St Mary and St Eanswythe's Church is a

Grade II* listed 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 I ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

church in

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

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 ...

, situated not far from cliffs overlooking the English Channel. Parts of the building date from the 13th century, but it was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. It is unusual in having a central tower.

St Eanswythe

St Eanswythe was an Anglo-Saxon princess, a granddaughter of king

Æthelberht of Kent Æthelberht (; also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert; ang, Æðelberht ; 550 – 24 February 616) was King of Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his ''Ecclesiastical History of the Engli ...

(who was converted to Christianity by

Augustine of Canterbury Augustine of Canterbury (early 6th century – probably 26 May 604) was a monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.Delaney ''D ...

), and daughter of king Eadbald of Kent, who reigned from 616 to 640.St Mary & St Eanswythe Church - Folkestone
Kent Past. Retrieved 9 December 2017. She was born about 630, and it is believed that she was the abbess of a nunnery here. The nunnery was later destroyed, perhaps by falling into the sea, or sacked by Vikings in 867. In 1138, after intermediate rebuilding, a new monastery was built,

Folkestone Priory Folkestone Priory was a pre-Reformation Benedictine monastery at Folkestone in the English county of Kent. The priory church survives as the present parish church. It was the successor to Folkestone Abbey, an Anglo-Saxon nunnery on a different sit ...

, with a church dedicated to St Mary and St Eanswythe, the foundation of the present building; the relics of St Eanswythe were brought into the church on 12 September 1138. The building was destroyed in a fire in 1216, and restored in 1220, and extended in 1236."St Eanswythe"
Friends of St Mary and St Eanswythe. Retrieved 10 December 2017. Via

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

19th century and later

In parts of the present building, the earlier church (before the 19th century) is still visible: the arcade 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. ...

is of the 13th century; the

lady chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel or a Marian chapel, ...

(north of the chancel) and St Eanswythe's chapel (south of the chancel), and the arches of the tower, are of the 15th century. During the incumbency of Canon Matthew Woodward, vicar from 1851 to 1898, the church was largely rebuilt.History
St Mary and St Eanswythe. Retrieved 4 April 2020. 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-typ ...

and north aisle were rebuilt by R. C. Hussey in the 1850s. The west window and porch were created by Stallwood in 1872. The south chancel aisle and

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...

were rebuilt in 1869, the south aisle in 1974. The three altar windows, and the windows in the

Lady Chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel or a Marian chapel, ...

, were created by C. E. Kempe."Windows"
Friends of St Mary and St Eanswythe. Retrieved 10 December 2017. Via Wayback Machine.

Discovery of reliquary

During renovation of the church in 1885, a

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including '' phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it is housed a ''fer ...

was discovered in a niche in the walls near the altar. From the ornamentation it was judged to be of the 12th century. It contained the bones of a young woman who died in the 7th century; from the position of the reliquary, it was concluded that they were the remains of St Eanswythe. They were re-interred in the same place, the niche covered by a brass door and grille. Scientific re-examination early in 2020 confirmed that they almost certainly did belong to Eanswythe.

Organ

It is known there was an organ in the church in 1528. It was rebuilt several times in the 19th century; further history from earlier centuries is little known. The present organ was built in the South Transept by William Hill & Sons of London in 1894 and then rebuilt and enlarged in 1930 by

Hill, Norman & Beard William Hill & Son & Norman & Beard Limited (commonly known as Hill, Norman and Beard) were a major pipe organ manufacturer originally based in Norfolk. History They were founded in 1916 by the merger of Norman and Beard and William Hill & Son ...

, so that it had 39 stops.Choir and organ
St Mary and St Eanswythe. Retrieved 9 December 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Folkestone, St Mary and St Eanswythe's Church Grade II* listed churches in Kent Church of England church buildings in Kent Diocese of Canterbury