Church of St Margaret

Church of St Margaret, Horsmonden

Parish church of early 14th-century date, altered and extended in the 15th century, repaired around 1700 and restored between 1864 and 1867 by T.H. Wyatt. Constructed in sandstone with slate roofs and a timber north porch on a sandstone base with shingled roof.

The church comprises a chancel with south chapel, a nave with aisles, a north porch and a western tower. The four-stage tower stands on a plinth with triple offset diagonal buttresses, weathered string courses, battlements and a south-eastern stair turret. It features two-light belfry openings with single lights below and a large three-light Perpendicular west window set in a deep reveal with hood mould. The main doorway has attached shafts and a moulded arch in a moulded and hollow-chamfered surround with label hood; the spandrels bear quatrefoils and the arms of Poynings and Fitzpaine, commemorating a marriage of 1380.

The south aisle has a weathered plinth and double moulded offset buttresses with a restored hollow-chamfered corbel table to the parapet. Two identical vices are set in the south wall, the eastern one marking off the south chapel. Fenestration throughout includes triangular-headed Perpendicular windows. The chapel lacks a parapet and has a diagonal buttress with reset carving of two heads, a depressed arched Perpendicular south window and a three-light east window with gable light and restored gable cross.

The chancel features a 19th-century east window, large lancets to north and south, and a north door bearing the arms of Reverend Stephen Bate, rector from 1679 to 1724, who rebuilt the north aisle and added the vestry around 1700. The scrolled kneelers carrying the nave gables date from this period. The 15th-century clerestorey contains four three-light Perpendicular windows on each side. The north aisle wall displays a reset 14th-century ogee-headed reticulated east window, a plinth, regular buttresses and Perpendicular fenestration. A 14th-century ogee-headed aisle west window is also present. The north porch has moulded bargeboards enriched with fern decoration projecting on brackets, a wave-moulded door surround with hood mould and sunk spandrels bearing cross and acorn motifs; the door is contemporary, though the inner doorway to the church was restored in the 19th century.

Interior

The western door and window are set in deep chamfered reveals. The tower arch features a double hollow-chamfered surround and ribbed hollow-chamfered arch on tall attached shafts with octagonal heads. The nave has three-bay arcades with alternating round and octagonal piers. The north arcade displays hollow-chamfered arches and attached shaft responds, while the south arcade (an earlier build) has simple chamfered arches and corbelled responds. The nave roof comprises two tall crown posts. The aisles have lean-to roofs; the south aisle and south chapel form a single build. Window reveals throughout feature hollow-chamfered and roll-moulded surrounds with chamfered arches on octagonal corbels between the aisle and chapel. The 19th-century chancel arch has doubled roll mouldings to its arch on angel corbels. The chancel features a sans-purlin trussed rafter roof on moulded wall plates with deep splayed reveals to windows and north doors. A two-bay double-chamfered arcade to the south chapel rests on an octagonal pier and responds.

Fittings and Monuments

The chancel contains an ogee-headed cinque-cusped piscina and an unusually shaped wall recess with stylised flower ornament, identified as the tomb recess of John Bobbe, rector from 1462 to 1484. The two external vices in the south wall mark the unusual feature of two rood screens; the eastern screen was probably abandoned due to subsidence in the passage through the chancel arch pier. Chamfered piscinas and an aumbrey are located in the south chapel and south aisle. A parclose screen occupies the east end of the south aisle, originally positioned in the arch from chancel to south chapel; it features simple lower panels and eight recusped upper panels with a vine-leaf frieze and the inscription "Orate pro bono statu Alicie Campcon" (Pray for the good state of Alice Sampson). Alice Sampson, who lived at Elphicks in Horsmonden, signed her will in October 1508.

The font is said to be a 17th-century copy of the original by the same hand as that at St. Lawrence, Hawkhurst; it has a hollow octagonal stem and bowl enriched with shields and roses. A brass "spider" chandelier hangs in the nave with eight scrolled arms; the orb is inscribed "TO THIS PARISH OF HORSMONDEAN / THE GIFT OF STEPHEN BATE / RECTOR, AMMO 1703". Other fittings are of unexceptional 19th-century character.

Monuments include a 14th-century stone coffin lid in the south chapel floor and a brass to Henry de Grofhurst (after 1338), a 46-inch cleric in full robes with a lion at his feet and holding a lettered scroll, with full canopy. A brass to Joan Austen (died 1604) measures 18½ inches and depicts a woman with a wide-brimmed hat; a small brass inscription to her husband John Austen (died 1620) is reset on the nave west wall. Good basalt ledger slabs include one beneath the chancel arch to John Courthope (died 1718), and an iron ledger slab to Martha Browne (died 1644) with a brass inscription plate. John Read, inventor of the stomach pump (died 1847), is commemorated by a wall monument with a bust on a pedestal inscribed "Integrity". The glazing is predominantly 19th-century, with the exception of the rood and west windows by Rosemary Everett, dating from 1946 and 1948 respectively.