Brook

 The tiny village of Brook lies at the foot of the Wye Downs. At the moment, all that I have had a look at is the church, which is wonderful. The Brook Rural Museum next door is only open presently at weekends from spring to autumn. I will go there when I can, but in the meantime, here's a little background information to it.

The Manor of Brook and its buildings (later known as Court Lodge Farm) were held by Christ Church Priory (later Canterbury Cathedral) until 1862, passing through various private hands until purchased by Wye College in 1957. The barn was used to house the College’s collection of historic agricultural tools and Court Lodge used for housing first the Secretary and then the Principal of the College. In 1997 the Wye Rural Museum Trust purchased the barn, oast and stables and was given the collections by the College.

The barn at Brook Rural Museum is Grade-I listed and is one of the finest medieval barns in Kent. As it was built as the barn for a Manor it is technically a ‘grange barn’ rather than a ‘tithe barn’. It remains largely unaltered

The oast house at Brook Rural Museum was built in 1815 and is of the iconic round-kiln design. It is one of the few remaining oast houses to show almost all of its original features. 

And so the church:

St. Mary’s church. The small rural village of Brook is accessed via narrow, winding lanes, and the setting of the ancient church of St Mary in its leafy churchyard is an idyllic one, in perfect keeping with its peaceful surroundings. The mixture of informal path over a little bridge into a churchyard full of trees and shrubs is the perfect introduction to the military looking Norman tower.

When I visited today, it stood on its' mound, resplendent in the Spring sunshine, and the banks today were full of primroses and other spring flowers. It really is a pretty setting, and the exterior and churchyard are very well cared for.

 St Mary's is one of the most complete Norman churches in England, dating almost entirely to the late 11th century.

A church at Brook was recorded in the Doomsday survey of 1086. Ten years earlier Archbishop Lanfranc had assigned Brook to Christ Church Monastery, Canterbury, and the church remained in the ownership of Canterbury until the dissolution of the monasteries by order of Henry VIII in the 16th century.

St Mary is a fine example of a virtually unaltered early Norman church. There is no evidence of any former Saxon building on the site.

The tower is massive compared to the rest of the church. It has three storeys, the central one being a room for priests when visiting from Canterbury to oversee the workings of the church and manor.

The simple interior was embellished in the 13th century by a series of wall paintings which rank among the finest in England. Though the worn nave paintings are interesting, especially a large figure of St Christopher over the north door, it is in the chancel that Brook shines.

Most of the east wall, and large sections of the north and south chancel walls are covered with a pattern of roundels painted with Biblical scenes. The east wall paintings are in a striking monochrome scheme, alternately black on white and white on black.

The major themes are the Resurrection, Nativity, and the Passion. On the south wall are red on white and white on red depictions of scenes from the life of a saint. They are among the most important such paintings in the country. 

There is a further painting of Christ in Majesty in the tower, in what was once a private chapel. This is the earliest painting in the church, dating to the 12th century, but it can only be viewed by previous appointment, as the tower is normally kept locked.

There are 14th-century floor tiles in the chancel floor, in front of the stone altar slab. The altar was buried in the churchyard during the Reformation and only discovered again in 1966

the medieval stone altar slab was removed at the Reformation, and only reinstated in 1986, 20 years after being discovered.

west tower. This rises in three stages, the second of which has traditionally been known as the 'Priest's Room', used as accommodation for priests from Canterbury coming to administer the manor of Brook. The west tower door has reused pieces of a Norman frieze set into the tympanum.

One other unusual feature is worth mentioning; in the north wall of the chancel is a small almond-shaped opening, protected by deep splays. This is probably the remains of a medieval squint, or hagioscope, allowing an anchorite to view the high altar.

There are no apparent traces of an anchorite cell attached to the chancel, so we can only presume it was destroyed during the Reformation.