St Leonard
Badlesmere, Kent
Tucked away down a quiet lane next to a farm, 13th century St Leonard's is tiny and does not look promising at first as it is rendered on the outside.
Parts of the church, including the base of the tower, date from the 11th century. The nave is from the 12th century; the chancel, the 13th; and the sanctuary and St Katherine Chapel, the 14th.
The porch is high Victorian with the jazziest floor in Kent, no doubt the work of Richard Hussey who restored the church in the mid 19th century. It leads to a church with origins in the 12th century but owing more to the 13th and even more to the 19th century! The arcades are built in a much replaced Early English style but work well.
In the centre alley is the lovely ledger slab of a man who put it there a few years before his death and inscribed lest someone else steal his pole position. In the south transept is a pretty monument showing kneeling children and a most colourful shield of arms displaying sea creatures.
The chancel contains one of the finest 14th century tomb recesses in the county, though the faces at either end are Victorian fantasies.
