The misericords and history of Faversham,
St Mary of Charity.
St Mary’s has sixteen, 15th century misericords.
Click to launch a description of the misericords of St Mary’s, Faversham
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History of St Mary of Charity, Faversham, Kent.
There is more than a little justification in assuming that there was a church at Faversham during the second quarter of the 7th century, as the parish boundaries were in place by 634 AD. However, the first recorded church dates from 1070, when a charter by William the Conqueror ceded the church to abbey of St Augustine at Canterbury, so at this time it was almost certainly still a Saxon church.
St Mary of Charity is has many unusual features, not least of which is its name - it has the dedication as the mother abbey, in France, of Faversham Abbey. Purportedly, King Stephen and Queen Matilda are buried at St Mary’s, so by the time of his death in 1154, the church had almost certainly been rebuilt in the Norman style. The burials are also unusual, as most English monarchs are buried in London. St Mary’s is huge, there appears to be a running battle with the parish church at Maidstone as to which is the biggest parish church in Kent,the transepts alone are bigger than some parish churches that I’ve been to.
In 1306 one of the columns was decorated with 10 scenes from Christ’s life, there are only a very few similar columns in this country.
The misericords date from the 15th century, but as is so often the case, the misericords did not originate in the parish church, but probably came, after the dissolution, from Faversham Abbey church.
In 1753 the Norman nave and tower were demolished, due to being unsafe. In 1794-7 the nave replaced this the wonderful Georgian Nave we see today, and the tower was replaced by the famous “Crown Spire” which dominates Faversham.
A major restoration occurred in 1874 under the aegis of Sir George Gilbert Scott.
The St Mary of Charity, Faversham website.
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Click here for more 15th century misericords
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