Littlebourne - St. Vincent's Church

St. Vincent's Church from the South © P.E. Blanche 2000

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The Nave and Chancel © PE Blanche 2000

The Chancel and East Window © PE Blanche 2000

The 13th Century Church of St. Vincent sits well back from the road in the centre of a fine collection of trees including several large yews. In fact, so much so that it is actually difficult to see the main body of the building. From the outside the Chancel roof stands up higher than the roof of the Nave (see above). Inside the Church this difference is not apparent which is rather strange. I think it results from the pitch of the roofs more than anything else.

The other rather odd looking thing is that the interior is not symmetrical. In that many churches have had additions to them at different stages in their construction, this would not always make them appear "odd". However, in the case of St. Vincent's it does make the interior look somwhat "lop-sided". In the early 1800's when many country churches seem to have suffered from neglect, the North Aisle of this church actually collapsed and when reconstructed, was not built to the same width of the original. Possibly, after the collapse whatever stone and timber which was of reasonable quality was salvaged for the repairs and little or no additional materials were purchased. This would have resulted in the North Aisle no longer being as large as the original which probably when it was first built, matched the South Aisle.

The Chancel is particularly attractive with some nice stained glass in a large number of lancet windows. I have included detail of a tablet to the Denne family below as I have often seen mention of the name in genealogical forums. The Denne family were well represented in many villages in the area and this particular branch obviously lived at Court Lodge.

Tablet to the Denne Family - 18th Century © PE Blanche 2000

Some of the detail of this tablet is as follows: "In a vault underneath the Court Lodge Pew are deposited the remains of Elizabeth, Wife of Henry Denne of this Court Lodge, Esquire who departed this life the 8th January, 1780 aged 53 (?) years". There is also mention of John Denne, a son, who died 29 September, 1793, the Husband, Henry Denne who died in April 1794 (?) and their remaining son, Henry.