Church of St Laurence

Church of St Laurence

The Church of St Laurence in Ramsgate is a parish church of great architectural importance, with foundations dating to 1062 and major construction phases in the late 12th century, 15th century, and substantial fenestration and restoration work in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The building is constructed of flint with a plain tiled roof.

The church comprises a nave and aisles, a central tower with transepts, a chancel and side chapels, which together create the effect of three aisles. There are south and south-eastern porches. Each structural unit has its own roof.

The architectural style is predominantly Geometric and Perpendicular, with tracery throughout dating to the 15th century. The west and east windows are of 1858. The most striking exterior feature is the tower, which rises in three stages. The lower two stages date to the 12th century and feature blind arcading on the south and east sides, with two round-headed lancets on each face at second stage level. The battlemented top stage was added in the 15th century. The 15th century south porch features a rendered arch with an iron lamp and bracket, and retains an original hollow chamfered rectangular doorway with an adjacent water stoup. Other early exterior features are limited to a blocked roll-moulded western doorway, which has been cut into by the west window. Down pipes are dated 1866 and 1906.

The interior displays considerable architectural detail and craftsmanship. The nave arcades consist of three bays with round piers, scalloped capitals and simple pointed arches; the mouldings and cutting are finer on the north arcade. The nave roof, restored in the 19th century, is constructed with two crown posts. The aisles have hipped trussed rafter roofs; the south aisle retains corbels on the nave wall indicating an earlier roof structure.

At the crossing, the tower is supported on round piers with recessed hook shafts and spurs, with round arches decorated with roll and wave mouldings on scalloped and voluted capitals. Notably, four grinning demonic heads are incorporated into the capitals. The transepts are connected by simple double-rebated arches with string courses carried across the entire composition. The south transept has a simple pointed arch on imposts, while the north transept features a heavy hollow chamfered arch with chamfered surround. The transepts have trussed rafter roofs on corbels, with the north transept roof restored in the 19th century. Double chamfered arches lead to the chancel chapels.

The chancel originally comprised an unaisled eastern bay, with jambs of a blocked lancet still visible. The chapel arches are of stone-dressed flint, arranged in two bays to north and south with stop chamfers, hook shafts and trefoiled leaves on capitals. A further 13th-century arch gives access to the south chancel. The chancel retains a 15th-century wooden wagon ceiling with moulded beams and Tudor flower bosses, though most of the planking has unfortunately been removed. The south chapel features a string course on its north wall and retains its original roof of four crown posts, with large double doors opening to the south-western porch. The north chapel, which has been restored, connects to a separate vestry; the exposed jambs of a 12th-century north door to the chancel remain visible.

The church contains a wealth of liturgical fittings. These include a rebated trecusped piscina in the chancel, a moulded trecusped piscina with ogee-shaped hood on head stops in the south chancel, and an aumbrey in the north chapel. Remnants of a 15th-century three-panel screen to the vestry survive. Furnishings of 19th-century date include a Gothic pulpit with open fretwork and statues incorporating a reader and an 18th-century hourglass stand, together with a reredos, reading desks, stalls, lectern, pews and south chapel screens. A 20th-century font and rood cross are also present. The stained glass dates from circa 1866, with an east window of 1902.

The church houses significant medieval metalwork. Two important brasses have been reset on the wall of the south chapel: a brass of Nicholas Manston (died 1444), depicting a man in armour and measuring 34 inches in length, and a 28-inch brass of Joan St. Nicholas (died 1493), representing a lady.

The church contains an exceptional series of monuments spanning from the 17th century to the 19th century. In the chancel is a fine group of marble floor plaques, particularly commemorating the Sprackling family. The south chapel houses a notable sequence of wall monuments: Adam Spencer (died 1745), in white veined marble with segmental pediment and urn finial; Captain Martin Long (died 1751), a large white monument with scrolled bolection moulded plaque, cherubs and deaths heads, and segmental pediment; Margaret Read (died 1753), in white Rococo marble with Chinese-style swagged pediment; and Henrietta Elizabeth Froude (died 1879), in half-relief, wife of the renowned 19th-century historian James Anthony Froude. The north chapel contains Robert Brooke (died 1667), in white and black marble with cartouche apron and arms cartouche, and Reverend Cuthbert Boucher (erected 1788), an oval wall plaque. The nave preserves several early 19th-century Neo-Classical wall plaques, notably that to John, Earl of Dunmore (died 1809), with scalloped and draped sides, and a Gothick recess in the western wall to Thomas Noel Hay (died 1861). Further monuments include Catherine Talman (1731) in the north aisle with segmental pediment and cherub, and Alexander Bryner (1822), signed H. Cull and executed as a half-relief sarcophagus and urn. The north transept contains William Rogerson (died 1782), with painted arms and gadrooned urn on apron with cherub's head and obelisk background. The south aisle has Mary Gibson (died 1785), a neat plaque with wreathed arms and festooned base on Rococo scrolled work. The south transept preserves a small illegible 17th-century plaque with painted ribband sheaths and shields on sides, enriched swagged base and crested arms with coronet. A segmental pediment plaque in the south porch commemorates Robert (illegible) from the early 18th century. Eleven hatchments are distributed throughout the church, a charity board is placed in the south porch, and a large Royal Coat of Arms dated 1729 is mounted in the south aisle.