St Mary of Charity, Faversham, Kent

I have been to St Mary of Charity before. But that was many years ago.

Back then, I took three shots inside. I took 300 today.

St Mary is a huge church with a Victorian tower with the most amazing spire, which makes it visible from just about all over the town.

Faversham is best know as being home to Shepherd Neame brewery, it claims to the England’s oldest surviving brewer.

The town sits on the edge of the Swale, with a large expanse of marshes and creeks between the town and open water.

We parked on wide Abbey Street, and while Jools went shopping, I walked along side the old brewery buildings to the church, with the tower and spire staight ahead along a street of terraced houses.

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An extraordinary building comprising a medieval chancel and transepts, eighteenth-century nave and nineteenth-century tower and spire. Despite heavy-handed restorations of the nineteenth century – by Sir George Gilbert Scott and Ewan Christian in 1873 – which have resulted in loss of character, there is much to see. The fourteenth-century transepts are aisled – a most unusual feature in an ordinary parish church. The medieval authorities probably decided to invest in a lavish building to counteract the pulling power of the famous abbey which stood to the east. One of the pillars of the north transept has a series of contemporary small paintings of biblical scenes. You are advised to take a pair of binoculars to see them to advantage. The stalls in the chancel have misericords with a good selection of carved armrests, and there is also a crypt and an unforgettable east window of 1911.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Faversham+1

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THE PARISH AND TOWN OF FAVERSHAM.
CALLED, according to Lambarde, in Saxon, Fafresham, and Fafresfeld, in the record of Domesday, Favershant, and in some few others, Fefresham.

THE PARISH lies adjoining to the high London road southward at the 47th mile-stone, and extends to the creek on the opposite side of the town, the houses on the south side of which reach to within two hundred yards of the road, whence there is a good view into it.

The parish includes the north side of the London road from the above mile-stone westward, almost as far as the summit of Judde-hill, and the liberties of the town extend as far of this space westward as the rivulet in Ospringe street. Thus this parish intervenes, and entirely separates that part of Ospringe parish, at the northern boundary of it, in which are the storekeeper’s house of the royal mills, and part of the offices and gardens belonging to it, and some of the mills themselves, and in the town likewise, Ospringe parish again intervening, there is a small part of West-street which is within that parish. At the east end of Ospringe-street, though within Faversham parish, and the liberties of the town, close to the high London road, there is a handsome new-built house, erected not many years since by Mr.Bonnick Lypyeatt, who resided in it till his death in 1789. He left two daughters his coheirs, one of whom married Mr.C.Brooke, of London, and the other Captain Gosselin, of the Life-guards. It is now occupied by John Mayor, esq.

¶The rest, or northern part of the parish lies very low, and adjoins the marshes, of which there is a very large tract. The country here is a fine extended level, the fields of a considerable size, and mostly unincumbered with trees or hedgerows, the lands being perhaps as fertile and as highly cultivated as any within this county, being part of that fruitful value extending almost from Sittingborne to Boughton Blean, so often taken notice of before. The grounds adjoining the upper parts of the town are mostly hop plantations, of a rich and kindly growth, but several of them have lately given place to those of fruit. About twenty years ago the cultivation of madder was introduced here, and many induced by the prospect of great gains, made plantations of it at a very considerable expence, and a mill was erected for the purpose of grinding the roots, but from various disappointments, and unforeseen disadvantages, the undertakers of it were deterred from prosecuting the growth of it, and I believe they have for some time entirely discontinued it.

At the south-east extremity of this parish, as well as in other particular parts of this county, there are several chalk-pits, the most noted of these being called Hegdale pit, of a great depth, which though narrow at the top, yet more inward are very capacious, having, as it were, distinct rooms, supported by pillars of chalk. Several opinions have been formed concerning the intent and use of them, some that they were formed by the digging of chalk, for the building of the abbey, as well as afterwards from time to time, for the manuring of the neighbouring lands; others that the English Saxons might dig them, for the same uses that the Germans did, from whom they were descended, who made use of them, according to Tacitus, as a refuge in winter, as a repository for their corn, and as a place of security, for themselves, their families, and their property, from the searches of their enemies. (fn. 1)

Near the west end of the bridge, opposite the storekeeper’s house of the royal powder-mills, there is a strong chalybeate spring, which on trial has been proved to be nearly equal to those of Tunbridge Wells. (fn. 2)

In the year 1774, a most remarkable fish, called mola salviani, orthe sun-fish, was caught on Faversham Flats, which weighed about nineteen pounds and a half, and was about two feet diameter. It is a fish very rarely seen in our narrow seas. (fn. 3)

THE TOWN ITSELF, and so much of the parish as is within the bounds of the corporation, is subject to the liberties of it, and of the cinque ports, and is exempt from the jurisdiction of the hundred of Faversham; but the rest of the parish, together with the rectory, is within the liberties of that hundred, which has been always esteemed as appurtenant to the manor of Faversham.

