Church Heritage Record 606121

The church consists of chancel, north vestry, nave and south aisle.

Chancel 4.9m by 9.2m, north vestry 2.6m by 5.9m, nave 6.1m by 16.45m, south aisle 3.8 by 16.45 m.

The church was designed by Charles Kirk and Son of Sleaford (Lincolnshire) a successful firm of church architects, best known perhaps for the church at Deeping St. Nicholas of 1845-6 (Lincs.). The church was built at the expense of Mrs. Hall of Syndale Park as a memorial to her husband William Hall who was the proprietor of John Hall and Sons, an explosives manufacturer based to the west of Faversham. It was consecrated in May 1881 by Archbishop Tait.  The parish was united with St Mary Magdalene at Davington in 1932 and enlarged again by the inclusion of Oare and Luddenham in 1964.

The church is in Early English style and remains very much as it was built and fitted out in 1880. The quality of the work is excellent and it is clear that no expense was spared by the patron, Mrs. Hall, when she commissioned the work. The massing of the building appears rather low from the south because of the falling ground and the gabled aisle that masks the nave. The church was designed without a tower. Originally there was a detached timber belfry in the churchyard but this was dismantled in 1969 and the bell subsequently stolen.  The belfry was contemporary with the church, and also built in memory of William Hall.  The bell was by Warren and Sons, and cast in 1881. 

The exterior is uniform in design but the detailing of the chancel is a little richer than the body of the church. Windows on the south are paired lancets, framed by shafts and chamfered arches. On the north the nave windows are single lancets of the same type and the vestry windows are plain double lancets with a quatrefoil above. The east window consists of three graduated lancets. The west wall of the nave has a door with a pointed head, a row of three lancets and, in the gable, a roundel with plate tracery in a cross pattern. The walls have plain chamfered plinths, windows stand on a scroll-moulded string and buttresses are of a single weathered stage. Above is a table course with mask corbels carrying the gutter. Gables have kneelers and copings and each carries a terminal cross.

The three-bay chancel is narrower than the nave and divided from it by a tall pointed arch of two roll- and hollow-moulded orders carried on shafts. The inner pair stops well short of the floor on foliate corbels. A single step also marks the division. The rear arches of the east window of the chancel are splayed and carry multiple shafts with annular rings and roll- and hollow-moulded caps and bases. The rear arches of the side windows are normal to the wall, shafts and  pointed arches frame each light. On the north side is a door with a pointed head giving access to the vestry and west of this is a stone screen in the form of a two-bay arcade. Further to the west is the organ set in a rectangular opening. The nave and south aisle are both of five bays. The arcade that separates them has circular piers with roll- and hollow-moulded capitals, water holding bases and semi-circular arches of two plain chamfered orders with labels and floral stops. Windows on the north have plain splayed rear arches. The west window has a triple rear-arch with shafts. The windows in the south aisle follow the same pattern those in the chancel.

The chancel roof is of three bays and the principal rafters have collars, moulded arch braces and heavy ashlar pieces supported on stone corbels with stiff leaf decoration. The arch braces carry seven purlins that lie below the rafters, which also have collars, arch braces and ashlar pieces on a moulded cornice. The roof is boarded.

The nave roof is of five bays and the principal trusses have collars with arch braces that stand on heavy moulded ashlar pieces and stone corbels. The arch braces are chamfered and decorated with nail head. The common rafters also have collars but with straight braces and ashlar pieces. The roof is boarded.

The south aisle roof has principal trusses with collars and arch braces carried on ashlar pieces and stone corbels. The principal rafters carry one tier of side purlins that support the common rafters. The roof is boarded.