The Seventeenth-Century Restoration of St Mary of Charity
When the year 1600 opened, the parish church of Faversham had already lived through more than three centuries of medieval devotion, the wrenching reforms of the sixteenth century, and the first tremors of what would become a century of upheaval. The fabric of St Mary of Charity was tired in places, but it still stood, and the story of how its parishioners chose to mend, renew, and reshape it during the 1600s is woven into almost every corner that visitors see today.
The seventeenth century brought religious turmoil that few other periods in English history can match. Monarchy, prayer book, and parliament all collided, leaving parish churches like St Mary of Charity to weather civil war, the abolition of the prayer book, and the eventual return of the Stuart king. Each shift left its mark on the building, and the long process of repairing, refurbishing, and reordering the church spans the entire century.
Modern visitors walking into the building often sense something layered and old beneath their feet. That sense owes much to the decisions made by seventeenth-century parishioners, whose practical care kept a medieval church functioning as a living place of worship.
A Parish Church Between Two Eras
By the time Elizabeth I died in 1603, St Mary of Charity had settled into its post-Reformation identity. Altars had been reduced to communion tables placed at the east end, rood screens had been taken down, and the rich medieval wall paintings that once glowed across the nave had been whitewashed over in accordance with royal injunctions. What the building lacked in painted colour it partly made up for in clear glass and plain furnishings, and the tower and outer walls had been maintained well enough to carry the parish through the reign of the Tudors.
The interior still held onto fragments of its medieval past. Carved misericords survived in the choir stalls, medieval brasses remained set into the floor, and the painted column with its band of figures looked out across the nave as it had done for generations. These objects quietly resisted the urge to strip everything old away, and they would carry their own memories into the turbulence ahead.
When James VI of Scotland travelled south to become James I of England, the union of crowns brought a quieter religious settlement but also a sharpening of Protestant identity. In Faversham, as in many small Kentish towns, the parish registers from the early years of his reign show careful stewardship of the church property rather than dramatic change. The real tests were still to come.
Years of Neglect and Puritan Reform
The 1640s marked the sharpest break. With the Civil War beginning and Parliament's Puritan allies growing in influence, the machinery of parish life shifted under the feet of the parishioners. The Book of Common Prayer was forbidden in 1645, church organs were silenced, and many fittings once considered too "popish" were removed, sold, or quietly hidden away. St Mary of Charity, like other parish churches, saw a withdrawal of the ceremonies that had shaped Sunday worship for generations.
What often gets called neglect was, in many cases, deliberate reform. Monuments to ancestors were not always destroyed but were sometimes defaced, and decorative elements that smacked of superstition faced close scrutiny. The accounts from Faversham's town records, alongside national legislation, suggest that the church received only essential maintenance during the Commonwealth years. Roof repairs and basic cleaning continued, while richer embellishment waited for better days.
The execution of Charles I in 1649 removed any certainty about the future of the Established Church. Under the Commonwealth, parish churches operated in a strange suspended state, governed by committees of local gentlemen rather than bishops. When the Restoration of Charles II came in 1660, the pendulum swung back, and St Mary of Charity felt the change as clearly as any parish in the realm.
The Restoration of 1660 and Renewed Investment
The word "Restoration" in English history carries two overlapping meanings. One refers to the return of Charles II to the throne in May 1660, an event that restored the monarchy and the Church of England together. The other refers to the physical mending of church buildings after years of patch-and-pray survival. In Faversham, the two restorations converged in a burst of activity that the parish accounts of the 1660s and 1670s record in detail.
Parishioners moved quickly. Within months, the prayer book was back in use, organs were restored, and proper vestments reappeared in the chancel. The visual recovery of the church mattered as much as the liturgical one. Money was raised through church rates, gifts from local families, and collections taken at the door. The tower received attention, the nave roof was patched, and several windows were reglazed with clear panes that let the renewed light pour in.
The dedication of the church itself, St Mary of Charity, gained renewed meaning during this period, as parishioners reasserted the identity of their parish after years of uncertainty. The building's role as the spiritual heart of a market town depended on it looking and behaving like a church once more, and the seventeenth-century generation rose to that task.
