Church Of St Botolph

The Church of St Botolph is a parish church with Anglo-Saxon origins, located on the east side of Chevening Road. The core of the building is probably Anglo-Saxon, with the north aisle and north transept added or remodelled in the 12th century. The south aisle and south chapel were added in the 13th century but represent different phases of construction. The tower was begun after 1518. The south chapel received its present roof in 1584 when it became the Lennard family chapel, and the south porch was remodelled in 1858. The church underwent restoration in 1869, followed by a major restoration in 1901–2 by W D Caroë, which included lowering the floor by two feet, reordering and refurnishing. Lord Stanhope paid for this work.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of rubble and flint, partly rendered, with a ragstone tower. The roofs are tiled.

Plan

The church has a very long and narrow nave with a south aisle that is shorter than the nave at the west end. There is a north transept and south porch, with evidence for a former north aisle to the nave. The west tower has an octagonal north-east stair turret. The chancel has a south chapel continuing the line of the south aisle and a north organ chamber linked to the north transept.

Exterior

The three-stage embattled west tower, begun after 1518, has diagonal buttresses and an octagonal north-east stair turret rising above the parapet. It features a four-light Perpendicular west window above a west door with a four-centred head set in a square frame with carved spandrels. The south aisle is shorter than the nave, and one small early 12th-century window, wholly renewed externally, was reset in the nave south wall in the 19th century. The scar of a former roof, probably for the original narrower aisle, is visible on the aisle west wall. The south porch was remodelled in 1858, but the early 16th-century king post roof was retained. The 13th-century south door has carved headstops. The south aisle, south chapel and chancel north wall have late Perpendicular windows with square heads, while the chancel east window has a pointed head. A 19th-century north vestry was added to the 12th century or earlier north transept, with an obvious joint between the two sections. An additional 20th-century pent roof vestry was added on the west side of the transept. The nave north wall is rendered and has three 19th-century Early English-style windows.

Interior

The nave is very long, with no chancel arch or screen. In the nave north wall are three blocked arches separated by substantial mural piers. These have continuous chamfered outer orders and slightly chamfered inner orders on imposts with flat responds, all terminating at dado level. The lancet now in the south aisle was set within this arcade before the 19th-century restoration. Although it is possible that the arcade was decorative, it is more likely that these arches represent the remains of an Anglo-Saxon aisle or series of porticus chambers, remodelled as an aisle in the early 12th century and then subsequently removed, when a lancet from the former outer wall was reset in the blocking.

The tall early 12th-century arch into the north transept is similar but has the outer order on imposts and the inner continuous with a small chamfer. It too may be a rebuilding of an earlier Anglo-Saxon arch. The early 13th-century three-bay nave south arcade has arches of two chamfered orders on slender cylindrical piers with moulded capitals. The two-bay arcade to the south chancel chapel and the arch between the aisle and chapel are similar but have more complex capitals and are probably mid-13th century.

Fine early 20th-century glazed timber screens enclose the south chapel, which contains many monuments to the Lennards and Stanhopes. In the south aisle are two pairs of 15th or 16th-century tomb recesses, each with its own piscina for a former altar. A late medieval grave slab with a cross is reset in one of the recesses. The tower arch has continuous mouldings. There are mortises for a former west gallery. A Perpendicular font stands under the tower.

Principal Fixtures

Two late medieval ogee-headed piscinas in the south aisle stand with a pair of tomb recesses with four-centred heads adjacent to each. The Perpendicular octagonal font has a buttressed stem and enriched quatrefoils on the bowl; the cover is late 20th century. The pulpit is 17th century, heavily restored and reconfigured in 1901 with some 17th-century panelling and a 20th-century pedestal, stairs and handrail. Late 17th-century armour is displayed in the south chapel. Many hatchments are present. The arch to the north transept is said to have traces of wall painting.

Oak pews of 1901 were made by Cornish and Gaymer. Also by Cornish and Gaymer are the screen and door to the vestry, the restoration of the pulpit, and the half-glazed parclose of 1902 to the south chapel in Arts-and-Crafts gothic style, with an earl's coronet, S for Stanhope, and 1902 in the carving. The choir stalls have poppyhead finials. The chancel reredos of 1890 is a copy of da Vinci's Last Supper in Caen stone by Farmer and Brindley.

The stained glass is largely 20th century, including a mid-20th-century east window to Eileen (died 1940), Countess Stanhope, wife of the 7th and last Earl. In the south chapel is heraldic glass to the Stanhopes. The south aisle window depicting St Martin of Tours serves as a memorial to the rector's son, killed in the Boer War in 1900. The glass itself is apparently of 1872.

Monuments

The church contains an outstanding collection of monuments, including a late medieval coffin lid with an ogee foliate cross, reset in a recess in the south aisle. In the chancel is a brass to the Reverend Griffin Floyd, died 1596, and his wife with eight children, formerly in the chancel floor, reset in a limestone wall panel as a memorial to Henry Weavers, churchwarden, died 1993. Also in the chancel is a monument to Ann Herrys, died 1613, a hanging alabaster monument with a kneeling figure with two small children. Large angels pull back curtains, an unusual motif for that date.

In the south chapel, adopted for funerary use in the 1580s, are many monuments to the Lennard and Stanhope families. Among them is the monument to John Lennard, died 1590, and his wife Elizabeth, died 1585, comprising a tomb chest with alabaster effigies of a knight and lady lying on a mat. The monument to Sampson Lennard, died 1615, and his wife Lady Dacre, died 1611, is a grandiose affair in the style of the Southwark School of masons, comprising a high tomb chest with obelisks and a coffered canopy arch, with reclining figures and kneeling children below. Robert Cranmer, died 1619, has a wall monument with figures. A wall tablet to the 1st and 2nd Earls Stanhope, erected after 1786, features a female figure leaning over an urn. The monument to Lady Frederica Stanhope, signed by Chantrey 1827, shows a reclining figure with a baby: a late example of a childbirth tomb, showing the sculptor's sensitivity and gracefulness to full effect.

Subsidiary Features

An early 20th-century lychgate to the churchyard features arch-braced timber on dwarf brick walls with a red-tiled roof. The church forms a group with estate cottages opposite.

Historical Context

There was Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement at Chevening, and the church is first recorded in the early 12th-century Textus Roffensis (1122–23), although it probably existed before that date as the nave and north transept appear to be Anglo-Saxon in origin. The two pairs of tomb recesses with their accompanying piscinas are evidence for chantry chapels in the south aisle in the later middle ages, and the south chapel probably also served as a chantry chapel. In the post-medieval period, the church had a close connection with the Lennard (later Lords Dacre) and Stanhope families of nearby Chevening House. There are many monuments for them, and the church was restored by Lord Stanhope in 1901–2 to designs by the well-known church architect W D Caroë.