St Mary, Lamberhurst

St Mary’s is a Grade I parish church on Church Road, Lamberhurst, Kent, in the Diocese of Rochester, a Decorated and Perpendicular village church with a south-western tower and shingled spire.

Overview

Historic England lists a parish church whose chancel is twelfth-century and was extended in the thirteenth, with a fourteenth-century nave and fifteenth-century tower, restored about 1870 by Ewan Christian. The fabric is rubble sandstone under separately roofed, plain-tiled ranges. The plan is chancel and nave each with a south aisle, a south-western tower and a south porch. Nave windows are typically two-light with quatrefoils; the west window is a five-light Perpendicular design. The two-stage tower has offset corner buttresses, battlements, a recessed shingled spire and a south-western stair turret.

Inside, a four-bay fourteenth-century nave arcade has double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers; there are similar tower, chancel and chapel arches and crown-post roofs. A later fourteenth-century three-bay chancel arcade incorporates the remains of a lower thirteenth-century eastern arch, evidence that the chancel once ran further east. Fittings include fourteenth-century encaustic tiles in the south chapel, a piscina and sedilia in the chancel arcade, a three-tier pulpit dated 1630, and Queen Anne Royal Arms over the south door. The south (Scotney) chapel holds Hussey monuments, including Edward Hussey (d.1894) and Christopher Hussey (d.1970).

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1084519
• St Luke’s and St Mary’s churches