St Katharine's Church - Knockholt, Kent, UK - Anglican and Episcopal Churches on Waymarking.com

St Katharine's Church website tells us, from an old translated script, that:

In the times of the King of the English, Henry III, son of King John who reigned in England fifty six years and twenty days, there was a certain Ralph Soct abiding in the parish of Chelsfield near the royal highway lying between Farnborough and Halsted, where is the cross called Scot's Crouch. Which Ralph indeed removed himself from that place to Ocolte, by buying there lands and sundry possessions, and by constructing there a certain mansion, called The Hall. On which account that place is called Scots Ocolte.

And because the aforesaid Ralph and others inhabiting the said place for hearing divine services wandering to Chevening and elsewhere in all directions from their Parish Church of Orpington; and because through the distance of the place from the said Parish Church many perils of souls befel there, they and Ralph Scot and a certain Her...Goldsmyth, inspired by God, as is believed, in a green space at Ocolte called Hareleap, whereon festivals took place a common assemblage of laity by those inhabiting the said place, caused to be erected out of their own goods a certain chapel in honour of St Katharine, virgin; the first stone being laid by the said Ralph in the foundation of his own chapel.

After the completion of the said chapel, this Ralph Scot, out of the lands he had acquired, out of a moderate sized close near the cemetery for the house of the chaplain there, and also out of a certain croft of his, situate opposite the said chapel for the erection of buildings for the collection of tithes to be stored therein, freely endowed the same chapel, and gave to be possessed in perpetual alms. Afterwards the same Ralph Scot procured the said chapel, on the ninth day of May AD 1281 (9 of K Edward I) in the time of brother Robert Kilwardely, then Archbishop of Canterbury, by his licence to be consecrated and dedicated to the honour of St Katharine the Virgin, notwithstanding the appeal of the Rector of Orpington interposed in this matter to the apostolic see as he alleges.

Additionally, we are told:

During the Thirteenth Century there seems to have been an increase in settlement along the ridge of the North Downs, for a number of churches there date from the latter years of the period. The ownership of lands in Ockholte, Latinised Acolta, is recorded in various deeds from 1197 onwards - twenty-six different spellings are known - but we are able to date the building of the church and the emergence of Knockholt as an independent parish from the evidence of a document of 1350, rediscovered in Reigate library in 1849. This records how Ralph Scot of Chelsfield bought land in Ocolte and moved to his newly built hall there in the times of Henry III, which must have been before 1272. He and his people "wandering to Chevening and elsewhere in all directions from their Parish Church of Orpington, and because through the distance of the place from the said Parish Church many perils of souls befell" a meeting of all the laity was held, and under the leadership of Ralph Scot, Harvey Goldsmith, and others a chapel was built in a clearing in the woodlands 'out of their own goods'. A house for a chaplain, tithebarn, and giebeland for his support, were provided to be possessed in perpetual alms.

The Rector of Orpington objected to his loss of dignity and income, and appealed to Rome. Such appeals abroad on anything which could be considered ecclesiastical matters were a constant source of trouble and expense for many centuries, until Henry VIII by the Statute of Praemunire forbad "the carrying of causes out of the realm". However, it has come back with a vengeance in recent years. In spite of this appeal, on 9th May 1281, by licence from Robert Kilwardely, Archbishop of Canterbury, the building was consecrated and dedicated to St Katharine the Virgin. The Rector of Orpington had the right of choosing the chaplain, who became a 'perpetual curate', with the same rights as a rector; that one third of the tithes still went to Orpington. Not until 1866 did Knockholt became a Rectory in its own right; the patronage (nomination of a new rector) went to the Dean and Chapter of Rochester.

Much of the original building probably still exists in the simple rectangular walls, with no separate chancel, in a map of 1596 a spire was indicated, and a squat tower and broached steeple is shown in a drawing of 1801. In 1840 the steeple was replaced by a clock tower. If the early drawing is accurate the present tower is further west than the original, where a porch was shown, although there are no obvious traces of the change to be seen now. If this occurred it could have been during repairs after a fire in 1858, or in 1863. A significant enlargement was made when the North Aisle was added in 1881. In 1998 glass screens were put in so that an area at the west end of this aisle could be used separately.

The church is Grade II* listed with the entry at the English Heritage website telling us:

Nave and chancel early C12, S tower of uncertain medieval date. Refenestrated early C19 and tower altered. N aisle added 1881.

MATERIALS The body of the church is rendered; tower is flint rubble with red brick dressings; N aisle is coursed stone and flint rubble with stone dressings. Tiled and slated roofs.

PLAN Nave and chancel in one, N aisle, S tower porch, NE vestry.

EXTERIOR A small, low church, and the plain exterior belies its real historic interest. The C12 nave and chancel are built in one and are rendered externally. Refenestrated in the early C19, the N wall has three lancet windows; there is a group of three lancets in the E wall and another three light window at the W end. The C12 origin of the building is apparent, however, in the pair of C12 windows flanking the E window. The S tower porch is of uncertain medieval date. It was formerly very short, and was raised and provided with a S door in a Perpendicular style c1840. The tower buttresses and upper windows are also of this date. The N aisle was added in 1881 and has pairs of uncusped Tudor-style windows and a shouldered NW door. Squared stone masonry in the lower part of the aisle wall is probably reused and may be C12. Low NE vestry, also 1881.

INTERIOR The interior is plastered and painted. There is no chancel arch. The E wall has two large, plain early C12 blind arches, and above them the C12 windows are deeply splayed. The four-bay N arcade of 1881 is in a C13 style and has polygonal piers with moulded capitals.

The tower retains part of its pre-Reformation bell frame, possibly C15 or early C16, reset in 1840 when the tower was altered. The nave and chancel roof is early C19 and is low pitched and boarded with moulded ribs. The C19 N aisle roof is of lean-to design, with struts from corbels on the N side of the arcade to the purlins, and is also boarded.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES Late C19 or early C20 reredos with simple but elegant blind tracery. C19 polygonal stone font. C19 timber drum pulpit with blind tracery panels on a wineglass stem. Very plain C19 nave benches, ramped up the W end of the church.

HISTORY The present church is early C12 in origin, and although small, clearly had a degree of architectural pretension with blind arches on the E wall that must originally have flanked a niche for an altar. The tower was added at an uncertain, medieval date, but its massive form, and the fact that in the early C19 before alterations it seems not to have had a door, may suggest that it was also C12 or early C13 in origin. Before the tower was renovated in the early C19, the church also had a S porch of uncertain date. The early date of the fabric is something of a puzzle, however, as the documentary evidence suggests that the church was founded in the mid C13, but as the document is of c.1350 and therefore is a later retelling of the foundation, it is possible that its dating evidence is confused.

The tower had a spire of unknown date that had blown or fallen down by the late C18 and been replaced by a low, pyramidal cap that barely rose above the church roof. At that time, early watercolours show that the roof was steeply pitched, and that the church had small C12 lancets in the S wall, a small S porch, and two possibly C12 windows in the W wall.

The church was reseated in 1822-3, and the roof was rebuilt some time in the late 1830s to designs by Samuel Green. The tower was probably also altered to raise it and provide it with a S door, and the windows changed, at that time. There were repeated proposals to enlarge the church in the 1870s, with designs by various architects. The work was finally carried out in 1881 to designs by A. R. Stenning (1846-1928), who also reseated and refurnished the church and added the vestry. The parish was united with St Margaret's Halstead in 1983.