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EARLY HISTORY
This part of Kent, the Weald, was settled late in the Saxon period. The earliest reference
to a place in Bethersden apparently concerns Old Surrenden which is mentioned in an early
eleventh-century charter.
That there was a pre-Norman church of wood or stone at Bethersden seems clear. In the
Domesday Monachorum, a manuscript written shortly after 1100 and preserved in Canterbury
Cathedral Library, is a list of churches in Canterbury Diocese accustomed to pay money to
the Archbishop at Easter. The church of Baedericesdaenne owed 28d.; this had been so
‘before the coming of the Lord Lanfranc,’ who became Archbishop of Canterbury in
1070.
A denn was an area in the Wealden forest where swine could be pastured; such denns were
often attached to upland manors some distance away. The place-name Bethersden therefore
can be interpreted as ‘the denn belonging to Baederic (or Beaduric).’
It appears that the denn, i.e. estate, of Bethersden belonged to the See of Canterbury,
for Archbishop Lanfranc, having in 1084 or 1085 founded outside the Northgate of
Canterbury the Priory of St. Gregory, in 1086 or 1087 bestowed upon it as part of its
endowment ‘the church of St. Margaret of Beatrichesdenne with the dwellings and wood
of that denn.’ By this is meant the patronage of the church with land and houses, the
tithes (Tenths of the tenants’ produce rendered in kind or in money) and the woodland
which, in the Weald, was not subject to tithe. This early reference to the dedication to
St. Margaret shows that Bethersden’s patron is St. Margaret of Antioch, Virgin and
Martyr, and not St. Margaret of Scotland (died 1093).
ETCHDEN CHAPEL
Successive Archbishops and Popes confirmed the Priory’s endowments, and the charter
of Archbishop Hubert Walter mentions (1193-9) in addition to St. Margaret's Church,
Bethersden, ‘the chapel of Heccisdenne.’
This place is Etchden, where until recently a wooden farm building of late medieval
construction still retained the form of a tiny chapel consisting of nave and chancel. This
building has lately been converted to modern iving accommodation but retaining and
preserving a king post of great antiquity.
Etchden was a denn belonging to the manor of Boughton Aluph. In the reign of King John
(1199-1216), Sir Alulph de Bocton endowed this chantry chapel by giving to St.
Gregory’s Priory the tithes from Etchden, Snode (hill) and three other denns. It was
agreed that (i) if Sir Alulph or members of his family should die at Etchden, they might
be buried at Boughton Aluph, but the first mass for the dead should be celebrated at
Etchden, (ii) if Sir Alulph’s servants or tenants should die at Etchden they must be
buried at St. Margaret's, Bethersden, (iii) the Priory would allow divine service to be
celebrated at Etchden on three days a week and on the Apostles’ feast-days, and (iv)
if Sir Alulph should happen to be at Etchden at Christmas, the Purification, Easter,
Pentecost or St. Margaret’s Day, he would come to church at St. Margaret’s. The
Prior of St. Gregory’s must confirm the appointment of the chantry chaplain.
Little else is known about Etchden Chapel, but a bequest in the will of William Widirdene
of Bethersden in 1471 implies it was dedicated to St. Mary.
ARCHITECTURE OF THE CHURCH
No trace of the early parish church can be seen today, but it was probably quite small
consisting simply of a nave and chancel.
The church was enlarged and reached its present proportions apparently in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. It is built mainly of Kentish ragstone which has weathered badly
on the outside, and much of the stonework was severely restored with Bath stone in 1873.
THE PORCH
We enter the church by the South Porch. This was somewhat drastically treated at the
Victorian restoration, when it seems almost to have been rebuilt and a sun-dial formerly
above the outer door disappeared.
On the floor of the porch and inside the church are some fine slabs of Bethersden
‘Marble.’ This stone, quarried near Tuesnoad in this parish, is not a true
marble but a limestone filled with fossil shells of freshwater snails. Like the better
known Purbeck Marble it takes a fine polish and was used extensively in church building,
tombs and in private houses for ornamental chimneypieces.
Inside the porch to the east of the door into the nave is a Holy Water Stoup, to hold the
consecrated water used by worshippers on entering and leaving the church.
THE FONT
Inside the church we notice first the Font. Some of the eight columns supporting it are
medieval, perhaps Early English work (i.e. thirteenth century), but the top is a
restoration. The font once stood at the west end of the central aisle.
THE NAVE AND AISLES
The arches, which on the north and south divide the nave and aisles, on each side rest on
two columns of the Decorated period (fourteenth century). Masons’ marks may be seen
on the bases.
