CROCKENHILL 994/0/10016 CHURCH ROAD All Soul's Church GV II Church. Built in 1851, architect Edwin Nash (1813-1884). Early English style. Built of coursed Kentish ragstone rubble with Caen stone dressings and tiled roof with alternate bands of plain and pointed tiles. Four bay nave, lower two bay chancel, north porch and north vestry. Windows are mainly lancets, separated by stepped buttresses. EXTERIOR: Gabled west front has gabled bellcote and clock face dated 1852 by Shole of Deptford, two lancet windows and arched doorcase with colonnettes and double plank doors with decorative ironmongery. South side of nave has paired lancets with trefoil heads. North side has lancets, one triple arched window and gabled porch with kneelers, arched doorcase with dripmould and trefoil openings in the side walls. The chancel has lancet windows, including three lancet windows to the east, the central taller, and the north wall has a lean-to vestry with pointed windows and flat-arched doorcase. INTERIOR: Nave has a pine arched braced collar roof, boarded above the common rafters and supported on stone corbels. Carved wooden western gallery. The floors to nave and porch are diamond-shaped alternate red and black quarries. The original pine pews with umbrella stands survive and there is an octagonal Caen stone font and a Caen stone pulpit. The stained glass windows to the nave were probably designed by Holland of Warwick or Henry Hughes and inserted before 1870. A large round-headed moulded chancel arch on colonnettes leads to the chancel, which has a barrel-vaulted roof, and the floors of both chancel and sanctuary have clay glazed and encaustic tiles laid in the mid 1860s. The organ was built in 1856 by Henry Willis and has painted decorated front pipes. The choir stalls were constructed from pews removed from underneath the gallery in 1889. Oak altar rail with floral and snake decoration to iron panels and reredos of Caen stone and plaster, dated 1855, with trilobed arcades supported on short marble shafts. The east stained glass window is by William Holland and dated 1853 with scenes from the Life of Christ with twisting leaf patterns up the sides. HISTORY: Before this church was built the nearest Church of England churches were in St Mary Cray and Eynsford but a thriving baptist chapel had provided competition from the early C19. The architect, Edwin Nas, had strong local connections and the church was built for £1500, mainly raised by local subscription. A carefully designed Early English style mid C19 stone village church with virtually complete interior fittings. [Susan Pittman MA "A Guide to All Souls Church, Crockenhill" 1998.]