St Matthew's, Warehorne: a delightful unrestored church

The ‘unrestored of the title refers to Victorian restoration

Romney Marsh: the southernmost area of Kent

Please note that there are unaccountable spaces at the end of this blog, so please do not give up until the notes at the end!

Warehorne and Kenardington on the edge of
the Low Weald: degraded sea cliffs at
Romney Marsh boundary

I noted in my previous blog, on St Marys, East Guldeford, that Romney Marsh is a generic name used for the area covered by Romney Marsh, Walland Marsh, and Denge Marsh. References to ‘the Marsh’ also cover the entire area. When the area marked Romney Marsh on the maps is being referred to it is called ‘Romney Marsh proper’.

I am very grateful to my friend, Adrian Barlow, for reading this piece before I posted it, and correcting me on several key points relating to church architecture (and a couple of key misspellings which almost verged on schoolboy howlers!). Any other errors will be attributable to my own misreadings, and I would be grateful to readers if they would bring these to my attention.

‘The Parish of Warehorne lies upon the clay-hills [of the Low Weald], near the western boundaries of them, an unhealthy, as well as unpleasant situation, partaking of the gross atmosphere of the Marsh ... The church stands on the edge of the hill, overlooking the Marsh, which is at the foot of it.’

So wrote Edward Hasted in Volume 8 of his exhaustive The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (Canterbury, 1799). It may stand as a fair description  of St Mathew’s church and its adjacent village as it is today, but with two exceptions. 1 It is likely           that Hasted’s description of “the gross atmosphere of the Marsh” is due to the prevalence of what was then called ague or Marsh fever, a form of malaria most likely caused by the mosquito species Anopheles atroparvus; and the strain most probably responsible for this “debilitating disease” was Plasmodium vivax. It is said that the mortality rate on the Marsh  was twice that of the villages well removed from the levels.  2 I would imagine that Hasted’s “unpleasant situation” relates to Warehorne’s openness to the prevailing winds. But central heating, double–glazing, and Gor Tex were of course unknown at the time; and, as there is a direct correlation between cold weather and respiratory diseases, it seems likely that Marsh and open hillside were confounded in Hasted’s History. It is true that the gentle slope from St Matthews’ churchyard to the levels of the Marsh has a certain scrubbiness about it. But our taste has shifted far from the Sublime of the Romantics, and we now find pleasure in the smallest of topographical changes in the countryside.

St Matthew’s is approximately 27 metres above mean sea level; and the Marsh area of Warehorne County Parish – which falls entirely within Romney Marsh proper – is uniformly 2 metres (3 metres would be an approximate average for the entire Marsh). The church is built of Kentish ragstone, (the only significant source of hard limestone to be found in south east England), has a tiled roof, a brick tower (“Big bleak” – John Newman in the Pevsner Guide), and a brick porch with a compass gable.

‘The Tower, originally of stone, was struck by lightning in 1770, and by 1777 it had been rebuilt in brick. In those days a parish rate could be levied for the repair of a Parish Church, and brick was presumably used as an economy.’ (Church guide)

The tower is supported by two offset angle buttresses; while the church has only two small adjacent buttresses to the western corner of the south aisle, suggesting that ragstone is indeed a strong building material. The destruction of the original tower is something of a tragedy, because smooth near–utilitarian brick on such large a scale is hardly complementary to the softer grey–browns of the ragstone. However it is impossible to say what shape or proportions the original tower took, ¹ and if the existing tower was removed the building would certainly be diminished for lack of contrast, and as a focal point when seen from the distance.

‘The Domesday Book states that there was a Church here then, but no visible remains of an early Saxon or Norman building survive. The oldest part of the building is the nave, c 1200, to which were added the successively the chancel, with Choir and Sanctuary (at the East end), the aisles ... and the original stone tower, the whole probably completed by 1450–1500 ... The north aisle was probably the Lady Chapel [dedicated to the Virgin Mary]... the south aisle originally contained the Chapel of St Catherine, who was regarded as the patron saint of Wool Merchants. The Chapel was convenient for prayer on their journey as they rested themselves and their train of pack–ponies at the Woolpack Inn [currently closed for refurbishment, due to reopen spring 2015] opposite the Church – spiritual and bodily refreshment.’ (Church guide)

The chancel is particularly spacious and airy, and there is a pleasant greenness to the light which is caused by the greenish glass windows: almost certainly a product of their time rather than the result of any staining process.  The King posts (vertical timbers) are original.












2

The plan of St Matthews – in common with most Early Gothic English churches is comparatively simple. Nevertheless, for the sake of clarity it’s useful to map out the principle areas, so that the details can be related to them.  

Exterior, north chancel

The tracery of the two eastern and western chancel windows is delightfully cusped (c 1500), and the design a fine example of the beauty that can be achieved by making subtle changes within a highly defined style (Gothic, in this case).

“In the right aesthetic climate, even unimaginative repetition, imitation and rigid clichés need not act as straightjackets inhibiting the play of the imagination. Artistic traditions which bind the artist both in content and in form can give him more freedom than the forced over–originality of our time ... In the Byzantium Museum in Athens one can see the same icon repeated in many examples, one looking like an almost exact copy of another. Yet what differences in power!” Anton Ehrenzweig, The Hidden order of Art (California, 1971) 

The fine double chamfered arches of the nave, supported by piers of Sussex Marble  (a local marble from Bethersden, Kent: cretaceous, and tens of millions of years old – as with the Wealden clay: predating the Book of Genesis by unconscionable aeons!) Box pews. ³

                        Sussex Marble piers

The nave roof: four crown posts, on moulded Tie Beams, with quatrefoil pierced knee braces (struts fixed diagonally as a reinforcement between two parts of a structure that meet at right angles: SOD).

Flemish north porch.

John Newman in the Pevsner Guide – West Kent and the Weald – refers to ‘... small red–brick n porch with compass gable’. However, no reference to such a gable is anywhere to be found.

Endnotes:

I have not tried to provide a complete guide to St Matthews, but have concentrated on such aspects of this fine church that particularly struck me.

¹  (Note from Adrian Barlow) Not entirely impossible: the surviving tower arch gives the best indication of its width - and therefore of its footprint. The original nave roof is quite high, so the tower would necessarily have been high too. The angled buttresses of course give the impression that the wall dimensions seem wider than they really are.

² ‘Sanctuary and Chancel (east). There is no chancel arch separating nave and chancel, but there was formerly a Pre-reformation Rood Screen.’

³ (Note from Adrian Barlow) Box pews: probably late 18th C, with their distinctively Georgian rectangular panels. Victorian restorers disliked box pews of any kind - and as you have pointed out, the Victorians themselves left this church unrestored.