St Dunstan, Canterbury

St Dunstan’s without the West Gate is a Grade I parish church at the junction of London Road and St Dunstan’s Street, Canterbury, in the Diocese of Canterbury and the parish of Saint Dunstan with Holy Cross.

Overview

Historic England records a late eleventh- or early twelfth-century nave, still readable in herringbone flintwork and large north-west quoins. The chancel was rebuilt in the thirteenth century; the north-west chapel was added in 1330; the south aisle is late fourteenth century and the south-west tower late fourteenth or early fifteenth. The south-east chapel was built in 1402 by John Roper and rebuilt in brick about 1524. The porch is seventeenth century. Ewan Christian restored the church in 1878–80. The fabric is flint and stone rubble with stone dressings and tiled roofs.

The listing notes the reputed start of Henry II’s penitential walk into Canterbury after the murder of Thomas Becket, and the burial in the Roper vault of the head of Sir Thomas More (d.1535). Fixtures include a fourteenth-century octagonal font with a rare fifteenth-century timber tabernacle cover, Roper tomb chests, and twentieth-century glass by William Aikman, Lawrence Lee and John Hayward. A late medieval tie-beam and crown-post roof survives in the nave.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1241793
• St Dunstan, St Mildred and St Peter
• British Listed Buildings: St Dunstan without the West Gate