Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Fordcombe

This church was built in 1848-9 by Henry Isaac Stevens of Derby. A vestry and organ chamber were added to the north side in 1883 by E J Tarver. The building is constructed of tooled local sandstone ashlar with slate roofs.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, south porch, and the later north organ chamber and vestry. It presents a harmonious and unified scheme in the Early English style. The exterior is characterised by steeply pointed lancets lighting the nave and chancel on the side walls, three graded lancets in the east window, and a two-light plate tracery window to the west. Both the east and west windows have shafts. Other features characteristic of 13th-century design include the richly moulded entrance to the porch with nook shafts and dog-tooth ornament, a corbel frieze below the eaves, and a two-light bellcote straddling the roof ridge at the junction of the nave and chancel. On the north side, the 1883 organ chamber and vestry has a four-light dormer window on its western roof slope. In the second bay from the west there is a gabled projection with a two-light Y-tracery window.

Internally, the walls are plastered and whitened. Between the nave and chancel is a tall, wide moulded arch with responds having nook shafts. The nave is covered by a four-sided roof with scissor-braces, the lowest tier of which has unusual diagonal bracing. The chancel roof is differently treated and has curved wind braces in its lowest tier. The flooring includes black and white marble in the sanctuary and encaustic tiling in the nave.

Principal fixtures include a reredos with three panels and a raised centre, the side mosaic panels of which are said to date from 1906. Victorian features include substantial oak pews with square ends, a timber pulpit with large piercings on each face, a Perpendicular-style memorial rood screen (commemorating a death in 1894) with delicate tracery and open appearance, and a font in 13th-century style with a plain circular bowl set on four filleted shafts, placed on an encaustic tile surround. Two Hardinge hatchments hang at the west end. A drawing of eight windows depicting the life of St Peter, signed by H. Walter Lonsdale and dated 1883, hangs in the church. The drawing notes that one window had been executed (to R and S Saxby, 1882) and others were projected. In all, six of the windows seem to have been executed, with the last dating to 1895. A timber lych-gate on a stone plinth stands southeast of the church, serving as a memorial to Lavinia, 2nd Viscountess Hardinge (died 1864).

Plans for building a church at Fordcombe were in place in 1847 when an application for assistance was made to the Incorporated Church Building Society, emphasising that the parish church was three miles distant. The need was thus considerable, and much of the finance was provided by Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge, who was governor-general of India from 1844 and returned home in 1848. In 1847 costs were estimated at £1,803 plus £150 for architect's fees and related expenses, exclusive of the site which had been donated. The choice of an architect from Derbyshire is unusual, though a possible explanation is that the Hardinge family were already familiar with Stevens, having a seat at King's Newton in Derbyshire, where they owned a 17th-century hall. St Peter's was consecrated on 31 January 1849. The certificate regarding accommodation submitted to the Incorporated Church Building Society declared it to have 236 seats, 212 of which were free. In 1870 Fordcombe became a parish in its own right, though it has since become part of Penshurst parish once more.

Henry Isaac Stevens (1806-73) enjoyed a long and prolific career between the mid-1830s and his death, with much of his work being ecclesiastical and concentrated in the East Midlands. He began practice in 1834 and from 1859 was in partnership with F J Robinson (1833 or 1834-92). Stevens subsequently designed St Paul, Rusthall, just northwest of Tunbridge Wells, built 1849-50, a commission presumably arising from his successful work at Fordcombe. In designing the church, Stevens appears to have drawn upon a famous 13th-century exemplar, Skelton church near York, which had been the subject of a book published in 1846 by the rising architect Ewan Christian. The Kent building is certainly not a copy, but the use of the Early English style, the bellcote between nave and chancel, and the single lancets in the side walls do suggest awareness of the Yorkshire medieval church.