St Mary's Church, Wingham

St Mary’s Church stands in the village of Wingham, Kent, beside the quiet lanes of the old market town. Built mainly in the 13th and 14th centuries, it mixes Early English and Decorated styles with later Tudor work. The historian John Newman has traced its earliest parts to the late 12th century, when it already had an aisled nave. Benjamin Ferrey restored the chancel in the 1870s, leaving earlier fabric untouched. The church is listed Grade I for its outstanding architecture. Its worth lies in the layers of history that can be read in every stone. The south transept still shows the original three-light window with trefoils, while the east piscina and triple sedilia carry delicate Early English mouldings. The tower’s Hertfordshire-style spire rises 63 feet, its stair turret tucked into the north-west corner. The nave arcade was meant to be stone but finished in timber after money was stolen in 1555, a rare survival of that episode. Inside, a 15th-century French reredos depicts the Passion above the Last Supper and Adoration. Misericords on the choir stalls date from the early 14th century, and stained glass of 1919 fills the east window with bright scenes. Outside, the Oxenden family’s free-standing monument stands in the south transept, and the old college gateway marks the site where Archbishop Peckham founded a college of canons in 1282.