TQ 86 NE BOBBING SHEPPEY WAY (south-east side) 2/28 Church of St. Bartholomew 24.1.67 I Parish Church. C14 with earlier fragments restored 1863 by R.C. Hussey. Flint with ashlar dressings, and plain tile roof. Nave and chancel with continuous north aisle, south porch and western tower. Three- stage tower on plinth, with C19 board west door in double hollow- chamfered surround, 2 light window with sexfoil in head over the door, single light belfry openings in top stage. Restored south porch with C20 board doors in double chamfered and roll moulded surround. Chancel roof stepped down, nave and chancel with 3 offset buttresses and C19 restored Decorated-style windows, and small sauctus-bell-window. East window restored 3-light reticulated, North aisle has good series of c. 1320 windows, cusped 'Y'-tracery at east, three 2-light windows on north wall with mouchettes over, and with split-cusped trefoils and linking bars to west windows. Interior: plain unmoulded tower arch. Arcade of 3 double chamfered arches to north aisle, on octagonal piers. Plastered ceiling with 2 tall crown posts. North aisle of one build along whole north side of church, with 3 short octagonal crown posts. Double chamfered chancel arch on octagonal piers. Chancel with arch through to aisle, with carved head stops to hood mould, and crown post and plastered roof. Fittings: chamfered piscina in chancel, and ogee-headed piscina in north aisle, which also has 2 stone brackets for statues before the window. Triple sedilia in chancel, part restored, shafted arches of c. 1300. The west respond now shows Romanesque carving of c. 1190, showing St. Martial ordaining a deacon, with inscription: SANCTUS MARCIALIS PIUS PATRONCUS. Monuments: 2 brasses, now at the west end, both made c. 1420, to Sir Arnold(d. 1410)and Lady Joan Savage, and Sir Arnold Savage, d. 1420. Both damaged, the former with canopy gone, the latter with figure mutilated. On south wall, brass to Joan Bourne, d. 1496. South nave wall, hanging monument to Charles and Francis Tufton, d. 1657. Two half-length busts under broken segmental pediment containing a cartouche and supported by corinthian pillars and frieze, and below, the inscribed plaque. In the north aisle, a similar black and white wall monument to Henry Sandford of Bobbing Court, d. 1660, and his wife Elizabeth. Busts of man and woman with open pediment containing cartouche, and below a coved and inscribed plaque. On chancel south wall, white marble plaque in Latin to William Tyndale, d. 1748 who had pulled down the chief residence in the parish, Bobbing Court. Stained glass: fragments in north-east window of aisle, early C14 details of plants. Associations: church records state in 1672 " our minister is gone to sea". In fact, the minister was Titus Oates, fleeing justice, before his later success in fabricating the Popish Plot of 1678. See: Church Guide 1979, B.O.E. Kent II (1983 edition), 147. Listing NGR: TQ8891665300