St Mary

N nave and chancel aisles added in the late C12.

S nave aisle added mid C13.

W tower and W porch are C15.

The tower has foiled, C15 lights.

Late C15 W porch, with continuously moulded outer opening.

Above it is an ogee headed statue niche in a square frame with Tudor roses in the spandrels.

Below the niche is a carved figure of a man with a flagon, and there are grotesques in the string course above the niche.

C13-style lancets in the chancel S wall are C19 replacements of Perpendicular windows present in the early C19.

There is also a probably C13 low-side window in the chancel S wall.

The N aisle windows are of c.1300 and have two trefoiled lights and a foiled circle in the tracery with C19 dormer-like gables over each window.

INTERIOR Three bay N arcade of the late C12, with long responds and sections of walling as piers.

The mid C13 lancets, mostly renewed, in the chancel E wall have a continuous hood mould.

The blocked C13 three-bay S nave arcade remains embedded in the S wall, and had arches of two chamfered orders on round piers with moulded capitals and bases.

There are two C14 cusped, ogee tomb recesses in the N aisle wall.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES Very good C13 trefoiled piscina and single set sedilia in the chancel. the piscina has a head corbel under the bowl, and there are head and foliate stops on the continuous hood mould above the openings.

Plain round font, possibly C12.

Simple C19 benches, choir stalls and pulpit, the stalls and pulpit with open trefoil arched panelling.

HISTORY There was a church at Chalk in the pre-Conquest period, but it was probably rebuilt in the late C11 or early C12 as there is herringbone masonry in the chancel.

It was certainly a substantial building by the late C12 when both nave and chancel were given a N aisle, at which time there may also have been a NW tower.

The S aisle was added in the C13,

the present tower and W porch were built in the C15.

SOURCES Newman, J., Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald , 191 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Mary, Chalk, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Late C11 or earlier parish church with late C12 aisle to both nave

chancel, and evidence for C13 S nave aisle. * C15 W tower and W porch with grotesque sculpture on porch. * Rare survival of evidence for the removal of the S aisle in the late C18. * Very good C13 trefoiled piscina and single sedilia in chancel.

sheela na gig identified from Geograph title/caption. I was puzzled by this detail - I think I can see two bodies (perhaps sitting, facing each other) but there's only one head. As it turned out, it is this minor detail of the church that is mentioned first in the Pevsner entry: 'Loathesomely contorted grotesques disport on the Perp[endicular] west porch above and below an image-niche' ('The Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald', J. Newman). But other than that, no explanation. After-thought, March 2018: it was once suggested to me that this might be a sheela-na-gig (an 'indelicate' female figure). I don't think it is, but it does seem to have something in common with these figures at Kilpeck: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/875723

I was puzzled by this detail - I think I can see two bodies (perhaps sitting, facing each other) but there's only one head. As it turned out, it is this minor detail of the church that is mentioned first in the Pevsner entry: 'Loathesomely contorted grotesques disport on the Perp[endicular] west porch above and below an image-niche' ('The Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald', J. Newman). But other than that, no explanation. After-thought, March 2018: it was once suggested to me that this might be a sheela-na-gig (an 'indelicate' female figure). I don't think it is, but it does seem to have something in common with these figures at Kilpeck: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/875723

© Stefan Czapski