Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey/Kent/Explanation of arrangement

by Arthur Hussey

EXPLANATION.

The first column of the List contains the Modern Names of places; the second the corresponding names, extracted from Domesday Book; and when any place appears among the latter only, the reason is, not that in every case no modern appellation is known; though in some instances that may be the fact; but that the church, formerly standing there, has been desecrated, and the site is no longer, if indeed it ever was, recognised as a distinct parish or chapelry. In the third column are given the churches mentioned in Domesday Book. The fourth, headed (A.D. 1291,) refers to the Taxation of Pope Nicholas the Fourth, ("Taxatio Eccles^a. Angliæ et Walliæ, auctoritate P. Nicolai 4, circa A.D. 1291"), and the asterisk in this column opposite to any name, indicates the church of that place to be noticed in the Taxation; which is conclusive evidence of the existence there of a church or chapel at that period, though the omission of such notice does not necessarily prove that no such building had yet been erected at the spot. Sometimes the church is not actually specified, but a vicar is; which last however always implies the presence of a church, the office having originated from the appropriation of churches and their emoluments to the support of monasteries; after which proceeding the latter were bound to find persons to perform the religious services of those churches, which persons were in consequence termed "Vicarii," or "substitutes" for the extinct rectors.

In describing the architectural characters of the buildings noticed, the terms employed are those suggested by the late Mr. Rickman; according to which definitions the Norman style may be stated generally to have prevailed till about A.D. 1200; the Early English may be called the style of the thirteenth century; the Decorated to have been adopted during the larger portion of the fourteenth; the last style, namely, the Perpendicular, having been introduced toward the conclusion of the fourteenth century, became that of the fifteenth, but, though practised so late as A.D. 1640, and even subsequently, it had already greatly declined from its perfection. (Gloss. of Architect.)

In the following Notes,

The abbreviation . .	Norm., stands for		Norman.
⁠"	Tr. Norm.	"	Transition Norman, intermediate between the first and second styles.
⁠"	E. E.	"	Early English.
⁠"	Dec.	"	Decorated.
⁠"	Perp.	"	Perpendicular.

For the same reason, namely, the sake of brevity, the references to Domesday Book are not given at full length, but short, as (D.B.) A similar rule is observed with regard to other works, which are frequently cited, the entire titles being named on the first occasion, but contractions afterwards employed. All works cited are invariably placed between parentheses.