St Nicholas' Church, Oxney

Summary

St Nicholas’ Church, 335m north-east of Oxney Court.

Reasons for Designation

A parish church is a building, usually of roughly rectangular outline and containing a range of furnishings and fittings appropriate to its use for Christian worship by a secular community, whose members gather in it on Sundays and on the occasion of religious festivals. Children are initiated into the Christian religion at the church's font and the dead are buried in its churchyard. Parish churches were designed for congregational worship and are generally divided into two main parts: the nave, which provides accommodation for the laity, and the chancel, which is the main domain of the priest and contains the principal altar. Either or both parts are sometimes provided with aisles, giving additional accommodation or spaces for additional altars. Most parish churches also possess towers, generally at the west end, but central towers at the crossing of nave and chancel are not uncommon and some churches have a free-standing or irregularly sited tower. Many parish churches also possess transepts at the crossing of chancel and nave, and south or north porches are also common. The main periods of parish church foundation were in the 10th to 11th and 19th centuries. Most medieval churches were rebuilt and modified on a number of occasions and hence the visible fabric of the church will be of several different dates, with in some cases little fabric of the first church being still easily visible.

Despite later alterations, St Nicholas’ Church survives well with a considerable amount of upstanding medieval fabric. It includes some well preserved architectural details such as the 12th century round-headed doorway in the north wall, round-headed windows and the arches and piers of the south arcade. The site is relatively undisturbed and has potential for archaeological investigation. It will contain below-ground archaeological and environmental information relating to the use and history of the church.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 18 December 2014. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes a medieval parish church surviving as upstanding and below-ground remains. It is situated on gently sloping ground in Old Wood, SSE of Ringwould.

The church is built of flint with stone dressings and is now roofless, although the walls stand up to about 4m high. It is rectangular in plan with a nave, south aisle and square-ended chancel without a tower. The south aisle is no longer upstanding but footings are likely to survive below-ground. The upstanding remains are 12th century in origin, although the west wall was rebuilt in the 13th century. It has a chamfered pointed arched window and is supported by three buttresses of later date. The church otherwise has round-headed windows. The north nave wall contains a round-headed doorway, one small original window, a single light window inserted in about 1300 and another blocked window. Internally the building is about 14m long by 4m wide. The interior includes a blocked two bay south arcade with double chamfered arches on stop-chamfered piers and moulded abaci. There is also a piscina and aumbrey in the chancel and a water stoup in the nave.

St Nicholas’ Church was built in the 12th century and originally belonged to the Premonstratensian Canons of Langdon Abbey. The abbey was suppressed at the dissolution and the church later fell into ruin. By 1800 it is recorded, in Edward Hasted’s History and Topographical Survey of Kent, in use as a barn.

The upstanding remains are Grade II listed.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

KE 109

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Websites
Hasted, E, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9 (1800), 409-411, accessed 24 Feb 2010 from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63583

Other
Kent HER TR 34 NE 3. NMR TR 34 NE 3. PastScape 467382. LBS 178513

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