Details
TQ 73 NW
4/12
HORSMONDEN
BRICK KILN LANE (south east side)
Church of St Margaret
20.10.54
GV
I
Parish church. Early C14, altered and extended C15, repaired c.1700 and restored 1864-1867 by T.H.Wyatt. Sandstone with slate roofs, timber north porch on sandstone base with shingled roof. Chancel with south chapel, nave with aisles, north porch and western tower. Four stage tower on plinth with triple offset diagonal buttresses, weathered string courses and battlements and south eastern stair turret. Two light belfry openings, with single lights below and large three3 light Perpendicular west window in deep reveal with hood mould. Doorway with attached shafts and moulded arch in moulded and hollow chamfered surround with label hood, the spandrels with quatrefoils and arms of Poynings and Fitzpaine (celebrating a marriage of 1380). South aisle with weathered plinth and double moulded offset buttresses and restored hollow chamfered corbel table to parapet. Two identical vices, that to east marking off the south chapel. Triangular headed Perpendicular fenestration.
Chapel without the parapet and with diagonal buttress with reset carving of two heads and depressed arched Perpendicular south window and three-light east window with gable light and restored gable cross over. C19 chancel east window, large lancets to north and south and north door with the arms of Rev. Stephen Bate, rector 1679-1724, who rebuilt the north aisle and added the vestry c.1700, the scrolled kneelers carrying the nave gables are of this date; C15 clerestorey , four three-light Perpendicular windows to each side. Reset C14 ogee headed reticulated east window to aisle, north wall with plinth, regular buttresses and Perpendicular style fenestration. C14 ogee headed aisle west window. North porch with moulded bargeboards enriched with fern decoration and projecting on brackets, with wave moulded door surround with hood mould and sunk spandrels with cross and acorn motifs, contemporary door but C19 restored inner doorway to church.
Interior: western door and window set in deep chamfered reveal, tower arch with double hollow chamfered surround and ribbed hollow chamfered arch on tall attached shafts with octagonal heads. Have with three bay arcades, both with alternating round and octagonal piers, but with hollow chamfered arches and attached shaft responds to north and simple chamfered arches and corbelled responds to south (an earlier build). Roof of two tall crown posts. Aisles with lean-to roofs, the south aisle and south chapel of one build, the window reveals all with hollow chamfered and roll moulded surrounds with chanfered arch on octagonal corbels between aisle and chapel. Chancel arch C19 with doubled roll mouldings to arch on angel corbels. Chancel with sans purlin trussed rafter roof on moulded wall plates and with deep splayed reveals to windows and north doors. Two bay double chamfered arcade to south chapel on octagonal pier and responds.
Fittings: ogee headed cinque-cusped piscina in chancel and oddly shaped wall recess with some stylised flower ornament (the tomb recess of John Bobbe, rector 1462-84). The two external vices in the south wall mark the unusual feature of two rood screens, that to the east probably abandoned because of subsidence in passage through chancel arch pier. Chanfered piscinas and aumbrey in south chapel and south aisle. Parclose screen to east end of south aisle, originally in arch from chancel to south chapel, with simple lower panels and eight recusped upper panels with vine leaf frieze with inscription: Orate pro bono statu Alicie Campcon. Alice Sampson lived at Elphicks in Horsmonden and signed her will in October 1508.
Font said to be a C17 copy of the original by the same hand as that at St.Lawrence, Hawkhurst; hollow octagonal stem and bowl enriched with shields and roses, Brass 'spider' chandelier in nave with eight scrolled arms, the orb inscribed: TO THIS PARISH OF HORSMONDEAN/ THE GIFT OF STEPHEN BATE/ RECTOR, AMMO 1703
Unexceptional C19 fittings otherwise.
Monuments: C14 stone coffin lid in south chapel floor. Brass to Henry de Grofhurst, after 1338, a 46" cleric in full robes with lion at his feet, and holding a lettered scroll, with full canopy. Joan Austen, d.1604, 18½" brass of woman with wide brimmed hat. Small brow inscription to her husband John Austen, d.1620 reset on nave west wall.
Some good basalt ledger slabs, especially under the chancel arch to John Courthope, d.1718. Iron ledger slab to Martha Browne, d,1644 with brass inscription plate. John Read, the inventor of the stomach pump, d.1847, a wall monument with a bust set an a pedestal inscribed: Integrity. C19 glass except rust and west windows by Rosemary Everett, 1946 and 1948.
Listing NGR: TQ7038338112
