Holy Cross Church, Bearsted

Holy Cross Church stands in the village of Bearsted, Kent. It is a parish church of the Church of England, built mainly in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The walls are made of local rag-stone, and the roofs are covered with plain tiles. The nave has a single aisle on the north side and a porch on the south side. At the west end of the nave rises a square three-storey tower with a crenellated parapet and a stair turret on its south-east corner. Three stone beasts sit on the corners of the parapet, replacements for originals that once represented wolves from a coat of arms. The church contains features from different centuries. The arcade between the nave and aisle has four bays, with the two at the east end rebuilt in the 15th century. A single arch at the west end may be Anglo-Saxon. The chancel holds a 13th-century sedile and piscina. Nineteenth-century panelling and pews line the nave and aisle, and much of the roof was replaced in the 20th century. Windows vary in age: small ones generally, with larger ones at the east end and above the west doorway. The south wall has 13th-century lancet windows, while the north side’s windows date from the 14th century. Inside, visitors find monuments to local families and notable people. These include memorials to Margarete and Steven Mason, Henrye Brockill, Susanna Cage and the Cage family. Elizabeth Andras and her son Robert Fludd, the physician and occultist, are also commemorated. A bust of Robert Fludd stands on a plinth. The Milgate Chantry, a fourteenth-century chantry to the north of the aisle, was once used by the Fludd family. The churchyard contains three table tombs and the village war memorial. The church is a Grade I listed building, and the churchyard holds Grade II listed structures.