| St. Lawrence's Church, Mereworth | |
St. Lawrence's, October 2006
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St. Lawrence's Church, Mereworth
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| OS grid reference | TQ 660 537 |
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| Location | Mereworth, Kent |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| History | |
| Founder(s) | John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland |
| Consecrated | 26 August 1746 |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade I listed |
| Style | Palladian |
| Groundbreaking | 1744 |
| Completed | 1746 |
| Specifications | |
| Number of spires | One |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Mereworth |
| Deanery | West Malling |
| Diocese | Rochester |
| Province | Canterbury |
St. Lawrence's Church is a Anglican parish church at Mereworth, Kent, United Kingdom. It is in the deanery of West Malling, the Diocese of Rochester and Province of Canterbury. The current church was built to replace the village's 12th-century place of worship, which was destroyed when Mereworth Castle was enlarged. Alterations were made several times in the 19th and 20th centuries, including repairs to wartime bomb damage, and work undertaken in 2009 won its architects an award. The church has been awarded Grade I listed status in view of its architectural and historical importance.
The Palladian-style stone structure has been described as "the outstanding 18th-century church in the county, in scale, ambition and architectural interest".[1] Designed by an unknown architect – prominent Palladian-era figures such as Colen Campbell, Henry Flitcroft, James Gibbs and Roger Morris have been suggested. Many internal fixtures survive from the old church, including heraldic stained glass and a series of high-quality brass and stone memorials.
Contents |
A church dedicated to St. Lawrence stood in Mereworth during the reign of Henry II (1154–89).[2] At that time, the advowson of the church was under the ownership of Roger de Mereworth.[3] The original church was said to have been built by the de Clares and was appropriated by the Knights Hospitallers on its foundation.[4] During the reign of Henry II, there was a dispute between de Mereworth and Leeds Priory concerning the patronage of the church. Gilbert, Bishop of Rochester was asked to adjudicate on the dispute. He found in favour of de Mereworth, but the parson of the church was to pay the sum of 40s per annum to the priory as a perpetual benefice.[3] Shortly after the dispute was settled, the church was granted to Tonbridge Priory. It remained the possession of Tonbridge Priory until that institution was dissolved in 1525. The church then came into the possession of Cardinal Wolsey, but was amongst the properties forfeited to the Crown in 1529.[5][6]
The advowson of the church was granted to Sir George Nevill,[6] passing on his death to his son Henry Nevill and on Henry's death to his daughter Mary, thus coming into the possession of her husband Thomas Fane.[7] In 1589, Leeds Priory abandoned their right to the benefice granted by Gilbert of Rochester.[3] In 1634, the church possessed lands amounting to some 352 acres (142 ha) in Mereworth.[8]
In the 1720s Mereworth Castle was rebuilt as Palladian villa to a design by Colen Campbell[9] and in the 1740s two flanking pavilions and a stable block were added,[10] necessitating the removal of the church;[11] in 1744 John Fane, the 7th Earl of Westmorland obtained a faculty for the demolition of the "ancient and most inconvenient" church.[12] No burials or marriages took place in Mereworth in 1745 as the village was without a church.[13]
Fane built the new church ⅝ mile (1 km) northwest of its predecessor,[1] on a site in the centre of the village. [11] Construction was started in 1744 and completed in 1746,[14] with consecration by Joseph Wilcocks, the Bishop of Rochester,[15] on 26 August 1746.[16] Coffins and memorials from the old church were moved to the new church.[17] John Grinsted, the son of John and Mary Grinsted was the first to be baptised in the church on 23 September 1746.[13] In 1752, Horace Walpole visited the church. He said that the church seemed designed for Cheapside and that its spire was so tall that the poor church curtsied beneath it.[12] Thomas Benge Burr in his History of Tunbridge Wells (1766) said that the church "will bear, and indeed richly deserves, the attentive inspection of the curious traveller".[18]
In 1770, the church was "repaired and beautified", possibly by Nicholas Revett, who designed Mereworth Rectory in 1780.[19] In 1798, the advowson of the church was in the ownership of Francis, Lord de Despencer.[2] The annual income of the church was then valued at £14 2s 6d.[8]
The spire was rebuilt in 1870,[12] the same year that the east window was cut into the end wall of the church. The east window is flanked on either side by blind windows. The bells were repaired in 1885 and a clock was installed in the base of the lantern at the top of the tower in 1894. This was in memory of Eliot Stapleton, rector of Mereworth from 1874–92. A plan by George Crickmay FRIBA dated 1896 to extend the church at the east end by building an apse of the same proportions as the west portico was not carried out.[20]
Major repairs were carried out to the spire in 1946–47 under the supervision of architect Kenneth Dalgleish, following damage sustained during the Second World War.[20][21] In 1957, the bells were again repaired.[20] On 25 August 1959, the church was added to the register of listed buildings. It is Grade I listed.[22] The clock was repaired in 1972 in memory of George Prentice, rector of Mereworth from 1966–70. A new fibreglass clock face was fitted at this time and the winding mechanism converted to electric power.[20] In 2005, an inspection revealed that the church needed major repairs. English Heritage made a grant that covered 95% of the £500,000 cost of restoration.[21] The work was carried out under the supervision of architects Thomas Ford & Partners, and earned the church the 2009 Georgian Group award for best restoration of a Georgian church.[23]
