Grade I Heritage Walk: Walking to Church Of St Mary from The King’s Head — 4.6-Mile Circular via Smeeth

TR 03 NE SMEETH CHURCH ROAD (east side) 4/109 Church of St. Mary 27.11.57 GV I Parish church. C11 and extended C13, restored with rebuilt west tower and vestry 1881 Ragstone with plain tiled roof; timbered porch. Chancel with north chapel and south vestry, nave with north aisle, west tower and south porch. Single stage tower, the lower stage at least genuine C11, with C19 details (shafted and zig-zag moulded doorway, coupled belfry orates and parapet on corbel table). Nave with restored 2 light square headed window with ogee tracery and C19 3 light Decorated style window, north aisle with 3 uneven sized 2 light Y- tracery windows, and cusped lancet to west. Chancel with east wall largely rebuilt, with C19 triple lancet East window, the head of C11 round headed window over, and C15 south window, with short projecting C19 south vestry. North chapel with C19 3 light East window, with plaque below recording Peter Holloway, d.1644, servant to Sir Edward Scott. Simple north door and cusped 2 light window in quatrefoil. South porch weather boarded, with cusped bargeboard and double wicket gate, the interior with crown post roof on cambered tie beams and south doorway with shafts with scalloped capitals, roll mould and incised circle and nailhead mouldings, with scratch dials and fine plank and stud door, with bifurcated straps and hinges and C-straps, all of same antiquity. Interior: tall narrow door to west tower, with fragment of chevron moulding in restored surround. Identical south door. Three bay north arcade c.1200, with simple chamfered arches on abaci with nook shafts. Roof of 3 tall octagonal crown posts and chancel arch with roll moulded and chevron moulded orders on moulded abaci supported by voluted nook shafts. North aisle with blocked rood passage and simple chamfered arch to north chapel and roof of 4 octagonal crown posts. Chancel with plain arch to north chapel with fragment of carved decoration, C19 roll moulded door to south vestry, plastered ceiling. Wide squint to north aisle. The head of the C11 round headed East window composition is visible North chapel with hacked off rood stair and doorways, square headed north door and roof of 2 crown posts on chamfered tie beams. Fittings: chancel with some encaustic tiling, C20 wainscotting and C19 altar rail. The nave with C17 strapwork panelling, the pattern for that on the sanctuary. Octagonal font on squat round pier; C15. Poppy head bench and in north chapel, with panelled bench. Pulpit, with surrounding panelling, dated 1615, but inserted c.1890 and said to be from the demolished Scotts Hall. Pulpit on columnar stem, with bolection moulded base with ribband decoration and fluted and reeded panels, with anthemion frieze to arcaded upper panels with strapwork, modillion and egg and tongue cornices. Back panels with reeded arcading with guilloche pilasters. Tester, cross-beamed with fluted valance, knop pendants and jewel- shaped soffit decoration. Glass: C16 continental roundel in chapel east window; the Passeley Arms in north chapel, and C14 head. Monuments: C15 cusped tomb recess in north chapel, with depressed arch on colonettes, with pierced quatrefoil frieze and embattled top. Priscilla and Mary Scott, d.1648 and 1652, erected 1654. Wall monument in black and white marble, with scrolled pediment on pilaster, with inscription plaques in enriched brackets with draped skulls. The Central arcaded panel with 2 frontal figures leaning disconsolately on central prayer desk. Loftie memorial, over the chancel arch, to Paul Loftie, d.1703 and family; plaque of grey marble, a simple aedicule with Arms over and enriched apron with cherub’s head below. On nave west wall are 2 C17 wooden plaques, again taken from Scott’s Hall, both with double scalloped arches, with pendants and Arms over. The left hand panel with date 1461, – the Bedingfield Arms and initials E.B., the right hand panel with date 1429, the Scott Arms and initial W.S. Former chapel of Aldington, St. Martin. (See B.O.E. Kent II, 464-5; see also Church Guide). Listing NGR: TR0722539614