The Church of St Peter and St Paul is an active Anglican

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in Church Lane,

Trottiscliffe Trottiscliffe ( ) is a village in Kent, England about north west of West Malling. It is often incorrectly spelled ''Trosley'' after Trosley Country Park at the top of the North Downs, which was once part of the Trosley Towers Estate. The spe ...

, in the Borough of Tonbridge and Malling, Kent, England. It is situated below the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills a ...

on the lowest levels of the Lower Chalk, above a

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...

on the

Gault clay The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in ...

top at approximately 280 feet above ordnance datum. The church dates from the late 11th century and is dedicated to saints

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

and

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

. It is a Pilgrim Church as it is located near to the

Pilgrims' Way The Pilgrims' Way (also Pilgrim's Way or Pilgrims Way) is the historical route supposedly taken by pilgrims from Winchester in Hampshire, England, to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent. This name, of comparatively recent coinage ...

, the historical route purportedly taken by

pilgrim A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of ...

s from Winchester in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, to the shrine of

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

in Kent. The church has been recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade I listed building since 1959 and is also notable for its large pulpit, which stood in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

until 1820.

History

High Middle Ages

Construction of the church began during the

Norman era England in the High Middle Ages includes the history of England between the Norman Conquest in 1066 and the death of King John, considered by some to be the last of the Angevin kings of England, in 1216. A disputed succession and victory at the ...

to the design of an unknown architect. The

opus spicatum ''Opus spicatum'', literally "spiked work," is a type of masonry construction used in Roman and medieval times. It consists of bricks, tiles or cut stone laid in a herringbone pattern. Uses Its usage was generally decorative and most commonly i ...

masonry, as well as a reference in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

, suggest that the church dates from c. 1080. It was built by the Bishop of Rochester, probably

Gundulf Gundulf and its variants (Gondulf, Gundulph, Kundolf, Gondulphus, Gundulfus, Gundolfo, Gondon) is a Germanic given name, from ''gund'', "battle", and ''wulf'', "wolf". It may refer to: *Gondulf of Provence, 6th-century duke and possibly made Bishop ...

, who lived in a house on the site of the neighbouring manor in the 11th century.

Late Middle Ages

The south doorway into the nave and the north and south lancets at the west end of the nave were added in the 13th century. The south window may also have been constructed at this time but this is uncertain as it was completely rebuilt in the 19th century. During the early 14th century, possibly under Bishop Hamo Hethe, new stained glass windows were installed in the south-east side of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

(which had a trefoil-headed

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

just below it to the east) and the north-east side of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

. The 15th century saw the bell tower added to the south-west of the building.

18th and 19th centuries

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, repairs were carried out using brick. In the late 19th century, the four-light window on the west side and west wall were rebuilt with

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

from local

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

, the three-light window on the east side was replaced, repairs were carried out using Bath stone and Portland stone, and the churchyard was extended on the north-eastern aspect.

Post-war

On 25 August 1959, the church was designated as a Grade I listed building, meaning it is considered to be a "building of exceptional interest" by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. It has been assigned National Heritage List for England (NHLE) reference number 1236191 and English Heritage Legacy ID 427136. As of February 2001, it was one of 38 Grade I listed buildings, and 1,291 listed buildings of all grades, in the district of

Tonbridge and Malling Tonbridge and Malling is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England. Tonbridge is the largest settlement but the authority is based in the modern development of Kings Hill. Geography Tonbridge and Malling Borough cover ...

– the

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

in which Trottiscliffe is situated. In 1975, the flint and ragstone south boundary wall was rebuilt.

Present day

Administratively, St Peter and St Paul is a constituent of a united benefice with three neighbouring parish churches, forming the BART Group. BART is an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for the four villages in which the churches are situated: : Birling: All Saints : Addington: St Margaret : Ryarsh: St Martin : Trottiscliffe: St Peter and St Paul The church is in the deanery of Malling, the archdeaconry of

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated populat ...

, the

Diocese of Rochester The Diocese of Rochester is a Church of England diocese in the English county of Kent and the Province of Canterbury. The cathedral church of the diocese is Rochester Cathedral in the former city of Rochester. The bishop's Latin episcopal signa ...

and the Province of Canterbury. It continues to be an active parish church, holding a communion service on the second Sunday of each month, a morning worship service on the fourth Sunday of each month and is open daily for visitors. St Peter and St Paul is currently in an interregnum following the retirement of Reverend Dr. Linda Shuker.

