Parish Church Of All Saints

Parish Church of All Saints

This is a large parish church of considerable historical importance, located on the south side of Brenchley High Street. The building shows evidence of pre-13th-century masonry, with the nave, aisles, and probably the tower all dating to the 13th century. The porch and nave roof are 14th-century work, and the 15th century saw further alterations. The chancel was rebuilt by John Montier of Tunbridge Wells in 1814. A thorough restoration took place in 1849 to the designs of Joseph Clarke, during which the church was largely re-gothicised. The exterior is built of local sandstone, roughly coursed, snecked and rubble-faced, with a slate roof featuring lead rolls.

The plan comprises a chancel, north and south transepts, and a nave with four-bay north and south aisles served by a north porch. A partly internal west tower completes the arrangement. The chancel and nave are unusually wide. Pevsner suggests that the transepts post-date the aisles, which may have been extended westward. A sketch from circa 1830 indicates that the church contained little or no medieval tracery at that date, with dormer windows on the south side presumably lighting a gallery that has since been removed.

The chancel has coursed masonry on a rubble plinth with angle buttresses and buttresses flanking both sides. A 5-light Decorated east window of 1849, with hoodmould and carved label stops, dominates the elevation. Two-light Decorated windows to each return also feature hoodmoulds and carved label stops. The north transept displays a mix of rubble and snecked masonry with similar 2-light and 3-light Decorated windows of 19th-century date and angle buttresses. The south transept, mostly rubble-faced, similarly features angle buttresses and 19th-century windows: a 2-light east window and a 4-light south window. The three-bay south aisle is buttressed with a slightly projecting parapet. A probably late 12th or early 13th-century chamfered west lancet window survives in the aisle, with outer bays containing 19th-century 2-light Decorated windows. A priest's door occupies the centre bay, featuring a hoodmould and chamfered and ovolo-moulded doorway with a 19th-century door. The north aisle has angle buttresses and a lean-to roof. It contains a 2-light cusped 14th-century Decorated west window and 19th-century 2-light Decorated windows flanking the porch entrance.

The north porch is a very deep, gabled structure of 14th-century date. It has a wide moulded doorway with a depressed 3-centred arch and carved label stops, a canted boarded roof, and a moulded inner doorway. Notably, 12th or 13th-century corbels have been re-used as kneelers and set into the porch gable.

The west tower is a large four-stage battlemented structure with massive angle buttresses featuring batters and an internal north-east stair turret rising above the tower proper. The turret is battlemented with a peaked roof crowned by a weathervane. The north face displays a pair of lancets to the bottom stage with a cusped one-light window above, followed by a 2-light square-headed belfry opening with trefoil-headed lights and a 2-light square-headed window to the top stage, which has a moulded stringcourse below it. The west face has a moulded 14th-century west doorway with hoodmould and carved label stops, with windows above matching those on the north face. The south face has a trefoil-headed one-light window to the bottom stage, with matching windows above and a diagonally set clock face.

The interior features plastered walls. An early 14th-century double-chamfered chancel arch springs from 19th-century engaged shafts with moulded capitals. Four-bay north and south arcades are supported by cylindrical piers with moulded capitals and bases, the arches similarly double-chamfered. The tower arch is largely obscured by the organ.

The nave roof is a particularly fine example of 14th-century tie-beam and crown post construction spanning four bays. The tall octagonal posts feature moulded caps and bases with four up-braces. The tie beam is slightly cambered and moulded, with timber tracery in the spandrels. The two easternmost ties retain painted decoration, probably 19th-century in date but possibly a restoration of a medieval scheme. The bay between the two eastern ties has a ceilure of painted board panels between moulded ribs with carved bosses.

The chancel roof, added in 1849, spans 2½ bays with arch braced construction springing from massive hammer beams with large brackets below. The centre truss features large carved angel brackets. The lean-to aisle roofs have probably medieval closely-spaced rafters. The transept roofs are A-frame with straight braces to the collar and ashlar posts. Nineteenth-century painted texts decorate the chancel arch, arches into the transepts, and the two eastern roof ties. The transepts contain windows with engaged shafts topped by foliage capitals, presumably of 19th-century date.

Within the chancel, a 1920s timber reredos stands above two 13th-century sedilia in the south wall, which feature blind arcading. A 1920s marble floor and communion rail (the latter in 17th-century style) complete the fittings. The sedilia represent an important medieval survival. The nave contains a 19th-century stone drum pulpit on an octagonal stem, elaborately carved in Decorated style with ogee-arched crocketted recesses to each face, blind tracery, cusping, and carved heads and foliage. A plain, possibly late medieval octagonal font stands nearby. A set of 19th-century square-headed bench ends with buttress decoration furnishes the nave. A west gallery has a frontal of linenfold panels. A rood loft stair turret survives in the south transept.

Monuments include an alabaster wall monument to John Courthop (died 1649) with armorial bearings and a pediment. Immediately south of the reredos stands a wall monument to Elizabeth Fane (died 1596, mis-carved as 1566) of Brenchley Manor, featuring an alabaster frame with obelisk finials, armorial bearings, and an unusually long inscribed text. A white marble wall tablet to Francis Storr (died 1868) on the south wall is an unusually early example of Baroque Revival. The north wall displays a white marble tablet with a pediment and arms commemorating William Courthop (died 1772). Particularly noteworthy is a very fine mid-17th-century wall monument by Edward Marshall (1598–1674) on the north transept well wall, dedicated to Walter Roberts (died 1652). Executed in alabaster and marble, it features a swan-necked pediment with armorial bearings above carved demi-figures in a strapwork frame with hands touching. The church guide notes the existence of floor brasses not observed during survey.

The east window is by Morris & Company of Merton Abbey, designed by Henry Dearle, and is based on a design of 1903 in Troon Church, Ayrshire.

The church stands in a good, uncleared churchyard, creating an important heritage setting.