TQ 95 NW MILSTEAD RAWLING STREET (west side) Milstead 4/126 Church of St Mary and the Holy Cross 24.1.67 GV II* Parish church. C12-13 chancel, C15 nave and west tower. Restored and enlarged 1872 by William Butterfield. Flint and plaster with plain tiled roofs. West tower, aisleless nave, chancel with south and north chapels south porch. Two stage tower with string course and cornice to balllements and north-west octagonal vice. Double chamfered west doorway, with 2 light C15 Perp. windows and belfry lights. Nave on plinth with 2 light Perp. windows north and south. C19 half-timber and weatherboard south porch, with C15 double hinged door (i.e. half-leaf or entire door opens) in double hollow chamfered surround. Three eastern chapels all Cl9 exterior though lancers in chancel are original. Interior: short nave with hollow chamfered tower arch surround with attached shafts and octagonal capitals, with chamfered arch. Roof of 3 crown posts the easternmost shortened to raise over chancel arch, on flat, heavilu moulded ties. Chancel arch with double hollow chamfer on octagonal responds with corbels on inner face (for a lost rood screen probably). Chancel, originally 2 bays, with chapels added to north and south c.1200. Two bay araced to north, with round pier, square moulded abacus chamfered at the corners, with debased upright acanthus leaves in pairs, fillet rolls on arches, and corbel tables on responds. This is all identical to and by the same hand as work in Bapchild, Doddington, Frinsted and Murston (see Bapchild: Church of St Lawrence). Chancel extended east- wards 2 bays in later C13 - the original quoins visible internally. Paired lancets north and south, the reveals of the 2 westerly taken down to floor level, with drip moulds. Renewed windows, C19 wagon roof. Mutilated capitals to south arch with the paired upright leaf motif and nook shafts all that survives of pre-Butterfield date in south chapel. The north chapel is also entirely Butterfield (or B.O.E. Kent II Suggest R.C. Hussey c.1855). Fittings: sedile and piscina ensuite in chancel with double chamfered surround. Painted tryptych reredos, altar rails, glass add date from 1870's, as do 2 wrought iron lamp stands, 7 feet high with giled details. In the nave, the pulpit, lectern, benches, wrought iron screen to tower and octagonal font are all likewise persumably by Butterfield. Monuments: marble and cast iron wall plaques to various C19 members to the Tylden family in the north chapel, two of note, Elizabeth Tylden d.1839, tablet with bust; William and Richard Tylden d.1854 and 1855, by R.C. Hussey. Two tabernacles crocketted with attached marble shafts, integrated with double lancet windows with moulded surrounds and attached shafts above the monument. Smaller, plainer copy to left to Charlotte Tylden d.1858. (See B.O.E. Kent II, 388). Listing NGR: TQ9041058818