Although from the several discoveries which have been made of Roman antiquities in this neighbourhood, it is plain, that it could not be unknown to that nation, during their stay in this island, yet there is no mention made of this place by any writer during that period; and it seems, even in the time of the Saxons, to have been a place of but little consequence, notwithstanding it was then a part of the royal demesnes, as appears by a charter of Cenulph, king of Mercia, anno 812, wherein it is stiled the king’s little town of Fefresham; and in one of Athelwolf, king of the West Saxons and of Kent, anno 839, where it is said to be made, only, in villa de Faverisham. However, it was of note sufficient, perhaps as being the king’s estate, even in the time of king Alfred, at the first division of this county into those smaller districts, to give name to the hundred in which it is situated. Lambarde, Camden, and Leland say, that king Athelstan held a parliament, or meeting of his wife menat Faversham, about the year 903, (no doubt for 930) in which several laws were enacted. (fn. 8)

FAVERSHAM continued part of the antient demesnes of the crown of this realm at the time of the taking of the general survey of Domesday, in which it is entered, under the general title of Terra Regis, that is, the king’s antient demesne, as follows:

In the lath of Wivarlet, in Favreshant hundred, king William holds Favreshant. It was taxed at seven sulings. The arable land is seventeen carucates. In demesne there are two. There are thirty villeins, with forty borderers, having twenty-four carucates. There are five servants, and one mill of twenty shillings, and two acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of one hundred hogs, and of the pasture of the wood thirty-one shillings and two pence. A market of four pounds, and two salt-pits of three shillings and two-pence, and in the city of Canterbury, there are three houses of twenty-pence belonging to this manor. In the whole value, in the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth sixty pounds all but five shillings, and afterwards sixty pounds, and now it is worth four times twenty pounds.

¶The manor of Faversham, with the hundred appurtenant to it, remained part of the possessions of the crown till about the beginning of king Stephen’s reign, when it was granted to William de Ipre, a foreigner, whom, for his faithful services against the empress Maud, the king, in his 7th year, created Earl of Kent; but within a few years afterwards, resolving to found an abbey here, he, with his queen Matilda, about the year 1147, exchanged the manor of Lillechirch, and other premises, for this manor and hundred, where they, at the latter end of that year, or the beginning of the year after, founded an abbey at a small distance from the town of Faversham, on the north-east side of it, for the space where Court, or Ab bey-street now stands was then unbuilt, and this was therefore, in the reign of Edward III. distinguished by the name of the New Town, as the rest of it, built before, was by that of the Old Town, and they appointed Clarembald, the prior of Bermondsey, to be abbot of this new foundation, which was dedicated to St. Saviour, and for their support, the king granted to him and the monks of it, twelve of whom had been removed with Clarembald for this purpose from Bermondsey, which priory was of the order of Clugni, the manor of Faversham, with its appurtenances, and other premises, in perpetual alms, with many liberties, as may be further seen in the charter itself. (fn. 9)

HE TOWN OF FAVERSHAM is within the limits of the cinque ports, being esteemed as a limb or member of the town of Dover, one of those ports. Of what antiquity these ports and antient towns are, when enfranchised, or at what times their members were annexed to them, has not been as yet, with any certainty, discovered; and, therefore, they are held to enjoy all their earliest liberties and privileges, as time out of mind, and by prescription.

It is, however certain, that at the time of king Edward the Consessor, the five ports were enfranchised with divers liberties, privileges, and customs, peculiar to themselves; for the better conducting of which they had the establishment of one grand court, called the court of Shipway, from its being almost always held at a place of that name near Hyth; in which the general business relating to the whole community was transacted before the warden, as principal and chief over them. Nevertheless, though they acted here jointly, like a county palatine as to the government, for the desence of the liberty of the whole, yet every particular corporation in each town acted severally and distinctly, according to its own privileges, charters, and customs within their own particular limits, without any controul or interference from this court, or the rest of the community. (fn. 20)

The five ports, as being from their situation most exposed to the depredations of enemies, were first incorporated for their own mutual defence, and were afterwards endowed with great privileges, for the public desence of the nation, and the king’s service. The force they were enjoined to raise and keep in residence for this purpose was fifty-seven ships, properly furnished and accoutred for a certain number of days, to be ready at the king’s summons, at their own charge, and if the state of affairs required their assistance any longer, they were paid by the crown. But because the expence was in after times found to be too burthensome for these five ports, several other towns were added as members to them, that they might bear a part of the charge, for which they were recompenced with a participation of their privileges and immunities. All which were confirmed to them by Magna Charta, by the name of the barons of the five ports, and again by one general charter by king Edward I. which, by inspeximus, has received confirmation, and sometimes additions, from most of the succeeding kings and queens of this realm.

