St. Mary's Church, Hadlow
Encyclopedia
St. Marys Church is the parish church in Hadlow
, Kent
, United Kingdom
. The church is a Grade II* listed building.
, then lord of the Manor of Hadlow. De Clare granted the church to the Knights Hospitaller
s in 1166. The Knights Hospitallers later had a preceptory
at nearby West Peckham
, which was their local administrative base. From the Norman Conquest until the C18th, Hadlow did not have a resident Lord of the Manor, being held under Tonbridge Castle
. It is thought that the tower was raised and the spire added in the C15th. Little money was spent on the maintenance of the church, although some C15th and C16th bequests are recorded. Thomas Walter, Yeoman
bequeathed 20s
in 1448 "To make a window on the north side of the church by the altar of Our Lady". John Tatlyngbery bequeathed 10 marks
"For repair of the great door of the church". In 1456, Richard Bealde bequeathed 13s 4d
"For repair of the tower of Hadlow church". In 1461, Dionysia Ippenbury left 3d for masses to be said each year for 12 years. In 1465, William Palle, yeoman left a cow
to the church. It was to be sold and "the profits therefrom to be devoted to the maintenance of a lamp in the chancel". On 1509, Thomas Fisher, yeoman bequeathed £20 "for making a new rood loft". The rood screen may not have been in existence long, although it was mentioned in bequests dated 1510 and 1513. The church remained under the ownership of the Knights Hospitallers until 1540, when the order was dissolved by Henry VIII
. In 1533, Henry Fane left two chalices valued at £4.
The west door is inscribed "WB 1637 ES". The tower and steeple were repaired in that year. The churchwardens were Walter Barton and Essau Simmons. In 1791, the clock was installed in the tower. It was made by John Thwaites of Clerkenwell
. At the beginning of the C19th, the church was in disrepair. In 1847, the chancel was rebuilt and the vestry added. In 1853, the south porch was blocked up. The north aisle was added in this year at a cost of £470
, which was raised by public subscription. A private gallery was erected by Walter Barton May, owner of Hadlow Castle
. This had its own private access and was located at the west end of the nave. In 1885, an altar reredos was erected to the memory of Sir William Yardley and his wife Amelia. Yardley was a former judge in the High Court
of Bombay, India
. In 1936, the gallery was removed. Work on the doorway at the west of the church in 1936 exposed some small crosses carved in the stonework. These are attributed to Nicholas de Hadloe and his son, who lived at Hadlow Place. They were carved to commemorate their safe return from the Third Crusade
in 1189. St. Mary's was listed on 20 October 1954. It is currently Grade II* listed.
detail and quoins of Tunbridge Wells sandstone
. The church is built in the Early English and Decorated style. The chancel roof is of slate
, while the nave and aisle roofs are tiled. The spire is covered in shingles
. The stained glass
windows date from the C19th and C20th, the most recent of which is "The Visitation" created by Francis Skeat
in 1956.
, who made the first translation of the Bible into English. In 1954, the chair was transferred to Rochester Cathedral
, but it was returned to St. Mary's in 1967.
, hung for change ringing
. The treble and 2nd were inscribed "Pack & Chapman of London Fecit 1775". They were recast in 1994 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
, London
. At this time, the third was welded and the frame renewed. The third is inscribed "Iames Bartlett Me Fecit 1696". The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh are inscribed "Iames Bartlett Me Fecit 1695", and the tenor is inscribed "Henry Barton Edmond Norman Ch Wardens Andrew Reany Vicar 1695 Iames Bartlett Me Fecit".
commemorating John Stoke, vicar (d. 1370) was in existence in 1900, but has since disappeared. Other memorials were to Sir Ralph Colcoff, vicar (d. 1514) and Dame Elizabeth Gossand, wife of Henry Fane.
Surviving memorials are to Thomas Barton of Goldhill (d. 1662) and Thomas May (d. 1714), both ancestors of the builders of Hadlow Castle
. Several tablets in St. Mary's are to various members of the Moneypenny family. Four generations of this family served as vicars between 1797 and 1952. There is a memorial to Sir John Rivers
, former Lord Mayor
and Sheriff of London
, who was a lay rector at St. Mary's, and his wife Joan. Rivers died in 1584, his wife in 1618.