Description

Exterior

St Peter and St Paul is an early

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

church that consists of a simple

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

layout – a rectangular building with an added tower that covers an area of 217 square metres.

Nave and chancel

The nave and chancel appear to have been constructed on a continuous foundation of large blocks, some of which are sarsen. The original

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

is made from whole

flints Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be con ...

(from the Folkestone Beds) and Kentish ragstone. The dressings are made of

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertin ...

and the rere-arches of the original windows are

greensand Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called ''glauconies'' and co ...

. Bath stone, Portland stone and brick was used for repairs in the 18th and 19th centuries while

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

and thin

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

s have been used for more recent repair work. The west end of the nave has a doorway and lancets that probably date from the 13th century. The chancel is only slightly smaller than the nave and there is no chancel arch. The western window on the south side of the chancel is unusually far to the west and has been rebuilt externally. The nave and chancel have a continuous

rafter A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as wooden beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof shingles, roof deck and its associated ...

, collar and soulace roof that may date from the 14th century. The south wall of the nave adjoins the north wall of the tower.

Tower

The tower, and

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

beneath it, probably date from the 15th century. It has a barrel vault through its north-east side to allow access to an earlier south door, two contemporary

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (si ...

on the south wall and a

ragstone Rag-stone is a name given by some architectural writers to work done with stones that are quarried in thin pieces, such as Horsham Stone, sandstone, Yorkshire stone, and the slate stones, but this is more properly flag or slab work. Near London ...

doorway and dressings. The tower has small trefoiled windows on the south and west sides and three two-light perpendicular cinquefoil-headed windows, under square

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

s, on the upper part of the tower on the east, south and west sides. It has a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

and a low

pyramid roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

Interior

Pulpit

The pulpit, stairs and sounding board at St Peter and St Paul date from 1775. It was originally constructed for

and was designed by abbey surveyor Henry Keene. In 1820, the pulpit was removed from the Abbey to create space for the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

, which took place in 1821. The pulpit was given to the owner of Court Lodge (the Bishop’s Palace until the end of the 13th century), adjacent to St Peter and St Paul, by abbey surveyor

Benjamin Dean Wyatt Benjamin Dean Wyatt (1775–1852) was an English architect, part of the Wyatt family. Early life He was the son and pupil of the architect James Wyatt, and the brother of Matthew Cotes Wyatt. Before setting up as an architect in 1809, he joine ...

and given to the church in 1824.

Bells

The tower holds one William Hatch bell cast in 1639 and a service bell cast in 1853 by C&G Mears of the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

. Prior to this there had been at least three bells.

Monuments and memorials

There are numerous monuments within the church, including

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

s dedicated to the residents of Trottiscliffe who lost their lives during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and a brass monument, dated 1483, in front of the chancel step. There are burial vaults under the church.

Stained glass

The church has a wide selection of stained glass. The original glass in the

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

of the north nave window consists of canopies with a quatrefoil above that depicts a figure of the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

. The stained glass in the west window is by

Ward and Hughes Ward and Hughes (formerly Ward and Nixon) was the name of an English company producing stained-glass windows. History Ward and Hughes was proceeded by the company Ward and Nixon, whose studio was at 67 Frith Street, Soho. They created large wind ...

and dates from 1885. The late twentieth century stained glass by Keith and Judy Hill depicts Bishop Gundulf. The octagonal baptismal font may date from the 14th century and the oak reredos, twisted baluster altar rails and

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in ch ...

s date from the 18th century.

Churchyard

The churchyard consists of a small rectangular area around the church, which was extended on the north-eastern side c. 1875. The artist

Graham Sutherland Graham Vivian Sutherland (24 August 1903 – 17 February 1980) was a prolific English artist. Notable for his paintings of abstract landscapes and for his portraits of public figures, Sutherland also worked in other media, including printmaking ...

(1903–1980), a former resident of Trottiscliffe, is buried in the north side of the churchyard.

References

External links

Official websiteSee Around Britain website page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trottiscliffe, Church of St Peter and St Paul 11th-century architecture in the United Kingdom 11th-century church buildings in England Christianity in Kent Church of England church buildings in Kent Diocese of Rochester English churches with Norman architecture Grade I listed churches in Kent History of Kent Tonbridge and Malling Towers in Kent Westminster Abbey