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Churches
Committee
Visit to St
Nicholas Church Barfreston, 18th September 2004
On September 18, there was standing
room only in Barfreston church as KAS members and their guests
listened to a former churchwarden at St Nicholas, Dr Charles Coulson,
as he told us about the architectural history of the building. In
fact, had the church not been so difficult to find in the lanes of
north-east Kent, the audience would have been even larger!
The earlier flint and ragstone church was transformed
into what has been described elsewhere as 'a gem of Norman
architecture' in the third quarter of the twelfth century. It is
certainly a gem of Norman sculpture but, as we heard, sculpture was
seldom carved in situ and the programme of magnificent decoration was
almost certainly not assembled by the artists themselves but by
others. Dr Coulson pointed out many examples of where the workmen had
had to improvise to make the carved stone fit into the programme. He
also referred to the much-needed and well-documented restoration by
Hussey in the nineteenth century (Archaeologia. Cantiana 16).
Fine weather meant that Dr Coulson was able to spend some
time on the exterior decoration programme, not least the south doorway
with its magnificent tympanum and voussoirs. Hussey and later
restorers have left their mark but generally what has been done has
been sympathetic and not detracted from the beauty of the building.
. . . . .
In summary, a most rewarding Saturday afternoon spent in two small
communities that were never significantly larger than they are today
but with interesting, although quite different, churches. An
all-too-tempting selection of delicious cakes accompanied tea served
by Womenswold parishioners ensured that all went home satisfied in
every respect.
Thanks to Ted Connell, two detailed articles about
Barfreston church and one about the nearby church at Patrixbourne are
now available in full on the KAS
website The latter includes more illustrations than the version in
Archaeologia Cantiana 122, and they are in colour.
Mary Berg
To List
of Church Visits To
Visits Introduction To
Map of Visits To
Church Committee Introduction
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