TR 05 NW SELLING ST MARY'S CHURCH 1/30 Church of St Mary 24.1.67 GV I Parish Church. Circa 1190, c.1300 and C15. Restored 1841-6, R.C. Hussey. Flint, in part rendered, with plain tiled roofs. Chancel with north and south chapels, nave and aisles, central tower and transepts and south and west porches. Western doorway in C19 porch with large wrought iron doors. C12 doorway with pointed arch and 3 orders and surround all with complex beaded and hollowed mouldings. Attached columns with shaft-rings, with acanthus derived capitals (see interior). West window c.1300 with 3 stepped trecusped lights and hollow chamfered surround. South aisle, buttressed with string course and battlements. Triple moulded south doorway- in C14 porch. C15 Perpendicular fenestration to aisles. South chapel with lancet windows and C19 octagonal vice. Chancel with knapped and coursed flints, clasping buttresses,lancets to north and south, and stepped 5 light east window with cinquecusped heads. North chapel with lancets, north aisle with C15 fenestration and small projecting vice. Central rendered tower in 2 stages with string courses, battlements and clock faces on all 4 elevations. Interior: 4 bay nave arcade with double chamfered arches on tall octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals. Roof of 4 crown posts. Blocked doorways to north and north-west. North and south aisles with chamfered arches on corbel tables through to transepts. Transepts, crossing and east end all c.ll90,the tower carried on tall square piers with moulded abaci with crocketed corners. North and south arches underbuilt C15 with attached shafts; east and west arches remodelled c.1300, that to the nave with the mouldings of the nave arcade carried across the crossing pier of the capitals. Double rebated and chamfered arch. Some suggestion of springing for vaulting in the re-entrants of one crossing pier. Buttressing to north-east pier, blocking archway through to north chapel. Chancel with 2 bay arcades continued on third blank arch in sanctuary. Pointed arches on round piers with crocketed capitals on square moulded abaci, the south eastern arch a C19 rebuild. North arcade with spurred bases, and acanthus derived capitals by the same hand as those in Bapchild (Swale) and Stockbury (Maidstone)and several other churches south and west of Sittingbourne (see Bapchild, Kent). Lancets in all 3 eastern limbs carried on string course. Crown post roofs in north and south chapels. Fine moulded arch from south chapel to south transept. Fittings: C19 reredos and brass altar rails; plain floor tiles throughout church; rood stair in north aisle/north transept. Brasses: various inscriptions and remnant figures to Norwood family in chancel; 18 inch figure of a man in nave (n.d.); remnant of large brass in south transept now only 3 mourners (6 inches high) (n.d.). Monuments: south chapel (Hilton chapel); William Chambers, d.1724 (monument dated 1758), white marble wall plaque, with coloured marble surround, broken pediments and achievement. Two large naval standards, the Union Jack flown on H.M.S. Minotaur at Trafalgar (1805), and the Spanish Ensign captured then from the battleship Neptune; Commander Stephen Hilton was master's mate on the Minotaur. Wall paintings: the chancel has masonry lines painted on and some flower designs. South chapel lancet reveals with mid C14 saints outlined: St Paul, St Peter, St Bartholomew, St John the Evangelist. Stained Glass: chancel east-window with 5 lights with coloured borders, grisaille backgrounds, each light with figure of a saint, the central of The Virgin, each with an heraldic shield below. The arms (of Gilbert de Clare and others) date the windows 1299-1307. West window 1850, T. Willement. (See B.O.E. Kent II, 1983, 454-55). Listing NGR: TR0378856834