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This study explores the medieval history of St Mary’s
church, Patrixbourne (Plate I), including the development of the
fabric, its decoration, its patronage and its links with Normandy. The
wealth of Romanesque decoration on its south door and at the east end,
together with the siting of the tower mid-way along the narrow south
aisle, make it an unusual monument and one that merits attention. It would
have been particularly helpful if the nineteenth- century restorers and
the builders of the north aisle had recorded what they found before they
started their work. Sadly, this is not the case.
The first questions are why such an important monument was
built in a small village in the first place, at whose instigation and who
might have paid for it. Documentary evidence is limited in the extreme. It
is known that the church was given to a priory near Rouen around 1200 and
that it seems to have been complete at that time.1 The church
was sold to Merton Priory in Surrey during the Hundred Years’ War, but
surviving records provide only |
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scant
additional information.2 Concerning its earliest phases
there is only silence. It seems that Patrixbourne was never a dependency
of Christ Church, Canterbury or of St Augustine’s Abbey, despite its
proximity. This then raises the issues of the exact date of the fabric,
the sequence of building, and whether the decoration is contemporary with
the building.
The surviving medieval work is concentrated into two phases;
the first as carried out in the twelfth century, and the second in the
fifteenth. Exact dates are, however, elusive: the only direct evidence is
the fabric itself. The presence of Caen stone indicates post Conquest work
and the decoration of the south door provides opportunities for comparison
with other Romanesque sculpture and other media in England which have been
explored by previous commentators such as Kahn. However, the very unusual
position of the tower and the wheel window at the east end immediately
presents difficulties in finding parallels. |