British Listed Buildings

Listing Text

GILLINGHAM

TQ76NE CHURCH STREET, Gillingham Green
686-1/7/60 (East side)
24/02/50 Church of St Mary Magdalen

GV II*

Church. Early C13 chancel and side chapels, nave rebuilt C15,
C15 aisles and tower, restored 1868-9 by AW Blomfield.
MATERIALS: flint, brick and limestone rubble with limestone
dressings, partly rendered, ragstone ashlar tower and a tiled
roof.
STYLE: Decorated Gothic style chancel and flanking chapels,
Perpendicular Gothic nave and tower.
PLAN: chancel, N and S chapels, aisled nave and W tower.
EXTERIOR: coped E gable largely rebuilt mid C19 has flanking
buttresses and a mid C19 5-light Decorated tracery window; the
S side has a low ogee-arched mid C14 window partly obscured by
the E gable of the S chapel, which has a small arch over it.
N chapel has a steep E gable with eaves, some render, and a
3-light Perpendicular window, 2-bay N side with buttresses and
2-light Decorated windows; in front is a late C19 single
storey crenellated vestry with a flat-headed window and N
door.
Nave and aisle have cornice and crenellated parapet, with a
shallow N gable raised above chancel.
4-bay N elevation has flat-headed 2-light clerestory windows,
the aisle has 2-light windows as the side of the chapel.
2-stage tower has angle buttresses to the lower stage, strings
between stages and to a crenellated parapet, and regular
putlog holes to each face; 2-light W door, with a small niche
over, and a flat-headed 2-light window above and to the
belfry, as the clerestory. A round SE corner stair tower has a
conical roof and finial and a 2-light door at the bottom.
S side as the N, with a central mid C19 coped, gabled porch
with a 2-centre arched doorway with attached columns and
moulded surround.
SE chapel has gables each end with eaves, and a 3-light E
window with head hood mould stops; S side has two 2-light
windows and a flat-headed doorway with a 4-centre arched door
to the E, and an E gable with a mid C19 3-light window with
Perpendicular tracery and head stops.
INTERIOR: not inspected, but noted as having c1200 2-bay
arcade between chancel and side chapels with scallops and
leafs to the capitals, and keeled roll to W arches, fine
Decorated Gothic sedilia with 3 cinquefoil ogee arches with
hood mould and stiff leaf capitals. A Perpendicular oak screen


with brattishing and open tracery in segmental-arched panels.
C15 4-bay nave arcade has round shafts and octagonal capitals
with central rectangular shafts with moulded corners, responds
each end, with a shallow roof with arched braces on corbels.
Tower has a tierceron rib vault on corner shafts.
FITTINGS: 3-sided W gallery on thin posts and turned
balusters, C11 Norman font, with 16-arch arcade on shafts and
zig zag moulding.
STAINED GLASS: E window by Holiday for Heaton, Butler and
Bayne.
MEMORIALS: various wall memorials.
(BoE: Pevsner N & Newman J: West Kent and the Weald: London:
1976-: 290).



Listing NGR: TQ7820868837

Source: English Heritage

Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.