St Mary The Blessed Virgin

Extended C17 and c1826 (these phases do not survive).

MATERIALS: Flint with stone dressings, roughcast render to chancel, clay tile roof.

Late C19 Norman style doorway to S porch.

C12 S door has chevron, billet and nailhead moulded arch carried on heavy shafts with scallop capitals.

S side of nave has one small Norman window to W of porch, and a large, late-medieval three-light window to E with label mould and head-stop, tracery renewed.

To N end of the nave wall is a C14 low side window, trefoil-headed with a label mould.

INTERIOR: C12 chancel arch, of considerable scale for a small church, has chevron and nailhead mouldings, with the abacus moulding continuing along the wall on each side.

Traces of medieval wall painting above the arch on the nave side.

C14 trefoil-headed piscina at N end of S wall of nave, below low side window with which it is possibly contemporary.

Numerous monuments, principally early-mid C19 neo-Classical wall tablets, several to naval or military figures.

Six hatchments include that of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports from 1829-52, which was carried in front of his cortege to the station after his death at Walmer Castle, bearing the motto: 'Virtutis fortuna comes'.

Cone font cover of 1664.

HISTORY: Built c1120 by the d'Auberville family, probably as the chapel to their manor house, Walmer Court, the ruins of which stand about 15m to the NE of the church and are a scheduled ancient monument.

The church was enlarged, rather unconventionally, by the addition of a galleried nave on the N side of the existing nave, thus reorientating the church on a N-S axis and placing the altar at the S. This probably dated from the late C17, judging from a drawing of 1826 of the church as existing by George Ansell, who enlarged the extension at that time.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Of more than special interest as a church with significant C12 and later medieval features.

It has a strong visual and historical relationship with the ruins of the moated manor house of Walmer Court, a scheduled ancient monument, and historic interest for association with the Duke of Wellington in his role as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, whose hatchment hangs on the nave wall.