ST. PETER’S CHURCH
BRIDGE

 
 

“It is situated about two miles and a half eastward of
Canterbury, on the high Dover Road, formerly the
Roman Watling-street way, which appears high and
entire almost throughout it; in the valley on this road
stands the village of Bridge with the church and Vicarage
in it, a low moist situation, the bourne or stream of the
Little Stour crossing it under a stone bridge, built a few
years ago by the contributions of‘ the [neighbouring
gentlemen. ”

Hasted: “The History and Topographical Survey ofKent”

ST. PETER’S CHURCH - BRIDGE

The village of Bridge, straddling the main road from Dover to
Canterbury, has been an important village since the Roman
occupation of England. There was probably a Roman bridge across
the river (cf. Bruges which has a similar name and site). There is
however no village mentioned in the Domesday Book but there is a
“Hundred of Brige” i.e. a meeting point for the villagers on the
“Boume”, Bishopsboume, Patrixbourne and Bekesbourne and
hence perhaps it had its chapel (not a chantry) built. There was
certainly a Chapel on this site in Norman times, as may be seen from
the history of the parish displayed in the church and from the
Norman base of the tower as well as the arch over the West door, but
it was in the parish of St. Mary, Patrixbourne, then an important
place since the Archbishop’s Palace was there. The Hundred of
Brige was part of the manor of Blecknesbury and was part of the
possessions of St. Augustine’s Abbey until the suppression of the
monasteries by Henry VIII. In 1258 the church at Bridge was
appropriated by Archbishop Boniface to the Prior and Convent of
Merton in Surrey in which patronage they remained until the middle
of the 15th century.

Bridge church has three aisles and a chancel with some Norman
features remaining in the tower and the western doorway. There are
three bells and there is a board above the belfry stating that the
church and steeple were repaired by one Samuel Hills, Church-
warden in 1787. The pillars which separate the aisles are large for
this size of church; the east end of the north aisle was formerly
partitioned off for a school room./T he font is small and though it
appears to be old, has nothing peculiar on it;

In the Chancel on the North wall there is a fine semi-circular
Norman carving, all that survives of a lost doorway. It shows scenes
from the Book of Genesis; in one sequence Adam and Eve in Eden
listening to the Devils and then driven out by the Angel; in another
the story of Cain and Abel. Below this carving is the stone figure of a
robed priest, apparently cut in two, and reclining in two small
recesses. He is Macobus Casey, Vicar till 1512, and the carved scrolls
on the opposite side of the Chancel must have been part of his tomb.

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High on the East wall is a portrait thought to be the work of
Cornelius Jansen, a noted painter of the time of Charles I, who is
known to have stayed with Sir Arnold Braems of Bridge Place, who
built Dover Harbour. His first wife Joan has a plaque on this same
chancel wall. Her memorial is flanked by two marble carvings, one a
skull through which a serpent twines, the other a coat of arms. These
are probably all we have of another forgotten tomb.

There are several interesting tablets in the Church — in the
middle of the Chancel lies buried the second daughter of Sir Dudley
Bigges of Chilham Castle, Master of the Rolls in 1643. Notice also in
the left side aisle the tablet to Mr. Sicard who is one of the many
people who lived in the village with Hugenot forbears. The church
was restored by Mrs. Gregory of Bridge Hill in the middle of the
19th century and it is to her that we owe the striking Kentish
flintstone of the exterior. She was not a native of the village but the
daughter of Nathaniel Pattison of Congleton in Cheshire and whose

grandfather founded the first silk mill in Congleton in 1752.
CHURCH SPIRE: Repairs to the Church Spire were carried out by

Samuel Hills in 1787 and major alterations were instigated by Mrs.
Gregory of Bridge Hill House in 1859; the whole structure is
constructed of pine timbers and proof of its inherent strength,
design and workmanship was put to the test in June 1983 when it
was struck by lightning during a severe storm. This was repaired by
Peter Harknett, a steepleiack of Petersfield, Hants, who at the same
time refixed the weather vane.

BELLS: There are three bells in the belfry, 33", 36" and 39". The
third or tenor bell and the No. 2 at Patrixbourne Church one and a
half miles away, were cast in 1325 and both are thought to be among
the oldest bells in the country. They were cast by M. Le Belyetere
and bear the moulded inscription “Ave Maria; Gracia plena”. This
tenor bell was used to strike the hour at Bridge, the other bells bear
no inscription but are very old. The bells are no longer fully swung,
but are rung by harnessed clappers. .

THE CLOCK: The clock keeps excellent time and controls two
faces; it is motivated by hand-winding the heavy weights and has a
movement of great interest to horologists. The date on the frame
casting is 1847, ané’ was made by Gillett & Johnston. In 1975 the
mechanism and cables were overhauled by S. J . F oord of Bridge.

THE FONT: The Font is of serpentine stone brought from Cornwall
and is an outstanding piece of workmanship for both quality and size
and a water-wheel was used for turning the bowl.

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The village of Bridge ‘if you have time and inclination, is worth
further study. In 1793‘ Zechariah Cozens wrote: “The parish of
Bridge is but small and the soil in general is but chalky and barren,
producing in several places heath and coppice wood, though
throughout the whole extent of the parish there is a beautiful variety
of hill and dale. From the woods around Bridge we have a most
delightful View of the Vales which are adorned with many a
gentleman’s seat,” and in 1815 Dr. Haddy Jones, Assistant Surgeon
to the 1st Life Guards returning from the Battle of Waterloo wrote
that the “neatness of the farms and the mode of agriculture much
impressed him between Dover and Canterbury’ ’.

A small distance to the south of the church is the house built by Sir
Arnold Braems of which only a wing remains of the original
structure; recently drawings of the original house were discovered in
Amsterdam Museum and after Chilham Castle it was the largest
country house in East Kent in the 17th century and had a large deer
park and aviary. At a later date it belonged to the Reverend Edward
Taylor of Bifrons who was a friend of George IV and Jane Austen.
Much of the house is built with hand-made Dutch brick which was
brought over from Holland and landed at Sandwich.A little further
up the road from the church towards Dover lies “England’s Old
Hole” which is reputed to be the place where the seventh Roman
Legion captured and slew the Britons in their last attempt to stem off
the Roman invasion.

In 1829 when excavations were made, a number of Roman arms
and skulls were discovered at a depth of five feet. The circular
earthwork of the redoubt still remains in very good preservation
after a lapse of more than 1900 years. The village main street has not
changed a great deal since the middle of the 19th century. There is a
fine example of a Tudor cottage in the middle and the White Horse
public house i the scene of the famous brawl of Christopher Apple-
gate, a friend of Christopher Marlowe, who became famous in the
English Army in the early 16th century. This incident is mentioned
in the Canterbury Court records of 1598. Further up the street at the
post office is the place where Field Marshall Lord Kitchener sent his
first dispatches at the beginning of the First World War.

A little further up the road is Dering Road, named after Colonel
Dering who raised the Duke of York’s Own Regiment in 1794. He
subsequently bought Howletts, a fine Palladian villa between Bridge
and Littlebourne which was sold in 1816 to George Gipps, a founder
of the Canterbury Bank. In Union Road was an old workhglse
founded in 1835, and used for many years up until the 1980s~aLan
old people’s home. It was then converted into flats.

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