A medieval church built using clunch (local hard chalk) rather than the more usual flint in this part of Kent, and rendered outside with flint (a Victorian addition) to stop corrosion from the imndustrial revolution - It must have looked impressive before then. At the west end of the church there is a Saxon arch, with outer Norman arch, with no visible indication of a doorway inside the church. There is no electricity in the building and it is lit with candles and lamps, which, with its white chalk interior it gives a rich feel to the place.
Look out for the saxon heads (former corbels?) in the Naive roof. After the Norman invasion the saxons were not allowed to worship in the aisles with the Norman nobles.
"The church, which is dedicated to St. James the Apostle, consists of a nave and two side isles, and a chancel, which is half the length of the church. The nave is double the height of the two isles. There is a low pointed steeple at the south-west corner of it.
It is a very antient and curious building, and appears by the short and clumsy size, and bases of the pillars, the zig-zag ornaments of their capitals, and the semi-circular plain arches in every part of it, to have been built in the time of the Saxons; indeed, the whole of it has marks of a very early period.
This church was antiently esteemed as an appendage to the manor of Bicknor, and as such was given, with it, by Edward III. in his 50th year, to the abbey of St. Mary Graces, on Tower-hill, where it remained till the dissolution of that monastery in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it became part of the possessions of the crown, as has been already related, where the patronage of it has continued to the present time.
This rectory is a discharged living in the king's books, of the clear yearly certified value of thirty-two pounds. In 1640 it was valued at fifty pounds. Communicants thirty-two.
The rector's house, or hovel, as it may more properly be called, is very singular and remarkably placed, for it is nothing more than a shed, built against the north side of the church, with a room projecting nearly across the isle, and under the same roof; a miserable habitation, even for the poorest cottager to dwell in."
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The church is open during the Summer on Mondays - 13:00 to 16:00 or 17:00. Well worth a visit and a guided tour of the church.