---
title: "St Nicholas, Barfreston"
description: "Located in Barfreston, Kent. Built c.1180; restored 1839-42. Grade I. Late Norman Romanesque style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Kent","Barfreston","Grade I","Norman","Romanesque","R C Hussey"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-nicholas-barfreston"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T01:15:03.022Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-09T12:31:23.762Z"
location: "Barfreston, Kent"
country: "England"
county: "Kent"
town: "Barfreston"
address: "Barfreston, Kent, CT15 7JQ"
postcode: "CT15 7JQ"
built: "c.1180; restored 1839-42"
architect: "R C Hussey (1839-42 restoration)"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["Nicholas"]
grade: "I"
style: "Late Norman Romanesque"
materials: "Flint and Caen stone ashlar with plain tiled roof"
website: "http://www.barfreston.org.uk/"
openingHours: "Open daily dawn to dusk."
parish: "Eythorne"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1070306"
gridReference: "TR 264 501"
accessNotes: "Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas"
---

# St Nicholas, Barfreston

St Nicholas is a Grade I parish church in Barfrestone, in the civil parish of Eythorne, Kent, a small but richly decorated late twelfth-century building of nave and chancel.

## Overview

Historic England records a parish church of about 1180, restored in 1839-42 by R. C. Hussey, of flint and Caen stone ashlar under a plain tiled roof. The lower walls are flint, with ashlar above carrying blind arcading (except on the west wall) and a corbel table. The arcading alternates large and small semi-circular arches, the smaller with lancet windows. Only a two-light fifteenth-century window in the west wall is later than the twelfth century, though a twelfth-century lancet and quatrefoil also survive there. The east end has an arcaded weathered base, buttresses and a large wheel window whose spokes are colonnettes with beasts' heads as capitals, set in a surround of leaves and winged beasts. Recesses around the wheel hold fragments of the Evangelists' symbols and a knight on horseback. Brackets on the gable ends bear crouching lions. The south doorway is the richest sculpture, with attached shafts carved with beasts, water-leaf volutes and three orders around a tympanum including a labours-of-the-month cycle.

Kent HER notes that formerly extensive wall paintings were almost entirely lost in the nineteenth-century restoration, and that the plan is a parallelogram rather than a rectangle.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1070306](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1070306)
- [British Listed Buildings: Church of St Nicholas](https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101070306-church-of-st-nicholas-eythorne)
- [Kent HER: Church of St Nicholas](https://heritage.kent.gov.uk/Monument/MKE26449)