Details
TR 0446 0546 WYE HIGH STREET
(north side)
8/263 Church of St
27.11.57 Gregory and
St Martin
GV I
Parish church. C13 origin, remodelled C15 for Cardinal Archbishop John
Kempe. East end rebuilt 1701-1710. Restored 1873/1878. Flint and rubble
with plain tiled roof. Nave with aisles, chancel, south-eastern tower and
south porch. Kneelered gabled west end with Perpendicular style west
window (1950's), with triple shafted and moulded C13 doorway. Aisles
buttressed throughout, with coved corbel table and battlements. The north
aisle (carried round to east of nave) in particular with fine series of
grotesque heads (some to south). Battlements. Perpendicular fenestration
throughout. Two storey porch, the side elevations treated as one with
aisles, the south elevation reworked e-C18, with rusticated ashlar quoins
and arch, with round eastern angle vice. Large 2 stage south-eastern tower
on site of C13 transept with massive triple offset diagonal buttresses,
and polygonal north-eastern stair turret, crowned with battlements and
pyramidal finials. Keyed round headed brick belfry lights, simple moulded
door. Many stones set in tower recording benefactors, 1701-10. Short,
low chancel, with shallow apse and battlements. Three round headed windows,
and blocked round headed openings visible especially in north elevations,
1873 set in window cills, T.D. 1706 in apse wall. Fine C18 raised and
fielded panelled double doors in west and south doorways. Wall plaque sunk
into north aisle, to John, Elizabeth and Sarah Hudson, d. 1718-19, with
double skull head. Interior: nave of 4 bays, with springing of a fifth to
the east. C13 capitals and deeply undercut moulded arches, the piers
remodelled with hollow chamfers mid C15. Clerestory with segmentally
headed 3 light windows added at same time. Trussed collar beam roof with
moulded knee-braced tie beams. Lean-to aisles, the window reveals all
segment headed. South aisle with four centred arched doorway to porch
upper chamber, and C18 round headed door east to tower. Simple round
headed chancel arch. Fittings: the chancel arranged as if a college chapel
(and indeed so used from its building by the school/college opposite).
Large raised and fielded panelled wainscotting with separately articulated
dado panelling, incorporating panelled benches on the north and south sides,
with reading desks to the same pattern on the chancel arch jambs. The
panelling follows the apse round, and is ramped up to form a round headed
central reredos with painted text boards (some oval). Integral altar rail,
with turned baluster and square principals. All circa 1706. C19 pulpit
and nave benches and wooden lectern (1914-18 war memorial). Octagonal
font with roses and shields in quatrefoils, and doubled octagonal base.
Monuments: Alice Palmere, brass, 35 inches. A Lady with 2 husbands, C.1440.
In the chancel: Agnes and Mary Johnson, d. 1763 and 1767. Simple urn on
plaque with obelisk and wreath, and Calamitous inscription: "Their days
were imbittered by various evils". Lady Joanna Thornhill, d. 1708. First
class wall plaque of white marble, the inscription of roll call of the
Royalist and Restoration faithful, surmounted by a group of cherubs in draped surround, with only the top segment of a pediment, arms cartouche over
and fruity festoons mounted separately to the wall, the whole supported on
barley-sugar twist columns, with bracketed apron and pulls, that to right
weeping into his cloak. Barley sugar columns are also used on the porch to
the old Wye College, used in part for Lady Joanna Thornhill's school
foundation. Simple aedicule plaque to Mrs Elizabeth Sawbridge, d. 1862,
with obelisk and urn and wreathed portrait in profile. Eight Sawbridge
hatchments in the nave and aisles. A small stone plaque over the west door
records the (early C18) contribution to the Church of Thomas Gillman,
bricklayer of Wye. The mid C15 in the church corresponds with Archbishop
Kempe's contemporary work in his foundation at Wye College. The Church was
originally cruciform, with a 5 bay nave, and chancel at least 60 feet
longer than at present, the transepts and east end destroyed by the
of the original tower in 1686. (See b.o.e. Kent II, 504-5).
Listing NGR: TR0540446906
This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 30 October 2017.
