Penshurst Church - St John the Baptist
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The church stands in the south west corner of Penshurst Place's park. There are three entrances directly from the park and from Penshurst Place's formal garden. The most commonly used approach is from the village of Penshurst, through the buildings of the small Leicester Square, named after the Sidneys of Penshurst who were Earls of Leicester from 1618 to 1743. |
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Leicester Square
Entrance to the Sidney family burial vault, with the Sidney crest of arms above the entrance.
The Tower
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The church's most striking external feature is its tower, which was formed of three architectural stages. the first two storeys high, dates from the 15th century. The stone blocks used at low level, particularly the buttresses, are large indicating their antiquity
when greater depth of bed were available to masons. Subsequent stages, added in the 18th century, carry the clock stage and belfry. The design is unusual, with deep diagonal buttresses and battlements and, rising from the latter. four unusual octagonal columns with corner pinnacles. |
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"On The Dole"
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The apparent table tomb by the church's south-west porch is not a tomb, but a rare example of a dole table from which bread was distributed to the poor. Bread was handed out on 21st December, St. Thomas's Day |
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Wooden chancel screen
The altar
Original colour scheme still remains behind the altar
The Pulpit, a fine example of Victorian marble and mosaic work, stands at the Nave's eastern end
in front of the wooden Chancel screen.
The font
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The Baptismal Font is set in its traditional place inside the church's entrance, to symbolise baptism's purpose in welcoming a new member to the church. The font dates from the 15th century and has been repainted in what are said to be its original colours. Its shields represent the instruments of Passion (north face), the arms of the Archbishop of Canterbury (east face), the monogram of the Virgin Mary (south face) and of Canterbury Cathedral (west face). |
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The Becket window
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The Becket window, by the doorway in the south-west corner of the church, was given by parishioners and friends to mark the 800th anniversary of Archbishop Becket's institution of the village's first priest, Wilhelmus, in 1170.
The glazier, Lawrence Lee, a Master of the Glaziers Company, is noted for his work on the famous stained glass windows at Coventry Cathedral and in the Chapel of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
Lee came to live in Penshurst in 1962 and set up his studio in a converted stable on Smart's Hill where he designed and made this window.
In the left hand panel the figures may be though of as kings, queens, barons and knights, with appropriate heraldry of royalts and nobility. The right hand panel shows figures representing ordinary folk who play their part in the drama, with the heraldry in this case derived from ecclesiastical arms. In the central panel Becket is standing before Penshurst Church and buildings reminiscent of "Leicester Square" and behind is a building linking the three panels which may be read as Penshurst Place. Above this is the foliated cross of the Albigensians (taken from the carved fragment on a medieval toom top in the church) with the Agnus Dei symbol of St John the Baptist at its center. At the top is St Thomas at the Altar steps at the moment of martyrdom. |
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Smiling Lady of Penshurst
Set into the walls of the tower, on both north and south sides, are the stone remains from coffin lids of two chest tombs. On the southern side, the stone carries the portrait of a lady known as "The Smiling Lady of Penshurst". The stone was found in the church in 1854 during the extension works to the North aisle and was later moved to its current position. Superimposed on the smiling lady is a Foliated Cross which serves as a symbol of the church, its processional cross. Within the last fifty years, the stone has rather optimistically claimed to originate from the 13th century and the Albigensian rebellion among France's Cathars. The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (1209-1229) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the Cathar heresy. |
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St John the Baptist and Elijah
The Sidney Chapel (South-east)
This is the Sidney family's private chapel and they remain responsible for its upkeep.
The family have lived in Penshurst for over 450 years.
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Sir William Coventry memorial
The memorial between the windows on the south wall is to Sir William Coventry, who died in 1686 at the age of 60. He was the Commissioner of the Naval Board whom Samuel Pepys served as secretary whilst keeping his famous diary. Coventry largely escapes the waspish side of Pepys' pen and secures many favourable mentions in the diary. |
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Baroque-style memorial of Robert Sidney
Sophia Sidney 1796-1837
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Sophia (1796-1837), wife of Philip Charles Sidney, Baron de Lisle and Dudley aged 42. Monument signed by W. Theed. Born Lady Sophia FitzClarence illegitimately, one of 10 children of William Duke of Clarence later King William IV and Dorothea Jordan nee Bland, Irish actress, she married Philip son of Sir John Shelley Sydney, 1st Bt and Henrietta Hunioke on 13th August 1825. In 1831 she was granted the rank of marquess' daughter. |
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