Weight: 672 lbs Diameter: 31.5" Bell 1 of 3
Founded by Michael Darbie 1651
Dove Bell ID: 1805 Tower ID: 13200 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Cooling: St James
Diocese of Rochester
CCT Church
http://coolingchurch.org.uk/index.htmOverview
Grid reference: TQ 756 759
Externally the church appears entirely fourteenth century, the chancel rather later than the nave. The nave windows are pure Decorated, but the chancel windows have a vertical tracery bar showing a tendency towards Perpendicular. The sedilia inside the chancel, however, are more like c. 1260. The church was restored in 1885 (chancel) and 1888 (nave).
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Churches Conservation Trust
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
West tower with stair turret at the south-east corner; aisleless nave with south porch; long chancel with tiny south- east vestry.
Description of Archaeology and History
Externally the church appears entirely fourteenth century, the chancel rather later than the nave. The nave windows are pure Decorated, but the chancel windows have a vertical tracery bar showing a tendency towards Perpendicular. The sedilia inside the chancel, however, are more like c. 1260. The church was restored in 1885 (chancel) and 1888 (nave).
Exterior Description
Chiefly Kentish ragstone, with some flint banding. Tiled roofs. The walls also contain Wealden sandstone, chalk and flint. The colour of the church is attractively varied, the lower walls of the tower being coarsely banded with knapped flints in places, while in the walls of the nave and chancel the flints are mixed indiscriminately with the other materials.
The rectangular west tower is an elaborated version of that at St. Mary Hoo, not tall but made to seem so by its slender proportions, and also similar in having one horizontal band of masonry rather over halfway up. The belfry openings, too, are similar except that there they are single trefoiled lights on each face. The differences are that Cooling has a west door, a large west window of three lights and a south-east stair turret which rises above the plain parapet. Within the parapet is a small tiled spirelet. The western corners have angle buttresses.
The nave is divided externally by buttresses into two bays, the west corners (as at St. Mary Hoo) having also buttresses against the end wall for additional strength.
The eastern bays of the nave are uniform, each having two windows of Decorated two-light design, quite unlike the intersecting tracery of the west window. The chancel windows are similar, but a little later in style. The east window is like them too, but a more generous design of three lights. This wall shows considerable nineteenth century alteration, especially to the line of the roof, which has been heightened. The buttresses at the corners are chamfered, a refinement which is rather unexpected. Squeezed into the corner between nave and chancel on the south side is a tiny vestry, with only a small window in the east wall.
Interior
Interior Description
The lack of windows in the western part of the nave makes it quite dark. The window embrasures were sharply renewed in the restoration of the nave in 1888. Much of the roof structure is nineteenth-century, but the form and the main cross beans are old, the spandrels between the wall posts and the beams pierced with 1888-looking quatrefoils and daggers. The crown posts are flanked by uncommonly long braces.
The chancel is quite long, and made elegant by the arcades along the lower parts of the walls. Under a stringcourse is a row of Early English arches, six each side, carried on detached Purbeck marble shafts rising from marble benches. The north run stops at the communion rails step, but the south side continues at a higher level with three trefoiled arches over sedilia, and finally a double piscina with delicately moulded tracery, a trefoil above the two openings. The chancel arch has an inner order which dies away into simply chamfered responds and the eye is caught by the unsympathetic near-black pointing of this and the east window.
The floor, as in the nave, is of red and black quarries. The roof also is like that of the nave, but entirely nineteenth-century, carried on intermediate uprights which rest on carved corbels between the windows, one a pomegranate and the other ivy leaves. The general effect of the chancel is much more refined than that of the nave.
Fixtures and fittings
Font (object)
13th Century
The Font is thirteenth-century, of the Purbeck type but made of ragstone. The square bowl is supported on five severe cylindrical shafts and has five trefoiled arches in very low relief on each face. The east face has two of these arches flanking a cross upon a stepped base, also in shallow relief, with odd circular discs attached to the arms, four above and four below. The font stands upon two square steps.
Bench (seat)
c. 14th Century
The six benches at the west end of the nave are probably fourteenth century, of remarkable massiveness with coarse fleur-de-lys poppyheads.
Organ (object)
The Organ is a one manual instrument by Alfred Kirkland of Holloway. Tracker action.
Pulpit
18th Century
The pulpit is composed of eighteenth-century fielded panels, made up with pino uprights.
Table
c. Early 18th Century
A communion table, possibly early 18th century.
Bells
Weight: 532 lbs Diameter: 27.5" Bell 2 of 3
Founded by John Hodson 1675
Dove Bell ID: 17066 Tower ID: 13200 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Weight: 700 lbs Diameter: 30.5" Bell 3 of 3
Founded by John Palmar (Canterbury) 1641
Dove Bell ID: 17067 Tower ID: 13200 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 756 759
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | N/A |
| Solar Thermal Panels | N/A |
| Biomass | N/A |
| Wind Turbine | N/A |
| Air Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ev Charging | N/A |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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