Church of St Laurence

Church of St Laurence

Parish church of the 14th and mid-15th centuries, restored and extended in 1849 by R C Carpenter, 1853–1859 by W Slater, and 1955–1957. The building is constructed of squared sandstone with plain tiled roofs. The plan comprises a chancel with chapels, an eastern sacristy, a nave with aisles, north and south porches, and a western tower.

The two-stage tower features offset angle buttresses, a string course and corbel table rising to battlements. A south-eastern stair turret is attached, with clock faces to the north and south, two-light belfry openings, and a renewed west window above a hollow-moulded western doorway. A railed area with a chest tomb is attached to the south of the tower.

The south aisle was rebuilt in the 19th century with plinth, offset buttresses, corbel table, and Perpendicular-style fenestration. The south porch is particularly fine, featuring wood and iron twist-railed gates, a wave-moulded outer doorway, a hollow-chamfered inner doorway, a vaulted ceiling, and a stair-vice. The south chapel has a stepped roof with plinth, buttresses, corbel table, and battlements, restored Perpendicular windows, a blocked southern door, and a restored Reticulated east window. The chancel's east window is very fine, comprising two paired lights and a centre single light to an ogee head with a centre enclosing sexfoil, a cusped cinquefoil gable light, and a cross finial. A projecting low sacristy is situated to the east.

The north chapel features earlier rubble walling to its base with segmentally-headed Decorated windows and added battlements. An octagonal stair-vice separates it from the conventionally Perpendicular north aisle, which has a north porch with roll and hollow-moulded doorways and a hollow-chamfered door to a newel stair to the upper floor.

Interior

The tower arch is tall, springing from octagonal responds with a chamfered arch and double hollow-chamfered surround. The four-bay arcades feature double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases, and a renewed truss-rafter roof.

The south aisle has a moulded cross-beamed roof and an eastern window reveal taken down to floor level. A hollow-chamfered south door (besides the porch entry) and a double wave-moulded arch on octagonal responds lead to the south chapel. The north aisle has a similar arch to the north chapel, a crenellated cross-beam roof, hollow-chamfered rood-stair doors, and an eastern window bay reveal brought to ground level.

A very high double roll-moulded chancel arch (restored) separates the nave from the chancel. The chancel itself features two-bay arcades with rounded double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers and a trussed-rafter roof. The chapels have cross-beamed roofs.

Fittings and Monuments

An early 17th-century reredos is panelled with a strapwork-frieze cornice and enriched fluted pilasters. The 19th-century fittings—wood-twisted baluster altar rail with enriched moulded rail, parclose screens, and choir stalls—date to around 1859. The south chapel features a three-bay Perpendicular-style screen erected in 1922 as a First World War memorial, an iron-scrolled lectern, and an early 20th-century panelled reredos. A shelved trefoil-headed piscina is present in the south chapel.

The nave contains a wooden pulpit with a polygonal base, branching stem, and polygonal arcaded side panels with intricate wrought-iron panelled balustrade. An octagonal Perpendicular font with shields and roses features a wooden font cover of 1960. An aumbry is located in the north aisle.

Monuments include brasses of John Roberts of Elfords (died 1495) with his wife Alice and twelve children shown as 18-inch figures; Richard and Margaret Boys (1572 and 1606), Marie Boys (1602), Richard Austen (1610), Elizabeth Reynolds, and John Avelyn, gent on the reverse (1612)—all with simple brass inscription plates. A fine series of ledger tablets in the north chapel includes one to Richard Kilburn, Kentish Historian, in Latin (died 1678).

A cross fashioned from a wooden propeller serves as a memorial to Captain Alwyne Lloyd (died 1917, Royal Flying Corps), along with four standards. The south chapel contains wall plaques to Samuel Boys (died 1753), a simple aedicule with arms over; Nathaniel Lardner, DD (1768), an oval plaque with sunburst and gospel of St James over and shield and palm fronds below (erected 1789). Identical pedimented plaques in the south aisle commemorate Jesse (died 1824) and Catherine (died 1819) Gregory. Royal Arms of 1917 and contemporary window glass are present. The tower displays large benefaction boards from the mid to late 18th century. A crudely executed 17th-century wooden relief of the Last Supper and a copy of Sarto's Holy Trinity hang on the walls.