All Saints Church is a parish church in

Hollingbourne Hollingbourne is a village and civil parish in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The parish is located on the southward slope of the North Downs to the east of the county town, Maidstone. The parish population is around 900 and has th ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It was begun in the 14th century and is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The church contains numerous monuments to the local Culpeper family.

Building

The church was begun in the 14th century and was altered and extended in the 15th century, in 1638, 1869 and 1903. The church is constructed of

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 start fir ...

and

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone work and has plain tiled roofs. It was restored in 1876 by George Gilbert Scott, Jr. and is a Grade I listed building. 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 ...

is adjoined by

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

s on the north and south sides and 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. Ove ...

has a chapel on its north side and a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

to its south. The west tower comprises three stages. A moulded

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

with

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

s is topped by a

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

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'). Whe ...

. Single-light cinquefoil headed windows are located on the first stage above the west doorway and on each side of the second stage. The belfry windows are similar, but two-lighted. The north aisle is late 14th century and contains three three-lighted traceried windows, the easternmost one with a

trefoil A trefoil () is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings, used in architecture and Christian symbolism, among other areas. The term is also applied to other symbols with a threefold shape. A similar shape with four rin ...

ed head. The attached porch is constructed of flint with a moulded stone

coping Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...

, inner and outer doorways, and trefoil-headed windows to the sides. The north aisle and the porch are both

buttress 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 (s ...

ed. The north chapel has an ashlar stone

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In c ...

and a battlemented parapet. Its east window is three-lighted with a segmental head. The chancel is late 14th century and was probably rebuilt after the earthquake of 1382. The east end contains a three-lighted window with cinquefoil-heads and tracery. The north and south walls of the chancel each contain two-lighted windows. The south aisle is early 14th century with a moulded stone plinth. Buttresses are positioned on the south-west corner and on the south wall. The west end wall contains a three-lighted window and three two-lighted arched and traceried windows are located between the buttress on the south wall. The vestry was built in 1903 and continues the south aisle's moulded plinth. It contains a doorway on the east side and a two-lighted window on the south side. Colepeper cloth

Internally, the nave is separated from the aisles on each side with 14th-century arcades of three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

of pointed arches with octagonal columns; those to the north being later. The chapel is accessed by steps up from the north aisle and sits above a

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

which partly extends under the east end of the north aisle. The nave has a

crown post A crown post is a term in traditional timber framing for a post in roof framing which stands on a ''tie beam'' or ''collar beam'' and supports a ''collar plate''.Alcock, N. W.. Recording timber-framed buildings: an illustrated glossary. London: ...

roof with moulded posts and

chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...

ed tie beams. The chancel roof is of simple rafters and the roofs of the aisles are

lean-to A lean-to is a type of simple structure originally added to an existing building with the rafters "leaning" against another wall. Free-standing lean-to structures are generally used as shelters. One traditional type of lean-to is known by its Finn ...

s. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

is octagonal on an octagonal stem and octagonal base. The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

is 17th century and hexagonal. The pews were installed by George Gilbert Scott, Jr. The vestry contains the ''Culpeper needlework'', a 17th-century embroidery on velvet associated with the Culpeper family, thought previously to have been an

altar cloth An altar cloth is used in the Christian liturgy to cover the altar. It serves as a sign of reverence as well as a decoration and a protection of the altar and the sacred vessels. In the orthodox churches is covered by the antimension, which also c ...

, but now believed to be a funeral pall.

Monuments and memorials

The church contains numerous monuments and memorials to the Culpeper family, owners of

Leeds Castle Leeds Castle is a castle in Kent, England, southeast of Maidstone. It is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds. A castle has existed on the site since 857. In the 13th century, it came into the ...

and Hollingbourne Manor. These include Francis and Johanna Culpeper (''d''. 1591 and 1597), Philippa Culpeper (''d''. 1630), Elizabeth Culpeper (''d''. 1638) and the first, third and fourth Barons Colepeper: John Colpeper (''d''. 1660), John Colepeper (''d''. 1719) and Cheny Colepeper (''d''. 1725). Other memorials include those to Martin Barnham (''d''. 1610, father of Sir Francis Barnham), Dame Grace Gethin (''d''. 1697),David Wilson, ‘Gethin , Grace, Lady Gethin (1676–1697)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 23 December 2014
/ref> Samuel Plummer (''d''. 1705), Baldwin Duppa (''d''. 1737) and Baldwin Duppa (''d''. 1764). The memorials for the third and fourth barons and for the two members of the Duppa family are by

John Michael Rysbrack Johannes Michel or John Michael Rysbrack, original name Jan Michiel Rijsbrack, often referred to simply as Michael Rysbrack (24 June 1694 – 8 January 1770), was an 18th-century Flemish sculptor, who spent most of his career in England where h ...

. The churchyard contains a number of Grade II listed 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century table tombs.

References

External links

Kent Churches - All Saints Hollingbourne
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollingbourne, All Saints Borough of Maidstone 14th-century church buildings in England Grade I listed churches in Kent Church of England church buildings in Kent Diocese of Canterbury

Building

Monuments and memorials

See also

References

External links