¶FAVERSHAM, stiled both a town and a port at different times in antient records, isa corporation by prescription. In the oldest charter now remaining, which is that of the 36th year of king Henry III. wherein the members of it are stiled, according to the usual language of those times, barons, that is freemen, there is contained a confirmation of all their former antient rights and privileges. In the 42d year of the above reign, which is as far as can be traced by evidence, the jurisdiction of this town was then in a mayor or alderman, and twelve jurats. In a charter of Edward I. the barons of it are acknowledged to have done good services to him and his predecessors, kings of England; and in the 21st year of that reign, there is an entry of the mayor and jurats assembling in their hallmote, or portmote-court, as it is elsewhere called, together with the lord abbot’s steward, and there sealing a fine with the town’s seal, of a messuage and garden in Faversham, according to the use and custom of the court, by which it is evident, that this court was of some antiquity at that time. (fn. 21)

Faversham is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Ospringe.

The church, which stands close to the east side of the town, was dedicated to the assumption of our lady of Faversham. It is built in the form of a cross, of flints, with quoins of ashler stone. It had, until 1755, when it was taken down, a large square castellated tower in the middle of it, and there remains now another low tower at the north side of the west front, upon which is erected a frame of timber, covered with shingles. So long ago as king Henry the VIIth.’s reign, there seems to have been no steeple to this church, for in 1464, Edward Thomasson, of this town, gave sixty pounds towards the edifying of a new one to it; (fn. 31) and of later time, James Lawson, esq. a wealthy inhabitant of this town, who died in 1794, gave by his will 1000l. for the same purpose, with this sum, together with 500l. given by the corporation, and the remainder payable by a rate, a steeple, seventy-three feet high above the tower, with pinnacles at each corner of it, on the plan of St. Dunstan’s in the East, has been erected, and is now nearly compleated, at the expence of 2500l.

Behind the tower, within the outer walls, is a strong timbered room, formerly called the tresory, in which, before the reformation, were carefully deposited the goods and ornaments of the church; over it was the chamber for the sextons. On the south side of the west front is a room, formerly open to the church, in which was taught reading and writing; under it is a neat chapel, with stone arches, supported by three pillars in the middle. Over the south porch there is another stone room, the window of which is grated with strong iron bars.

Mr. Henry Hatch, whose extensive charity to this town has already been mentioned, by will in 1533, gave a sum of money, at the discretion of the mayor, and his brethren, in making a new jewel-house for this church.

In 1440 there were placed in it five new bells, and in 1459 a sixth was added; these remained till 1749, when they were cast into a new peal of eight.

The church seems to have been built in the latter end of the reign of Edward I. or the beginning of the reign of Edward II. by a silver penny of one of those kings being found under the basis of one of the piers, which supported the middle tower. In the east window of the great chancel, were some time since remaining two shields of arms, viz. Gules, two lions passant-guardant, or a label of five points, azure; and Argent, a lion rampant, sable, within a bordure of the second, bezante.

In the year 1754, the body of the church, as well as the roof of it, on a survey, being deemed in a dangerous state, a faculty was obtained to pull it down, which was accordingly done, under the plan and directions of Mr. George Dance, of London, architect, at the expence of 2300l. besides which, 400l. was afterwards expended in an organ, and 100l. more in other ornaments, and ninety pounds in improving the great chancel, which through age was become very unsightly; so that the whole of it is now made equal to, if not the most elegant and spacious, of any parish church in this county, and is extensive and spacious enough to afford convenient room for all the parishioners of it.

¶When this church was new built, and the body and isles new paved, the grave-stones, many of which were antient, with brasses on them, were removed from the places where they lay, to other open and consipicuous parts of it. Among the monuments were those for Henry Hatche, merchant adventurer, 1533; Thomas Mendfield, 1614, John Fagg, esq. 1508, and one for Thomas Southouse, esq. 1558, who wrote the Monas tion Favershamiense. Both monuments and epitaphs are by far too numerous to insert in this place, they may be found at large in Weever’s Funeral Monuments, in Lewis’s Appendix to his History of Faversham Abbey, and in Harris’s History of Kent. Besides which there is in the Appendix to Jacob’s History of Faversham, a chronological list of such persons as have been known to have been buried in it.

This church measures from east to west, including the chancel, one hundred and sixty feet, the width of the body sixty five feet; the length of the isles from north to south one hundred and twenty-four feet, and their width forty-six feet.

Before the reformation, besides the high altar in the great chancel, there were two chapels, one dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the other to St. Thomas, and there were several altars in the isles and chancels.

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol6/pp318-371

Posted by Jelltex on 2019-04-28 17:51:13

Tagged: , St Mary of Charity , Faversham , Kent , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks