Headcorn, in Kent, is best known for being a location where steam railtours are re-coaled and watered. However, the town is also home to a medieval Parish Church dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The present building was constructed during the Perpendicular period and reflects the wealth brought to the area by the cloth trade. Although not much is known about the church’s history, it dates back to the 11th century and features a nave that was probably located where the present chancel is. As the centuries passed, a south aisle and porch were added, a new nave was constructed, and a tower was built along with a small chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas.
Constructed of Bethersden marble and with plain tiled roofs, the church features a 14th-century west tower comprising three stages with buttresses on the external corners and a taller attached polygonal stair turret on the north-east corner. The nave is probably 14th-century and is flanked on the south side by a late 14th-century aisle with its attached porch of a similar age. The parapets of the aisle and porch are battlemented. The chancel is 13th century with the windows replaced probably in the late 14th century or in the 15th century.
Inside, the nave and south aisle are separated by an arcade of five pointed arches on octagonal columns with bases and capitals in Bethesden marble. The arch between chancel and nave and between south aisle and south chapel are similar. An arcade of two bays divides the chancel from the south chapel. The collar-rafter roof to the nave is late 14th century or early 15th century with seven moulded trusses. The pitched roof of the chancel is boarded and the roofs of the aisle and chapel are flat and boarded. The church features a 15th-century octagonal font with carved sides as well as piscina located in the south walls at the east end of the aisle and the east end of the chapel and in the chancel. The screen is partly 16th century with linenfold panelling, which features on the late 19th century pulpit.
One of the most visually impressive features of Headcorn’s Parish Church is its exceptionally fine mid-fourteenth-century roof. The base of the rood screen is early sixteenth century, with some fragments of glass of the same date surviving in the tracery of a north window. The Royal Arms of George III painted by J. Adams in 1808 are also of good quality. A large south porch of the fifteenth century with an upper room, which has a small window into the church, is a sure sign that this was a priest’s parvise, and not just storage space. The external approach to the church is through a lychgate, built to commemorate the year 2000 and donated by the people of Headcorn, with an avenue of trees along the path that were planted for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
Despite its notable history and features, not much information is available on the church. Nevertheless, it remains a picturesque and historically significant attraction in Headcorn.