Practical Rebuilding Across the Century
The hands-on restoration of St Mary of Charity was not a single project but a long, uneven effort spread across the 1600s. Early Stuart repairs addressed the roof and tower, while the post-1660 work concentrated on the interior and on the fittings needed for worship under the restored prayer book. Local craftsmen, including masons, glaziers, joiners, and plumbers, carried out most of the labour, and their work is visible in details that still survive.
A side-by-side sketch of how the building changed during this period sets the broad shifts recorded in parish documents against the surviving fabric.
| Element | Around 1600 | After Restoration |
|---|---|---|
| Wall paintings | Patched or overpainted; few medieval figures visible | Plain white plaster, occasional decorative panels added |
| Communion table | Plain table at the east end | Returned to a more formal setting, sometimes with a new frame |
| Glass | Mix of clear and coloured panes | Largely clear glass to brighten the nave |
| Choir fittings | Medieval misericords still in place | Same stalls re-used, sometimes with new bench ends |
| Roof and tower | Sound but ageing | Major repairs, new leadwork and timber in places |
| Brasses and memorials | Many older brasses preserved | New memorials added, especially to local families |
That sketch is only a guide. Some changes happened gradually, and some repairs recorded in the accounts are now hidden under later work. Even so, the broad arc is clear: the 1660s and 1670s restored the visual seriousness of the interior, while keeping the medieval bones intact.
Seventeenth-Century Features Visible Today
The misericords tucked beneath the choir stalls are among the easiest seventeenth-century survivors to overlook, because their date sits quietly inside the medieval stalls themselves. They were carved and repaired across generations, and the curious carvings of St Mary's misericords carry marks from many periods, including seventeenth-century restoration work that re-carved worn edges and replaced damaged figures.
Brasses and memorial tablets across the floor and walls also trace the period. Several commemorate merchants and mayors of Faversham whose families helped fund the post-1660 repairs. Their inscriptions read like a roll call of the town at the moment when the church was being rebuilt around them. Outside, on the south porch, seventeenth-century timber and ironwork can be picked out among the medieval fabric.
Other features, less obvious, also date from the 1600s. Items to look for inside the church include:
- The arrangement of the nave seating, much of which follows lines set after the Restoration
- Late Stuart memorial inscriptions set into the floor
- Sections of clear leaded glass in the clerestory
- The painted column with its band of figures, retouched in places during the 1600s
The painted column, in particular, has been a source of fascination for visitors who notice it almost by accident. Its combination of medieval imagery and later overpaint mirrors the wider story of the church itself, which absorbed century after century of change while keeping a steady visual identity.
Legacy, Visitors, and Continuing Care
The seventeenth-century restoration did not end the story of St Mary of Charity, but it set the tone for every later act of care. The habit of regular maintenance, of recording gifts in parish accounts, and of matching new work to old fabric all became part of how the parish thought about its church. Each generation since has drawn on that pattern, and the building today reflects more than a dozen overlapping renovations.
Practical details such as opening times and directions can be found at https://builttoinspire.org/, a project that gathers the history of the church for visitors, researchers, and worshippers. A short walk through the town before or after a visit shows how Faversham's medieval street pattern still shapes daily life, much as the church's layout still shapes its interior.
A useful approach when visiting is to keep an eye out for the small marks that the seventeenth century left behind. Visitors often find the following useful to look for:
- Carved details on the choir stalls that differ slightly from their neighbours
- Inscriptions dated to the reign of Charles II or William III
- Ironwork on doors and gates bearing dates from the 1600s
- A piece of clear leaded glass high in the nave wall
- Memorials to Faversham families whose names still appear on the high street
Care for old buildings crosses centuries and oceans. In Australia, comparable stewardship lives on in the work of local trusts and councils, from the sandstone streets around Sydney's Rocks to the bluestone warehouses of Melbourne. Heritage legislation in states such as New South Wales and Victoria, alongside the long-running work of the National Trust, reflects the same instinct that kept the parish church of Faversham upright through the 1600s: that shared buildings deserve shared effort.
For an Australian visitor, the connection often arrives through small, familiar gestures. The ritual of stopping for coffee at a neighbourhood café before stepping into a heritage site mirrors the seventeenth-century habit of pausing at the lych gate before entering the nave. Both acts acknowledge that a building of this age deserves a moment of attention. Some visitors arrive in Faversham after exploring similar medieval and early modern sites across Kent, others come because of family ties to the town, but all find the same continuity of care that began in the 1660s and has not stopped since.