Christ Church, Kilndown
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Christ Church is a
Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...
in
Kilndown Kilndown is a village west of Cranbrook in Kent, England. It is in the civil parish of Goudhurst. History Two estates existed near the village. The Bedgebury Estate was mentioned in an 814 charter and was a known home to the Culpeper fami ...
,
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
, England. It was built in 1839 under the commission of
William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, (; 2 October 1768 – 8 January 1854) was a British army officer and politician. A General (British Army), general in the British Army and a Marshal of Portugal, Marshal in the Portuguese Army, ...
, and was substantially reordered in the early 1840s in accordance with the principles of the Cambridge Camden Society (later the Ecclesiological Society). Its layout and rich interior decoration, contributed by a range of major architects of the era, made it "a showcase" of the influential Society's ideas: John Betjeman described the church as "a museum of the Camden Society". It was severely damaged by bombing during the Second World War, but has been restored. It is a Grade I
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
.


History

Christ Church was commissioned by Viscount Beresford, who was a
Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...
under
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (; 1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was a British Army officer and statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures in Britain during t ...
in the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
. at a cost of £2500. It was originally designed as a chapel-of-ease for the nearby St Mary's Church, Goudhurst, but an Act of Parliament established it as its own independent
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
parish in 1843. This Act, which was associated with the various Church Building Acts passed in the first decades of the 19th century, was passed on 24 February 1843. It described the parish of Goudhurst as having 2,850 residents but only one
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...
(St Mary's), with a capacity of 750, and the new
chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...
(Christ Church) with 413 seats, 313 of which were free ( pew rents did not apply). The Act then created the "
Chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...
District of Kilndown", consisting of the southwestern part of St Mary's parish. This district later became a parish in its own right. The church was
consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...
on 15 April 1841;
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
William Howley led the service.
Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on Middle Ages, medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations, such as those of the ...
was commissioned to design the church. The result was a plain Gothic "sandstone box" of little architectural merit: architectural historian Roger Homan states that the work subsequently undertaken at the direction of Viscount Beresford's stepson Alexander Beresford Hope "rescued and transformed ... a commonplace country church". Beresford Hope was a founder member of the Cambridge Camden Society (later the Ecclesiological Society), which prized "the truth and beauty" of architecturally correct
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
forms in Anglican church architecture, and was committed to its study and application. Over the course of five years from March 1840 he directed substantial alterations "in accordance with Ecclesiological principles", with particular emphasis on the interior, the east end and the chancel. Beresford Hope called in various high-profile architects to assist with the renovation.
Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on Middle Ages, medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations, such as those of the ...
constructed the stone altar based upon the tomb of William of Wykeham at
Winchester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...
.
William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved distinction in both poetry and mathematics. The breadth of Whewell's endeavours is ...
advised on the design of the windows which were made in Munich-style stained glass and ordered from the
Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...
. Alexander Roos and Thomas Willement painted the chancel screen while William Butterfield designed the lectern. The church suffered from damp because of the porous nature of its sandstone walls, so the murals inside were whitewashed over in the 20th century. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the church was bombed on 13 December 1940 by the Germans. The bomb destroyed 18 of the stained glass windows and dislodged some of the roof tiles. The windows were insured for £30,000 however the insurance did not cover damage from air raids. It was granted Grade I listed status in 1980. Between 2009 and 2020, the future Bishop of St Germans Hugh Nelson was the vicar of Christ Church.


Architecture

Christ Church is built of sandstone quarried in Kilndown village. It consists of a wide but low nave and chancel with
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 (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...
ed walls and with no internal structural division or aisles, a vestry, and a tall two-stage west tower with corner buttresses and topped with a broach spire of stone. The main entrance, the west door, is elaborately arched with a hood mould and complex ironwork. Above this is a
rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...
; all the other windows are lancets. Inside, the church has a low, wide, "stringy" hammerbeam roof, considered by the Cambridge Camden Society as a particularly unsympathetic feature of the original "mean and bad" interior. The 1840 work partly concealed this behind a pierced
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a 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/brea ...
. There is an extensive set of
stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
windows: most were by German stained glass designer Franz Xaver Eggert and depict the Virgin Mary with Christ in her arms, Saints Peter and Paul and various saints associated with Britain. William Slater designed the
reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...
in 1869; it was carved by J.F. Redfern. The architects employed by Beresford Hope to renovate the church were among the most important of the early
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
and included two of the "darlings of the ambridge CamdenSociety": Richard Cromwell Carpenter, who designed the chancel screen and choir stalls, and William Butterfield, who was responsible for the lectern, the pulpit (adjacent to the vestry, and modelled on one at
Beaulieu Abbey Beaulieu Abbey was a Cistercian abbey in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1203–1204 by John of England, King John and (uniquely in England in the Middle Ages, Britain) populated by 30 monks sent from the abbey of Cîteaux in France, the ...
) and a "distinctive" brass candelabra. Accordingly, the church "became an object of national interest" as a test-bed for the Cambridge Camden Society's theories and an exemplar of its ideas. Richard Cromwell Carpenter's son Richard Herbert Carpenter and his architectural partner Benjamin Ingelow designed Beresford Hope's tomb, which is separately listed at Grade II and is located immediately outside the south wall.


See also

* Grade I listed buildings in Tunbridge Wells (borough) * List of new churches by Anthony Salvin * List of places of worship in Tunbridge Wells (borough) *


References


Bibliography

* * {{Refend Church of England church buildings in Kent Grade I listed churches in Kent 1839 establishments in England Borough of Tunbridge Wells Gothic Revival church buildings in England British churches bombed by the Luftwaffe Anthony Salvin buildings Diocese of Canterbury