St Mary, Kenardington, Kent - 16th October 2005

The church at Kenardington is actually the tower, south aisle and south chapel of a formerly much larger building which was struck by lightning in 1559 and largely destroyed.  The subsequent 'patching up' has resulted in a very unbalanced, although charming, building.

Two large decorated windows have been filled on the south side, the one in the nave has a much smaller single light window inserted at a later date..

The jamb of the south door has ancient graffiti carved into it.

These Royal Arms hang on the west wall.

The very slim font seems very incongruous - rather out of scale with the building and to my taste rather ugly.  Pevsner describes it as 'crude'.

Here is a view of the church looking east - the unusual arrangement betrays the building's rather tortured history.

Here is a view looking west.  There is a vertical line in the west wall which presumably determines the former location of the south arcade of the larger building.  The rebuilt north wall, which has external buttresses and two-light that are, according to Pevsner 'wholeheartedly Perpendicular' is situated several feet into the former nave.  The vestry screen of 1717 has a crest of wooden spikes.

Here is a view from the north east looking towards the now blocked tower arch.  Pevsner suggests there are marks on the tower suggesting there was once a narrow north aisle.

Here is a view of the east end, again the asymmetry is clear to see.  In addition the remaining window in this elevation has clearly suffered damage to its head at some point and the stonework on the north side has been altered - where the south chapel has been widened to form the chancel of the altered building.

Here is a final view of the Early English tower, which can no longer be accessed from within the church.  The blocked tower arch is obvious as is the line of the former nave roof.  Apologies for the 'head' caught in the picture!

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