Church Heritage Record 606265

West tower, nave without aisles but with a small south porch; chancel with north chapel.

The base of the tower is late twelfth-century, but the church was rebuilt in the early fourteenth-century. In 1873 C.T. Whitley of Dover restored the church thoroughly, and it was restored again between 1916 and 1930.

Snave is the smallest of the nine stone-built churches of the Marsh, although Fairfield (of brick) is considerably smaller. It is approached from the west and, although the tower is not tall, it is the first part to be seen. The tower also contains the oldest stonework now to remain in the church, for its lower parts appear to be twelfth-century in date. No features from this period remain, however, and the plain west doorway with its two-centred moulded arch and simple hood with returned ends is part of the fourteenth-century work. It is now very decayed, like much of the original carved detail of the building. Above the door is a small rectangular light for the middle stage of the tower, and angle buttresses set back from the corners terminate at the top of the middle stage. The unbuttressed top stage is very plain, with simple battlements and a small rectangular loop in each face. At the north-east corner is a small weatherboarded turret surmounted by a thin iron weather-vane, perhaps of 1783, which is the date found on the lead roof.

The nave is broad, with a tiled roof sweeping quite low to north and south. There are two windows in each of the north and south walls, each of two lights with trefoiled ogee heads to the main lights and pointed quatrefoils between at the head. One in the north wall has cinquefoiled rather than trefoiled main lights. The hoodmoulds have plain returns at each end. There are buttresses parallel with the east and west walls (save at the north-east where the chapel abuts) and also at the mid points of the walls. The south wall has in addition a small porch of meagre nineteenth-century design which has now separated from the wall altogether, and there are signs of a blocked doorway in the north wall also.

The chancel is of similar design to the nave, although on a slightly smaller scale, with two two-light windows in the south wall similar to those of the nave and a buttress between. The south-east buttress, however, is placed diagonally. The east window, a design of three lights with trefoiled ogee heads and two pointed quatrefoils between flowing tracery above, has a recessed inscription panel beneath with gothic lettering stating "RESTORED AD 1873 EDWARD WILKINSON RECTOR". The north chapel again has similar two-light windows, two in the north wall and one rather taller in the east wall. In its west wall, where this projects beyond the wall of the nave, is a small doorway. The north-east and north-west angles have diagonal buttresses, and above the former is a tall octagonal chimney of 1873. The west bay of the chapel, like the north wall of the nave and parts of the south wall of the tower, is covered with rendering which looks like pebbledash.

The interior is spacious and the walls and ceiling of the nave are plastered throughout and whitened. Although the windows (and especially the segmental moulded edges to the rere-arches) have been renewed, the visible parts of the roof structure are old and the square red tiles on the floor are in the mediaeval tradition. The nineteenth-century, however, provided the prominent font and pulpit and the dull pews as well as the cathedral glass in all the windows. A point of colour is given by the Royal Arms of 1735 above the arch communicating with the north chapel. The tower arch is entirely mediaeval, with plain responds and chamfered blocks for imposts, typical of the churches in the area. The arch itself has stone edges and plaster on the soffit. The responds are the same width as the tower space beyond, and a timber ladder at one side gives access to the upper floors. The floor here retains its old quarry tiles.

The roof of the nave is supported by three tie-beams resting on renewed timber brackets at each end. The lower edges are roughly chamfered and at the centre of each rises a king-post with a moulded capital supporting four-way struts at the top which disappear into the plaster, above which is doubtless a ridge beam. Newman indicates the extreme slenderness of the king-posts and the straight tie beams as pointers to an early date. The characterful faces carved on the wall-plates at the intersection of the tie-beams show grotesque and human heads. The east wall of the nave is asymmetrical, with a large arch at one side opening into the chancel and a smaller arch of earlier date on the north opening into the chapel. The latter is of the same style and evidently of the same date as the tower arch at the west end and may be the original chancel arch, reset. The chancel arch, although having similar responds, was renewed in 1873 so that it is impossible to tell whether its upper parts were like the other two or not; it seems likely from its greater height in proportion to its width that it was of a rather later date and that the mouldings applied by Whitley may well represent what he found there before.

The chancel has been perhaps even more thoroughly restored than the nave, an impression created by the drab panelling of the roof. Again, however, the basic timbers are old, and these consist of a tie beam at the mid point, now supported on Victorian stone corbels. The beam is cambered and of a more healthy thickness than those in the nave, indicating a later date. The king-post and struts, or similar design, are also thicker and altogether more re-assuring. Beneath the beam at each end are arch-braces giving the outline of a very flattened four centred arch. The floor is paved with full red, grey, brown and black tiles and there is one stop at the chancel arch and a second at the communion rail. On the south side of the windows has a normal sill, but that close to the sanctuary has a lower sill which may have formed sedilia once. One sedile remains within the rails, with a cinquefoiled arch and moulded and castellated top edge. Slightly further east is a small piscina, the round bowl half sheared away and the cusping broken out of the arch. On the north side of the chancel two arches on a central octagonal shaft with (renewed) moulded capital upon into the north chapel screens and the arches. These arches are now filled with partly-glazed themselves have two chamfered orders.