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History
Church History:
Church from the North West Nave looking East. Nave looking West.
Much of the information for these notes comes from the church guide written by Wing Commander W. V. Dumbreck and the West Kent volume of Buildings of England written by John Newman.
The first known mention of the church is in the Textus Roffensis (or Rochester Register) of 975 AD. This first church was probably a timber church. It is likely that the timber building lasted until about 1018 when the land of Hadlow was given to Eddeva – Edward the Confessor’s queen. It is thought that she rebuilt the church at this time in stone. The lower part of the tower dates from about this time as evidenced by the long and short technique on the NE corner. The doorway through the west wall of the nave is of this early date and Dumbreck refers also to a saxon window above this doorway. It is blocked up but its position can be seen from the other side in the ringing chamber. Newman refers to the tower as thirteenth century but the fabric of much of the walls could well be older than this. Dumbreck refers to evidence at the base of the tower, where stone work has been exposed inside the church, which suggests that the tower was originally free standing and might well have predated the church as a refuge. It is tempting to suggest that a hole at the top of the tower wall and in the SE corner could have been used as a lookout. The west door at the base of the tower has the inscription “WB1637ES”: it refers to the repair of the tower and steeple in that year when Walter Barton and Essau Simmons were churchwardens. The church clock dates from 1791 and was made by John Thwaites of Clerkenwell.
Records from the past left by John Starkey who was vicar from 1595 to 1629 write of the clerk receiving 12d for “tolling the knell with the great bell”. This is interesting. It is before the present bells were cast and there appears to be evidence high in the cap of the tower of two cut outs in the old timbers which look as if they housed the bearing of a bell. The span of the two beams concerned indicates that it could have been quite a large bell.
Churchwarden’s accounts of the eighteenth century record quite frequently the payment of 8 shillings to the landlord of the King’s Head for “refreshment for the ringers”. Customs may change but the need for such refreshment for ringers remains the same
Doorway in West wall of nave.
The chancel arch is thirteenth century according to Newman. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the church was in a poor condition but considerable repair and building work was carried out during the century. In 1847 the chancel was rebuilt and the vestry added. In 1853 the south aisle was blocked up and the north aisle built and the then owner of Hadlow Castle built a private gallery at the west end with its own access. In 1936 the church and roof were again restored and at the same time the gallery was removed.
1985 saw the start of a project which saw the north aisle transformed with the provision of meeting rooms, toilets and a kitchen – a very successful modern addition to the fabric.
View from the nave of the alterations to the north aisle
In 1993 an appeal was launched to restore the bells and carry out major repair work to the roof. The church is now in a good state of repair.
Also in the 1990s the baptistry was improved with a new canopy over the font and embroidered wall hangings representing fire, wind and water.
The Baptistry
Dumbreck refers in his guide to the Coverdale Chair supposedly used by Miles Coverdale. He was made Bishop of Exeter in 1551 but deprived of his see by Mary who came to throne in 1553. But Newman after a close look, describes the chair as being made up in the nineteenth century from old bits including late sixteenth century panels and a relief which is probably seventeenth century.
The so-called Coverdale Chair.