St
John Evangelist Church, Ickham
TR 222 581
CANTERBURY
DIOCESE: HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Tim Tatton-Brown's Survey 1997
LOCATION: Situated close to Littlebourne, Wingham
and Wickhambreaux churches at c.41 feet above O.D on the flat
head-brickearth (that overlies the chalk). The church is not far from
the Roman road leading 4½ miles due west to Canterbury. Ickham Court
Lodge adjoins the churchyard on the west, while The Street, possibly a
medieval market place (it widens in the centre near the church), is to
the south-west. This is the centre of the village with houses,
including the 13th century Old Rectory, on either side.
DESCRIPTION: A church at Ickham is mentioned in Domesday Book (1086),
but the earliest visible remains now are of the mid-12th century.
First there is a fine round-headed west doorway on the outside of the
tower, which must be reset. It has typical mid-12th century ‘crenellated’
decoration over the roundarch. Inside the church at the east end of
the nave, the four eastern piers indicate that there were mid-12th
century round-headed arches here. The arch on the north (with a roll
on the southside) still survives as does its western impost block (the
main jambs, however, were renewed in the 14th century - see below),
while on the south the arch has been replaced, but the 12th century
piers still have much of their original quoins. This presumably
indicates that the east end of the nave is still in part the late-11th
century nave, pierced in the mid-12th century for aisles.
The population of Ickham must have been growing rapidly
in the 12th and 13th centuries, as the nave was greatly enlarged to
the west, and given south and north aisles in the late 12th or very
early 13th century. A west tower was also added at the same time, and
it has a plain pointed arch (with chamfers) into the nave. The western
three bays of the nave also have plain pointed arches of different
sizes, and in the south arcade only, one can see flat chamfers on some
arches, and flat chamfers on the piers (with bar stops at the top, and
pyramid stops at the bottom). The original aisles here were as usual,
lean-to affairs and evidence for this can be seen outside the
south-west corner of the nave, where the line of the slope can be
seen. Only in the late 13th or early 14th century were the aisle walls
raised and given new higher roofs. There is also a c.1200 south
doorway (in the 19th century porch) with a plain chamfered archway.
(It contains a pair of c.17th century doors). The aisle windows
are paired-lancets of a later 13th century date, but those on the
south have been reset in the 19th century (note the knapped flint
surround). On the north the western paired-lancet has a relieving arch
over it of re-used Roman bricks. There is a 19th century boiler house
outside this window, and the buttresses on either side of it are also
19th century, but no sign of a north doorway. The north nave arcade
was apparently given new side-alternative Ragstone jambs in the late
14th or 15th century.
In the 1230s or 40s the old chancel was demolished and
replaced by a fine new chancel with four large lancets on either side,
and a triplet (with moulded hoods externally and internally) in the
east wall. There is also a small south doorway (with
..) and external and internal
moulded string-courses, the latter rising up in steps at two stages
inside the chancel. The second step-up is clearly for the altar dais,
and there is a heavily-moulded trefoil-headed piscina (with two
basins) in the south wall. It had separate side-shafts (now missing)
which were probably of Purbeck marble. More unusually, however, there
are at the west end of the chancel a pair of two-light lancet windows
with quatrefoils over them in plate tracery. #there is a similar
window in the west wall of the south transept which appears to be
reset. When the new chancel was built, there were no transepts and it
is worth noting that this new chancel is the same width as the nave,
though slightly angled to the north. Several earlier legers (some late
Medieval, including that of a priest, M de Hampton died 1306) are just
visible beneath the modern choir-stalls, and it is recorded that 18
stalls (probably of a 15th century date) were removed from the chancel
in the earlier 18th century. Some medieval glass was also removed at
about this time. The chancel arch is an early 14th century insertion,
but a small part of an in situ 13th century base can be seen in
the western return on the north side. This perhaps relates to the
earlier chancel arch. Both return walls at the west end of the chancel
were refaced in the 19th century, presumably after the removal of a
late-Medieval Rood screen.
In the early 14th century two fine transepts, with
external buttresses and plinths, were added to the church as separate
chapels. They both have the unusual feature of gabled projecting
altar-recesses, and both have fine traceried windows in their east and
north (or south walls). Also each north or south window contains a
fine canopied tomb (with an effigy on it) beneath the window (that on
the north has now lost its canopy, and been rebuilt, unfortunately,
and the effigy here of a priest is supposed to be William of
Heghtresbury, a prominent churchman who died in 1372. This is not,
however, certain. The tracery of these two transepts is fine work,
though there are distinctive differences. For example, the north
transept uses sunk-chamfers in the arches to the north aisle and to
the altar recess, while the south transept has concave chamfers with
pyramid stops in the equivalent positions here. Both transepts also
have piscines. The architecture, and particularly the projecting altar
bays, can be compared with work at Wingham and Adisham churches. The
very fine south transept canopied tomb is probably of Thomas or Baa
(or Boy) who died in 1339. He is sculpted as a knight, and his name
and arms were formerly in the window glass. Later the north transept
became the ‘Lee Chantry’, but before the Reformation there was
another chantry chapel in the nave (the Denys Chantry), and a fine
iron-bound medieval chest relating to this chantry survives in the
north transept. All the roofs over the nave, chancel and transepts,
though repaired in 1874 (chancel) and 1932-2 (nave) with no ceilings,
are probably of a 14th century date. They were probably put in after
the transepts and new chancel arch were built. At the west end of the
south aisle is a reset early Perpendicular two-light window.