St. Lawrence's is a Palladian-style building by an unknown architect.[1] Colen Campbell worked in a similar style, although he died in 1722, so the design may have been executed by one of his followers.[24] The second-generation Palladian architect Henry Flitcroft has been suggested;[22] By 1746 he was the master carpenter at three London palaces, and his St Giles in the Fields at Holborn was London's first Palladian-style church.[25] James Gibbs has also been suggested, as the spire of St Lawrence's is similar to that of St Martin-in-the-Fields in the City of Westminster, London. Sir Howard Colvin tentatively attributes the church to Roger Morris.[26]
The church is of blocks of Kentish ragstone with dressed ashlar Wealden sandstone for the porch columns, quoins and tower.[1][21] The sandstone has galletted joints.[12] It has a simple rectangular form in the 18th-century "temple church" style. St Paul's, Covent Garden in London, an early Palladian church by Inigo Jones, was the model for the design,[1][21] which was then "purified by neo-Palladian theory".[22] The roof is covered in slate and has prominent eaves and pedimented ends.[22] At the west end is a tall tower topped with a steeple flanked by decorative urns. The stone structure, with a square base supporting octagonal upper stages with columned sides and a balustrade, is so similar to the steeple at St Giles in the Fields Church in Holborn.[22][24] that the Buildings of England series says that it was "copied almost directly" from that church.[1] Projecting from the west end below the pedimented end of the roof is a semicircular open porch with Tuscan columns topped by a cornice.[22] Its design is based on that of the Baroque church of St. Paul's, Deptford, in London;[21] St Mary le Strand in central London has also been cited as its inspiration.[1] The tower has a peal of six bells, cast in 1746 by Joseph Eayre of St. Neots, Huntingdonshire. They are in the Key of G. At the base of the tower are two chapels. That at the north west being the Yotes Court Chapel, where the brass of William Shosmyth and his wife Julian can be found. Shosmyth was the warden of the religious guild of the Worshipful Company of Skinners in 1461. The brass has the earliest known representation of the Skinners' coat of arms. As of 2011, this chapel serves as a vestry. The south west chapel is the Despencer or Lady Chapel. It contains the brasses to Sir John de Mereworth and Thomas Nevill, as well as monuments to either Edward Neville, 3rd Baron Bergavenny or his son George Nevill, 4th Baron Bergavenny. Another memorial contains the heart of George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny. The tomb of Sir Thomas Fane and his wife Mary. Their sons Francis and George are depicted kneeling at the base of the tomb.[27] At the east end, the three-window range consists of two straight-headed plain windows flanking a larger, round-headed one in the Venetian style, set below a "grandiose" lunette within the pediment on the roof. This has been likened to the Diocletian windows used at Roman baths.[28]
The interior is in the Neoclassical style.[21] The entrance to the church is through a porch at the west end, which leads into a circular chamber in the base of the tower. Rooms at the sides of this vestibule hold monuments from the original church.[28] Beyond the vestibule is a wide aisled nave,seven bays long, its barrel-vaulted ceiling painted with trompe-l'œil coffering ("not very convincingly" according to the Buildings of England series),[28] a chancel and a side chapel. The nave and aisles are separated by painted marble-effect stone Doric columns,[22][24][28] originally partly panelled,[28] supporting a horizontal entablature rather than the more usual arches.[28] The strict geometry of the interior – each bay of the aisles is a square, and the nave is three times wider than each aisle – gives it an "austere Neoclassical appearance" not normally associated with the Georgian era in which it was built.[28] The crypt contains several Fane coffins.[29]
Fixtures include a marble font which is contemporary with the church.[28] There is much stained glass: the oldest, in the form of heraldic emblems in cartouches, dates from 1562 and is visible in the Diocletian window in the east wall and in another window on the southwest side.[28] The east window was erected in memory of Sir Frank Stapleton, rector of Mereworth 1832–74.[30] Other similar glass dates from the 17th and 18th centuries. Another, depicting the Raising of Lazarus, was designed by Frederic Shields for the Heaton, Butler and Bayne firm in 1889.[24][28]
The organ is by Gray and Davison. It was installed in 1882 by Lord Falmouth at a cost of £200. In 1892, the rector, E H Stapleton extended the range of the organ in memory of his wife.[31]
The parish covers Mereworth village, the surrounding rural area and part of the village of Kings Hill.[36] Administratively, it is part of a joint benefice with St. Dunstan's Church at neighbouring West Peckham.[37]
As a Grade I listed building, the church is considered by English Heritage to be of "exceptional interest" and greater than national importance.[38] As of February 2001, it was one of 38 Grade I listed buildings, and 1,291 listed buildings of all grades, in the district of Tonbridge and Malling – the local government district in which Mereworth is situated.[39]