In the churchyard, there is a memorial in the shape of an oast house
to 30 hop-pickers who were killed in an accident while crossing the flood-swollen River Medway
at Hartlake Bridge on 20 October 1853. The monument is a Grade II listed building.
Hadlow
Hadlow is a village in the Medway valley, near Tonbridge, Kent; it is in the Tonbridge and Malling district. The Saxon name for the settlement was Haeselholte...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The church is a Grade II* listed building.
History
The first record of a church in Hadlow was in 975. This church would probably have been a wooden building. In 1018, the early church was replaced by a building of stone. In the C12th, the church was rebuilt and extended by Richard de ClareRichard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke , Lord of Leinster, Justiciar of Ireland . Like his father, he was also commonly known as Strongbow...
, then lord of the Manor of Hadlow. De Clare granted the church to the Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
s in 1166. The Knights Hospitallers later had a preceptory
West Peckham Preceptory
-History:West Peckham Preceptory was founded circa 1408 by Sir John Culpeper of Oxon Hoath, West Peckham. It was held by the Knights Hospitallers, and used by them as an administrative centre. The preceptory remained in the possession of the Knights Hospitallers until it was dissolved by King Henry...
at nearby West Peckham
West Peckham
West Peckham is a village in the local government district of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. The River Bourne flows through the extreme west of the parish, and formerly powered a paper mill and corn mill . The Wateringbury Stream rises in the parish...
, which was their local administrative base. From the Norman Conquest until the C18th, Hadlow did not have a resident Lord of the Manor, being held under Tonbridge Castle
Tonbridge Castle
Tonbridge Castle is situated in the town of the same name, Kent, England.-Early history:Following the Norman Conquest, Richard Fitz Gilbert was granted land in Kent to guard the crossing of the River Medway. He erected a simple Motte-and-bailey castle on the site. To dig the moat and erect the...
. It is thought that the tower was raised and the spire added in the C15th. Little money was spent on the maintenance of the church, although some C15th and C16th bequests are recorded. Thomas Walter, Yeoman
Yeoman
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...
bequeathed 20s
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
in 1448 "To make a window on the north side of the church by the altar of Our Lady". John Tatlyngbery bequeathed 10 marks
Mark (money)
Mark was a measure of weight mainly for gold and silver, commonly used throughout western Europe and often equivalent to 8 ounces. Considerable variations, however, occurred throughout the Middle Ages Mark (from a merging of three Teutonic/Germanic languages words, Latinized in 9th century...
"For repair of the great door of the church". In 1456, Richard Bealde bequeathed 13s 4d
£sd
£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...
"For repair of the tower of Hadlow church". In 1461, Dionysia Ippenbury left 3d for masses to be said each year for 12 years. In 1465, William Palle, yeoman left a cow
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
to the church. It was to be sold and "the profits therefrom to be devoted to the maintenance of a lamp in the chancel". On 1509, Thomas Fisher, yeoman bequeathed £20 "for making a new rood loft". The rood screen may not have been in existence long, although it was mentioned in bequests dated 1510 and 1513. The church remained under the ownership of the Knights Hospitallers until 1540, when the order was dissolved by Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
. In 1533, Henry Fane left two chalices valued at £4.
The west door is inscribed "WB 1637 ES". The tower and steeple were repaired in that year. The churchwardens were Walter Barton and Essau Simmons. In 1791, the clock was installed in the tower. It was made by John Thwaites of Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...
. At the beginning of the C19th, the church was in disrepair. In 1847, the chancel was rebuilt and the vestry added. In 1853, the south porch was blocked up. The north aisle was added in this year at a cost of £470
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
, which was raised by public subscription. A private gallery was erected by Walter Barton May, owner of Hadlow Castle
Hadlow Castle
Hadlow Castle is a Grade I listed country house and tower in Hadlow, Kent, England.-History:Hadlow Castle replaced the manor house of Hadlow Court Lodge. It was built over a number of years from the late 1780s by Walter May in an ornate Gothic style. The architect was J B Bunning...