Much of the window masonry was renewed in 1873. With the exception possibly of the windows
at the west end of each aisle and over the door leading to the vestry, the nave windows
are square-headed of three lights and belong to the Perpendicular period (early fifteenth
century). At the east end of the south aisle is a partly blocked niche which seems to be
the remains of a Decorated piscina or drain. This would imply the existence there of an
altar, perhaps thejesus Altar, before the south chapel was built.
Apparently, then, the church reached its present width by about 1360, but the upper parts
of the walls were largely rebuilt when the Perpendicular windows were inserted. The Rev.
A. J. Pearman, Vicar 1857-66, noticed outside the church a difference between the upper
and lower courses of the masonry which is still visible on the south side.
THE TOWER
This stands in a striking position and commands a good view of the surrounding
countryside. A fine example of a type of tower common in this part of the county, it was
probably built (at any rate the lowest stage of it) around 1420-30, because above the west
door is carved a shield bearing a cross engrailed, the arms of the Hautes of Surrenden who
died out about 1430. The register of wills proved in the Canterbury Archdeaconry Court
begins about 1450, but so far no bequests towards the cost of building the tower have come
to light.
In the 1939-45 War there was an observation post on top of the tower, continuing the
practice of using church towers to warn against invasion.
THE CHANCEL
The present chancel seems to be of the fifteenth century. The east window is comparatively
modern; a watercolour sketch in the British Museum shows the earlier window to have been
square-headed like those in the aisles. The corbels of the chancel arch are carved, one
with an angel supporting a blank shield and the other with an attractive grotesque figure.
The inventory of the church goods in 1552 mentions that there was an alabaster tablet or
panel, which presumably was above the altar.
The floor of the chancel and sanctuary was originally level with the nave floor, but was
raised early this century.
THE ROOD SCREEN AND LOFT
Before the Reformation the chancel and the two side chapels were separated from the nave
by a wooden Rood Screen. Above it was a loft approached by the spiral staircase in the
south chapel. On a beam beneath the chancel arch stood a large Rood (i.e. Crucifix)
flanked by statues of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist. There were also on the
Rood Loft thirty brass candlesticks. In both the main Chancel and the South (Lady) Chapel
there were images of Our Lady, and one of these was a statue of Our Lady of Pity (what is
known now as a Pieta), i.e. the Virgin Mary mourning the dead Christ.
After the separation from Rome, these figures and that of St. Margaret (which stood in the
Chancel) were in a neglected state. However, under Queen Mary 1, Archdeacon Harpsfield at
his Visitation in 1557, ordered that they should be repainted before All Saints' Day. The
Parish had therefore to spend E2. Is. 6d. involving a visit to Ashford and the services of
one Gyllam, and "the paynter of Assheforde to paynte the Roode, Mari andjohn and the
patron of the churche". All the Archdeacon's instructions were so costly that the
churchwardens had to tax the 105 householders in the parish, according to their means,
amounting to @23. 5s. 6d.
THE NORTH (OR FRID) CHAPEL
This chapel, now almost entirely filled by the organ, is in the Perpendicular style and
probably dates from the early fifteenth century. There is a piscina south of the site of
the altar, which was dedicated to St. John, apparently St. John the Baptist.
The chapel belonged to the owners of Frid Manor; in that case it may have been built by
the Darells of Calehill. In the late sixteenth century Frid came to the prominent
Bethersden family of Gibbon one of whom, Lidia, married in 1608 Edward Chute of Old
Surrenden. For the next century the North Chapel was the Chute Chapel, and Old Surrenden
was known as Surrenden Chute to distinguish it from Surrenden Dering.
Lidia died in 1631, aged 46, and a small brass on the wall of the Frid Chapel commemorates
her “the dearely belooved wife of Edward Clint of Bethersden Esq.” Edward was
the grandson of Henry VIII’s StandardBearer, Philip Chute, who acquired Old Surrenden
in 1553. Edward Chute (or Choute) was in his time described as a “right worthy
gentleman”; he took a prominent place in Kentish affairs, in 1635-6 was High Sheriff
of the county and died in 1640.
The Bethersden Choutes became extinct with the death in 1721/2 of Sir George Choute, whom
Charles II had made a Baronet in 1684. In the Frid Chapel there is a handsome monument to
him erected by his heir Edward Austen, and at the foot of the chancel steps, removed from
its original position in the Chapel, is a fine ledger-stone with the Choute arms. This
once covered the grave of the Baronet and his father Sir George Choute, Kt. (died 1664).
In recording the latter’s burial in the Parish Register the Vicar, the Rev. Robert
Cole (to whom Sir George had left �2) broke into verse:
“Goe sleepe Sir George. Where’s such another
Can equall thee? or th’ Squire thy brother?”
