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You are in » Buildings and History » The Nave

The Nave The Nave Roof The Pulpit

The Nave

Moving further back down the centre chancel aisle, it is worth looking up at the carved corbel heads at the top of the walls, and these were restored and repaired after the fire of 1974. Over the central aisle is a particularly fine twelve-branched brass candelabrum dating from the 18th century, which is still lit for special services.

The pews, pulpit and lectern are all of the Victorian era; previously there had been oak box pews which now form part of the panelled oak dado on the nave walls. Prior to that there had been bench pews with carved poppy heads on the ends, dating from the 15th century. A few of these have survived - two are in the Carpenter Chapel, and four at the West end of the nave.  

Above the chancel arch on the great Easternmost roof beam is the inscription:

 1740
GEORGE BRAMSTON ESQ AND RICAHRD BARNES
CHURCH WARDENS
REGINALD BRAMWOOD OF WRITTLE, CARPENTER, fecit

It seems that fairly major restoration must have taken pace at that time. The seventh of these great beams, at the Western end of the nave roof is dated 1802; this replacement would have been necessitated by the rebuilding of the tower. The West end of the nave was rebuilt at this time, and the first arch in the nave arcades had to be foreshortened to accommodate Lambirth’s brick buttresses supporting the tower. Beneath this end beam can be seen the former door to the gallery, now filled in and bearing a stained glass window portraying a cross of nails and flames, symbolising the suffering of the Church from the fires in 1974 and 1991, and its restoration. The galleries this door once gave access to were removed in 1869 the woodwork having become rotten and unsafe.

The brackets bearing the five middle beams rest on stone corbels. Each of which carries a demi-figure of an angel.  These, together with the bosses in the centre of each roof beam were repainted following the fire in 1974, using the colours that would have been used originally, probably in the late 1`5th century when almost the entire roof was rebuilt in th4 form which it remains to this day.  

 
 
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