All Saints Church, Lydd

The church was long thought to be Saxon in origin, but recent studies have dated the oldest section to the latter half of the 5th century, making it Romano-British. It appears to incorporate a very small basilica which had an apse, an arcade on the north side of three bays, and an elaborate porch on the west side. This is considerably different from Anglo-Saxon churches, leading to a Romano-British attribution. In the fifteenth century, a number of Fraternities or Guilds of lay parishioners were connected with the church. Each of these fraternities held services in a different part of the church, either at a special altar of its patron saint, or before the image of that saint; and each…

All Saints is the longest parish church in Kent at 199 ft. The stone church is built in three styles, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular. The church, built of ragstone rubble with a tiled roof, This tower is dated to between 1435 and 1450 and is crenellated with 4 crockets. The roof of the nave contains moulded and battlemented tie-beams, ornamental bracket-shaped wall-pieces, moulded wall plates, and octagonal king posts. A collection of 17 monumental brasses are commonly kept from view beneath the nave carpet. Within the church, the ancient family of Godfrey of Lydd are represented by a brass in the 13th-century nave which has the date 1430 upon it, and a bust set in the north…