St Mary's and All Saints is a

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 ...

in Boxley,

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 ...

begun in the 13th century and with additions in the 14th and 15th centuries. The church was restored in the 1870s. 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 ...

Building

Structure

The church is constructed with uncoursed local rag-stone and

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. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

walls and plain tiled roofs. 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 flanked by aisles on each side and the

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

has a vestry on the south side. The tower at the west end of the nave has a

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of Early Christian art and architecture, early Christian and Byzantine architecture, Byzantine basilicas and Church architecture, churches consisting of the entrance or Vestibule (architecture), ve ...

on its west side, being the remains of an earlier church. The tower is formed in three stages 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 corners and a

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

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 ...

. A stair turret is attached to the north-east corner and

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

windows are located on the top floor on each side. The narthex has a half-hipped roof with a restored three-lighted

perpendicular gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...

window set left of centre on the west face above the entrance door. Smaller two-lighted windows are positioned at low level in the north and south walls. The north and south aisles feature variously sized and detailed two-lighted

decorated gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed a ...

windows on their flank and end walls. The centre

bay 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, ci ...

of the south aisle is occupied by the south porch. The windows in the chancel and the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

on its south side are 19th-century.

Interior

The interior of the narthex features remains of Norman arcading and a common rafter roof. The doorways through the east and west walls of the tower are perpendicular with the one on the west having carvings of a bishop and a king in the moulding over. The north and south sides of the nave are divided from the aisles on each side with early 13th-century arcades of three bays on short circular piers. The chancel arch is early perpendicular. The roofs of the nave is early 15th-century with moulded

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. Londo ...

trusses. The scissor braced roofs to the aisles are 13th-century. The chancel roof is thought to be 19th-century. The east ends of each aisle contain a

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. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

. The font is 19th-century on an early 15th-century base.

Bells

There is a ring of six bells (tenor in F sharp) hung in the English style for

full circle ringing Full circle ringing is a technique of ringing a tower bell such that it swings in a complete circle from mouth upwards to mouth upwards and then back again repetitively. English full-circle ringing technique Full-circle tower bell ringing in ...

Notable people

James Craigie Robertson was curate here in the 1840s before he went on to be religious historian and a canon at Canterbury Cathedral. His daughter Emily Innes was born here in 1846.

Memorials and monuments

The church contains memorials to Sir Henry Wiat of Allington Castle (d. 1537, erected 1702), Richard Tomynn (d. 1576), George and Elizabeth Charlton (d. 1707 and d. 1750), Hannah Champneys (d. 1748), William Champneys (d. 1760) and Frances Champneys (d. 1800). The

lychgate A lychgate (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...

constructed in 1875 is listed separately as a Grade II listed structure. The churchyard contains a large number of Grade II listed monuments and headstones.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boxley, Saint Mary 12th-century church buildings in England Grade I listed churches in Kent Church of England church buildings in Kent Diocese of Canterbury May and All Saints