Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/56

This page has been validated.

claims this manor as its proprietor in the time of the Confessor, and the hundreds bear testimony to him, &c.—Hoc mauerium reclamat Abbas Sancti Augustini quia habuit tempore Regis Edwardi (T. R. E.) et hundreda attestantur ei." (D. B. fol. 10.) A subsequent entry (fol. 12, p. 2), at the end of the account of the possessions of St. Augustin's, records the decision of the dispute. "The shire testifies, that Badlesmere belonged to St. Augustin's in the time of King Edward, &c.—Scyra testificat quod Bedenesmere fuit Sancti Augustini, T. R. E., et de illo qui earn tenebat habuit abbas sacam et socam." (D. B.) "K. Edward II, in his thirteenth year, gave licence to Bartholomew de Badlesmere, that he might, in his manor of Badlesmere, which was held of him in capite, found a house of canons regular, &c." But, though the licence was confirmed by K. Edward III, the intention appears never to have been executed. (Tan. Mon. 225, quoted by Hasted, and Dugdale's Monast. VI, 522). In the deed of Edward III, the church of Northfield, in Kent, is mentioned, but the place signified it has not yet been possible to identify.

17. Bapchild.—The church consists of chancel, nave, a narrow north aisle, with a much wider chancel, a tower on the south side of the west end of the chancel, and a south porch of brick, comparatively modern, but not recent, the bonding being English, not Flemish, as now commonly practised. The nave, chancel, aisle, and tower, seem to be Norm.; the north chancel Tr. Norm., approaching to E.E. At the east end of the main chancel were three round-headed windows, two below, and one above, which have been replaced by a three-light Perp. one. In the south wall of the chancel are three lancets, the most western lower than the others, and the middle one retaining hooks for interior shutters. At the east end of the north chancel is a four-light Perp. window, and three smaller ones in the north wall. The piscina here is worked in the engaged pier. On the northern side is an arcade not reaching to the east wall. Of the tower, terminated by a light shingled spire, the windows appear to have been altered. Two arches, in the east and west walls, indicate a different arrangement from that now subsisting; in fact, the position of the tower is such, that it may have formed a south transept. A piscina in the eastern arch induces the supposition, that it may have been covered externally by an apse, to afford space for the altar, there placed. Two very small roundheaded windows still remain in the western part of the church,