The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Ash

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Some interesting notes on the Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

John Betjeman thought that the Church was worthy of note:

"Ash by Wrotham

St. Peter and St. Paul

3m/3km south of Longfield

Near 17th Century manor. 13th - 15th Century flint church with decorated nave and north aisle; 15th Century North Tower and Crown Posted Roof. Well restored by T.G.Jackson"

John Betjeman's guide to English Parish Churches, Page 287, Harper and Collins 1993

Some Comments on the Church and the surrounding buildings by Nicholas Pevsner - Builidings of England (

"ST PETER AND ST PAUL. A handsome church, sympathetically restored by Sir T. G. Jackson in 1901-3. Flint walls of course, but unusually much colour in the dressings. Mostly ragstone, but the south aisle and porch dressed with a glowing sandstone. Brick South Eastern turret to the tower. The plastered and whitewashed interior is equally attractive. Of a 13 Century church, the watchtower and chancel remain. East window of 1863. The internal treatment of the chancel is with two large blank arches of different designs to North and South. Lancets are set within the East arch on each side. Early Perpendicular chancel arch. The nave was completely rebuilt contemporarily with a North aisle reaching halfway along the chancel. Decorated aisle south window, of three pointed lights under a segmental head, with the usual Kentish combination of ogee forms and spherical triangles. Standard but well proportioned arcades, octagonal piers and arches with two hollow chamfers. Boldly carved crown-post roof. In 1472 a bequest was made 'reparacioni navis'. That may date the South porch and the widening of the south aisle. FONT, presumably perpendicular, has sunk rectangular panels on the stem. - STAINED GLASS. Quarries and borders, much restored, in the North aisle East window. MONUMENTS. Richard Galon t 1465. Half-length priest. Brass a foot long. Poor kneeling figures, but the alabaster foliage panels are of a purity worthy of Quattrocento Italy.

Church and Manor stand side by side, looking across a field at the straggling houses of the village. ASH MANOR, of red brick, bears the recut date 1637. Plain symmetrical front of three storeys and three bays, with broad segment-headed windows and a three-storeyed gabled porch. The parapet quirks up in little gables over the side windows. Also OLD RECTORY, with a big hipped roof, to a design approved in 1739. Front of squared, knapped flint, rare at that date.

SOUTH ASH MANOR, 1mile. SW. An impressive half-timbered North front, a long recessed centre between slightly jettied ends. The two-storeyed porch is clearly later, perhaps as late as c.1600, with its braces forming decorative patterns of squares and hollow-sided lozenges. The wooden caryatid figures beside the door do not belong. Elizabethan painted decoration in the dining room.

A rectangular Roman building measuring 104 x 53 feet, lies half a mile to the North West. Its plan suggests that it began as a basilican structure but was later modified to include baths"

Nicholas Pevsner, English Buildings (West Kent and The Weald) Pages 132 - 133, Penguin 1988