Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This sandstone church stands on the north side of High Street in Chiddingstone. Built of local sandstone rubble with tiled roofs, it comprises an early 14th-century nave, chancel, and aisles with chapels, together with a 15th-century west tower. The nave and chancel roof, south porch, and south aisle wall were rebuilt following a fire in 1624. Minor alterations date to 1866 and 1898.

The church follows a plan of four-bay nave and two-bay chancel with north and south aisles, each containing an east chapel, a south porch, and a west tower.

The west tower rises in three stages and is capped with four octagonal crocketed pinnacles and a crenellated parapet. An octagonal stair turret projects to the south east, with diagonal buttresses to the other sides. The tower displays a fine collection of stone gargoyles. The bell stage features arched windows with dripmoulds and double trefoil-headed windows with wooden louvres. The middle stage contains narrow lights with hood moulding, while the lower stage has a large traceried window to the west. The south aisle displays three triple cinquefoil-headed arched windows divided by buttresses. The south porch, rebuilt in 1626, is gabled with a semi-circular arch with keystone and capitals at the jambs in Classical or Renaissance style, set beneath a Perpendicular-style square moulded dripmould. A diamond-shaped sundial above is dated 1627. The east end of the south aisle chapel has a three-light window with reticulated tracery; the chancel has a triple window with cusped trefoil heads; and the north aisle chapel has a five-light window with cinquefoil heads. Windows to the north wall, whether chapel or aisle, are three-light windows with cinquefoil-headed lights.

Internally, the arcade comprises pointed arches supported on 14th-century octagonal columns with scroll mouldings to the abaci of the capitals and roll mouldings to the bases. The nave and chancel have a six-bay kingpost roof of the 1620s. The east wall of the tower retains a door and panels of the original medieval screen.

The font, positioned at the west end of the south aisle, was made in 1628 by master mason William Holis. It is an octagonal sandstone font with an oak cover featuring eight ogeed and crocketed brackets engaging with a central shaft with ball finial. An octagonal early 17th-century oak pulpit with arched panels also survives. The wooden altar rails with turned balustrading partially date from the 1624–29 restoration, though records document balustrading being turned in 1662 and 1720. The centre of the side wall of the north chapel retains the only piece of old glass. The chancel east window is of 1898 by C E Kempe. The reredos of 1866 was designed by G E Street with an alabaster Crucifixion relief carved by Earp. The chancel stalls are by Macartney, dating to 1898. An altar tomb of freestone with black Belgian marble top, dating to circa 1650, commemorates Frances, daughter of John Reeve of London and her two husbands, Thomas Streatfeild of Shoreham and John Seyliard of Brasted.

The nave contains two brasses: one to Richard Streatfeild of Cransted (died 1584) and the other to William Birsty (died 1637) with a coat of arms. A third brass in the chancel floor commemorates Margaret Waters (died 1638). Iron grave slabs in the floor of the south aisle and nave include one to Richard Streatfeild, an ironmaster (died 1601). The north chapel displays a Royal Coat of Arms. Wall tablets include a marble tablet of several colours to John Woodgate, erected in 1770, and a tablet to the Streatfeild children of 1833, encircled by a palm wreath with three cherub heads. A fine collection of hatchments in the south aisle dates between 1627 and 1852. A brass chandelier donated by Edward Tenison in 1726 hangs in the church.

The site has ancient origins. Written evidence records a Saxon foundation at Chiddlingstone in the "Domesday of the Monks" (1086), where it is noted that in 1072 Bishop Odo was made to give up the church to the archbishop. The "Textus Roffensis" (1115) records that the church was paying a nine pence chrism fee to Rochester. The earliest identifiable masonry in the current building comprises the remains of 13th-century Early English triple lancet windows on the east wall of the chancel, suggesting that at that time the plan may have comprised a nave and chancel without aisles. The current plan dates to the early 14th century, when the side walls of the earlier building were replaced with arcades and aisles to the north and south. The chancel window is also of this period, and the chancel arch was likely removed with the side walls of the chancel replaced by arcading to provide side chapels. The Perpendicular-style west tower was added in the 15th century, as were the windows in the side wall of the north aisle.

The Bore Place Chapel to the east of the north aisle is mentioned in John Alfeigh's will of 1488. In 1526, Sir Robert Read of Bore Place enlarged the chapel and founded a chantry, which was suppressed in 1547. In 1624, the church was struck by lightning, causing an extensive fire. Afterwards, the south porch, south wall of the south aisle, nave and chancel roof, and possibly the nave arches above the columns were rebuilt. The north aisle outer wall appears to have survived. Records of 1627 document payment to the local blacksmith for repairing and supplying new iron bars for the windows. The pre-1624 taller pitch of the nave roof remains visible on the west side of the tower. The church was re-consecrated in 1629. Two minor Victorian restorations occurred in 1866 and 1898, though G E Street's 1866 plans for new seating and an elaborate screen dividing the chancel from the nave were not executed.