St Mary's Church, Hunton facts for kids

Quick facts for kids St Mary's church, Hunton
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Location	Hunton, Kent
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	[1]
History
Status	Parish church
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	23 May 1967
Completed	Late 11th or 12th century; 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 19th centuries
Administration
Deanery	Malling
Archdeaconry	Tonbridge
Diocese	Rochester
Province	Canterbury

St Mary's Church is a very old church located in Hunton, Kent, England. It was started a long, long time ago, either in the late 1000s or early 1100s. This church is so important that it's a Grade I listed building, which means it's protected because of its special history and architecture.

The Church Building

How the Church Was Built

St Mary's Church is really old! It was started way back in the late 1000s or early 1100s. Over hundreds of years, it was changed and made bigger many times. This happened in the 1200s, 1300s, 1400s, 1500s, and 1800s.

The church is built from rough stone pieces and has simple tiled roofs. A man named Ewan Christian helped fix it up in 1876.

Parts of the Church

The main part of the church, called the nave, has an extra section, or aisle, on its south side. The chancel (the area around the altar) has a small chapel on its south side and a room called a vestry to its north.

The tall tower at the west end of the church was built in the 1200s. It has three main sections, separated by stone bands. The corners of the tower have strong supports called buttresses. You can see single, narrow windows on the north, south, and west sides of the upper parts of the tower.

The top of the tower has a pyramid-shaped spire covered with wooden shingles. These shingles also cover the small, sloping roof of the stair turret, which is a little tower with stairs inside, on the south-east side of the main tower.

Changes Over Time

The south aisle was added in the 1400s. Its stone wall has a single buttress near the south porch. It also has a plain parapet, which is a low wall along the edge of the roof. There are two rectangular windows with two sections each on the south side. A pointed arch window with two sections is on the west end.

The porch has buttresses at its outer corners and a gabled roof (a roof with two sloping sides that meet at a ridge). The south chapel was rebuilt or had its outside redone in 1866. It has rectangular windows with two sections, made in the style of the 1400s.

The north wall of the nave is from the late 1000s or 1100s. It has special corner stones made of tufa stone. Two windows with two sections, decorated with quatrefoil (four-leaf) and sexfoil (six-leaf) patterns, are from the late 1200s or early 1300s. A window with three sections from the 1400s is in the middle of the north side.

The chancel is mostly from the 1200s, with some parts as old as the nave. The large east window, which has three sections, was added in the 1800s but looks like it's from the 1400s. The north side of the chancel has a wide, narrow window. The vestry was probably added in 1866. It has two narrow windows on its north side and a door on the west.

Interior looking east from the nave to the chancel

Inside the Church

Inside, the nave is separated from the aisle by a series of three pointed arches from the 1400s. These arches are supported by eight-sided columns. The arches leading to the tower and the chancel are from the 1200s and 1300s. The arches connecting the chancel to the vestry and chapel, and between the aisle and chapel, were all added in the 1800s.

The nave has a special roof called a crown post roof, with decorated posts and angled beams. The chancel roof is covered with boards, and the chapel roof has a "scissor braced" design.

On the south wall of the chancel, there's a double stone seat from the 1200s, made of a special stone called Bethersden Marble. Next to it, in the south-east corner, is a piscina, which is a basin used for washing sacred vessels. The font, where baptisms take place, is eight-sided and has decorated panels.

St Mary's Church was officially recognized as a Grade I English Heritage listed building on May 23, 1967. This means it's a very important historical site. The records show it's a "Parish church. Late C11 or C12, C13, C14, C15, C16, and 1866. Restored 1876 by Ewan Christian. Uncoursed ragstone rubble with plain tile roof. West tower, nave, south aisle, south porch, chancel with south chapel and north vestry." A special marble plaque on the nave wall remembers Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who owned a country home nearby called Hunton Court. He passed away in 1908.

Monuments and Memorials

Remembering Important People

Inside St Mary's Church, you can find many monuments that remember important local families. These include memorials for:

• Sir Thomas Fane (who was a Member of Parliament) and his wife, both of whom passed away in 1606.
• Francis Fane (who passed away around 1651).
• Lady Anne Fane (who passed away in 1663).
• Another Sir Thomas Fane (also a Member of Parliament), who passed away in 1692.
• Henry Hatley (who passed away in 1716).
• Thomas Turner (who passed away in 1776).
• Thomas Durant Punnett (who passed away in 1785).
• And Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908. He owned Hunton Court, a large house nearby, and passed away in 1908.

Old Tombs in the Churchyard

The churchyard (the area around the church) also has many old tombs and headstones. Some of these are also listed as Grade II historical items, meaning they are important. These include the graves of:

• James Allen (who passed away in 1682).
• Paul Beeston (who passed away in 1694).
• Richard Beeston (who passed away in 1691).
• Ann Bishop (who passed away in 1653).
• James Bishop (who passed away around 1652).
• Mary Bisset (who passed away in 1698).
• William Bisset (who passed away in 1714).
• Henry Catlet (who passed away in 1700).
• Samuel Hovenden (who passed away around 1653).
• Thomas Newman (who passed away in 1710).
• And Mary Snatt (who passed away in 1666).

There are also several other listed tombs that are so old their names can no longer be read.

See also

• Grade I listed buildings in Maidstone