Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church dating from the 13th to 15th centuries, with the tower rebuilt in 1638–40. The church was comprehensively restored between 1865 and 1870 to designs by Slater and Carpenter, with Ewan Christian as executant architect. The building is constructed in sandstone with a plain tiled roof.

The church consists of a chancel with north and south chapels, a nave with aisles, and a west tower with a south-west vestry and sacristy. The west tower, built in 1638–40 by London builders Edmund Kinsman, James Holman, and John Young (replacing an earlier tower destroyed by lightning in 1637) at a cost of £750, comprises two stages on a plinth with Classical mouldings and offset clasping buttresses. The north-east buttress features stair lights and is raised to a turret. The tower is battlemented with two-light arched belfry windows in square surrounds and an early 20th-century clock face. The three-light west window is a copy of those at St Mary Cree, London, with cusped lights (the centre light raised) in a moulded squared surround. The Classical west doorway is flanked by niches with rustic half-columns supporting an entablature and segmental pediment; the doorway itself has an arched and keyed surround on moulded imposts. A 19th-century two-storey vestry with an angle vice is attached to the south-west.

The south aisle has five offset buttresses, with two additional buttresses to the separately roofed south-east chapel; it has a steeply pitched gabled roof. The easternmost bay of the aisle features a projecting canted bay. The nave roof includes a roundel to the east gable, with the chancel roof stepped down behind. The north aisle and north-east chapel were built as one operation, separated by a projecting vice, and the whole structure is buttressed and battlemented with three-light arched Perpendicular-style fenestration characteristic of the church generally (except the chancel, where most windows are 19th-century reconstructions based on original evidence). A hood-moulded northern door gives access. Attached to the tower and vestry is a railed enclosure with spear-head rails featuring urn-finalled principals, enclosing two iron crosses with respective footstones to the Bathurst family.

Interior

The tower arch is chamfered with octagonal shafts in a chamfered surround. The nave has five-bay arcades, with the easternmost bay widened by a complex 15th-century pier with attached shafts and mouldings—part of alterations to accommodate the now-lost rood screen. The south arcade has alternating round and octagonal piers, all of the 14th century, whilst the western bays of the north aisle have round piers of the 13th century, followed by a 14th-century octagonal pier, then a 15th-century east bay. The roof features two crown posts to the west end and a 19th-century reconstructed boarded roof to the east. The south aisle roof has arched trusses on brackets with an iron tier and traces of original 14th-century painted decoration. It contains hollow-chamfered doorways and a bay recess to the east (for the Culpepper tomb). The north aisle has a 19th-century cross-beamed roof and hollow-chamfered north and stair doorways. Double hollow-chamfered arches open into the south chapels and chancel, whilst a roll-moulded arch with attached shafts leads to the north chapel.

The chancel has two-bay arcades: that to the north is of a piece with the arch to the north aisle, whilst that to the south is earlier, with an octagonal pier and responds and hollow-chamfered arches. Exposed jambs of 13th-century lancets to north and south, and a 15th-century south window (now infilled), are visible. A 19th-century moulded string course runs round the walls. The east window is C19, with a barred-vaulted wooden ceiling on ancient tie-beams. The south chapel has a roll-moulded corbel string supporting a stone bracketed arch-trussed barrel roof, a form of hammer-beam structure.

Fittings and Monuments

The chancel contains a simple arched piscina and hollow-chamfered aumbrey. A fine 19th-century altar rail features iron-twist uprights with tendril brackets. The south chapel screen incorporates a base with 14th- or 15th-century panelling; the upper section is carved as a memorial to the Great War, with vine-leaf frieze and ogee-headed panels. The north chapel screen also incorporates medieval panels. The pulpit has an octagonal stone base with iron and brass rails and steps; the main box is 13th-century in style with full-relief apostles and evangelical symbols, with brass candlesticks and book rest. It was erected in 1863 as a memorial to Henry Lake of Goudhurst. A 12-stick brass chandelier, presented to the church in 1722, hangs in the nave. A 19th-century brass lectern stands at the entrance to the chancel. The font in the nave rests on a medieval (15th-century) base with a 19th-century bowl decorated with evangelical symbols. A medieval bowl in the north aisle features arcading and crosses (pitched at the foot).

Monuments in the north chapel include: a small aedicule to Edmond Roberts (died 1627), a gentleman, with arms and achievement over and Latin inscription; a half-relief lion-footed sarcophagus tablet to Richard Pack (died 1838), signed by T Denman of Quadrant, Regent Street; and a severe stele with elongated urns to Edward Lewis Miller (died 1846), signed by Timothy Butler of London.

The chancel contains a large hanging monument of quality to William (died 1615) and Rachel (died 1606) Campion. The monument features a coved base bearing an aedicule with a broken segmental pediment enriched with scrolls, flanked by allegorised female figures resting on the pediment and obelisks on pedestals. Within the aedicule, William and his lady kneel opposite each other at a prayer desk, their five sons and four daughters carved on the obelisk pedestals. The whole is enriched throughout with ribband and strapwork embellishments.

The south chapel houses important medieval brasses: John Bedgebury (died 1424), a 39½-inch armoured figure with canopy; Sir John Culpepper (died 1480), 25½ inches with canopy on a tomb chest; Walter and Agnes Culpepper (died 1462 and 1457 respectively), a 25-inch armoured figure with shields (the figure itself a later addition of c.1520 and unidentified); and 'Young' Sir Alexander Culpepper (died 1599), with a wall monument erected in 1608 by his son Sir Anthony. This monument has a base with eleven boys and five daughters (actually grandchildren) supporting three Corinthian columns to a cornice, with a central scrolled aedicule containing a half-figure of Sir Thomas Culpepper (an old armoured man holding a skull). Below, Sir Alexander kneels to the right with Anthony (his only child) behind, and his lady Mary opposite. The execution is not of the highest quality.

In the south aisle is the important monument to 'Old' Sir Alexander Culpepper (died 1537), comprising a lozenge-panelled chest set within its own bay window with recumbent wooden effigies with coloured gesso details. Relief panels in the window reveal depict God in Majesty, the Virgin and Child, and St George and the Dragon, dated 1537, with a prayer desk showing the Knight, Lady, and children at prayer. Further monuments include: Anthony Fowle of Twyssenden (died 1679), a black marble wall tablet with Latin inscription, scrolled base, and cherub head; plain Bathurst monuments including a black marble ledger slab with cartouche on moulded panelled shafts to John Bathurst (died 1697, known as the 'Bread tomb' where the dole of bread was laid out); and a grey marble tablet to Edward Bathurst (died 1772), pilastered with a damaged open segmental pediment. In the south chapel is a large, simple white marble tablet with an aedicule and a half-bust turned to the left of William Campion (died 1702), stylistically attributed to William Bird.

Additional features include rugged benefaction and prayer boards in the tower, fragments of 15th-century glass in the south-west window, and lead-panels dated 1811 recording the churchwardens.

Historical context

In 1747, the church and churchyard were the scene of a full-scale battle between the Goudhurst Militia, led by 'General' George Sturt (a former soldier), and the Hawkhurst Gang, probably the largest and most infamous 18th-century smuggling organisation, led by Thomas Kingswill. Three members of the gang, including Kingswill's brother, died in the battle. Sturt subsequently became warden of the local poorhouse, Kingsmill, in 1749.