THE SOUTH (OR LOVELACE) CHAPEL
In 1460 licence was given to William Goldewell and Thomas Elyot to found a chantry chapel
in the chapel of St. Mary the Virgin at “Bederisden” to pray for the souls of
William Lovelace and John and Joan his parents. The present chapel was apparently built at
that time. In the south wall the door for the chantry priest is blocked.
William Lovelace, “Gentilman”, Citizen of London, died in 1459 and was buried in
the chancel. His brass, removed from its slab now in the central aisle, is on the wall of
the north aisle. The inscription is a re-used brass of 1441 to a Citizen and Brewer of
London, John Thomelyns and Joan his wife.
The Lovelaces are Bethersden’s most famous family; William Luvelaz is the earliest
recorded member and occurs as witness to a Bethersden deed not later than 1247. The family
prospered in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in industry and commerce in the City
of London and by marriage with at least one heiress; they settled in various parts of Kent
and in Berkshire.
In Elizabeth I's reign the head of the Bethersden branch was William Lovelace,
Serjeant-at-Law, who bought the ancient site of the Grey Friars in Canterbury. A highly
successful lawyer, Serjeant Lovelace (died 1576/7) was a well-known figure in Kent and to
him was dedicated the earliest printed treatise on growing hops: A Perfite Platforme of a
Hoppe Garden (1574). The Serjeant’s younger son Thomas (died 1591) has a small brass
also on the wall of the north aisle. Sir William Lovelace, the heir of Serjeant Lovelace,
lived partly in Canterbury and partly in Bethetsden where he was buried in 1629. Sir
William outlived his only son, also Sir William, who had been killed in Holland in 1627.
The younger Sir William’s eldest son was Richard Lovelace the Cavalier poet, courtier
and soldier. At the end of April 1642 Lovelace, “reputed the handsomest man in
England”, in company with Sir William Boteler of Teston near Maidstone, presented to
Parliament the ‘Kentish Petition” for the restoration of the Anglican Liturgy,
the maintenance of the bench of Bishops and ‘a good understanding between King and
Parliament.’ As a similar petition by Sir Edward Dering (of Surrenden Dering) and the
learned Sir Roger Twysden had three weeks before been declared seditious, and had then
been burnt by the Common Hangman, Boteler was committed by the House of Commons to the
Fleet Prison, and Lovelace to the Gatehouse Prison, Westminster. While there he wrote the
poem “To Althea, from Prison,” containing the famous lines:
Stone Walls doe not a Prison make,
Nor I‘ron bars a Cage;
Mindes innocent and quiet take
That for an Hermitage.
Lovelace petitioned the Commons for his liberty, and late in June 1642 was released on
personal bail of �IO,000. Unable, without forfeiting his bail, to fight for Charles I, he
instead supplied his brothers with money. Lovelace is known to have been at Bethersden at
various dates between 1642 and 1647, when he was selling his property there piece by piece
to Richard Hulse of Great Chart. In 1645 and 1646 he was in the Low Countries, serving
apparently as a Colonel in the French army, and was wounded at Dunkirk in 1646. After his
return to England, he was among the Royalists defeated and captured by Fairfax at
Maidstone in 1648. Once again he was imprisoned in London; he died aged less than 40 in
1657 and was buried at St. Bride’s, Fleet Street.
During the Commonwealth the poet’s three surviving brothers - William having been
killed at Carmarthen - Capt. Thomas, Col. Francis and Capt. Dudley Posthumus Lovelace went
to America, and after the Restoration Francis Lovelace was Governor of New York 1669-72.
The new owner of Lovelace Place, Richard Hulse (or ‘Captain Hulse’ as the Parish
Records call him), in his youth travelled extensively (and perhaps fought) on the
Continent. He settled in Kent and married first Clara Toke of Godinton and secondly Mary
daughter of Sir William Clerke of Wrotham, one of the sureties for Richard Lovelace in
1642 (Clerke was eventually killed, together with Sir William Boteler, at Cropredy Bridge
in 1644.) Hulse died in 1685/6 and the helmet in the Lovelace Chapel is probably part of
his funeral achievement. The strange-looking crest is the remains of a stag's head with a
sun between the antlers (now lost). The helmet itself is a cuirassier's helmet probably
made in the Netherlands about 1630.
On the south wall of the chapel, partly blocking the piscina, is a Bethersden Marble
tablet with a charming inscription to Cicely Hulse who died in 1679/80, aged 9.
Two more recent monuments commemorate the Haywards and Camerons of Low Wood.
The Lovelace Chapel was re-dedicated and again fitted up for services in 1955 at the
expense of Bernard Prance in memory of his mother Annie Rosalie Prance.
