Details
DATE: 1895-96 German Romanesque-style church by Frederick Walters, incorporating an 1884 sanctuary as the sacristy. Work stopped in 1896 owing to a shortage of funds and the nave was only completed in 1925-6 to Walters' original design. The north porch was added in 1995-6 to a design by Burns, Guthrie & Partners.

MATERIALS: roughcast with ashlar dressings. Tiled roof but shingled spirelet.

PLAN: the original plan included a nave with north and south transepts, west porch and a north-west tower, and incorporated the earlier sanctuary as a sacristy on the north side. The sanctuary has an apsidal east end and its centre is higher than both the nave and apse roof and is surmounted by a spirelet. A large north porch was added 1995-6.

EXTERIOR: the west front has a gabled porch with round-headed arch, side buttresses and carved tympanum, set within a blind, giant, round-headed arch with two round-headed windows. Flanking the porch are small round-headed windows. The north-west tower has a gabled saddleback roof and recessed panels rising to a stepped triplet of arches to east and west, and to a pair of arches to north and south. The bell stage has louvred bell openings. The north side of the nave is now obscured by the 1990s porch but the
original round-headed windows are visible in the porch. The 1990s porch, also roughcast, has pinched up gables and a round-headed arch to the porch, also two adjacent dormers, with a shallow lower section and steeper upper section. The projecting gabled sacristy on the north side was originally built in 1884 as the sanctuary. The sanctuary and apse are blind, apart from two round-headed windows to the north and south high up on the raised part of the sanctuary. The apse has a stone eaves corbel table. Much of the south side of the church is obscured by the attached former presbytery built in 1887, now parish room, library and retired priest's flat. There are no windows on the south side of the nave.

INTERIOR: the nave has a wooden roof with collar beams and two tiers of purlins. The wooden west gallery dates from the 1960s. The transepts provide shallow projections for side altars, each with carved stone and marble altars and reredos. There are several stained glass windows including one of 1930 by John Hardman & Co in the south transept. At the foot of the sanctuary steps is an oval marble baluster font with gadrooning to the underside of the bowl, either C18 or C19 in style. The round-headed sanctuary arch has a shallow inner order on corbels and a further plain arch in front of the apse. The sanctuary has painted decoration executed in 1929-30 probably by an unnamed Belgian artist. In the apse the central painted figure of Christ in Majesty is flanked to the north by St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Thomas More and to the south by St. John Fisher and St. Edith. There is a carved stone reredos with baldacchino over the tabernacle. The sanctuary was re-ordered in 1981, when the coloured marble altar was brought forward.

History
The history of this parish began in 1880 when Mass was said in the family home of the Buchanan Family in Granville Road. The Buchanan family sold the land on which the present church stands to the Church in the same year. By October an iron church had been erected and the congregation numbered seven. This iron church was still known to exist as late as 1995, relocated to, and in use by, the St. John Ambulance at Bat and Ball, Sevenoaks. Kent.

In 1883 drawings for a church were produced by Herbert Gribble, the architect of the Brompton Oratory, but were not proceeded with. However in 1884 a more permanent sanctuary was built. A presbytery was built to the south-west of the sanctuary at 14, Granville Road in 1887. Subsequently the architect Frederick Arthur Walters (1849-1931) was commissioned to build a new church and work took place in 1895-6. The 1884 sanctuary was incorporated as the sacristy of the new church. By 1896 only part of the nave had been completed but work ceased because of a shortage of funds. The nave was eventually completed in 1925-26 to Walters' original design.

In 1981 the 1887 presbytery was converted into a parish room, library and retired priest's flat.

In 1995-6 the present north porch was added to designs by Burns, Guthrie & Partners. (1)

<1> English Heritage, 2013, English Heritage (Listing) Advice Report Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Sevenoaks, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE26002.