. This had its own private access and was located at the west end of the nave. In 1885, an altar reredos was erected to the memory of Sir William Yardley and his wife Amelia. Yardley was a former judge in the High Court
High Court
The term High Court usually refers to the superior court of a country or state. In some countries, it is the highest court . In others, it is positioned lower in the hierarchy of courts The term High Court usually refers to the superior court (or supreme court) of a country or state. In some...
of Bombay, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. In 1936, the gallery was removed. Work on the doorway at the west of the church in 1936 exposed some small crosses carved in the stonework. These are attributed to Nicholas de Hadloe and his son, who lived at Hadlow Place. They were carved to commemorate their safe return from the Third Crusade
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin...
in 1189. St. Mary's was listed on 20 October 1954. It is currently Grade II* listed.
Construction
St Mary's is mostly constructed from ragstone, with some ashlarAshlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
detail and quoins of Tunbridge Wells sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
. The church is built in the Early English and Decorated style. The chancel roof is of slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
, while the nave and aisle roofs are tiled. The spire is covered in shingles
Roof shingle
Roof shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat rectangular shapes laid in rows from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive higher row overlapping the joints in the row below...
. The stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
windows date from the C19th and C20th, the most recent of which is "The Visitation" created by Francis Skeat
Francis Skeat
Francis Walter Skeat is an English glass painter who has created over 400 stained glass windows in churches and cathedrals, both in England and overseas. Skeat is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, and a member of the Art Workers...
in 1956.
The Coverdale Chair
In 1919, the Coverdale Chair was presented to St Mary's by T E Foster MacGeagh of Hadlow Castle. The chair is so-named because it was owned by Miles Coverdale, Bishop of ExeterBishop of Exeter
The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The incumbent usually signs his name as Exon or incorporates this in his signature....
, who made the first translation of the Bible into English. In 1954, the chair was transferred to Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Norman church in Rochester, Kent. The bishopric is second oldest in England after Canterbury...
, but it was returned to St. Mary's in 1967.
Bells
St Mary's has a ring of eight bellsRing of bells
"Ring of bells" is a term most often applied to a set of bells hung in the English style, typically for change ringing...
, hung for change ringing
Change ringing
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
. The treble and 2nd were inscribed "Pack & Chapman of London Fecit 1775". They were recast in 1994 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is a bell foundry in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The foundry is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. At this time, the third was welded and the frame renewed. The third is inscribed "Iames Bartlett Me Fecit 1696". The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh are inscribed "Iames Bartlett Me Fecit 1695", and the tenor is inscribed "Henry Barton Edmond Norman Ch Wardens Andrew Reany Vicar 1695 Iames Bartlett Me Fecit".
Memorials
Many memorials in St Mary's were destroyed in the rebuilding of the church between 1847 and 1853. A brassMonumental brass
Monumental brass is a species of engraved sepulchral memorial which in the early part of the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood...
commemorating John Stoke, vicar (d. 1370) was in existence in 1900, but has since disappeared. Other memorials were to Sir Ralph Colcoff, vicar (d. 1514) and Dame Elizabeth Gossand, wife of Henry Fane.
Surviving memorials are to Thomas Barton of Goldhill (d. 1662) and Thomas May (d. 1714), both ancestors of the builders of Hadlow Castle
Hadlow Castle
Hadlow Castle is a Grade I listed country house and tower in Hadlow, Kent, England.-History:Hadlow Castle replaced the manor house of Hadlow Court Lodge. It was built over a number of years from the late 1780s by Walter May in an ornate Gothic style. The architect was J B Bunning...
. Several tablets in St. Mary's are to various members of the Moneypenny family. Four generations of this family served as vicars between 1797 and 1952. There is a memorial to Sir John Rivers
John Rivers
Sir John Rivers was born to Richard Rivers, steward of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham's lands. Alternate spelling includes John Ryvers....
, former Lord Mayor
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
and Sheriff of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, who was a lay rector at St. Mary's, and his wife Joan. Rivers died in 1584, his wife in 1618.
In the churchyard, there is a memorial in the shape of an oast house
Oast house
An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture...
to 30 hop-pickers who were killed in an accident while crossing the flood-swollen River Medway
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
at Hartlake Bridge on 20 October 1853. The monument is a Grade II listed building.