Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Eastchurch

This is a Grade I listed church on the north side of High Street, Eastchurch. It was rebuilt in 1431–32 after the previous church fell into ruin. Pevsner suggests that the two-light Decorated windows at the west end are reused from the earlier structure. The chancel roof was repaired after fire damage in 1922. The church is said to have been designed by William Nudds, a Cistercian monk of Boxley, and built by lay brothers from Boxley Abbey. It represents one major Perpendicular building campaign.

The exterior is constructed of Kent ragstone rubble with knapped flint merlons to the embattled parapets and chequered flint and stone parapet to the tower. Buttresses have knapped flint panels. The roof is lead.

The plan comprises a west tower with west porch, nave, chancel, north and south aisles, north porch, north east organ chamber, south east chapel, and north vestry.

Externally, the church is grand, with deep battlemented parapets throughout above a moulded stringcourse. Diagonal buttresses rise on the aisles, chancel and tower. Most aisle windows are two-light with shallow segmental heads and cusped lights, though stonework is much renewed. The five-light east window is similar. Decorated style two-light windows appear at the west end of the north aisle with quatrefoils in the heads. The porch resembles the medieval north vestry. A shallow embattled west porch contains a medieval west doorway. The three-stage west tower has two-light medieval windows matching those of the aisles. A north east porch has a renewed Clipsham stone outer doorway.

Inside, the porch has a late medieval roof. The arcades feature octagonal piers with concave sides, moulded capitals and arches, with a wide matching chancel arch. The nave roof is a handsome shallow pitched 15th-century design of unusual type for Kent, with moulded tie beams and short curved braces springing from carved timber angel corbels holding shields. The roof is divided into large panels by moulded ribs with carved bosses and half bosses at intersections, and central bosses of very large winged angels holding shields. The chancel roof is similar with three bays; the post-1922 repair is difficult to identify from ground level. Aisle roofs are similar but plainer, with braces on plain stone corbels. A double-chamfered tower arch sits on moulded corbels. The tower was intended to be stone vaulted and preserves corbels and first courses of vaults in the corners.

An eleven-bay chancel screen spans the full width of nave and aisles, with wide bays flanking the central entrance. The screen has lost its rood loft and has been extensively repaired. There is no reredos. North and south hagioscopes (squints) open to the chancel. The south east chapel is lined with unusually lavish Jacobean two-tier panelling, similar to panelling in the tower. This panelling originated from the former Cathedral of St Martin at Ypres.

Subsidiary features include choir stalls with elaborately-shaped ends and poppyhead finials, and square-headed bench ends with recessed panels to nave benches. A plain octagonal stone font stands on a moulded stem and base. An early 17th-century timber drum pulpit on a probably later bracketed stem has sides decorated with strapwork and field panels. Two George II brass candelabra are present.

Monuments include a fine alabaster chest tomb on the south side of the chancel with effigies of Sir Gabriel Livesay (died 1622) and his second wife, Anne; an African's head is incorporated into the design. A marble monument on the north wall of the chancel commemorates Vice Admiral Sir Richard King, who captained HMS Achilles at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Several late 19th-century stained glass windows are present. A 1912 window by Karl Parsons commemorates Charles Stewart Rolls (of Rolls-Royce) and Cecil Stanley Grace, who died in a flying accident in 1910.

The church is an outstanding example of a Perpendicular building constructed largely in one phase in 1431–32. Its six medieval roofs, particularly the nave and chancel of unusual design for Kent, are of special note, as are its rood screen and monuments.