Church Heritage Record 606309

4-bay aisled nave under single roof, with south porch. 2-bay chancel with vestry to north. South-east tower with organ in base.

[Approximate] Nave 6m (20ft) wide x 17m (56ft) long, chancel 9m (30ft), aisles 2m (7ft) wide.

A church was recorded in Tonge in the Domesday Survey when the village was referred to as Tanga. St Giles dates to the 12th and 14th Centuries, with the tower constructed in the early 13th Century, but a pre-conquest church must have occupied the site.

The chancel fell into ruin in the 16th Century and was rebuilt in brick in the 16th-17th Centuries. The church was restored again in 1893. Photographs (probably taken early 20th Century) show a chimney on the north wall which correlates with a blocked fireplace internally. These photos also show the north aisle windows, Victorian insertions, having had leaded panes rather than the plain glass they contain today.

The area around the church is rich in history. Whilst nothing physical remains of Tonge’s motte and bailey castle built post-1100, the mound is visible near Tonge Mill to the south-west. Many Romano-British finds have been recorded and a Roman burial ground located in addition to earlier Paleolithic and Neolithic finds. The surrounding area is mainly agricultural but nearby land has been disturbed historically by brick earth extraction which altered ground levels and could be the cause for structural movement in the church.

The site is of high archaeological potential and the Kent Heritage Environment Record should be consulted if any development is proposed. There are known to be bats in the church. There are no other ecological designations relating to the plot.

Despite its tower, St Giles remains remarkably discrete, set behind mature trees. Only by approaching from certain directions, and presumably across fields to the east, are views of the church gained. The large expanse of hand-made clay tiles on the roof with their subtle modulation in tone, texture and colour gives the first impression of this buildings' wealth of character.

A single roof covers the nave and aisles, its low eaves and hipped west end give the building a barn-like appearance. A lower roof covers the chancel and north vestry. In the south-west corner a wooden boarded porch with barge-boards with blind trefoil tracery marks the main entrance to the church. At the west end another door is framed between two substantial brick buttresses which contrast with the flint walls, a 3-light window is above. A patch of random flint and stone work set within the brick south aisle wall contains fragments of mouldings. The north elevation has three gabled dormer windows added in the 19th Century. Squat brick buttresses rise to the low eaves. The easternmost bay on the north side is constructed of irregular stone rather than flint.

At the east end the vestry is clearly a later addition. A brick pier completes the north wall, and on the exterior north chancel wall a blocked arch is interrupted. The chancel walls show flint at the base and brick above, presumably where the chancel was rebuilt in the 19th Century. Two-light north and south chancel windows are formed in brick whilst the three-light east window has stone surrounds and mullions. There is a clear division where the wall returns to a random flint composition at the west end of the chancel.

The three-stage square flint tower, positioned in the angle between the chancel and the nave, has two-tier buttresses to the south. At ground level it has a two-light east window and a single light south window and narrow louvred lancets in the belfry.

The church is entered from the south through a roll-moulded and chamfered pointed door. The porch drops by a step and a further two steps descend into the south aisle. Immediately to the west a storage cupboard, former coal hole, created by blocking the westernmost bay of the south arcade. The south aisle is separated from the nave by a two-bay pointed arch arcade on square piers. To the north side, a four-bay Norman arcade consists of a single round column with scalloped capital towards the west end, and two square piers.

The walls are white-washed. Overhead, a 14th-century tie-beam and king-post roof structure ceils the building. The nave is paved in red and black quarry tiles with carpet laid in the aisles. Seating is provided by varnished softwood box pews with doors fixed on raised platforms, probably of the mid-19th Century. Carpet runners on the seats. Some unfixed benches are placed around the west aisle. The windows to the north are simple Y-tracery dormer windows containing clear glass, no windows to the south aisle. Additional light is provided by suspended circular Victorian iron candleholders, adapted to hold energy-saving light-bulbs.

Beneath the north-west aisle window the former north door can be seen, filled in. In the spandrel between the second and third bays of the north arcade, the fragmentary remains of a medieval wall painting are visible. To its east is a repainted panel of text. In the south-east corner, between the south arcade and the tower, an internal buttress projects into the nave. An organ fills the north arch of the tower base, whilst the south aisle to its west is screened by a curtain. There is  a stained glass window in the south tower wall and in the south-west corner a small locked wooden doorway up to the tower, evidently of some age.

The chancel, which is raised by a single step, is screened from the nave by a wooden, traceried, Perpendicular screen with embattled cornice and ogee panelling. This is fitted beneath a pointed chancel arch which rests on octagonal corbels. A historic photo in the vestry, north of the chancel, shows a painted banner with text over the chancel arch that is no longer visible. Unfixed benches provide seating in the choir. The floor, which is interspersed with ledger stones, is paved in red quarry tiles with encaustic tiles at regular intervals. A further step rises to the sanctuary where there are a greater number of decorative encaustic tiles. The altar is raised again. Two wall-mounted wrought-iron lamp-holders are fixed to the west wall.