The c.1200 west tower had a timber broach spire
(probably of late medieval date), but this was demolished in 1825 when
a new flat lead roof and crenellated parapet. A new spire and a clock
were added in 1870 when the tower was restored (all four bells inside
date to 1641). The major restoration of the church was in 1845-6 under
Hezekiah Marshall (Cost £1,167), and galleries were put in, though an
earlier west gallery was removed, to give the church 240 new ‘free’
seats (the I.C.B.S. gave a grant of £60). Later repairs were in 1870
(tower), 1901, and to the nave roof in 1932-3 (after the ceiling
collapsed). The major masonry repairs and the south porch were
probably made in 1845-6.
BUILDING MATERIALS: (Incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.):
The 12th century dressings are of Caenstone, though the rubblework was
probably of flint with some reused Roman bricks. Caenstone is also
used for the c.1200 dressings in the extended nave and aisles,
and in the west tower (small block quoins). The 13th century chancel
has side-alternate Caenstone quoins, but some Reigate stone and
Kentish Rag can be seen in the flint rubble walls. The early 14th
century transepts have Ragstone (from the Sandgate foreshore)
side-alternate quoins (with 1845-6 repairs in Caen) and Caenstone
tracery. There is also small knapped flint coursed rubble with re-used
Roman bricks and Purbeck marble fragments (the latter particularly
used around Putlog holes).
The main 1845-6 restoration seems only to use Caenstone and heavy
knapped flint. No old painted plaster or stained glass has survived.
EXCEPTIONAL MONUMENTS IN CHURCH: Apart from the two fine 14th century
monuments (with effigies) in the transepts, there is a good c1638
wall monument, to the Southlands, in the north-east corner of the
north transept.
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size & Shape: Large rectangular area around church, with 19th
century extension to south and 20th century extension to the north (+
modern extension of NE.)
Condition: Good
Boundary walls: Flint on east and iron railing in the south, and brick
on west, north and NE.
Building on boundary: - Early 18th century Ickham Court along SW
boundary.
Ecological potential: Yes
Late med. status: (rectory): Rectory (an except parish) with many
prominent Rectors.
Patron: The Archbishop of Canterbury, then to Christ Church Priory
after the Norman Conquest till 1541. Henry VIII then gave it to the
Archbishop again a year later.
Other documentary sources: Hasted IX (1799), 177-9. He records the
(now lost) glass in the windows with the arms of Christ Church Priory,
the Fitzalans, etc. Testamenta. Cantina. (East Kent 1907),
175-6, mentions ‘burial in the church before the crucifix (Rood),
and 40 shillings being given to the repair of the body (nave) of the
church’ (1495). Also various lights and the painting of an image of
St Nicholas (1525), and the image of the BVM in the chancel (1432). A
‘Chapel of St Thomas, in the same parish’ is also mentioned,
possibly at Well.
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS:
Inside present church: ?Good, except where cut through by burial
vaults, eg. the Lee vault in the north transept, and the Head vault in
the Chancel (13 ft long by 9 ft).
Outside present church: Good - only shallow drainage ditches around.
Quinquennial inspection (date/architect): June 1989 - Peter Marsh
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: A fine church belonging to Canterbury
Cathedral Priory, with traces of mid-12th century arches (to aisles)
at the east end of the nave, and a reset mid-12th century west doorway
into the tower. The church was enlarged westwards, and given a plain
new west tower in c.1200. The low lean-to aisles were
heightened in the later 13th century. A fine new chancel was built in c.1230,
and then large new transept chapels were added in the early 14th
century (they contain important tombs and decorated tracery). Fairly
heavy restoration in 1845-6, the tower restored with a new spire (and
a clock) in 1870.
The wider context: One of a group of churches owned by the cathedral
priory having fine new 13th century chancels and early 14th century
transepts (compare Adisham church). The church is in the rich area
just north-east of Canterbury, close to Littlebourne, ‘Wickhambreaux
and Wingham churches.
REFERENCES: W A Scott Robertson, ‘Ickham Church, its monuments and
its rectors’, Arch. Cant. 14 (1882), 113-133 and TS Frampton
‘The Chantry of John Denys in Ickham Church’ Arch. Cant.
25 (1902), 207-221. C R Councer, Lost Glass from Kent Churches
(1980), 65-6.
Guide Book: Leaflet (1985) by Leonard C Combs.
Photographs: View of E side of S transept and SW side of chancel in Kent
Churches 1954, 89.
Plans & early drawings: Petrie view from SE in 1801, showing old
broach spire and longer porch.
DATES VISITED: 19th December 1996 and 24th February
1997 REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown