KENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY  -- RESEARCH   Studying and sharing Kent's past      Homepage

     Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 122  2002  page 122
Patrixbourne Church: Medieval Patronage, Fabric and History. By Mary Berg

present wall and seems to have been re-built, presumably in the process of moving it and making any necessary repairs. It may have been in the previous north wall of Patrixbourne church. No other twelfth-century features are incorporated in any of the walls of the north aisle.
   The east end of the chancel also seems largely unchanged since the twelfth century. In the gable there is a decorated wheel window and below it three round-headed lancet windows, with the central window much larger than those on either side. The lancets were reported to have been blocked but reopened in the nineteenth-century restoration to house the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Swiss glass that had already been presented to the church by the first Marchioness of Conyngham as part of the 1849 restoration (as recorded by Scott-Robertson). However, some doubt is thrown on the idea that all three had been closed because a central lancet is shown below the wheel window in Charles Clarke’s watercolour dating from about 1828 (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum). From both inside and outside the lancets now seem out of scale with the wheel window and, although there is no specific mention in surviving documents of any changes, it is possible that the side lancets were reopened and the central one enlarged in order to accommodate the enamelled glass collection. To complete the tour of the exterior of the church mention must be made of the square-headed, later window at the east end of the Bifrons chapel.

   All internal walls of Patrixbourne church are now plastered and painted white, but one can speculate that there was painting on the west and north walls as well as in the chancel and around the chancel arch. In the only surviving commentary before the nineteenth-century re-building, Hasted wrote that the church was small and that ‘the pillars in it are very large and clumsy, and the arches circular’. Newman is mistaken when he says that the north and south arcades are Scott’s work of 1857. First, the north aisle was, according to both Newman and Scott Robertson, added in the mid-1820s and, second, the arch to the west of the tower (now almost hidden by the insertion of an organ in the bay) remains round-headed. It seems likely that the original round-headed arch (or, more likely, arches) between the Bifrons chapel and the nave was replaced when the chapel was added and that the northern arcade was designed to match the Bifrons arches.23  The dimensions of the chancel are unchanged since the twelfth century, although the floor level seems to have been raised.24
   The chancel arch is unchanged and is round-headed, although its shape is now more of a horseshoe than a semi-circle.25  It has cylindrical shafts, and plain capitals and footings. The overall effect is of unexciting but good workmanship. As already mentioned, the only

Page 122     (This page was prepared for the website by Ted Connell)       

Previous Page      Back to Page Listings      Next Page     

For details about the advantages of membership of the Kent Archaeological Society   click here

Back to Arch. Cant. List      Back to Publications On-line     Back to Research Page     To Homepage

Kent Archaeological Society is a registered charity number 223382
© Kent Archaeological Society November 2004     

This website is constructed by enthusiastic amateurs. Any errors noticed by other researchers will be to gratefully received so
 that we can amend our pages to give as accurate a record as possible. Please send details too research@kentarchaeology.org.uk