Church Heritage Record 606063

Nave, chancel, S porch, S transept, N tower; attached church hall, lobby and vestry to N.

The church has been the site of a place of worship since at least Norman times and – considering the mention of a church at Thanington in the Domesday Book – possibly earlier. There have been many significant archaeological finds in the vicinity including Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Medieval artefacts.

The church and its site have high archaeological potential.

There are both intramural burials and many burials in churchyard, including war graves.

A church is mentioned at Thanington in the Domesday book, suggesting that a Saxon church stood on the site before the Norman conquest. The church was in the possession of St Gregory’s Priory in the C11.

There is a memorial inscription in the porch to Christopher Hassall, actor, dramatist, librettist and poet – the creative partner of Ivor Novello – who is buried in the churchyard. The inscription is by the important glass engraver Sir Laurence Whistler, CBE, first president of the British Guild of Glass Engravers.

It is claimed – though without any documentary evidence – that Thanington churchyard was the inspiration for Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.

To the S of the church stands a veteran (i.e. 500-1200 year old) yew tree, reputedly older than the church itself. Recorded on the AYG register: “An unusual fragmented yew, separated by a gap of 2’-3’ on one side while a section of dead wood from the original trunk fills much of the other gap. Staining to its interior suggests fire or smoke damage. The fragments are held together with covered metal wire.” Girth 612 cm / 20’.  TPO. Many other mature trees.

Early English in style. Symmetrical S elevation, with nave and chancel equal in height, a short gabled S transept, and N tower. The main entrance is via the S porch, between the nave and S transept: it is half-timbered, with small windows on the W side and either side of the door on the S side. There is a small door in the S transept on its W side.

Single lancets to chancel N and S are Norman. Two lancets to chancel, E; single lancets to S transept, W and E (the latter C13), and two lancets to S transept S, with hood moulds with label stops and a weathered buttress between them. Single lancet to nave S, C13. Nave W, three-light, has geometrical tracery (cusped lancets with trefoils and a quatrefoil above) and a hood mould with elaborate foliate stops. Single lancets (two) to nave N.

Tower with diagonal buttresses and pyramidal capped roof, wholly rebuilt 1864, has windows E, S and W in three stages, the lowest simple lancets, the upper two shouldered. There is a flat-roofed link on the N side of the tower to the gabled church hall.

There are steps down from S porch, which has a two-leaf, pointed-arched inner door in a larger pointed-arched surround. From there the floor is level throughout the nave and choir, with two steps up to the sanctuary and a further step up into the altar. There is a piscina by Butterfield on the S wall of the chancel. The interior is bright and flexible thanks to the 2005 reordering that removed its historic seating and installed a suspended timber floor over the historic stone floor. Unfortunately this has robbed the church of some of its character and remaining historic furnishings are left isolated. Brightly patterned encaustic tiles remain in the sanctuary and chancel, the latter unfortunately now covered with blue carpet. There is one step up from the nave into the S transept; the transept is also carpeted, one regrettable consequence of which has been to obscure the medieval memorial brass to Thomas Halle (see below). Set into the S wall of the transept, a C14 piscina, trefoiled, with a hoodmould in the form of a pointed horseshoe. In the W wall of the transept is a blocked arch, related to a lost S aisle.

The nave roof is arch-braced in dark timber, the braces supported on simple stone corbels. Barrel-vaulted roof to chancel, plastered and painted pink between dark-stained timber rafters and purlins. There is a high chancel arch, by Butterfield, with a hoodmould on W side with head stops and corbels with pillars of red stone. Similarly by Butterfield, twin arches to the S chapel, richly moulded and set on a short quatrefoil pier, incorporating the same red stone, with a hood mould with head stops on the nave side. The tower arch, with two continuous chamfers, is thought to be medieval. The windows throughout are deeply set in splayed surrounds with stone dressings.

From the tower, a timber staircase leads up to a ringing chamber, with a bell-chamber beyond.