OTHER MONUMENTS
The church contains several good mural tablets of the seventeenth to the nineteenth
centuries. Those to Bethersden's ancient yeoman family, the Witherdens of Wissenden, and
to the Whitfields of The Thorne and the Wilmotts, rich clothiers who lived at Low Wood,
are worth noticing. Special mention may be made of the tablet in the north aisle to the
Rev. Jonathan Whiston, Vicar 1669-97, who at his own cost in 1676 built the old Vicarage
(now Whiston House) to replace its predecessor destroyed by fire in 1669.
THE STAINED GLASS
Weever’s Ancient Funerall Monuments (1631) records that Bethersden church contained
the arms of Surrenden twice singly and once impaled with Crouch. No trace of this glass
survives, but it commemorated a marriage which took place about 1400.
Frid Chapel: N. Window. Fragments of medieval glass.
Nave: E. Windows of N. & S. Aisles. Good fifteenth century canopy-work.
Chancel: E. Window. Christ (crowned) on the Cross, flanked by St. Augustine of Canterbury
and St. Margaret of Antioch. Emblems of the Passion are in the tracery lights. Given in
memory of Samuel Bright Hyland (died 1912) and Herbert Bright Hyland, 2nd Lt. Machine Gun
Corps, killed on the Somme, 1916.
Lovelace Chapel: E. Window. Our Lady and Child, a modern family, a farming scene in Kent
and Bethersden church. Given in 1969 by Mrs. (Amelia Frances) Ring as a thank-offering for
her 41 years as Organist (1916-57).
S. Aisle: S. Window. This is the most recent of the windows and commemorates Arthur
William MacMichael M.A., 1885-1960 Canon Emeritus of Canterbury Cathedral, his wife
Elizabeth Helen Royale (nee Newboult) M.B., B.S., 1899-1983, and their son Nicholas Hugh
F.S.A., 1933-1985, Keeper of the Muniments of Westminster Abbey. The centre panel depicts
Christ ascending, over the arms of the Diocese of Canterbury with the flanking panels
carrying the Arms of Trinity and Magdalene Colleges, Cambridge, The Royal Free Hospital
School of Medicine, London, and Westminster Abbey, all displayed with a hop bine motif The
Window was given to the church by Mrs Elizabeth Moss surviving daughter of Arthur and
Helen MacMichael.
S. Aisle: W. Window. Scenes from the childhood of Christ. Given by Gertrude Lilian Roots
in memory of (i) her husband William George Roots, 49 years Parish Clerk and sometime
Churchwarden and Secretary of the Parochial Church Council and (ii) her son William
Charles Roots, L/Cpl. Royal Tank Regt., died of wounds in Egypt, 1941.
THE ORGAN AND THE BELLS
The present organ was made by J. W. Walker & Sons, London, erected in 1909 and paid
for by parochial subscription. Its predecessor stood at the west end of the north aisle.
The 1552 inventory mentions 'a bass pair of organs’.
The present brass lectern was given also in 1909 by George Arthur Beazley. The tower
contains a peal of six bells and a Sanctus Bell. (For a fuller account, see J. C. L.
Stahlschmidt’s Church Bells of Kent [London,1887].) The fourth bell is medieval and
is inscribed:
IN: MULTIS: ANNIS: RESONET
CAMPANA: IOHANNIS:
or
‘May the bell of John ring out for many years!’
It was common in the Middle Ages to call bells after saints; this bell was perhaps cast in
the London foundry of Piers de Weston who was at work between 1328 and 1348.
The second, fifth and Tenor bells were cast in the seventeenth century by the Ulcombe
founders Joseph and William Hatch. The Sanctus Bell, or ‘the Tingler’ (or
Tinkler) as it was called, originally was medieval but was recast by William Hatch in
1662.
CHURCH PLATE
Silver Flagon. Given by Thomas Sharperey in 1631. Made by a London goldsmith whose mark
“P.B.” between two crescents is found on other plate. London date-letter for
1631-2.
Silver Paten. Initials of Thomas Witherden and Thomas Wilmott, Churchwardens, 1726. London
date-letter for 1726-7.
Pewter Alms Plate. Bought, it is said, in 1735.
Silver Communion Cup and Silver Paten. These were bought in July 1765 and together cost
�3. 2s. 9d. London dateletter (on the cup only) for 1765-6. (They were exchanged for a
silver Cup and Paten Cover which bore the initials of the churchwardens of 1621.)
Baptismal Shell. Silver and mother-of-pearl. Given in 1934.
Silver Chalice. Given by Gertrude Lilian Roots in memory of her husband and son, 1953.
Assayed in Sheffield.
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