Description

TR 05 NW SELLING ST MARY'S CHURCH

1/30 Church of St Mary
24.1.67
GV I

Parish Church. Circa 1190, c.1300 and C15. Restored 1841-6, R.C. Hussey.
Flint, in part rendered, with plain tiled roofs. Chancel with north
and south chapels, nave and aisles, central tower and transepts and south
and west porches. Western doorway in C19 porch with large wrought iron
doors. C12 doorway with pointed arch and 3 orders and surround all with
complex beaded and hollowed mouldings. Attached columns with shaft-rings,
with acanthus derived capitals (see interior). West window c.1300 with
3 stepped trecusped lights and hollow chamfered surround. South aisle,
buttressed with string course and battlements. Triple moulded south
doorway- in C14 porch. C15 Perpendicular fenestration to aisles. South
chapel with lancet windows and C19 octagonal vice. Chancel with knapped
and coursed flints, clasping buttresses,lancets to north and south, and
stepped 5 light east window with cinquecusped heads. North chapel with
lancets, north aisle with C15 fenestration and small projecting vice. Central
rendered tower in 2 stages with string courses, battlements and clock faces
on all 4 elevations. Interior: 4 bay nave arcade with double chamfered
arches on tall octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals. Roof of 4
crown posts. Blocked doorways to north and north-west. North and south
aisles with chamfered arches on corbel tables through to transepts. Transepts,
crossing and east end all c.ll90,the tower carried on tall square piers with
moulded abaci with crocketed corners. North and south arches underbuilt
C15 with attached shafts; east and west arches remodelled c.1300, that to
the nave with the mouldings of the nave arcade carried across the crossing
pier of the capitals. Double rebated and chamfered arch. Some suggestion
of springing for vaulting in the re-entrants of one crossing pier.
Buttressing to north-east pier, blocking archway through to north chapel.
Chancel with 2 bay arcades continued on third blank arch in sanctuary.
Pointed arches on round piers with crocketed capitals on square moulded abaci,
the south eastern arch a C19 rebuild. North arcade with spurred bases, and
acanthus derived capitals by the same hand as those in Bapchild (Swale) and
Stockbury (Maidstone)and several other churches south and west of Sittingbourne
(see Bapchild, Kent). Lancets in all 3 eastern limbs carried on string course.
Crown post roofs in north and south chapels. Fine moulded arch from south
chapel to south transept. Fittings: C19 reredos and brass altar rails;
plain floor tiles throughout church; rood stair in north aisle/north transept.
Brasses: various inscriptions and remnant figures to Norwood family in
chancel; 18 inch figure of a man in nave (n.d.); remnant of large brass
in south transept now only 3 mourners (6 inches high) (n.d.). Monuments:
south chapel (Hilton chapel); William Chambers, d.1724 (monument dated
1758), white marble wall plaque, with coloured marble surround, broken
pediments and achievement. Two large naval standards, the Union Jack flown
on H.M.S. Minotaur at Trafalgar (1805), and the Spanish Ensign captured
then from the battleship Neptune; Commander Stephen Hilton was master's mate
on the Minotaur. Wall paintings: the chancel has masonry lines painted on
and some flower designs. South chapel lancet reveals with mid C14 saints
outlined: St Paul, St Peter, St Bartholomew, St John the Evangelist.
Stained Glass: chancel east-window with 5 lights with coloured borders,
grisaille backgrounds, each light with figure of a saint, the central of
The Virgin, each with an heraldic shield below. The arms (of Gilbert de
Clare and others) date the windows 1299-1307. West window 1850, T. Willement.
(See B.O.E. Kent II, 1983, 454-55).

Listing NGR: TR0378856834

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17530141

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)