Church Of St Mary

Parish church of St. Mary at Hunton, encompassing building phases from the late 11th or 12th century through to 1876. The church comprises a west tower, nave, south aisle, south porch, chancel with south chapel, and north vestry. It is constructed of uncoursed ragstone rubble with a plain tile roof and was restored in 1876 by Ewan Christian.

The west tower dates to the 13th century. It has no plinth and is divided into three roughly equal stages by flush ashlared stone bands. Diagonal north-west and south-west buttresses have chamfered stone plinths. A pyramidal spire is clad with wood shingles and carries a weathervane. The belfry stage has single hollow-chamfered lancets to each face except the east. The second stage also features hollow-chamfered lancets to north and south. A broader, doubly recessed shafted west lancet lights the stage below. The pointed-arched moulded west doorway has a moulded hoodmould and a ribbed medieval door. A rectangular south-east stair turret with reused tufa quoins has a shingled lean-to roof continued from the spire and a small triangular-headed south lancet.

The south aisle is 15th century with no plinth, a south buttress, and a plain stone-coped parapet. It contains a 2-light pointed-arched 15th-century west window and two square-headed 15th-century two-light windows to the east of the porch.

The south porch dates to circa 1513. It is broad and gabled, set on a chamfered stone plinth with diagonal buttresses. Small chamfered rectangular lights punctuate the east and west sides. The outer doorway is 4-centred arched with hollow-chamfering, set in a moulded rectangular architrave with carved spandrels and hoodmould. The inner doorway is cavetto-moulded and pointed-arched with a squared moulded hoodmould and encircled quatrefoils to the spandrels. It retains a ribbed medieval inner door and has a panelled and studded outer door. A moulded axial beam runs through, and continuous stone benches line the interior.

The south chapel is 15th century but was refaced or rebuilt in 1866. It is snecked stone on a chamfered stone plinth with three windows in 15th-century style and a pointed-arched south doorway.

The chancel is 13th century, possibly with a late 11th or early 12th-century core. It projects slightly further than the chapel. The east end has channelled render with a dressed stone plinth. A 3-light 19th-century east window is in 15th-century style. A broad chamfered north lancet provides further fenestration.

The north vestry, probably dating to 1866, is constructed of snecked stone and has two north lancets and a pointed west doorway.

On the north elevation of the nave, the late 11th or 12th-century work has no plinth and tufa quoins. Two late 13th or early 14th-century two-light north windows feature tracery of uncusped quatrefoils and sexfoils with hoodmoulds. A central 15th-century three-light north window has tracery of vertical bars and a moulded hoodmould with angles to label stops. Part of a blocked round-headed tufa window appears to the east of centre.

Internally, the structure displays a 3-bay 15th-century south arcade to the nave comprising doubly hollow-chamfered pointed arches and octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases. The 14th-century chancel arch has a continuous chamfered outer order and thick chamfered inner rib springing from semi-octagonal columns with moulded capitals. A tall pointed 13th-century tower arch has moulded imposts. 19th-century north and south arches serve the chancel and connect the south chapel to the south aisle. Pointed cavetto-moulded rere-arches appear to the west window of the south aisle and the east window of the south chancel chapel. A moulded and shafted arch lights the central window of the north aisle. Moulded cambered rere-arches flank the south windows of the south aisle. A broad chamfered lancet to the south wall of the chancel is blocked by the chapel.

The nave roof contains four moulded octagonal crown-posts on doubly hollow-chamfered tie-beams. The south aisle has a lean-to roof divided into square panels by butt purlins. The chancel has a canted roof with 19th-century boarding. The south chancel chapel is roofed with 19th-century scissor-bracing.

Fittings include a late 13th-century double sedile to the east end of the south wall of the chancel, with an attached pillar piscina across the south-east corner. Both feature moulded Bethersden marble shafts and partly renewed cusped crocketed gables. The pillar of the piscina carries a bell base and stiff-leaf capital. To the west of the sedile lies the hollow-chamfered east jamb of a cusped pointed arch. An octagonal font with traceried panelling survives, and fragments of medieval stained glass remain in the central north window of the nave.

The church contains several significant monuments. A white marble monument in the south-west corner of the nave to Lady Anne Fane, died 1663, features a pedestal with a central section breaking forwards and an inscription on a raised panel. A string of husks decorates the narrow remaining panels of the front, and a moulded segmental pediment over a cornice is topped by a shield, with two further shields set towards the rear and a large gadrooned urn.

A white marble bust over the south door commemorates Henry Hatley, died 1716, mounted on a tapering moulded plinth with a shield to the base.

A rectangular white marble tablet with a black border on the south wall of the south aisle records Thomas Turner, died 1776. It has a consoled plinth and a beaded triangular pediment with antefixae.

A further tablet on the south wall of the south aisle to Thomas Durant Punnett, Gentleman, died 1785, is of rectangular white marble set on a black marble ground with a moulded consoled plinth incorporating a shield, foliated side panels, and a moulded cornice with antefixae. It is surmounted by a relief of a mourner by an urn and was erected in 1812, signed by Regnart of Hampstead.

A dresser tomb against the north wall of the chancel commemorates Sir Thomas Fane of Buston, Knight and Lieutenant of Dover Castle, and his wife, both died 1606. It comprises an alabaster chest tomb with a tooled stone plinth and moulded Bethersden marble lid festooned with trophies. The side panels are carved with trophied decoration and a woman and child in relief. Recumbent alabaster figures of the deceased lie above. An alabaster canopy with trophied Corinthian pilasters flanks a coffered arch with rose flowers to the soffit and gadrooned and moulded cornice. Two obelisks and a central corniced panel with achievements complete the monument.

A rectangular brass on the north wall of the chancel records Francis Fane, died 1651, with a heraldic device on a small top plate.

A large white marble hanging monument spanning the north-east corner of the nave commemorates Thomas Fane, died 1692. It features a gesticulating bust on a gadrooned pedestal, flanked by mourning putti and fluted Corinthian pilasters, with outer inverted scrolls and a moulded cornice arched over the centre and surmounted by urns. An inscribed panel with a moulded plinth and gadrooned cornice breaks forwards beneath the bust, with fruited side panels and a diminishing gadrooned and foliated base carrying a shield. The monument was erected in 1711 and is possibly by Edward Stanton.

A moulded and cusped 14th-century tomb recess on the north wall of the nave has a crocketed finial and carved heads to label stops.

A plain white marble tablet on the north wall of the nave records Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, died 1908.