St
Oswald Church, Paddlesworth near
Folkestone TQ
1950 3976
CANTERBURY
DIOCESE: HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Tim Tatton-Brown's Survey 1992
LOCATION: Situated at about 610 feet above O.D. on
sand and clay with flints on the top of the Downs. A small group of
houses around a road junction is to the north, with Paddlesworth Court
about _ mile north of the church.
DESCRIPTION: The earliest visible parts of this small chapel must date
from the 12th century. There is no evidence for late 11th cent. work (Quarrstone,
herringbone, etc.) as at Lyminge or Postling, certainly nothing
Anglo-Saxon.
The 12th century church has a small rectangular nave and
chancel with opposing north and south doors in the nave. The door on
the north is plain with a simple tympanum over it externally. The
south doorway is more unusual in having as its west jamb a
semi-octagonal shaft with chevron on it and a voluted capital, and on
the east a pair of slender shafts on the inner and outer arises of the
jamb, and with semi-scalloped capitals over. This doorway must be of
later 12th cent. date. The chancel arch and jambs are similar with
separate thin shafts (in two places) and scalloped capitals. Above are
champered abaci and a semi-circular arch. The earliest windows are
small, high up double-splayed affairs (an opposing pair at the west
end of the nave, one on the S.E. side of the nave and one on S.W. side
of chancel with Bath restored external heads). Externally they have
monolithic semi-circular heads and small jambs (? all in Caen).
Internally the jambs and head are of rough flint and ironstone,
similar to the rough walling itself. There is a rough low plinth (?
bench) at the west end of the nave against the N and S walls (w. of
the doorway).
In the 13th century an opposing pair of lancets were put
in at the east end of the chancel, and a widely splayed east lancet
was also made. The eastern quoins were also remade at this time, and
it is possible that the chancel was lengthened at this time. The
eastern quoins are on end with some Hythe stone from the intratidal
zone ( boring molluses) used for them. There is a mass dial on the
S.E. chancel quoin. There are settlement cracks on the N and S sides
of the chancel at the east end (are they over an earlier E. wall?).
The are ? contemporary aumbry + piscina on the N and S sides. The
piscina is on a corbel of stiff leaves.
At the east end of the south side of the nave is a
recess, probably for an altar (? 12th or 13th cent.). It is partly
obscured by the organ, and has a small squint through to the chancel.
On the north + south sides of the nave two-light windows
were inserted later. That on the south has been totally restored
externally in Portland stone (a pair of lancets) but it was perhaps
later 13th cent. in origin. The north two light window is perhaps late
pre-Reformation in date.
In the late 18th cent. (Hasted) the "east and only
window in the chancel" was "boarded up, it is quite dark at
noon-day". Hasted also describes the "large circular pillar,
about two feet high, very ancient seemingly the basis of the font,
which there is none now" (one was provided on this base in the
mid 19th cent.). He also tells us that "there is no steeple or
turret, but at the west end of the roof hangs one bell." A stone
bell cote was also provided in the mid-19th century. Sir Stephen
Glynne visited the church in 1868 and notes that the 13th cent.
windows in the chancel had been reopened by this time (the east lancet
contained coloured glass). He also says that "the nave is fitted
with new open seats with heavy poppy ends" (they are still in
place). Finally he mentions "the font is cup-shaped on a low base
"and" a modern buttress of brick added on the west side.
Early in the 1870s, the Rector of Lyminge, Canon Jenkins
brought in the Diocesan Architect, Mr Clarke, to carry out a
restoration. The internal walls were stripped of plaster above the pew
levels and three new massive buttresses were added at the west end
(with large stone weatherings). Jenkins found "fragments of a
Norman arch" in the west wall (? a west doorway) which he thought
was of a later date. He then had a pair of large round-headed windows
inserted in the west wall on either side of the central buttress (all
the jambs are in Bathstone). The roofs were renewed (entirely in the
nave, but the boarded ceiling in the chancel may conceal earlier
rafters). There is one bell in the new stone bellcote apparently
formerly there were three (Stahlschmidt), but in 1758, there was only
one cracked bell.
BUILDING MATERIALS (incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.):
The rubble walls of the original chapel are in whole flints and
ironstone (? from the Folkestone beds below the Downs to the south.
Early quoins, jambs, etc., are in Caen stone, while the 13th century
lancets have Ragstone jambs. The E quoins of the chancel have on-end
Rag quoins (some bored by marine molluscs - hence from the Sandgate/Folkestone
foreshore).
Later restorations are in Portland, and then Bathstone.
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size: Small - less than ½ acre.
Shape: Rectangle around church - raised above surrounding area (? due
to gravedigging)
Condition: Good
Apparent extent of burial: A suit at the archbishop's court in 1352
suggests that burial was not originally allowed here (Sarah Cole's
body was declared illegally buried here, and had to be dug up and
moved to Lyminge - see R C Jenkins op cit below p.ii)
but it was taking place in the later 15th cent. (see below).
HISTORICAL RECORD (where known):
Earliest ref. to church: It may be one of the two churches at Lyminge
Manor, mentioned in Domesday Book (1086), and is probably
Weadleswurthe in Domesday Monachorum.
Late med. status : Always a chapel to Lyminge, like Stanford
Patron: The Rector of Lyminge
Other documentary sources: See Hasted VIII (1799) 118-9, and see R C
Jenkins (op cit below). Wills (Test. Cant (E Kent
1907), 244) record burial in the churchyard in 1484 and in the church
in 1520. Also the making of a new image of St Oswald (1526) and to its
being bought + gilded (1526). The high cross was repaired in 1484.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD:
Previous archaeological work (published\unpublished): None but R C
Jenkins dug up (in the early 1870s restoration) "nearly in the
centre of the nave, an immense stone... without date or inscription,
under which at some depth, in the sandy soil below, was a massive oak
coffin, portions of which were very sound..." (op cit
iii).
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS:
Inside present church: ? Good
Outside present church: Good/ground level raised + only shallow drains
around outside of church.
RECENT DISTURBANCES/ALTERATIONS:
To structure: Very badly damaged by flying-bomb which fell in
churchyard on 13 August 1944. Restoration (including reroofing) not
finished till 1957.
Quinquennial inspection (date\architect): May 1990 C F Northover (+
rough 1:200 plan)
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: A small c. 12th century chapel to
Lyminge in a very remote high situation, Its chancel was rebuilt in
the 13th century.
The wider context: The dedication to St. Oswald is unique in Southern
England. When did it come about.
REFERENCES: R C Jenkins "The church of St. Oswald at
Paddlesworth", Arch Cant 10 (1876) x│ix-│iii
Guide book: Brief notes.
Plans & drawings: Drawing by Petrie from S E in 1807.
DATES VISITED: 13th April
1992
REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown