Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Birchington on Sea

This parish church, probably of 12th-century origin, stands on the north side of The Square. A reset fragment of an early 12th-century window head is the earliest surviving masonry. The chancel, chancel chapels and south-east tower date to around 1200, though they must have been built against an existing aisled church. The north and south nave arcades were rebuilt in the mid-14th century. The church was extensively restored in 1863–65 by C N Beazley, who removed many Perpendicular windows. A south-east vestry was added in 1911.

The building is constructed of flint and pebbles with stone dressings and tiled roofs. The plan comprises a nave with north and south aisles and south porch, a chancel with north and south chapels, and a south-east vestry.

Externally, the church is almost wholly 19th-century in appearance, with the nave and aisles roofed together. The slender south-east tower stands unusually over the south chancel chapel, creating a picturesque massing of tower, chancel, chapel and vestry gables when viewed from the east. The tower has three stages and is topped with a tall shingled broach spire. The middle stage has narrow late 12th-century lancets, whilst the bell stage has somewhat larger pointed openings. The east windows of the chancel and chapels are all 19th-century replacements in 13th-century style, replacing earlier Perpendicular windows. The north aisle has 19th-century Early English-style windows of two pointed lights with prominent stone dressings. A blocked north door is 13th-century with a pointed head and continuous mouldings. The south aisle similarly has 19th-century Early English-style paired lights replacing late medieval windows. A fragment of an early 12th-century window is reused in the south aisle walling. The south porch was restored in the 19th century, though the south door, despite heavy restoration, is 12th-century with one scalloped and one leaf capital, possibly reset. The 19th-century west door is Early English in style with a pointed head and short detached shafts on the jambs. The Early English-style nave west window is also 13th-century, replacing a Perpendicular window; the west ends of the aisles have no windows, though an early watercolour shows they formerly had small, probably 15th-century lights with square heads. The early 20th-century north-east vestry is in Decorated style.

The interior is much less heavily restored than the exterior. The chancel arch is 14th-century with polygonal responds, moulded capitals and bases. The north and south chancel arcades are both early 13th-century, perhaps around 1200, each of two bays with slightly chamfered arches on square piers. The southern pier is larger to support the tower. Similar early 13th-century arches open from the tower into the south aisle and from the north-east chapel into the north aisle. The mid-14th-century north and south nave arcades each comprise five bays with chamfered arches on polygonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. The westernmost pier on the south and the south-west respond are much larger, with quatrefoil piers in matching design, seemingly intended to support a new south-west tower that was never built. Springers for the tower vault survive on the aisle side, and what is probably the remains of the intended tower arch survives on the nave side. The nave roof is a heavy structure of 1863 with scissor trusses. Other roofs are also 19th-century. The north-east (Quex) chapel is enclosed with 19th or early 20th-century timber screens.

Principal fixtures include a plain polygonal 13th-century font supported on four slender shafts around a large moulded central shaft. A small, probably 13th-century piscina is located in the chancel. Traceried panels from a 15th-century rood screen are reused in the present low chancel screen. The pulpit is of 17th-century wine glass shape with Perpendicular style blind tracery on the body and trefoil-headed arcading on the stem. A reredos of 1883 in Italianate style, designed by Beazley and painted by Westlake, stands behind the altar. The church contains 19th-century glass, notably a south aisle window dedicated to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with one panel designed by Frederick Shield and the other a copy of one of Rossetti's paintings; Rossetti is buried in the churchyard.

The church contains a significant collection of monuments. In the north-east (Quex) chapel are notably: Sir Henry Crispe (died 1575) and Katherine, his first wife (died 1545), shown as recumbent figures on a tomb chest; Marie Crispe (died 1618), with a large hanging wall monument in alabaster featuring kneeling figures of her, her husband and children; members of the Crispe family with a wall monument of 1651, attributed to Joshua Marshall, displaying portrait busts; Anna Crisp (died 1708) by William Palmer; and Ann Powle (died 1744), with three inscribed inscription plans within a large architectural frame.

The evidence suggests the church was probably already its present size by around 1200. A fragment of early 12th-century window reset in the south aisle indicates a stone-built church existed on the site by that date. The chancel and tower are early 13th-century, perhaps as early as 1200, but a nave with north and south aisles must already have existed by then, as contemporary arches connect the tower and north-east chapel to the aisles. The narrow width of the south aisle is indicative of an early construction date. The slightly wider north aisle is of uncertain date but may be contemporary with the chancel. When the arcades were rebuilt in the 14th century, the intention appears to have been to widen one or both aisles and build a new south-west tower, but this was never carried out. A contract for work on the south aisle and new tower, following the design of St Nicholas, Wade, is dated 1343; it is likely the work was curtailed by the Black Death and never resumed.

The 15th-century Perpendicular windows, lost in the 19th century, indicate extensive remodelling at that date. Fragments of the rood screen attest 15th-century refurnishing. A drawing of around 1860 shows what was probably a 15th-century crown post roof in the chancel. Some refurnishing occurred in the 17th century. In the post-Reformation period the north-east chapel served as a mortuary chapel for members of the Crispe family, who owned nearby Quex House. By the late 18th century the church had a dormer in the south nave roof, box pews and galleries. Beazley's restoration of 1863–65 was destructive, removing much late medieval fabric including all Perpendicular windows in an attempt to make the church coherently 13th-century in style. The south-east vestry was added in 1911 to designs by G H Pettman.