St John the Baptist, Penshurst

St John the Baptist Church at Penshurst, Kent is a Grade I listed Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Rochester in England. Those buried or commemorated here include Knights, Earls, Viscounts, a Viceroy of India, a Governor-General of Australia, a Private Secretary to two Kings, two Field Marshals and two winners of the Victoria Cross. Through its courtiers, soldiers, statesmen, politicians or priests whose lives appear on memorials or through its changing architecture, brasses, carvings, effigies and windows, the church helps tell a country’s story through the eyes of single village.

A church has stood on the present site in Penshurst since 1115, at the centre of a cluster of buildings, including the manor house, guild house and rectory. The church of 1115 is mentioned in the Textus Roffensis. There may have been a church on the site since Saxon times, as suggested by the recent discovery of artefacts dating from 860 AD on adjoining land. Penshurst’s first priest, Wilhelmus, was installed in 1170 by Archbishop Thomas Becket, his last public act before he was assassinated two days later in Canterbury Cathedral. The core of the nave as it appears today may be of that date.

The North aisle was added c.1200, and the South-Eastern chapel is 13th century in origin. The South aisle and South chapel arcade were built or rebuilt in the 14th century, and the North-Eastern chapel was also in existence by the mid-14th century. The nave and chancel walls were raised and provided with a clerestory in the 15th century, and the tower is also 15th century. The South aisle was widened and the South porch built in 1631. Before the restoration by George Gilbert Scott, the windows there were of 1631. The unusual corner turrets and pinnacles on the tower may also be 17th century .

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