Every summer, as part of the Friends of St Mary’s annual programme, there is an outing to two or three churches on or around Romney Marsh followed by tea with the “Ladies of Stone” (formerly the Women’s Institute). On 4 July the plan was to visit Lydd and Old Romney churches, which we have not considered for over eight years.
On a very warm afternoon, 28 Friends boarded Rye Community transport at Station Approach. Chairman of the Friends, Colonel Anthony Kimber acted as the guide and secretary Gill Harvey assembled the participants. With access to the churches pre-arranged, we set off.
Our first stop was the “Cathedral of the Marsh” at Lydd. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Camber could be expected to be a traffic problem, but drivers, Pat the Bus and Debbie steered through. Lydd was quiet as we entered the huge parish church. At 199 feet long, this is the longest parish church in Kent. Dedicated to All Saints, the church was built on a mound probably raised in pre-Saxon times, in an area of the early inhabited marsh formed by a pebble ridge.
Inside the church, the northwest corner comprises stonework found by recent studies to have dated from the 5th century, making it Romano-British. Indeed, the present day church subsumes what was a small basilica dating back to the late stages of the Roman occupation. The basilica was probably then incorporated into a Saxon church and then into the present-day Norman founded church.
From the 13th century, several Fraternities or Guilds aligned with Saints were connected with the church. Each of these held services in chapels in different parts of the church, before the image of their saint. The church has features from the 13th century, such as a double piscina and octagonal bases to older pillars, used in times before pews, when older congregants sat “backs against the wall”.
There are monuments from later centuries – early 15th to 17th – grave brasses conserved on wall displays and refurbished sections of a rood screen, removed in the 1500s. In the north chapel there is the gravestone of Thomas Adgar. He sailed with Captain Cook, was master of convict ships and ended his career as master of the Dungeness light.
The east end of the church was extensively damaged in 1940 by a German bomb. The restoration is in the early English style, with quite a spectacular roof. In the graveyard, there are tombs of the Strugell family dating from 1551, along with a number of sailors, drowned during storms on the dangerous coast.
After time meandering through the church, it was off to Old Romney. Here the Church of St Clement was built by the Normans in the mid 12th century, on ground probably raised by the Saxons, close to the former course of the River Rother, at a time when it entered the sea at New Romney.
In Roman times the settlement was known as Vetus Rumellenum. Archaeological studies have found pottery and tiles in surrounding fields dating from Roman through medieval to more recent times. In the medieval period there were several churches in the area, now reduced to Old and New Romney, indicating a much larger earlier population, involved with maritime and agricultural activities.
In the 12th century, the Normans built St Clement as a nave and chancel only. In the 13th century it was enlarged by adding side aisles and a west tower. Later a porch was added to the north side. There are Georgian box pews and a minstrels’ gallery. The former is still painted pink from the filming of Dr Syn (the hooded smuggler) in the early 1960s.
Between the chancel and the nave, there are two hagioscopes or squints, which allowed congregants in the nave to see through to the priests in the chancel during medieval services, when an ornate rood screen would have divided the two areas. In the chancel there remains a Purbeck marble altar once discarded but later found and replaced.
There is a Royal Arms of George III, over the chancel arch, and a crown post roof. In the wall separating the chancel from the nave there is a doorway which led to an earlier staircase or ladder to the rood loft which was taken down at the time of the Reformation.
During the 12th century, as Old Romney harbour silted up, the importance of the town lessened and by the 17th century only St Clement and a small settlement remained. Derek Jarman, the English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author who lived at Dungeness, is buried in the churchyard. After a debate about stone “lozenge grave covers” found in some churchyards, including Rye, there was some anticipation of Stone cum Ebony and tea.
At the wonderful 1914-18 Memorial Hall, in Stone, long tables were set with plates of sandwiches, scones and cakes. There was also the specially badged WI china, adding to a typical English “high tea” setting.
After tea, the transport threaded its way in bright sunlight to the Military Road and then to Rye.
Thanks go to Gill Harvey for assembling the participants and Rye Community Transport for the safe travel.
Facebook: Friends of St Mary’s Church Rye
Image Credits: Phil Lev , Martin Bruce .