Author Topic: St Peter's Church, Bredhurst  (Read 1622 times)

Offline MartinR

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Re: St Peter's Church, Bredhurst
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2021, 04:49:09 PM »
It looked too small to me (about 8' square with the roof line reaching up to the top of the east and west walls), and also there are no louvers on either the turret or spire, however first appearences can be deceptive. :)

There's no record of Bredhurst in either Love's Guide to the Church Bells of Kent or in Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers.  Nothing is mentioned in the official listing https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1185866 but then it wouldn't if nothing was extant.  There's also a little here: https://ukga.org/churches.php?pageid=1264 but it doesn't add much to the listing though.
Stahlschmidt writing in 1889 says:
Quote
A pair of modern bells from Whitechapel, dated 1867, which replace a brace of ting-tangs, 17 and 20 inches respectively, both without inscription.  Passing bell rung an hour after death - rung for half an hour for a child, 45 minutes for a woman, an hour for a man.  This use is peculiar.  A bell tolled while funeral comes to church.  Tanks to the Rev. J. Durst, Vicar.
The "brace of ting-tangs" is ae dismissive term for them that implies they were tiny and of poor tone, perhaps not more that a school bell.
However Hastead in 1798 describes the church thus:
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The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small mean building, consisting of one isle and one chancel, having a low pointed steeple at the west end of it, in which hang two bells; adjoining to it on the south side there is a small chapel, now shut out from the church, on the pavement of which are two gravestones, which have been long since robbed of their brasses, and are said to have been placed in memory of the Kemsleys, of Kemsley-street before mentioned, the whole of it is now in a ruinous state, without door or windows, and the pavement of it, which is much sunk, is falling into the vault underneath, and covered with filth and nastiness.
This church of Bredhurst was antiently esteemed as a chapel annexed to the church of Hollingborne, the rector of which is patron of it. It is of the clear yearly certified value of 37l. 17s. 6d. and is a discharged living in the king's books.
In 1640 it was valued at fifty pounds. Communicants seventy.
This church is frequently mentioned as a perpetual curacy, but it is called a vicarage in the several sequestrations of it, as well as in the books of presentation and induction in the p"rerogative-office in Canterbury, and in the several wills of the incumbents of it, registered there, they constantly stile themselves vicars of Bredhurst.
So there they are, in the tiny louver-less steeple.

Offline CAT

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St Peter's Church, Bredhurst
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2021, 02:00:32 PM »
I think you are right MartinR, from the style of the present bell-cote it appears to be part of the major restoration of the church in 1866. However, this was a replacement for a small timber-framed spire over the nave's west end as seen in this view of 1807. Looking at its positioning on the nave roof, I wonder if this was another one of those timber spires whose timber post 'legs' extended all the way to ground level forming a pseudo ringing chamber beneath on the nave floor?