Although he is here described as Gregis Christi Pastor, there is no conclusive evidence that Anthony Field was in fact vicar. James Hathway appears to have been re-appointed in 1626. Can he have been ejected, and his place taken pro tem by Anthony Field ?"

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The earliest memorial in the Church is the Flat Stone in the nave to ‘ John Hamon and Mary and Margaret his wives, 1526’. From that date a large number of memorials are found, both on the floor and walls, including four Hatchments or funeral panels, to the Hammond family, the last being that of Douglas William Hammond, 2nd Lieutenant of the 2nd Battalion of ‘The Buffs,’ who fell in action near Hooge in Flanders on May 24th, 1915, aged 18 ½ years.

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On the east wall of the Chancel is a monument of Bethersden marble containing two brass plates-an inscription , and above it a coat of arms. The inscription is in eight lines of black letter and runs thus:-

‘Alys the daughter and heyre of William Simpson Esquyer. Vice Marchall of Calys and Catherine Genicot: wife to Francis Wilsford neere, 35 yeares; (by whom she had 6 sonnes, 4 daughter): depted constantly in the fayth of Jesus Christ about the yeare of her age 59, Junii 30 A.D. 1581, who now resting in the Lord hath receaved the end of her fayth, wich ys the saluation of her soule. 1. Peter. 1 Verce. 9’.

The shield above is a fine example of artistic heraldry, and was recently found (circa 1937) to be ‘palimpsest’]i.e. an old brass that has been used a second time. When the back of the shield was examined it showed clearly to the expert eye that it formed part of a large Flemish brass of the sixteenth century, with foliage enclosing a plain centre such as one might expect to see on the margin of a large brass to carry the inscription. In the days when metal was expensive no doubt dealers often obtained and cut up old brasses in this way. Many of the missing brasses in our ancient Churches must have suffered a similar fate. But here is a point of special interest. Keen archaeologists have discovered two more pieces of the same Flemish Brass, showing identical foliage and lines. These are at Walkerne in Herts, and at Marsworth, ,Bucks. Both these brasses are dated 1583, a date so close to 1581 (the Nonington Shield), that we are well warranted in concluding that all three brasses are from the same London workshop that was using up a large Flemish brass, spoil from some monastic church in Flanders, plundered by the Puritans. A rubbing of the reverse is in the vestry.

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Nonnington has only one other brass (except modern ones), a small strip on the chancel floor. The inscription runs as follows:-

‘Hic Jacet dominus Johannes Cooke quondam curat ecclesiae de Nonyngton qui obit septimo die Augusti mvc&xviii’.

The date is expressed in an usual way, the ‘ampersand’ (the modern & ) before the X being easily read by the careless as an x. The correct reading is ‘1500 and 18’.

John Cooke’s will was granted probate on October 31st, 1518. He bequeathed his best cloak to the rector of Chillenden, a book (Suma Angelica) to the Vicar of Wyngewold (Womenswold), and his bow to John Berry!" The above inscription translates as :-‘Here lies master John Cooke, formerly curate of the church of Nonington, who died the seventh day of August 1518’.

The design on this stone has completely disappeared , and the surrounding inscription has also been so worn away by the feet of the faithful (and, I am told, the builder’s rubbish during the Restorations [in the later part of the 19th century]) that only a few words are legible. In the Topographer, Vol III., published in 1791, the following description is given:-‘ Round the edge of a flat stone, having the figures of a man between his two wives traced on it this circumscription :

Orate pro aiabus Johis Hamon, Margarete et Margerie ejus uxoris qui qde Johes obiit IIII die Octobris Ano Dni MCCCCCXXVI(1526) quor’ aiabus ppicietur Deus. Amen’.

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A LOST TREASURE

In the vestry is a drawing of an exceedingly fine brass (15th century ?) ‘from a tombstone in Nonington Church’, but nothing is known about it and it does not now exist. There are two figures, a knight in armour, with sword and dagger on his belt, and spurs: and his wife in a striking head-dress. The knight’s head is uncovered-perhaps denoting that he died peaceably, not on the battlefield. The heads of seven girls and six boys are seen below.

The only remains of painted glass in Nonington Church is in a window in the north aisle, a figure with two children behind. There was once a coat of arms in the east window of the Fredville chancel (described in the Topographer of1791) but this no longer exists.

(By Norman & Beard) was dedicated on May 1st, 1906, in memory of William Oxenden Hammond and Charles John Plumptre.

A pitch pipe, formerly used in the Church, is in the Vestry safe (in 1938).

Bears the date 1662. It is of no special interest, and doubtless took the place of an earlier font of which nothing is known.

If you stand under the Chancel arch and look upwards, you will see the marks of nine mortice-holes, since filled in. And others, still open, are to be seen in the arch spanning the north isle. In the Middles Ages it was common practise to fill in the upper portion of the Chancel arch with a solid screen. This upper screen (or tympanum) would rest on the Rood screen or Rood loft, stretching across the Church, and might consist of wattle and laths, of canvas or boarding, attached to a timber frame-work hence the mortice-holes to secure the upper ends of the frame. The mark of a continuous groove is also visible in the Chancel arch.

On the screen might be painted a Crucifixion, a ‘doom’ (The Judgement Day with the saved and lost on the two sides), or even the Royal Arms. Apart from their value in religious teaching by pictures or design, these ‘tympana’ sometimes served the very practical purpose of shutting out some of the dazzling light from an enlarged east window, and so displayed to better advantage the Great Rood or Cross at the east end of the nave. (‘English Church Screens", by Aymer Vallance, devotes a chapter to the Tympanum and the Doom, and gives some illustrations of existing examples. Nonington is not mentioned). There is a Piscina on the south side of the sanctuary.

The tower is Probably the oldest part of the Church (the hatching to be seen in the arch of the built-in doorway in the south wall of the knave may also be twelfth century). In the vestry may be seen two deep grooves cut by the bell ropes in the former south tower door, the ringer standing in the porch outside to ring the curfew or sanctus bell.

They are three in number, one of them being cracked and not used. They are inscribed as follows:-

(1) c 1400 Ora pro Nobis Sancta Katerina.

(2) 1683 James Hodgeson me fecit 1683. S Nash and Robert

Payner c. wardens.

(3) 1854 J Warner & Sons, Crescent Foundry, London, 1854.

There is one very old head stone in the burial ground around the Church, for many years it has leaned against the sextons shed at the rear. It is memory of Mary Boulton, who died on January 9^th 1690 aged 20.

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