St Peter & St Paul's Church - Ash, Kent, UK - Anglican and Episcopal Churches on Waymarking.com

The church's website ( visit link ) tells us:

"Introduction

Until the twentieth century the whole upland area that rises from the Thames Valley to the escarpment of the North Downs was sparsely inhabited. Although traces of Roman occupation have been found on the site of New Ash Green, the heavy soil, clay-with-flints, and the south-westerly winds that sweep unchecked over the high ground, made the area difficult for farming and unattractive to settlers.

Hardly anything one could call a village ever formed, although the present distribution of churches seems to have been established in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Thus Domesday Book (1086) records the names of almost all the present hilltop parishes, but mentions churches only at Fawkham, Meopham, Nursted and Luddesdown. The Norman churches still surviving at Ridley, Hartley and West Kingsdown must therefore have been built within the ensuing century; and it is quite likely that Ash too had a Norman church. Nothing as early as that remains at Ash, for the chancel and the tower date from the thirteenth century, and the nave was rebuilt in its present spacious form with aisles in the later Middle Ages. Why Ash church was enlarged in this way while all its immediate neighbours were left unaltered is not known; but the parish, about three thousand acres, is three times as large as most of those adjacent to it, and as early as 1286 Ash church was valued at twice as much as Fawkham, Ridley or Hartley (even if at only half the value of Meopham). The fact that the church belonged 'from very early times' to the priory of St John of Jerusalem meant that it had to pay 10 marcs per annum to the prior and brethren of the order and they may have felt obliged in return to improve the building .But that is speculation, and there is plenty that is factual about the church building and about the people who have worshipped in it over the centuries.

The Building

As seen from the south, Ash church appears typically Kentish, with it russet-tiled nave and slightly lower chancel, and the sturdy battlemented west tower and polygonal stairturret. The walls, as in all the upland churches, are built of the flints which the plough everywhere turns up, split and laid split-face outwards to form a smooth surface. Originally they were rendered over with a thick white lime-mortar, traces of which can still be seen in a few sheltered areas of walling (e.g. under the eaves of the north aisle). The dressed stone used for windows and doorways is mostly grey ragstone from quarries a few miles to the south-east which also supplied the stone for all London's major medieval buildings. But the honey-coloured sand stone used on the south aisle and porch probably comes from the Tonbridge area, a little further afield and rarely used in the uplands. The red brick on the tower, the turret and some of the buttresses is patching, probably of the late eighteenth century. This too was originally hidden by render, but now that it is visible it adds a touch of warm colour to the building. Internally the walls retain their thick coat of rendering, limewashed over. Whether medieval wallpaintings survive under the limewash is not known .The roof timbers are of oak in its natural colour and in the nave and north aisle are medieval.

The chancel

The thirteenth century chancel is two bays long, and almost without decorative enrichment. The piscina is just a simple niche in the south wall of the sanctuary. This was for the ablution of the priest's hands and of the chalice and paten at the Mass. To provide side light large lancet windows were placed, one in the north and one in the south wall, each within a large blind arch. (The original lancets in the east wall are lost; the present window dates from c.1860.) A second arch each side, not exactly a pair, opened originally, it seems, into small chapels north and south, quite a common arrangement in Kentish churches. But neither chapel survives: that on the south side was pulled down and the arch blocked in the late Middle Ages, and the Victorian vestry occupies its site; that on the north was quite soon replaced by what is now the Lady Chapel.

The Lady Chapel

This is artistically the most remarkable part of the church and must have been built in the early fourteenth century. It is certainly earlier than the nave arcades, as is shown by the way the chapel rafters are carried across an arch, which had been cut through the nave wall, into which they were originally built. The flowing tracery in the three windows is typical of that period, and so are the tantalising remains of the stained glass, bright ruby and gold borders and lozenge-shaped quarries each decorated with a maple leaf. All the stained-glass figures are lost, but the stone hoodmould of the east window rests on two lively heads with the curly hair so often seen on carved effigies of that period. (Their counterparts outside are crude modern replacements). The original length of the chapel can be deduced from the form of the roof timbers, and it is now only about half the length it was. When first erected its western half must have overlapped the nave, which was no doubt at that time still without aisles. The timber screen, now sadly cut down, at the west end, probably dates from the period when the chapel was shortened, i.e. late fifteenth or early sixteenth century

The nave

The rebuilding of the nave with aisles must have dramatically transformed the whole church. It is the airy lightness of the present nave design which, more than anything, makes the interior so restful and satisfying. The chancel arch is high and wide, and the length of the nave is spanned by three arches to north and south, on slim octagonal piers. The bold mouldings of the pier capitals and bases look like work of the fourteenth century, but the simple 'Perpendicular' panel tracery of the windows suggests a later date, and the only external evidence for the date of the rebuilding is a bequest towards the 'repair of the nave' in 1472. The nave roof, with tie beams on handsome pierced spandrels, and crown posts, is contemporary. The north aisle continues the width of the Lady Chapel, the south aisle being somewhat narrower, although the piscina at its east end shows clearly enough that a side altar stood here. Indeed it is known to have been in use as a chapel dedicated to St Blaise, the patron Saint of woolcombers - very probably an indication that there were sheepwalks at Ash in the fifteenth century. In the western bay of the nave is placed a north doorway and, facing it, the main, south, doorway, protected by a porch. The porch was provided with a stone recess to the right of the entrance archway, serving as a holy water stoup.

The tower

The double arch from the nave into the tower clearly dates from the thirteenth century, and in the exterior of the north wall of the tower are two contemporary lancet windows. However the present form of the tower, with its angle buttresses, stairturret and top battlements, dates from the same period as the nave, for the west doorway of the tower is identical with the north doorway of the nave.

The function of church towers may originally have been defensive but by the later middle ages their primary purpose was to house bells. In the tower at Ash there are six bells, dating from the eighteenth century (three of 1717, one 1727 (tenor), one 1795 (treble) and one recast in 1856). The vibrations set up by the bells have twice occasioned substantial repairs. The Georgian brick patching and the iron tie-bars which hold the tower together suggest that at one point there was danger of a major collapse. In 1976 the continuance of bell-ringing at Ash was ensured by the discreet introduction of a concrete ring-beam."

The church's website ( visit link ) gives details of services at the church:

"Sunday Worship

We have two Sunday services, one at 8:00am and one at 10:30am. Both of these services are held in the church. On the third Sunday we have Young Ash Church Alive (YACA), which is held in Ash Village Hall, and is deisgned for the younger members of the congregation .