Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist

Details

TQ 95 NW,
4/14

DODDINGTON,
CHURCH LANE (east side),
Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist

24.01.67

G.V.

I

Parish church. C12, extended south c.1200 and C15, restored 1873 to 1874 and
1907 to 1908. Flint with timber-framed and weatherboarded tower and plain
tiled roofs. Nave and south aisle, chancel and south chapel, west tower
and south porch. West tower on flint base, with 2 early C20 weatherboarded
upper stages, battlemented, with gothick traceried lights. Buttressed
south porch with plain chamfered doorway. C15 Perpendicular and C14 'Y'
tracery windows in nave and aisle, with 3 lancets in south chapel south wall
and 2 large eastern lancets. Chancel east wall with 3 small lancets with
one over. Nave North wall with blocked north door repaired brick buttressing.
Exposed tufa quoins and blocked arches in chancel north wall possibly to a
lost chapel and tower. INTERIOR: at the west end of the nave, blocked
chamfered west doorway, west window and part blocked rere-arch of C12 window.
Three bay arcade on chamfered arches on square piers. Crown-post roofs in
nave and aisle. Chancel arch with drip mould arch over on moulded square imposts
with attached clustered shafts, with rings and acanthus crockets, the right hand
pier with squints to chancel and south chapel. Arch from south aisle to south
chapel simple chamfered arch on square imposts. Chancel with 2 bay arcade to
chapel, slightly chamfered on round piers with square, moulded abaci. Round
headed rere-arches to chancel east windows. C15 rere-arch to north-west
window of chancel taken to floor level, blocking earlier lancet, to enclose
stone reading desk and aumbry, perhaps a confessional. South chapel, the
lancet reveals with drips and double moulded surrounds with attached shafts,
carried on string course. South east respond brought to floor level to
enclose doorway. Fittings: Chancel with round headed pisina, cusped aumbry
C15 bench with half-poppy heads used as sedilia, with C15 screen to chapel or
22 lights, the end coved to form a canopy over the sedilia; C15 wooden reading
desk with poppy heads. Octagonal Jacobean pulpit, C15 octagonal font with C17
wood cone cover. Box pews survive in nave and south chapel, with raised and
fielded panelling. Wall paintings, in chancel on lancet responds large C13
figures. Some fragmentary C13 glass. Monuments: South chapel with medieval
slabs on floor incised with Latin crosses, 1 with brass inscription to
Francis Bourne, d.1615. Wall monument to George Swift, d.1732, of white
marble, with grooved Doric pilasters, cornice, with enriched frieze and
broken pediment clasping vase. Small black plaque on wall behind pulpit to
John Adye, d.1612, with scrolled base and cornice with achievement over.
(see B.O.E. Kent II, 1983. 285-6).
chest tomb . Dated 1756. Stone with marble top, the chest with raised
rectangular panels with chamfered corners, and rectangular vases at
corners, on double plinth. Inscribed to Edward Bentham, d.1756.


Listing NGR: TQ9397857546

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

176224

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Newman, J, The Buildings of England: North East and East Kent, (1983), 285-286

End of official list entry

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