Boughton under Blean with Dunkirk Parish

Construction

Construction is of local flint and rubble, with plain clay tiled roofs to the main structure. The nave has a crown post roof, the north and south aisles lean-to roofs, the south transept a crown post roof and the chancel a trussed roof.  The north chapel has a crown post roof, and the south chapel has a trussed roof.  Some of the roofs, in the north chapel, retain many ancient timbers.

The original entrance would have been the north door, where a later porch was made into the vicar’s vestry in 1615; it contains a board giving details of the alms-lands scattered around the parish, the basis for a charity still administered by the vicar, churchwardens and parish council. Another board lists the vicars dating back to 1208. Near the vestry door is the remains of a Stoup; here, people entering the church in the Middle Ages would have dipped their fingers in holy water.

Carrying on along the left aisle towards Rood Screen, you will see the little staircase which originally led to a platform above the screen and the arches where it crossed the church.  The rood loft over the screen was destroyed by the Victorian. A 16^th-century timber screen separates the nave from the chancel and a 15^th-century timber screen separates the north aisle from the north chapel.  A similar ancient screen separates the south aisle from the south chapel. On the north wall is a tiny broken staircase which gave access to the rood loft over the screen, but this was destroyed by Victorian restorers, along with the 17^th-century box pews.

The Building

The building contains several wall-mounted monuments and memorials, particularly the fine collection, mostly 17th century, in the north chapel, which is also known as the Hawkins Chapel. The Chapel contains a fine monument to Thomas Hawkins and his wife, of Nash Court, by Epiphanius Evesham, and shows Sir Thomas Hawkins (d.1617) and Lady Anne (d.1615). Their seven sons and six daughters are shown mourning below. The eldest son, Thomas, sheltered a recusant friar at Nash Court in 1633. The second son, Henry, became a Jesuit and was first imprisoned and then exiled for his faith.

A brass on the floor is to an earlier Sir Thomas 1486-1587 and boasts of his great height and age.  He served Henry VIII faithfully and is shown in his armour. Moving through to the Chancel, the stained-glass windows are Victorian, and there are several tombs, including one of William Kendrick, a colonel in Cromwell’s army who acquired all the church’s land in this and neighbouring parishes, and lived himself in the parsonage until the restoration of Charles II. Another tomb contains a rare stonemason’s error. See if you can find it!

The South Chapel and Tower

The south chapel is now occupied by a fine organ, which came from a Methodist Church in Dover in 1961. Once, it was the chapel of St John the Baptist and, along with the South Transept, would have contained several altars. Lights were kept burning before them, maintained from rent paid by parishioners for church cows and sheep. When the altars were destroyed at the Reformation, the ‘light’ money was used for poor relief. On the south wall are tiny sculptures of John Petit and his wife kneeling at a desk; he was a household servant of Elizabeth I.

The 15^th-century tower contains the bell room, whose eight bells are regularly rung. There have been bells hung here since at least 1565 when there were three. There are now eight. Some bear rhymes of distinctly establishment sentiment – “To honour both of God and King Our voices shall in concert sing, while thus we join in the cheerful sound Let love and loyalty abound.” Over the centuries, parish records show that the bells pealed royal celebrations, tolled for regal passings, and announced victories. A chiming Victorian clock was added in 1890. Until a storm of 1705, a shingle-covered spire stood on the tower.

The Churchyard

In the large churchyard, the local history by Joan White noted that “from the time of the first burial register in 1558 until 1900 7,762 people were buried here – add to those buried before records and since 1900 it will be seen that the 295 stones in the part before the ditch gives no idea of the bodies lying beneath”.

Among the graves is one Nicholas Mears who was murdered by William Courtenay in the skirmish that preceded the battle of Bossenden Wood, near Dunkirk, in 1838. Nicholas had set off with his brother the parish constable to arrest Courtenay the leader of a local rebellion who in the turbulent 1830s had gathered around him a band of disaffected agricultural workers. Many who died in the battle are buried in an unmarked grave in our sister church at Hernhill.

The largest of the yew trees, by the south door, has been traced back to its donation in 1695.