St Peter’s Church
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St Peter’s Church in Boughton Monchelsea, Kent is an active Anglican parish church in the archdeaconry of Maidstone and the diocese of Canterbury.[1] It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed buildingStructure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection..[2] Its 15th-century lych-gate
Roofed-over gateway into a churchyard., leading into the churchyard, is listed separately as a Grade II* structure.[3][4]
The church, largely constructed of ragstone, is Medieval in origin, its core probably dating from the late 11th or 12th century. It was extensively destroyed by fire in 1832, following which the naveCentral part of a church, used by the laiety., aisles, porches and south transeptPart of a Christian church crossing the area between the nave and the chancel, forming a characteristic cruciform shape. were rebuilt in 1874–1875 by Habershon.[2] The church’s six bells, the oldest of which is more than 400 years old, were extensively restored in the early 1990s.[4]
Interior
The nave has a 19th-century hammer-beam roofStructural framework of timbers designed to bridge the space above a room and to provide support for a roof. . Adjacent to the piscinaSmall basin in a Christian church used to clean the priest's hands and the sacred vessels used at Mass. in the south wall of the chancel are three sedileSeats for the officiating clergy found on the south side of an altar., under a broad pointed arch.[2]
The church contains a good range of 18th and 19th-century memorials,[4] including a large white marble piece at the west end by Peter Scheemakers commemorating Sir Christopher Powell (d. 1742), showing him dressed as a Roman and flanked by his mother and his wife.[2]