior Structure

The seven-bay south arcade features double-chamfered pointed arches and six octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases. The two east capitals differ from the two central ones, but all four have similar bases. The two western bays were added when the church was extended in the 14th century. The six-bay north arcade also has double-chamfered pointed arches, only the western two of which align with the south arcade. It features five octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases: the easternmost is individual (possibly marking a chapel), the two central ones are similar to the central capitals of the south arcade, and the two western ones were added during the church extension. Bell capital corbels stand at the east and west ends of both arcades, with the north east one featuring a carved face. Both arcades were probably originally of dark marble stone, which has been extensively replaced. A continuous hoodmould runs along the nave and south aisle arcade only. The south east chapel is down one step. Three internal flying buttresses support the north aisle.

The west end of the north aisle was partitioned off as a schoolroom from the late medieval period. A narrow doorway to the north turret has a triangular head, hollow chamfer and broach stops. A three-centred arched doorway with hollow chamfer and broach stops sits in the schoolroom wall in the north west corner of the penultimate west bay of the north aisle.

The north and south chancel lancets have chamfered rere-arches springing from slender columns with bell capitals and bases, with a continuous hoodmould to the heads of the lancets. Traces remain of the outer jambs of the original east window and bell bases of the columns of the rere-arches. A continuous 13th-century string runs round the chancel at cill level, with a fragment of similar string halfway up the south wall of the south chapel. There is a blocked fireplace in the north east corner of the schoolroom.

Roof

The nave has five rebated crown-posts, all apparently of the same date, on square bases with moulded tie-beams. Two square thick-set crown-posts stand at the east end of the south aisle, probably marking the extent of the chapel, broadly chamfered with moulded capitals and bases on moulded tie-beams. Six crown-posts extend along the rest of the south aisle, with the easternmost set close to the west post of the chapel. All are octagonal and slender, but the mouldings of the five eastern ones are similar to those of the chapel. The tie-beams are differently moulded from the chapel, with moulding continued along the cornices. The west crown-post and tie-beam are plain. The north aisle roof is ceiled. The chancel roof is 19th-century.

Fixtures and Fittings

A 13th-century stepped piscina and two-seat sedile stand in the south wall of the chancel, with pointed arches featuring roll-and-fillet moulding and a continuous pointed-arched hoodmould. A column with bell capital and base separates the two seats. A 13th-century piscina in the south wall of the south chapel has a stopped hollow chamfer and five red ochre cinquefoils. A rectangular aumbry is located in the centre of the east wall of the chancel.

The cylindrical lead font dates from circa 1200 and depicts the signs of the Zodiac and Labours of the Months in two arcaded rows under cable and zig-zag mouldings. Three 13th-century Resurrection castings appear below the rim. The font is unique in Britain but similar to that at Saint Evroult-de-Montfort, Normandy, and was possibly made in North France (G. Zarnecki, English Romanesque lead Sculpture, 1957). It sits on a cylindrical stone base with concrete to the top. Carved stone fragments lie by a tomb in the south chapel, possibly connected with the font base. Three medieval pews now stand at the north west end of the nave.

Re-laid medieval floor tiles appear in various parts of the church. The altar is possibly a 17th-century Communion table. Mid-17th-century rails enclose the east one and a half bays of the south arcade, with a moulded rail and symmetrical balusters on a chamfered base. Bowed later 17th-century rails extend part of the way across the west end of the south east chapel with a plain hand-rail and turned balusters. The 18th-century pulpit, formerly a three-decker, is now two-tiered with fielded panels and Greek key pattern to the cornice. Its hexagonal veneered and corniced sounding board now serves as a table at the west end.

Box pews dating from circa 1738 with fielded panels fill the north aisle, nave and part of the south aisle. The Royal Arms dated 1739 hang over the south door. A large chest is reputedly from the Spanish Armada. A funeral hudd is preserved, along with a complete set of scales, weights and measures from the Hundred of Aloesbridge dated 1795, said to be the oldest set in existence. A benefactors board dates from 1821.

Decoration

A wall-painting from the second half of the 13th century at the east end of the south wall of the south chapel depicts the martyrdom of St Thomas à Becket. Traces of red and black paint survive on jambs and mouldings throughout the church. Fourteenth-century stained glass is set in the east window of the north aisle.

Monuments

A brass in the north wall of the chancel commemorates Thomas Leddes, died 1503. A table tomb at the east end of the south chapel commemorates John Plomer, died 1615, of rendered brick on a plain chamfered plinth with recessed side-panels and a black Bethersden marble top bearing an inscription. A memorial tablet on the south wall of the south aisle commemorates Henry Read, died 1777, in white marble with gadrooned gravy boats to the top and a black marble obelisk with white urn on a consoled plinth.

The church is said to stand on a Saxon site. The detached belfry dating from circa 1200 is separately listed (Anne Roper, The Church of St Augustine, Brookland, 1982 edition; John Newman, Buildings of England Series, West Kent and the Weald, 1980).